Dis-enchantment

Despite having switched to Apple machines several years ago, I liked to think that I was not zealous about the product. I preferred it, true, but also recognized that as a closed system there were certain things you couldn't do with a mac that you could do with a pc. But those all seemed fair tradeoffs, as you were getting something more reliable both as to hardware and software.

I am here to report that it just ain't so. I have owned a powermac, an ibook, and now a macbook. The powermac has never given me a minute of trouble. The ibook was a great machine, except that it was one of those ibooks with a faulty logic board. Apple did replace the board each time it failed (3x!) but still, it would be better to not have a pervasive fault. But, ok, these things happen. So after Apple stopped covering the ibook, I bought a "refreshed" macbook. That failed after 48 hours. So after some hassles, Apple took that back without charging me. So I got a bright and shiny new macbook, and it has had continuous software issues since I updated it to 10.4.8. It's calmed down a bit after I erased the hard drive and started over, but just yesterday it crashed after installing Flash. The upshot of all of this is that while I still think the Apple products are pretty good--and am not planning to return to pc-ville--I will say that it's a mistake to think they will be problem free. Whether these problems are particular to me or whether they are indicative of growing pains with Apple only time will tell.