[addicttostress]

My office has iMac computers used only for testing. Out of the 7 in the office 4 have died. One started smoking and made a very loud noise before dying out. None of the 40+ PC's in the office have died. Sample size of 1 office but it's enough for me to steer clear of their hardware. After all these problems its been a running joke in the office "I though Macs just worked?!"

[carbon8]

Apple computers are consistently more reliable than average, and historically (at least the last 10 years) they've frequently been top ranked in reliability rankings (consumer reports, RescueCom, etc).

"Sample size of 1 office but it's enough for me to steer clear of their hardware."

That doesn't make a lot of sense considering minimal research would have revealed that this is not representative of the situation overall.

[jibiki]

Consumer reports seems to have rankings, but you have to register to view them. Fortunately, I found them (maybe) on google images:

http://cache.consumerist.com/assets/resources/2006/10/laptop...

My anecdotal experience is also that macs are a little bit unreliable, but this is obviously a subject on which we should trust the data (which says that macs are slightly above average.)

[carbon8]

"Fortunately, I found them (maybe) on google images: http://cache.consumerist.com/assets/resources/2006/10/laptop... "

According to the context ( http://consumerist.com/210708/all-laptops-break-period ), this is apparently a graph from 2006 ranking "how quickly different laptops need repair," which doesn't really make a lot of sense given the way the graph is displayed. These definitely aren't the reliability scores from the 2006 rankings, which you can see discussed here: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2006/10/5614.ars

FWIW, the upcoming consumer reports rankings were announced yesterday, and all apple laptops topped the overall rankings:

http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/05/05/consumer-rep...

It's unclear where they are in the specific reliability rankings.

[addicttostress]

Minimal research from a perspective of hands on usage would be both time and cost prohibitive. It's acceptable to gain an opinion of hardware or OS by hands on usage but I wouldn't want to invest that much money in systems that I've watched fail on a regular basis.

[carbon8]

"I wouldn't want to invest that much money in systems that I've watched fail on a regular basis"

So, according to the decision model you are using, if you saw your friend win the lottery, you'd start playing every day and expect to win, since the statistical likelihood of something happening is less reliable to you than your anecdotal experience.