MBP or not

Question

Hi all;
We (my college-bound son, actually) are considering buying a MBP. However, judging from this forum, the MBP is fraught with problems from freezing to wonky NVIDiA graphics cards.
Granted, usually only people with problems post here. However, are there also satisfied users somewhere? Do these problems merely represent a small percentage of the user base or should we be running in the opposite direction?
Thanks;
Chris

Answer 1

Couldn't agree more, Scott.
You will find threads here, for example , in which very large numbers of first and second time posters seem to have suddenly discovered problems with everything from graphics cards to XBench scores.
Intriguingly almost none of the "regulars" on these boards seem to suffer the same problems. Many of the posters , too, provide next to no details about their problems, and many say they come from places that , strangely, very, very rarely figure on the Apple boards and , equally strangely, seem to come in floods a day or two after after one dubious web site or another say something nasty about Macs.
By way of example I recently contacted many of the other long time Mac users on the boards and asked whether they had suffered any problems with the graphic chips in their MacBook Pros (following "The Inquirer" claims about NVidia chips). These are all honest people to the best of my knowledge. I've known many of them for years. None of them have been backward in coming forward when real issues rear their heads. Quite a few of us have been in strife when we have been TOO ready to come forward about problems in the past, in fact.
Yet, out of a sample of more than 50 MBPs responding not a single one had run into a problem with their graphics card!
Well, I'm left with a choice between believing a large number of people I've known for years and my own personal experience on the one hand (ie no problems at all) , or first time posters who provide next to no real information, or simply parrot other alleged posters, from a bizarre array of locations that simply doesn't "fit" the usual profile of Apple discussions users (ie total devastation and why isn't Steve Jobs hung, drawn and quartered) , on the other. Hey! would any sane person NOT see a problem here!
Now, of course, Macs, including MBPs, go wrong from time to time, and a few of the posters about graphic card issues are clearly genuine (and I don't blame them if they get upset when I make comments like this). But after looking at the posts in one very lengthy thread relating to this matter I reckon about 1 in 50 to 1 in 100 posts are a real indication of someone suffering a genuine hardware problem. Quite a few of the others are simply software issues completely unrelated to the claimed "issue", and probably 4 out of five of the "first time posters" there are simply spurious nonsense from people who don't own an MBP at all. They just get kicks out of "stirring the possum" as we say in Oz!
I guess Apple, given the huge market success of models like the MBP, are going to have to get used to such nonsense from the opposition and from those who, like this dingbat reckon that Apple are the cause of whatever ails them in their lives!
Are Macs "unreliable" and the Apple "out to rip you off "? Well, I've been using them since 1986. I have absolutely no connection with the company apart from using their product. Not a single share and not a single dollar in income from them. My total "repair" costs over that period (more than 22 years) amounts to $200AU for a replacement battery for a three year old PB12 and a couple of hundred bucks for a few keyboards, mice, and a soldering job on a Mac Plus 15 years ago. Not bad for 22 years, I think most computer users over this sort of time span would agree!
It is pretty easy, I think, to see why they almost invariably top the surveys by a country mile on both reliability and customer service.
But ultimately all you can do is make your own judgement about such things!
Oh, and just by the way, I haven't seen the slightest problem with my own "Santa Rosa" MBP, despite working it into the ground for the last few months as a "desktop replacement" with an external monitor, as well as a "field computer" bounced around in off road vehicles in the Australian outback, since November last year.
Cheers
Rod