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#Firstworldproblems - I think I've been bought a macbook for xmas but I don't want it

Sooo... I'm at Uni, and I have an incling that my parents might have bought me a macbook for christmas (not the norm believe me..) The thing is I don't need it, nor do I want it - I am just about as anti-apple as they come. History then question :biggrin:

I have a 17" Acer Aspire, it's battered, I spilt water on the keyboard so now use a usb keyboard, the laptop cost me around £300 a few years ago. It has blu-ray, excellent brightness - good screen etc. I simply don't need a new laptop, and if I were to ask for a new one it'd be something like this 'ASUS X550CA 15.6" 6GB 1TB Core i3 Laptop' which is like £310 on ebay. I simply hate Apple!!! It's expensive, the technology literally expires and stops being supported (my original hate relationship came when I had a g5 desktop and I couldn't upgrade it and so it became obsolete...) there's stuff that matches it, and don't even get me started on the iPhone.

Windows and Android every day of the week!!

So, lots of rubbish there. But how do I react to something I do not want when my parents know my hate for apple and preference for all things Android and Windows (I had to try and convince them not to get iPhones when they went onto contract... unsuccessfully "I guess they're really simple to use, they're just a bit basic and uncustomisable..."
Original post by Onwards and Upwards!
Sooo... I'm at Uni, and I have an incling that my parents might have bought me a macbook for christmas (not the norm believe me..) The thing is I don't need it, nor do I want it - I am just about as anti-apple as they come. History then question :biggrin:

I have a 17" Acer Aspire, it's battered, I spilt water on the keyboard so now use a usb keyboard, the laptop cost me around £300 a few years ago. It has blu-ray, excellent brightness - good screen etc. I simply don't need a new laptop, and if I were to ask for a new one it'd be something like this 'ASUS X550CA 15.6" 6GB 1TB Core i3 Laptop' which is like £310 on ebay. I simply hate Apple!!! It's expensive, the technology literally expires and stops being supported (my original hate relationship came when I had a g5 desktop and I couldn't upgrade it and so it became obsolete...) there's stuff that matches it, and don't even get me started on the iPhone.

Windows and Android every day of the week!!

So, lots of rubbish there. But how do I react to something I do not want when my parents know my hate for apple and preference for all things Android and Windows (I had to try and convince them not to get iPhones when they went onto contract... unsuccessfully "I guess they're really simple to use, they're just a bit basic and uncustomisable..."


Let them know now so that they can return it and buy you something that you will use. Explain that you're not a fan of the mac system and that it's so expensive you'd rather they put the money to better use etc. But be sure to explain how lovely a gift it was, it just isn't something you can see yourself getting on with. I remember for my birthday the other year someone was going to buy me an iPad, it came to around £500 in total but I just wouldn't have used it! I have an iPhone, and a laptop at home. I had no use for an iPad (was so touched they wanted to buy it for me but would rather something more practical or something that cost less!) so I just let them know and they returned it, honesty is best IMO :h:
Original post by Precious Illusions
Let them know now so that they can return it and buy you something that you will use. Explain that you're not a fan of the mac system and that it's so expensive you'd rather they put the money to better use etc. But be sure to explain how lovely a gift it was, it just isn't something you can see yourself getting on with. I remember for my birthday the other year someone was going to buy me an iPad, it came to around £500 in total but I just wouldn't have used it! I have an iPhone, and a laptop at home. I had no use for an iPad (was so touched they wanted to buy it for me but would rather something more practical or something that cost less!) so I just let them know and they returned it, honesty is best IMO :h:


This. Just be honest and straightforward. Say you suspect they may have bought you one and explain why it's best they return it. BUT definitely show how grateful you are that they bought it in the first place though, as it is super expensive, that you appreciate it but the money would be best spent elsewhere.
Original post by Precious Illusions
Let them know now so that they can return it and buy you something that you will use. Explain that you're not a fan of the mac system and that it's so expensive you'd rather they put the money to better use etc. But be sure to explain how lovely a gift it was, it just isn't something you can see yourself getting on with. I remember for my birthday the other year someone was going to buy me an iPad, it came to around £500 in total but I just wouldn't have used it! I have an iPhone, and a laptop at home. I had no use for an iPad (was so touched they wanted to buy it for me but would rather something more practical or something that cost less!) so I just let them know and they returned it, honesty is best IMO :h:


Thanks for the message back :smile: I think my dad bought it from the states when he went there last week for a relatives 70th birthday :s-smilie: My mum said a few days before (when I headed back for the weekend) whether I hated all apple products and at the time I was like, no I find iPads pretty pointless for personal use, but the laptops are still good I guess (no disk drive/everything you buy afterwards near enough has to be apple branded... (It's a cult, an expensive silvery cult lol)

Do you think maybe I should just fein happiness as I wouldn't think I could take it back? I would continue to use my battered one though I know, I just prefer it. Stuck...
Reply 4
Some people in the third world actually have this same problem.

So it's more like a #RichPeopleProblem
Original post by TIATA
Some people in the third world actually have this same problem.

So it's more like a #RichPeopleProblem


The whole concept of the first/second/third world is an sectionalised/stupid way of looking at it, just latched on to a phrase that gets used. I was wrong to...
Reply 6
Original post by Onwards and Upwards!
The whole concept of the first/second/third world is an sectionalised/stupid way of looking at it, just latched on to a phrase that gets used. I was wrong to...


I was just joking :lol:
Every one knows it's just a bit of fun :smile:
Reply 7
Why would you not want a mac? Macs are unix based which is better than the fairly anaemic command line in windows. Unless you are a gamer you are just plain wrong. Even if you are a purist and like linux you can simply install that on either a mac or windows machine. The price points of mac are in fact fairly competitive. Apple in fact often uses the "in between" processors released from intel and hence have slightly better parts than windows. What exactly do you mean by the "technology simply expires"? All technology expires, that is the nature of progress.
Original post by alow
Why would you not want a mac? Macs are unix based which is better than the fairly anaemic command line in windows. Unless you are a gamer you are just plain wrong. Even if you are a purist and like linux you can simply install that on either a mac or windows machine. The price points of mac are in fact fairly competitive. Apple in fact often uses the "in between" processors released from intel and hence have slightly better parts than windows. What exactly do you mean by the "technology simply expires"? All technology expires, that is the nature of progress.


Don't get me wrong, I know Macs are excellent. (They didn't get their reputation for being bad!) It's just personal preference. My point was more about getting a mac because it's seen as 'the upper echelon of technology' when something like the laptop I mentioned is excellent and all most people would ever need. The thought of spending a grand on a laptop, when I could get similar specs and still meet my requirements for £300 seems mad. Yes the screen is retina(!) and it's well built(!) but generally windows supports it's operating systems far beyond what apple does (e.g I couldn't upgrade my G5 to OSX, there was literally no way around it according to apple, I needed to buy a new mac) Whereas a PC holds compatibility a lot longer and you don't need to shell out hundreds to keep it up to date.

Like I say personal preference, but hey my opinion may change!
Original post by Onwards and Upwards!
Don't get me wrong, I know Macs are excellent. (They didn't get their reputation for being bad!) It's just personal preference. My point was more about getting a mac because it's seen as 'the upper echelon of technology' when something like the laptop I mentioned is excellent and all most people would ever need. The thought of spending a grand on a laptop, when I could get similar specs and still meet my requirements for £300 seems mad. Yes the screen is retina(!) and it's well built(!) but generally windows supports it's operating systems far beyond what apple does (e.g I couldn't upgrade my G5 to OSX, there was literally no way around it according to apple, I needed to buy a new mac) Whereas a PC holds compatibility a lot longer and you don't need to shell out hundreds to keep it up to date.

Like I say personal preference, but hey my opinion may change!



The reason your g5 couldn't be updated was because it had powerpc architecture, and OSX is written for x86. This type of architecture change has happened pretty much only once in Apple's history. Yes you were unlucky for it to just so happen to happen at a bad time for you but I guarantee you that apple won't be switching away from x86 based architecture in the near future. Apple computers actually tend to have a much better life span than equivalent windows machines on average.

