Does iOS degrade like Windows?

[Bluepete]

Having owned many laptops over the years, all on a variety of Windows, I found each one gradually slowed down and needed a lot of TLC to keep going.

Mrs BP's current Dell is as usefull as a newly accredited CPS lawyer with a complicated traffic case in font of them and we are off shopping tomorrow.

The question is, and please forget the "Apple fan-boi" argument, does iOS degrade in the same way as windows?

I'm not interested in cost issues and we don't have the tech know-how to "fettle" windows systems. This is purely a question about the operating systems longevity.

Thanks for the intelligent replies,

Pete ;)

[Spank86]

Not so much.

I feel like a stuck record but you'll probably find that doing a full factory reset on an old PC and hoovering its innards to get all the dust out will restore it to close to its original speed (allowing for the increased needs of newer programs)

[Neeja]

By iOS do you mean OS X? iOS is for iDevices whereas OS X is the Macbook OS.

If you mean OS X, I've not found it to degrade at all, really. I swapped from an XP laptop to a Macbook Pro years ago, and don't regret it at all. I can see why you may want a Windows 7 laptop (and I have a desktop with it on), but personally I don't think I'd ever go back to a Windows portable.

[kiggles]

apple stop supporting their older operating systems. as my dads mac cant upgrade to use new itunes with his phone or buy new apple products for his mac, as they dont support the old OPerating system.

[Fallout]

I think OS degrading/slow down is a myth, perpetuated since Win 98 which did actually degrade (MS admitted to it) and maintained because people put crap on their computers and slow it down themselves then blame the OS. I suspect iOS is fine, so long as you don't put lots of crap on it.

[Bluepete]

By iOS do you mean OS X? iOS is for iDevices whereas OS X is the Macbook OS.

If you mean OS X, I've not found it to degrade at all, really. I swapped from an XP laptop to a Macbook Pro years ago, and don't regret it at all. I can see why you may want a Windows 7 laptop (and I have a desktop with it on), but personally I don't think I'd ever go back to a Windows portable.

Yes. The thought is, change to a MacBook from a windows Dell.

Next question is MS Word compatible with Apple OS. Not to wrk on, but to read it.

Pete ;)

[Spank86]

I think OS degrading/slow down is a myth, perpetuated since Win 98 which did actually degrade (MS admitted to it) and maintained because people put crap on their computers and slow it down themselves then blame the OS. I suspect iOS is fine, so long as you don't put lots of crap on it.

I blame dust, viruses, and ten ton of rubbish programs that all add ongoing processes.

Not necessarily in that order.

[Fallout]

Yeah. I hate it when I open msconfig or my registry to see a load of crap in there because I just installed something with a million pop ups. You try to get rid of it all but stuff always hangs around waiting to stealz ur cyclezzz!

Plus the problem is made significantly worse by anti-virus. Every program run at start up will be scanned, so if it's particularly cryptic or doing a lot and you have a poor AV program things will start to crawl and you might not know why.

[Mr Speirs]

I have 3 macs. One from 2001 running an early of OS X and its still as quick as the day I got it.

The main problem as someone else mentioned is that they eventually stop developing newer versions of OS X to work on older machines. So my PowerMac is stuck at 10.3 (I think) and the next version was bought out for the rolling out of the iPhone so I couldn't sync my iPhone to it. My MacBook which was bought in 2007 is now stuck on snow leopard as mountain lion doesnt work on it.

So I guess you need to purchase a new one every 5 years to stay up to date. Which is annoying but enevitable.

[Skip]

My 7 year old Windows XP Acer laptop ran like lightning(ish...!) when I reformatted it recently - did a full Windows update and the speed significantly dropped so I blame all those updates that MS has released over the years slowly dragging the laptop to its knees :(

[Neeja]

Yes. The thought is, change to a MacBook from a windows Dell.

Next question is MS Word compatible with Apple OS. Not to wrk on, but to read it.

Pete ;)

Yes.

You can also get MS Office for Mac which, while very slow to load, works perfectly if you're familiar with Office and don't want to change ;)

[Mr Speirs]

The other thing is windows can be run on Mac's. Either a dual boot system or parallels. Parallels 8 is brilliant and flipping between is quick a smooth. No noticeable lag.
So if you have windows only applications you can run them also.

If you do decide to go mac the refurb section on the apple store is always worth looking at. I got my Macbook Pro 13" 2.5 i5 for £849. Full warranty given.

[Ceri JC]

It's a bit of lots of different things;

1) OSes tend to grow (predominantly through patches and service packs) and they expect you to replace your hardware every 3 years to cope with this.

