New Laptop- Win or Mac?

[rh]

Shopping for new laptop. Windows or Mac?
My bare-bones Windows machine is nearing the end of its useful life. I've been using Windows for the last three years, so I have some useful stuff invested in it (like Scrivener, for example). But I've been using mainly Apple machines since 1996. I've had some issues with them, mainly the cords, which wear out quickly, and of course they are pricey. Should I go back? One of the things I miss is the foreign language input - CJK and Arabic are easy on Macs and I've never been able to figure out how to do them on Windows, but that is probably more my ignorance of the operating system than anything. And of course Garage Band is a bit of fun.
Any opinions?

[megapop]

I'd suggest to get a Windows machine and install a Linux on it. This way you have the security and reliability of a Unix(-like) OS, but without those nasty Apple restrictions and prices. Plus, you can simply keep Windows on a separate partition if you like.

[dyersituations]

While I'm a big proponent of Linux, I wouldn't recommend it unless the user was fairly tech savvy. I don't know the tech experience of the OP, but I thought I would mention that. Ubuntu is extremely user friendly these days, but I have often found Windows and Mac OS to be more stable for everyday use.

Windows vs Mac OS is really up to personal preference and what applications you want to us. Some people love a particular application that is on one platform or another. I personally prefer Mac OS because I enjoy Unix, but I mostly use Windows due to work and gaming related reasons.

There are a lot of cheap decent Windows laptops these days. And Macbook Airs or a pretty good package. I have both an HP Windows ultrabook of sorts and a Macbook Air. Both are great machines.

[Tunborough]

Cost is a significant advantage to Windows. I've bought a couple of refurbished Windows laptops recently. You can get a sturdy, business-class laptop like a refurbished Lenovo T-series for a good deal less than a new consumer-class laptop, and a fraction of the cost of a Mac. You do have to be prepared to check it over more carefully than usual to make sure everything is there and working; I had to return a few that weren't up to snuff before I got the keepers. The two I kept had extended batteries, a big plus because the batteries do lose capacity as they age.

[Coffee]

Maintenance and repair are other factors to consider.

http://theoatmeal.com/blog/fix_computer

[rh]

Thanks for your thoughts. Some things for me to chew on. Cheers.

[an seanduine]

A little late, but another possible path. A Chromebook. I know, I know, the complaint is you can't do much when not connected. . .but that simply isn't so. Micro-SD memory is now so cheap that investing in 128 megs is easily doable for a local storage. You get a lot of machine for not so much money. . .and have the option of sideloading Linux with a couple of keystrokes. I find WINE under Knoppix to be very stable. . .and you wind up with a very portable, thirteen hour battery driven machine with a bullet-proof system.

Bob

[an seanduine]

Oops. Meant to say 128 Gigabyte micro-SD card.
The USB3 ports on my Chromebook readily accept my 2 Tereabyte portable backup drive.

Bob

[chas]

I've been a Mac person since the 80's, so possibly a different point of view from most.

If money is no object, go for the Mac if it's your preference. You can always install Windows on the Mac. We do that at home; there's lots of stuff that's only available for Windows.

If money is tight, absolutely go Windows.

If it's an issue but not paramount, then you really need to think what you want. I got a big-screen MacBook Pro because I occasionally take work home and do a lot of CAD. My daughter got an Air not long ago, and she refers to my machine as the doorstop. The Air is way nicer than I'd ever thought. The one thing is that the power the USB ports supply is about half of normal, so she's had issues with an external DVD drive. Other than that, it's really a computer with the portability of a tablet.

[Tor]

While I'm a big proponent of Linux, I wouldn't recommend it unless the user was fairly tech savvy.[..]

I always buy Windows PCs and install Linux, but I agree with dyersituations, although not for exactly the same reason. The OP wants to write Arabic among other things, and that's just much easier to figure out on a Mac (as he has experience with), and probably easy on Windows as well - at least it's very easy to write Japanese on Windows so I figure other non-latin-letter languages are easy too. On Linux I've managed to find out how to write Japanese with a couple of programs, but there's nothing like MS IME for using it everywhere. Nothing that I have been able to find at least, and I've been a Linux full-time user since early 1992..

[bradhurley]

I've been using Macs at home since the late 1980s and Windows at work. I tend to keep my home computers for a long time and always buy refurbished instead of new, so the Mac cost-per-year has been lower than what many people spend on Windows machines.

This year, I figured I'd simplify my life by switching to Windows at home so I wouldn't have to deal with two operating systems. My girlfriend has a Windows laptop as her personal computer, and I need a personal Windows machine as a backup to my work computer (I work remotely and it can be a week or two before a new computer can get to me if my work computer dies or develops problems).

I had heard promising things about Windows 10, and glowing reviews of Microsoft's Surface tablets. So I bought a Surface Pro 3 (a new machine on sale for the same price as the refurbished models) with Windows 10 installed on it. It was great at first: I could use it as a desktop machine (I bought a dock so I could connect keyboard, monitor, and mouse), as a laptop, and as a tablet. No more having to synchronize between a Mac and an iPad, which often didn't work (I haven't been able to get iTunes to sync with my iPad for more than a year now, despite doing complete resets and reinstallations of iOS).

But I quickly realized why so many of my friends and colleagues follow the "Windows at work, Mac at home" philosophy: I encountered so many bugs, half-baked software, and bizarre glitches in Windows 10 and the Surface tablet that after two months I gave up and switched back to the Mac. The Surface Pro 3 cost more than a MacBook Air with comparable specifications, and while it's true that it can also function as a tablet I found tablet mode in Windows to be a bit of a joke: it's just Windows with a touch interface. The Surface worked only haphazardly with my monitor, frequently launching at a very low screen resolution, and it only occasionally recognized the SD memory card I have installed in the slot. The built-in email program seemed great at first but I quickly discovered its limitations (there is no way to select and delete multiple email messages at once, for example, which is death when you have a junk email folder with 680 messages). I had bought Office, but Outlook doesn't play well with my email provider and created lots of problems. After two months I had a four-page-long list of issues. For photos, the Mac comes with a free built-in photo manager that can process raw files; Windows doesn't have that so I had to spend money on Lightroom. In the end, given that I had to spend money on apps for Windows in order to get the same functionality I could get using free apps that come with a Mac, I actually spent a fair amount more to use a Windows machine than I would have with a Mac.

I kept the Surface tablet because I still have hopes that Windows 10 might eventually be something I'd like to switch to full-time, but for now I'm back to the Mac and it's been smooth sailing. I use Windows 7 at work and it's been rock-solid, no crashes, totally stable and reliable, but so far the Mac has proven to be the more powerful and reliable tool for the things I do in my personal life, including editing music and photos, some graphics, managing websites, etc.