I am considering becoming a Mac user. I have looked at the Macbook Pro and find it to be consistently wonderful.

Now... for those of you who have Macs- convince me. I also would like to know how long your Mac has lasted. (I have had 3 HP laptops in 6 years).

GO!

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Pastor Nathan Eshelman, Los Angeles, CA
Reformed Presbyterian Church
PRESBYTERIAN THOUGHTS
Los Angeles Reformed Presbyterian Church
RPCLA Sermons Online
Puritan Reformed Seminary

bc sarah owns one!

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sarah
WI
OPC
My Pastor's Sermons: Mark Jenkins...he's awesome!!!

I switched 3 weeks ago and have no regrets. Much faster. Programs are way easier to install. More secure. Did you know there are NO viruses in the wild (i.e., actually infecting other computers systematically) for Macintosh computers. There are thousands for PCs. Nice little features like the magnetic power cord which attaches easily but also can come off easily if someone trips over it WITHOUT taking your computer along with it. You also have the advantage of using Accordance Bible software natively, arguably the best bible software out there.

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Joshua F
Layman
Mountain View Community Church (Missionary Church Denomination)
Johnstown, CO

I've only had my current Mac for two years. It has never crashed; never had a virus (has no virus protection); finds wireless connections with no hassle; and just generally works well.

Besides that they sell some great skins for the laptops. Mine is an American flag which jus thrills the security folk in foreign countries.

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Curt Lovelace
Pastor, Covenant Baptist Church (CBA)
Acton, Maine
Director, Lifework Forum
Sermons at SermonAudio.com/CBCActon
Blogging at Coffee with Curt

5.5 years...I bought two of them and they lasted that long. Never had a virus. Never had a hard drive crash. Never had data loss (except done by user!). Just bought two new Macbooks and love them.

After my salvation, my Lord Jesus Christ, my wife, my children, I am thankful for my Mac!

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PMBrooks
Southern Baptist Pastor
New Orleans, LA
PhD Theology

Just to intrude, why not switch to a Linux distro? All the benefits of a Mac, plus FREE software.

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Wayne Sparkman, Th.M.
Director, PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO
Blogs: The Continuing Story and PCA History Blog

just make sure you get the applecare if you buy a laptop. My mother got a lemon with her last macbook purchase. She has had the motherboard replaced twice and a new hard drive installed all in the last year. while I would say that her mac problems are not normative for the quality of the hardware, but sometimes you can get a bad apple.

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Josh Taylor
Verde Valley Reformed Chapel, OPC
Cottonwood, AZ

For the money I can build a much faster PC and upgrade it myself whenever I want. I don't see the great results in speed. I have used both for photoshop. Macs limit your ability with some software. However, Macs are really cool and slick.

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Aaron Josh Wright
Deerbrook Baptist Church, Humble Tx
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

If you have the money to burn and don't mind the limited software Macs are great! ... I was an Apple guy back in the Apple IIe era, but switched to PCs when the Mac came out...

though I have to admit I have come to love my Apple iPhone!!

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Eric Paulsen
Preaching Deacon, GFCC - Non-Denominational/Independent
Grizzly Flats, California

He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. - Titus 1:9

....I love Macdonalds!!!!

Ok I'm done, carry on gents and Sarah.

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~ Charles Stephen Barribeau ~
Christ Presbyterian Church , OPC (They sing alot of Psalms!)
Original Westminster Standards (I need to study more...)
The Puritans were best! Also... I NEED TO READ MORE!!!
Philipians1:29(KJV) For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;

Janesville, Wisconsin (In the fellowship of Bob Vigneault and Matt+Megan Meisberger)

This is why you should get a Mac: Mac vs PC! Redux!

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Yvonne
Reformed Presbyterian
Currently seeking a Church

"A man's most glorious actions will at last be found to be but glorious sins, if he hath made himself, and not the glory of God, the end of those actions." -T. Brooks

If you don't have virus protection, how can you really know whether or not it has a virus?

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Edward
Deacon
PCA
Texas

Well, technically they do have virus protection, but its built-in unlike PC's.