2) Dust, worn out fans, HD spindle wear and tear, etc. can have some slight effect.

3) If you're not IT-savvy there is almost certainly some sort of malware/virus on there that wasn't when it was new.

4) You'll probably have installed lots of software on there over its life.

A rebuild may well address 3 and 4, but not 1 (unless you run the OS in the original, now old/unpatched state; bad idea) and certainly not 2. That may net you enough of an improvement that it appears to run "like new", but it won't be quite as fast.

Qualification: A decade in IT at a FTSE100 company.

[andrewsmith]

I have 3 macs. One from 2001 running an early of OS X and its still as quick as the day I got it.

The main problem as someone else mentioned is that they eventually stop developing newer versions of OS X to work on older machines. So my PowerMac is stuck at 10.3 (I think) and the next version was bought out for the rolling out of the iPhone so I couldn't sync my iPhone to it. My MacBook which was bought in 2007 is now stuck on snow leopard as mountain lion doesnt work on it.

So I guess you need to purchase a new one every 5 years to stay up to date. Which is annoying but enevitable.

I agree with the lads on OSX, the only time mine slowed down was when there was a faulty Patch released. I think mine is getting near to technical obsolescence with Apple (Left mine on 10.6 as the 10.7 version slowed down the early intel mac like mine)
Mines about 5 years old and have only been reset twice (user error putting windows on as a boot camp). OSX is good and Windows have mimicked it in Win7 and 8

Office for Mac is good if you can wait a couple of minutes for it to load up, its a good tool on mac as it gives a lot more fonts as standard over Windows

[metalhead19]

Office for Mac is good if you can wait a couple of minutes for it to load up, its a good tool on mac as it gives a lot more fonts as standard over Windows

I dont understand this. Office for Mac boost up almost instantaneously for me.
I'm on my second Mac, purely because my last one became technologically obsolete and I couldnt use my new phone through it. It still runs fine and its now approaching 7 years old.

[wyrdness]

OS X on Macs (as opposed to iOS on iphones and ipads) doesn't degrade in performance anywhere near as much as Windows.

You can easily read word docs on a mac (and create them). You can download LibreOffice for free, which will do everything you need, or buy Pages from Apple. They're both good, but LibreOffice is more like Word to use. Pages is possibly nicer if you're creating documents. Both can read and write Word files.

[andrewsmith]

I dont understand this. Office for Mac boost up almost instantaneously for me.
I'm on my second Mac, purely because my last one became technologically obsolete and I couldnt use my new phone through it. It still runs fine and its now approaching 7 years old.

Mine is 2007 and its had a lot of updates

sent from a phone

[jonny.boyd]

Just to give my two pence worth:

I have owned both - I had a Dell laptop, and currently have a MacBook Pro.

So the dell laptop lasted for about 2 years - then it started needing lots of TLC, up until the point that the screen stopped working so I ripped it off and had it permanently attached to a monitor. Also the battery shat itself after about a year!

Now my macbook pro. I have now had this laptop for over 3 years. I have had to reinstall the OS about 2 or 3 times - mainly due to (perhaps illegal) applications corrupting the HD - my own fault really! The battery can still hold 81% of it's designed capacity! More over the laptops still runs and works pretty much as well as it did from the day I bought it - over 3 years ago!

Okay so the money:

Dell laptop - about £350
MacBook Pro - about £1,000

So, the mac is around about 3 times the price of your normal budget laptop. So now it really comes down to what you prefer! I would definitely take a mac anyday - mainly due to the original battery still holding near enough its full capacity (a good 6 hours of battery) and working as it did on the first day I got it! Yes it is more expensive and if you're not used to Apple then you it may take a little while / help to get accustomed to it, but it meets all my needs and has kept me going through the whole of university, and through travels around America, and now Australia - with no hitches! Not sure my dell could do that :p

HTH

[wyrdness]

Okay so the money:

Dell laptop - about £350
MacBook Pro - about £1,000


Remember that the Dell will have depreciated completely and be worth nothing, whilst 3 year old Macbook Pro's still sell for more than £500 on Ebay (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-MacBook-Pro-15-4-Laptop-MC371B-A-Intel-i5-2-4ghz-4GB-RAM-320GB-HDD-/181077573413?pt=UK_Computing_Apple_Laptops_ET&hash=item2a29107f25).

So total cost of ownership of a Mac isn't all that much higher, though it's more initial outlay.

[Bluepete]

Thanks for the info. Mrs BP bought a windows laptop. We couldn't afford a macbook but when the desktop gets replaced, it'll be an apple.