My theory is that you are going to need a new laptop every five years, minimum.
If you choose the Apple experience (or a high-class PC laptop for that matter), that will be at least $1000/five years. If you choose a Gateway laptop that will be $400/five years.
From mine and my friend's experiences I would not say that a more expensive laptop will last longer than a cheaper laptop. Most of my friends who are Apple users have had their laptops replaced at least once due to hardware failure. They had AppleCare and usually ended up with a new laptop for free. After seeing their rate of replacement I would never own an Apple laptop without AppleCare because the difference between being stuck with a brick and having Apple replace it with a newer model free of charge is worth the money.
""""After seeing their rate of replacement I would never own an Apple laptop without AppleCare because the difference between being stuck with a brick and having Apple replace it with a newer model free of charge is worth the money.""""
Yeah, but for me the difference between not having to use a PC is worth even more money.
If you're casual about computing, buy whatever, but if you are professional buy what fits your work needs best, be it Mac or PC, not what is cheaper. If $1000 or $2000 / 5 years seem a lot to you as a professional, then you are in the wrong business.
This. For me, the comparison is never between a $1000 Apple laptop and a $400 Gateway one.
The comparison is between a $1000 Apple laptop and an $800-$1000 Lenovo T-series or X-series Thinkpad (or, as I call them, the "real" Thinkpads).
For something that I use for hours every single day, an overly-heavy and shoddily built piece of junk is not an acceptable option. Apple isn't the only manufacturer that makes quality hardware, but the quality non-Apple machines cost much closer to the Apples than the junky Gateway does.
As a linux user I can be fairly hardware agnostic. I used to consider apple laptops when purchasing a laptop. After I purchased my first thinkpad it was a no brainer, the real thinkpads are the perfect linux laptop. The ideapads are not so bad for a cheap tiny netbook thingie. They obviously don't compare to the thinkpad line but they are okay for what they cost...
PS I have the W500 and I'm curious why you do not include it among the real thinkpads.
I've used a Macbook Pro for 3-ish years, and I didn't like its build quality very much.
I just bought a Thinkpad E325, one of the "edge" thinkpads. Its build quality is exceptional for a £350, and I'd say mostly on-par with what I could get from apple nowadays.
It was unclear to me whether you're saying you don't want to use non-Apple hardware, or that you don't want to use Windows, or whether you're referring to a combination of those two.
Though Apple continues to use 'PC' in their marketing, it's an obsolete term. Macs are running on the same hardware these days, and you can run Mac OS on 'PC' hardware. You can run Linux on Apple hardware, and Windows on Apple hardware. So, it's a bit muddled.
I assume by 'PC' you mean 'anything besides OSX on Apple hardware'. Okay. Personally I also run Linux on my MBP... not sure where that fits in.
I'd agree that you'd need a new one every 5 years. I'd also add that there's a difference between a Mac and Windows over those 5 years (I haven't used Linux very long so I can't speak for that OS). Windows becomes so slow that it might as well just be a brick whereas my Macs stay peppy throughout the entire 5 years. The Mac does slow a tad but it's really not much to complain about. My most recent one came with Leopard and I've gone from 10.5 to 10.6 to 10.7 Lion now and she still purrs. All I use is Onyx for occasional maintenance.
I really don't want to start a Mac v. Windows argument as I despise those but it's something I've just noticed as I've replaced my machines over the last 10 or so years. My real point is that in my experience I get my money's worth to the very end with the Macs I've owned.
Having just reinstalled my windows machine, I agree it gets crufty. Windows 7 is lightyears better than previous iterations, though.
However when I had a Mac I remember dealing with fink and ports and ending up with things half-working and just as crufty. I guess that's what I get for going "under the hood", but I needed that software to get the job done and OS X had no better solution for me at the time.
If you choose the Apple experience (or a high-class PC laptop for that matter), that will be at least $1000/five years. If you choose a Gateway laptop that will be $400/five years.
From mine and my friend's experiences I would not say that a more expensive laptop will last longer than a cheaper laptop. Most of my friends who are Apple users have had their laptops replaced at least once due to hardware failure. They had AppleCare and usually ended up with a new laptop for free. After seeing their rate of replacement I would never own an Apple laptop without AppleCare because the difference between being stuck with a brick and having Apple replace it with a newer model free of charge is worth the money.