Apple - Mac OS X - Security - Keeps safe from viruses and malware

I have used PC for many years. The one I have now is going on 8 years old and it has crashed twice this last year. But I think I have figured that out. My kids were on it and going to game sites. I hear tha Macs don't have the virus problems because there aren't as many hackers out there for them. They aren't as popular in other words. Rush Limbaugh has loved Mac for many years. I believe he has used Mac since the mid 90's. Go with Rush and the golden EIB mic. Rush is right. Just ask him. He will tell you. LOL

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Norseman Moderator

R. Martin Snyder
1689er
http://www.puritanboard.com/blogs/puritancovenanter/

"Our object should not be to have scripture on our side but to be on the side of scripture; and however dear any sentiment may have become by being long entertained, so soon as it is seen to be contrary to the Bible, we must be prepared to abandon it without hesitation."
William Symington

Click to get:Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

The macbook pro should be a good laptop. =) I used to build PCs for other people and while I never had much problem then, the moment I switched to Mac I realized the difference. You don't need to be a computer geek to be a pro on the Mac, everything seems tailored to be user-friendly. No need for registry edits, bios configs, msconfigs etc...

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Ewen
1689 LBCF
Assemblies of God Bible College
Singapore

We have a Mac Mini. My wife loves it for photography and making slide shows. It isn't virus prone like a PC. I can put my old PC files from Office (excel,word etc) on a disc, or mail them to myself, and use them with the Mac version of Open Office (free download !!!!). I can have it set to boot itself from a power failure. I have a 1Tb outboard hard drive with it to store big files (photo stuff) and MP3's ( 100's of podcasts) which works fine. If you can drag and drop, you can run the Mac os for the most part. New Macs will work with older Macs. I have had problems with files sent to my W98PC from newer system (not being able to read them/ format them properly). One suggestion: get either Firefox or Opera for a browser.... some sites are not Mac (Safari) friendly. This will eliminate any frustration.

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Rich Koster
1689'er
Browns Mills NJ USA
Often Goofy Reformed Eccentric
Romans 7:14-25

It's all been said but just to throw in my four cents (value is doubled because I'm a mac professional) Macs are great for their ease of use and they are 'cool and slick'.

If you are hardware savvy and love to tinker with computers (overclock, swap out video cards, replace the motherboard) then you will be frustrated by a Mac, they are not designed to tinker with.

PC software is getting more and more intuitive but still has a way to go. PC software is cheaper and more abundant.

Windows 7 is supposed to be more Mac like, it would be worth checking out before switching.

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Bob Vigneault C.O.L, L.E., G.E, Dr.O.P., O.U.T.
The Heartbeat of Heaven (blog)
Deacon/Christ Presbyterian Church, Janesville, WI OPC www.christ-opc.org

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

I'll second the Linux recommendation. IMHO you can't get anything better than Ubuntu. And like it was mentioned it and all the open-source software you can get for it is free.

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Nick Jenkins
Pilgrim Presbyterian Church (OPC)
Lapeer, MI

Regarding the OP, I've had one macbook pro for the last 3 years - it isn't showing any signs of slowing down. My wife uses it every day for "normal" computer tasks, and I use it heavily for work-related purposes. My wife really likes it for working with images and movies from our digital camera. I love it because I can have several programs running at the same time with without the machine slowing down.

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Nate
Protestant Reformed Churches in America
Ann Arbor, MI

I'm on my second Macbook. The first one lasted 5 years and never crashed, never slowed down, and never became infected. I only replaced it when my daughter dumped a quart of chocolate milk all over it! Macs are light years ahead of PC (which I am forced to use at work), IMHO.

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Jacob Mearse
Reformation Orthodox Presbyterian Church
Olympia, WA
Student, Reformed Theological Seminary (Virtual)
Lieutenant, U.S. Navy
Husband to April; Daddy to Wesley, Cyrus, FaithMarie and SarahAnn.

I've used both Mac's and PC's. They both have their followers. I've used PC's for a long time personally and I've never had a crash, and no data loss. I have used macs for my school work and found them to be just fine but ...worth the 2.5X the price?

not to me they're not.

The only thing that I REALLY disagree with in this thread is the HERETIC that uttered these "fightin words"


Git a rope!


I'm a Logos bible Software user as you might have guessed.

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Robert
Lay Person
PCA
West Virginia
Go share your faith

I love macs, but for me 2 things kill it - I love my old PC games from time to time, and the COST.

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Jonathan Hunt

Elder holding forth the word of life at:
Cheltenham Evangelical Free Church (Confessionally Based)
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom

Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence.
-- Thomas Elsworth

Got my Macbook in Oct. 2006. Still have it today. Hard Drive died this summer but I bought the 3 year warranty. Gave it to my friend who's an IT consultant and got:

1 new 80 GB Hard Drive (my old one was a 60GB but they discontinued them)
1 new Mac OSX Leopard (my old HD had the previous version, but I got the upgrade for free)
Doubled RAM (mine was 1GB up to 2GB, more than the processer can process)
New keyboard/mouse pad (old keyboard face was starting to crack so they had to replace the whole thing)

The only thing presently wrong with it is that the screen is a little loose. My friend tightened the screw but it didn't help much, so that part is going to stay that way.

