[MobileVet]

Prior to Apple hardware, I loved my T42... definitely a strong machine on a great platform.

Maybe it is just small sample size, but my mil purchased an HP consumer laptop for ~$600 when I purchased my first MBP in 2010. Hers barely lasted 3 years for hardware and software reasons. My chugged on for 6 years. While the cost per year was similar... the utility was not.

I hope it is better, but during the 1990-2010 period when I ran Windows based systems they inevitably would come to a crawl after a year of use. I would have to completely rebuild them, reinstall the OS and all programs from scratch to return them to utility.

I honestly don't think I have ever done this with an Apple product.