Why do people buy Macs?

Well, I had never used a MacBook myself before last week so I'm not really the person to answer this but I've certainly heard better things about MacBooks than, say, HP or Acer.

The manufacturer's I trust (based on my experience with them) are Toshiba, Samsung and Asus...and now I'm beginning to like Apple too, even though it's only been a week since I've had it.

HP and Sony are two manufacturers that I know from experience to be a bit of "hit or miss".

According to most reliability surveys (that I have seen) Toshiba and Asus are usually at the top of the pack...then again, reliability surveys don't matter if your specific product fails. My Toshiba is still going strong after more than 1.5 years of rough use but that doesn't mean Toshiba laptops don't fail.

Sorry but my MacBook is 100% reliable, not a single problem.

You are obviously the one that is deluded.

MacBooks are better than Windows Laptops, i have had both, and i have used Ubuntu. The OS X Lion is a bit of a rip off from Linux, but not too badly.

It is preference and personal opinion, after all.

I've used Macs and PCs side by side for a few years now, so I have had a while to formalise this argument.

1) In general, all Mac hardware is pretty good. I'm totally ignoring the price in this point - I'm just saying that in general, there won't be a part of a Mac laptop which is a total dud. Normally when you buy a laptop, there's at least one part of it that you don't like that much - the key action, the touchpad response. This is because there's a race with the OEMs to pump out as many different models as possible to attempt to fill every single niche. With Macs, pretty much all of them feel exactly the same - the keyboards are the same, the touchpads are the same - so provided you like those two methods of input, you'll like all of them. I like those two methods of input.
2) It runs a Unix operating system. This is a big deal for me. I do lots of computer programming, and like to be able to use the command line. Bash is far more featured than the dos emulator on Windows - it's just easier to use, more featured and extends more. You can do most things without leaving the command line on OSX, should you want to. Last year I made a bet that I could do all my schoolwork from the command line - it worked perfectly. In effect, I get the benefit I need from Linux, but the mass-market appeal of Windows.
3) OS X is a nice operating system to use. I don't really give a crap about customising my desktop. I don't care too much about custom drivers or any other tweaks that OS X is meant to be good for. I just like everything to work, with minimal effort. I'm not a fan of extensive customisation, but when I do need it, I'm fine with delving into system files - so OSX is for me.

All in all, the reasons I have a Macbook Pro are: Hardware, Software. Pretty simple really!

Macs are nice, not nice enough to justify the expense tho imo given pc's are nearly as nice and will do everything you need for uni plus play games.

One of my lecturers used a mac to prepare their powerpoints to show us on the uni pc's... Every so often a slide would **** up meaning there's some compatibility issues between mac and pc versions of powerpoint, probably not even apples fault but you wouldn't want it happening to you on a powerpoint you were showing on a uni pc and being assessed on.

Real world jobs apart from in hipster industries like advertising, you'll likely be using a pc anyway.

1) Fair enough, Mac hardware (by that I don't mean the electronic internals) is pretty great.
2) Well you can run any Unix variant (or Linux if you want) on a PC so it's a moot point.
3) If you don't really care about customizing or what OS X is specifically meant to be good for, I don't see how you can say OS X specifically is good since you would be able to get by on any OS.

2) It's not a moot point. If I ran (say) Debian or Fedora, I wouldn't have access to MS Office or iTunes or Photoshop or any one of the numerous Windows/OSX limited pieces of software that I use almost daily (although I am using MS Office less, I wouldn't easily be able to do without it). I'd effectively have to dual boot. By using OSX, I achieve both access the broad mass market software ecosystem as well as the open source one. There are certain pieces of Linux software I'd find hard to get running - but there's usually an OSX equivalent.
3) Again, not a moot point. OP claims that Windows is better because it can do more in terms of hardware and software. I claim it's not better for me, because I simply don't care about the extra things it can do. If I have no preference about the base operating system (except for anything that uses Unity. Unity is IMO ****e), then that means that any specific benefit the OS provides is useless to me.

2) It's not a moot point. If I ran (say) Debian or Fedora, I wouldn't have access to MS Office or iTunes or Photoshop or any one of the numerous Windows/OSX limited pieces of software that I use almost daily (although I am using MS Office less, I wouldn't easily be able to do without it). I'd effectively have to dual boot. By using OSX, I achieve both access the broad mass market software ecosystem as well as the open source one. There are certain pieces of Linux software I'd find hard to get running - but there's usually an OSX equivalent.

Genuine question I've never really got my head round. There seems to be a lot of stick about people owning Macs - Mostly the accusations about them being 'hipsters', technologically arrogant, etc.

So I asked myself this question - Why do people buy Macs? What loving incentive is there to buy a Mac, when a Windows machine that's configured correctly has the flexibility of Windows (or Linux, if you wanted) and will just run and run?