All paid for under the warranty. I'm banking on it lasting another 3 years with the new HD.

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Andrew DeShazo
Husband of Kathryn
Father of Phillip-Giles B. DeShazo
Deacon
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Memphis, TN
"From out of the depth of unbroken Infinfity arose the Question, "Who am I?" And to that Question there is the answer, "I am God!" -Meher Baba, died 1969.

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Christ, died 33 AD, ressurected three days later.

I just bought a MacBook about six months ago, and I love it. Here are my main reasons for switching (in no particular order):

1. No hassles from viruses
2. A very stable and easy to use OS; plus there aren't a million and one flavors of Mac OS X (like all of the various flavors of Windows)
3. Magnetic power cord (I've tripped over my power cord twice, and instead of sending my laptop flying across the room, it simply disconnects)
4. Easy wireless connection
5. No useless trial software that comes with a new PC that you end up deleting anyway
6. You can run Windows and Office on a Mac if you're still in love with that OS
7. iLife!!! This is simply the BEST software suite known to man! With iPhoto you can create keepsake items like greeting cards or photo books from your pictures. With iWeb, you can create nice looking websites (check out www.carlgobelman.com). With iDVD you can create movies of your photo slideshows that you create in iPhoto. With GaragaBand, you can create songs, and if you play guitar or keyboard, you can join along. iLife comes standard with Macs. I have no idea how much this kind of software would cost on a PC
8. iWork, which is Apple's productivity suite. You can create documents, spreadsheets and presentations that are compatible with Office
9. Logos Bible Software now has a Mac engine which you can buy for $59 (if you already have the Windows version). All of your electronic books will load quite easily once the engine is installed.
10. Time Machine, which is Mac's built-in backup feature. If you have an external HD, just plug it in and fire up Time Machine, and your backing up your HD in no time!

Bottom line: I am finding that Macs, are simply more intuitive, user friendly, easier to use, and much more FUN than PC's. Plus their customer service is outstanding!

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Carl Gobelman
Long Grove Community Church (Evangelical)
Vernon Hills, IL
Blog: http://newcreationperson.wordpress.com

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

I agree with the customer service. I never got "bad" customer service from HP, but it was just a little more of a hassel. When my HP died, I had to send it off. They had it for 2-3 weeks, and then it still wasn't completely fixed.

My Mac was gone overnight, I got to give it to the repair company of my choice, and they just charged it to my warranty. It was fixed the next day, almost brand new.

We've had Macs since the original iMac, and a Mac mini for a few years now. There's no comparison in terms of stability of OS. The only caveat is that if there is a "must have" application that only runs on PCs, you may be eternally frustrated. The newer Macs, of course, can boot up Windows... but that kinda defeats the purpose

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BJ Mora
Grace OPC, Modesto, CA
Reformed & Presbyterian Churches & Denominations in North America

How providential! I had posted here a couple weeks ago about Mac vs PC laptops. The recommendations were overwhelmingly for Mac. My wife has been using Dells for about 12 years, but they are not built very well. On the other hand, our MacSE, circa 1987, lasted us about 10 years and never had a problem.

So I ended up buying a MacBookPro and was coming hereto post my impressions and thanks for the recommendations I received. Apple had an educator discount of $200.00 and offered a free iPod. I didn't want to spend more than $1000 and after I sold the iPod, my final cost came in right where I was looking.

The Mac is incredible! The mousepad smokes what the PC stuff has to offer.

Needless to say, get a Mac!

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Michael Masztal
Ruling Elder, Chapel By The Sea, ARP
Melbourne Beach, FL

Get a Mac. I have a MacBook Pro and we are buying my wife her second Mac. Nothing wrong with the one she has except she has to use a few programs for school which are PC only and her current Mac is not dual core. The reason I'm on my second Mac is the first fell and hit just right to corrupt the harddrive.

I have an iMac at work which I love. The only reason for the PC side for me is Logos. Thinking of following my mentor's lead and using Logos for theological research and Accordance for Bible studies in the original languages and such.

Buy a Mac. They're expensive but you're getting two computers in one. My wife is not a techie person and you would think she is when she's on her Mac. It's funny that the new Windows is coming out with an OS "like the Mac." Now I wonder why that would be...