Most of your points are a little ill-supported, but I get your point about not wanting to waste £1000 on a laptop that is more than what you need. However in this case, I would suggest you just accept the gift and use it as, although it may be overkill, it is still better than your current laptop. You can even install windows on it if you want.

Other options would be to sell it, but that may offend your parents IDK. Honestly I can't see any reason for you to simply not use it in favour of your old broken laptop...
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by mattwilkins
The reason your g5 couldn't be updated was because it had powerpc architecture, and OSX is written for x86. This type of architecture change has happened pretty much only once in Apple's history. Yes you were unlucky for it to just so happen to happen at a bad time for you but I guarantee you that apple won't be switching away from x86 based architecture in the near future. Apple computers actually tend to have a much better life span than equivalent windows machines on average.

Most of your points are a little ill-supported, but I get your point about not wanting to waste £1000 on a laptop that is more than what you need. However in this case, I would suggest you just accept the gift and use it as, although it may be overkill, it is still better than your current laptop. You can even install windows on it if you want.

Other options would be to sell it, but that may offend your parents IDK. Honestly I can't see any reason for you to simply not use it in favour of your old broken laptop...


Thanks Matt, that actually clears up a few points for me. Especially the point about changing to x86 achitecture. I know my points aren't overly supported, but yes the price obviously is a large part of it (even if I was a billionaire I would still want to have supported reasoning for my choices :wink: )

I'll take your point on board and accept it gladly... unless it's all in my mind and I'm getting socks! Haha!

Thanks
Since you can't return the laptop either accept it graciously or see if someone you know needs one and wants to buy it off from you... hopefully your parents won't might too much.

But I would suggest trying it out first, maybe you'll end up liking it. My school gave everyone iPads this year and made the teachers all use this one site to put notes on and upload homework and whatnot, and at first it was a real pain to write everything on the iPad and not use notebooks or pens. But after a few months I've gotten used to it and it's actually really nice because it's much easier to organize notes and move things around and you can delete useless old assignments that would otherwise be floating around in your backpack. And it doesn't take up much space :redface: So basically you might end up liking it a whole lot more than you thought you would.
If worst comes to worst and you're stuck with it, go into Boot Camp and create a secondary partition as large as it will let you and install Windows, then boot into that every time. Now you've got a nice little Windows ultraportable even if you don't like Apple the Air's hardware is objectively very nice.

As above, your G5 was unfortunate enough to be the last generation of old architecture PowerMac before the Intel move- your experience of lack of support on this product is pretty much the opposite of almost everything else in modern Apple history. The Air is a well built machine and while I agree they're expensive, as all comparable ultrabooks are, it's already paid for so not really relevant to whether or not you'll like using it :ahee:

If you're determined you won't use/like it, let your parents know and sell it while it's still as-new, because it's prime time season for selling electronics. Assure your parents that because of the price they cost in the UK you're bound to recoup close to what was paid overseas and will spend it on an equally grand gesture which you'll use and enjoy more.
Support for Apple products is usually much better than that of any of their competitors, you can get OS X Yosemite as a free update for Macs from as far back as 2007, and similarly with the iPhone 4S and iOS 8.

Have you considered all the advantages of using the MacBook as your new laptop? Some of the features are especially useful if you're a student, like the portability and battery life. If I was using a "battered" 17 inch laptop with the added nuisance of an external keyboard, then I'd want a much better replacement as soon as possible.
If you need Windows, just throw Boot Camp onto the Mac or get an ISO mounted version of Windows 8 on a USB and install that using Parallels virtualisation software. MacBooks are honestly quite awesome, own one myself. It's a difficult situation to tell your dad you don't want one but try it out anyway to see what you think of it. Trust me, OS X will grow on you very quickly. And besides, when your Dad got it in the USA, he paid very likely a lower price than what it actually costs over here so it should have been a little less expensive, still expensive but just a bit less
Same thing happened to me last christmas. I still don't know how to use it properly.

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