How many years do you usually use a mac for?

Question

     I was just wondering how long many of you actually use a mac until you buy a new one.

Answer 1

RJB321 wrote:
     I was just wondering how long many of you actually use a mac until you buy a new one.
It depends if and how Apple screws us.
For instance I had the PowerMac G5 Duallie with a 30" monitor and Steve Jobs announced the Intel processor swtich, two years later then wouldn't provide OS X 10.6 for my machine so I had to sell it while I could. So I lost about 5-7 years futher producive use of the machine.
Then the 2007 4 year old 15" MacBook Pro I had was working perfectly fine under Snow Leopard, but after I upgraded it to OS X Lion the firmware bricked the machine and Apple would refuse to pay to fix it.
It was their fault too, because Cupertino HQ was pwned by the 750,000 Mac Flashback botnet and OS X Lion was likely tainted by malware to cause such a massive amount of logicboard replacements that were required at the time.
It used to be that Apple (under Steve Jobs) would ignore older Mac's and OS X versions for security updates unless they ran the last two OS X operating system versions, but after Flashback they had to go back and fix so many machines they don't dare to that again.
But Apple has other ways now to force you to upgrade your operating system, especially AppStore as developers will tend ot make programs for the latest OS X version only.
It wouldn't be too bad to upgrade OS X but for the fact that doing so bricks so much of your third party software in the process, gives bad and unwanted features, and then tends slows one's machine down to a crawl as the newer OS X versions are created with newer hardware in mind, not older.
So Apple is basically leveraging more software features and iOS devices to force a faster hardware turnover rate so they can make more money. A lot of the features they are adding are not really used all that much a lot of it is just change for the heck of change and putting a new fancy paint job on the Apple hardware.
"Oh look new OS X, buy a new machine!"
So you have a choice to either keep up with the rapid Apple hardware cycle or buy a Windows machine that will last a decade or more per operating system version.
I know people who still have 10 year old XP machines and they are now getting 10 year life Windows 7 machines.
Apple seems to tie to much features to a new boated OS X version and forcing one to upgrade instead of using OS X and a base and adding new features on top of it if people want it or not. Mac's are laughed out of most corporate enviroments except for a few CEO's , top brass that remain off the networks.
So my turnover rate with Apple hardware since Steve Jobs return has been anywhere from 2-4 years on average, before that it was a lot longer, I could use a machine for a long time like 5-7 years.
I'm hoping with this 17" MacBook Pro lovingly taken care of that I can exceed 5 years, but it's not going to happen because Apple is going to drop support for Snow Leopard 10.6 and the newer operating systems are bloated pieces of ugly crap tied to AppStore/AppleID etc. so the erosion to personal privacy is absolute. They just do things and don't care about what users need or want, it's sickening they think they know what's best for everyone and you need to get aboard their way or tak ethe highway. It's so bad now that even Microsoft has gotten into the customer abuse game with Windows 8.
To reinstall OS X requires a fast Internet connection and I can't trust if the software hasn't been tainted along the way or not. What is wrong with proving USB instlal keys with every new Mac?
Glossy screens and unable to physically remove the storage for secure destruction.
I also don't like the threat that Apple is going to forbid installing software from outside sources, they are already doing everything they can to discourage outside sources, calling them malicious etc. We have been installing software from trusted outside sources for decades with no trouble at all.
They are doing everything possible to drive me and others away as customers and after 20 years I will be finally giving them the boot very shortly.
They can go on making computers only for children, but the Mac professional/power user is a dying breed.