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Frank
Under Care
P.C.A.
Maryland

Macs are expensive. But they're stable. I used a PowerBook for 6 years and only had to put in a new hard drive (a couple years ago). Originally I got the Mac because I wanted a UNIX-based laptop. Now I'm using Linux because I have a self-built desktop. Get whichever you feel comfortable with, just don't get anything with Windows. If you do get a Mac, here's your free office software NeoOffice and web browser Camino. Enjoy!

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Casey, Chicagoland, OPC

Convince you? Heaven forbid! Use Linux!

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Jonathan
Audio Engineer
Reformed Anabaptist
Ohio

Moroni's magical glasses of proper interpretation:

I have a MacBook Pro and it is awesome. I don't think I'll ever go back.

Meanwhile, I have Linux/Ubuntu on my main computer. I've been using it for about 3 months and it sucks. My computer freezes and chrashes all the time and it isn't intuitive like Mac (it's even worse than Windows). I just don't get why people use it. I promised to try it for 6 months so I am, but I'm probably going to get rid of it right after that unless something special happens.

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Mark Maney
Edmonton Chinese Baptist Church
Master of Theological Studies
Master of Arts (Cross Cultural)
Trinity Western University, ACTS Seminaries
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

I bought a used PowerMac G4 in 2004 and I'm typing on it right now. I've added 2 additional drives, upgraded to Tiger OSX, and added memory. It hasn't let me down yet. I also have a PC laptop and I've wanted to fling it across the room on several occasions. Get a Mac!

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bradstreet
FPC
Indianapolis, IN

"My hungry soul He filled with good,
He in His bottle put my tears,
My smarting wounds washed in His blood,
And banished thence my doubts and fears." Anne Bradstreet

So far I see the disadvantages of a Mac are: (correct me if I missed some)

* you can't do gravity deceleration tests to prove how durable they are
* you can't store chocolate milk in them
* you may pay more than a PC/PC clone in the short run
* in rare cases you will have to get repairs done under warranty (which is very much hassle - free)

SIDEBAR: if Apple wants a new spokesman or to compensate me for my shameless plugs, I'm available

I don't believe there is a more stable operating system than Linux. Probably there is something configured incorrectly on your system. Or there could be something wrong with your hardware. It's true, though, that if you aren't computer-savvy Linux may not be for you.

I'm computer savy (I've built all my PC's), windows savy (been using it since DOS and 3.1), and Apple savy (since IIe), but I am definitely not Linux savy. There probably is some sort of configuration error though because it definitely crashes (freezes) all the time.

I love my MacBook Pro. Best. Computer. Ever.

That's why I don't use Ubuntu proper, the better ones are PCLinuxOS which is extremely newbie friendly and Linux Mint. I use PCLinuxOS, I look for the most newbie friendly available and that is the one hands down

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Doug
Baptist
Hemet, Ca
Old Time Radio Podcast

I've used both, and since my life has included a lot of publication design and photo editing, Mac's support of the graphics design world is greatly appreciated. It was also much easier to work down at the system level if I had problems.

"No viruses" for a Mac? That's an urban myth. Folks don't write as many for Macs because they can spread their nastiness much further and faster in the PC world.

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JWithnell
Member Bethel OPC
Virginia
http://learningyesican.blogspot.com/

I have always had both PC and Mac and I definitely prefer Mac. I love my 17" MacBook Pro. To add to the long list of praises brought forth above let me add one other. I am an itinerant teacher and sometimes travel to as many as five different sites within my district (including Starbucks) and my Mac never has a problem picking up a wireless signal within seconds.

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http://www.villagecommunitychurch.org/


"Preparing a sermon is like cooking a meal. You need pots and pans and utensils, but you don't bring them out to the table where people are eating." Derek Thomas


Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

If you want to have your desktop working correctly, you might want to try the Ubuntu IRC channel (a chat room where people help each other). When I have problems that I can't figure out on my own (by searching the web), I'll head in there next, and frequently get the help I need. At this exact moment there are 1,378 people in the chat room.

General info: Community Chat IRC | Ubuntu

How to use the IRC client: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/XChatHowto

Apple doesn't have configuration/hardware issues because Apple controls the hardware you can buy. Linux works on just about anything (including Intel & PowerPC).

I do not have to, it is the only logical thing to do and I know you to be a logical guy!

__________________
Martin - Reformed
Husband to the most godly, honorable and loyal wife Line
Searching for a Church
Webpage www.5solas.dk
Free Online Reformed Seminary - http://www.tnars.net
Soli Deo Gloria