Genuine question here. I use Windows 7 on a PC; and the performance on it has been rock solid after I installed a driver that fixed my display (D-SUB to HDMI lead always displayed the images underscanned; but a driver update fixed that).

I've used a Mac, personally didn't like my experience. It seemed... Backwards; in the sense most people train on a bog-standard Windows PC, but the Mac PC seems to rewrite this. IMO, it seems clumsy to use, whereas Windows 7 doesn't get in the way and let you do things (unlike the dog Windows 7).

Windows can do more than a Mac, too, in terms of hardware, software, etc... So is there something I'm missing out with a Mac, or is it just glorified hype?

I'll just post my input here and explain why I bought a MacBook Pro 13" recently for university, instead of opting for one of my other Windows options (Samsung Series 7, Lenovo Thinkpads, Toshiba Portege).
I've always been a Windows guy and this is my first Apple product too, so you should keep this in mind before you read ahead.

Note: I am going to be assuming that the MBP 13" is classified as an ultra-book for all intents and purposes due to the great battery life and light weight, even though it technically isn't classified as one by Apple.

1. Aluminium Unibody: Aesthetically pleasing, seems pretty solid, no noticeable air vents, fairly light. Most other laptops (even those in the same price range) make extensive use of plastic in the body and the build quality will generally be lower, not only because of the plastic, but because the body is assembled in parts and may result in creaking and bending. Toshiba Portege series laptops and Lenovo Thinkpad Carbon X1 is an exception.
2. Hardware / specs: Standard mobile processor instead of ULV one leading to better performance (Ask if you want an explanation). Most, if not all, other laptops with the same battery life (6+ hours) have ULV processors. User upgradability - I can upgrade to an SSD and add more RAM later on by myself instead of having to take it to Apple and pay a premium for the same upgrades.
3. Good connectivity: ethernet port, optical drive, thunderbolt port, firewire (all these things are usually not present in many PC "ultra-books").
4. Battery life: Following point 2...The battery life is comparable (and often better) than the ultra-books on the market, without compromising on performance with a ULV processor.
5. Software: Mac OSX - incredibly optmised for the hardware as OSX only has to deal with a fixed set of configurations of hardware and not provide guaranteed support for all configurations like Windows, Unix-based - so the memory management is better and free RAM is used in a more efficient manner, Secure - not because "derp I are c00l MaC don't GET ViruS lololol" but because Mac OSX's market share is too low for hackers and crackers to bother spending there resources on making viruses for it...not saying there are no viruses, but they are very few in comparison with Windows. Gestures - At first the cool gestures with swiping and multi-touch support feel like gimmicks but the more you use them, the more you like them and appreciate their usefulness in everyday computing. Xcode - so I can legally program apps for Mac OSX and iOS in Objective C.
6. Personal preference: I wanted to try something new and I hadn't ever used Mac OSX or an Apple product, so I decided to try it out. Basically, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
7. Durability: Or rather what I've heard of Apple MacBooks and how they are very reliable and last long. I want something that will last me the next 4 years and I didn't want to risk with anything of lower quality. (If I wanted to risk it, I would have definitely gone with the Sony S13, which is cheaper and packs a discrete GPU too. The only reason I didn't go with it is because I haven't had a great experience with Vaio's in the past and because of this: http://www.sonyvaiosucks.com )

If I have missed anything, I will edit it in later. Feel free to comment on why you think I'm right or wrong, but please do make sure you can show me a comparable machine at a significantly lower price. Tip: The Toshiba Portege is the only line-up that comes close to the Apple MacBook line-up in terms of quality and performance...and you know what? They cost pretty much the same as the MacBooks. Keep in mind that I researched the laptop market for over a month before I bought this MBP last week.

Also, I have another Windows laptop (Toshiba Satellite L655) which I love, but I'm not taking to university due to low portability.

this thread is just stupid, the OP is obviously biased as he is contradicting everything mac users says, OP asks for why we have macs and OP slams you for having one wtf?

when OP learns to stop being a bigot, then ignore this post. HATE ON.

THE QUESTION IS WHY DON'T PEOPLE BUY A MAC?
WHY DO THEY BUY A PC?

You seem to be acting as if this is a life or death decision. It's not.

What if I told you that neither is truly better than one another? Omg!

Because macs are a complete rip-off! I can get a machine with the same specs for half the price. We don't all have money to burn to look cool.

Because macs are a complete rip-off! I can get a machine with the same specs for half the price. We don't all have money to burn to look cool.

2) There are very good alternatives to all of those except Photoshop. Photoshop CS5 works almost perfectly on wine though and CS6 is well on its way. I can only think of a few propietary apps that don't have viable alternatives.
3) If the specific benefits of any OS is useless then it doesn't matter which one you use so the cheaper one is better.

It's not MS Office, it's Office for Mac. They're different products (and serious users will notice this), even if they are closer to each other than let's say Openoffice and MS Office.