Daily Roundup: Unspotted Leopard Edition
Friday, 2nd November 2007 (by J.D.)This article is about Spare Change
I succumbed to upgrade fever today, and purchased a copy of the latest Macintosh operating system, code-named Leopard. No problem, right? Wrong. Barely ten minutes into the install on my laptop, the machine hung. I’m now sitting in the local Apple Store, installing the upgrade under supervision from the Genius Bar. That gives me plenty of time to browse for other personal finance stories from around the web!
- Starting in the Get Rich Slowly discussion forums, one single mom is looking for thoughts and opinions on her career. She has a job she loves, but the pay is a little low. Should she stick it out?
- The Baglady tells us the story of her super cheap ex-boyfriend. For all of you who have complained about the frugal mindset, here’s a good example of somebody who goes too far. “Looking back, I am pretty glad that I broke up with him because if I married him I would have had no wedding and right now I would probably be living with his parents and eating 50 cent spaghetti.”
- Adbusters, one of my favorite anti-establishment magazines, is currently featuring an article about The Empire of Debt. This piece is a little too doom and gloom for me, but still makes for interesting reading.
- Finally, USA Today has a new warning that scammers continue to find new ways to bilk consumers. Nobody thinks they’re stupid enough to fall for a scam. Yet scammers make more money off their dupes every year. This article explores some of the latest forms of online thievery.
Because I’m spending my evening at the local mall instead of ensconced in my easy chair, Friday morning’s “ask the readers” feature will actually be posted Friday afternoon. Assuming the OS installation finishes without a hitch.
It looks like upgrading to Leopard wasn’t fiscally responsible. The frequent upgrades are all expensive and add few features. Furthermore, Apple hardware and support is often expensive. Consider all factors of a purchase.
I upgraded to Leopard yesterday (Thurs) also. Alone - no Apple store. No problems. Running without a hitch. best wishes
I upgraded to Leopard and it was just pressing a few buttons and then booting up Windows (on the other side) and installing a few drivers, which was also automatic. I had the Beta version of Bootcamp installed already.
@Harris
Thats not really accurate. Their updates are typically 1-2 years apart, while MS is typically 3-5 years apart. MS prices are double (even triple) the upgrade cost, so as far as a main stream OS (excluding all *nix variations because of lack of official support and warranty) Mac OS is a better deal, or at least on par for a single user, for a multi user house hold it is significantly cheaper (5 user pack of OS 10.5 is 199, windows licenses are 200+ a piece for the Vista Home Basic OS)
And this upgrade was slightly more than a “Few” additions (300+) one of which is time machine, which is the best consumer level backup software I have seen. Sure, most will never be noticed, but there were several prominent ones that made it well worth the upgrade cost.
As far as the hardware. The cost of hardware is just slightly above the average. The reason they look expensive is because they don’t offer very few low end computers. Mac Minis run around 500 bucks and are good computers for home use, but you won’t see a $199 dollar eMachine (which is not nearly as good) Take into consideration that you can use the hardware for the next 2-3 generations of OS upgrade and it is a good investment.
I don’t own a Mac but I don’t like people wrongfully bashing them. My name is Jordan and I am a Windows system admin.
i haven’t seen leopard’s new features yet.. i need to run to an apple store asap =)
I found it interesting that Baglady included her ex’s use of an employer-provided transit pass in a list of things that made him beyond cheap. I’m sorry — deeming anyone without a car a “cheapo” is just flagrant. Not everyone needs, or wants, a car. Didn’t SUVs become passe for environmental reasons? Why are we still hung on this idea that people without a car are bums?
Mac vs. Windows vs. GNU/Linux arguments are well documented across the internet. Please see these if you are interested in voicing opinions. I’m getting tired of reading the same diluted opinions in comments that have nothing to do with choices in operating systems.
My name is Jeff, and I use Linux.
I’d have to agree with honeybee, though I think living with his parents at that age? I’m not so sure my parents would have tolerated that!
I just completed the Leopard upgrade on my MacBook Pro. It took less than an hour, pressed a couple of buttons, couple of reboots and it was all done. It was simple and flawless. Love Stacks and Spaces, especially Spaces.
My name is John, and I use MacOS X, Linux, Solaris, and Win XP (only when necessary). All on one one machine.
I just get my employer to buy my hardware and OS upgrades. I would have installed leopard already on my Macbook Pro, but the guy who does the actual purchasing was on vacation this week. I just have to wait until next week.
As far as Macs being expensive. Go to dell’s website and price out a laptop with comparable specs. It will be more expensive. (make sure you are comparing apples to apples — if you compare it to a macbook pro, use dell’s pro-level system.) Sony too. I do this for my job, so I know.
My name is icup, and I use my computer as a tool to do my job. My job is not constantly screwing around with my OS.
I’m not interested in constantly having to tweak it and read obscure man pages in german to get things to work. That’s why I don’t use linux. I’m also not interested in spending 8 hours twice a year to reinstall the OS and all my programs, which is why i don’t use windows.
[...] this week since it was linked on one of the MSN Money Central blogs and then linked by JD over at Get Rich Slowly. My ex-bf wants to say that the part I exaggerated about is the 25 cent spaghetti, and I want to [...]