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JoelC707
Premium Member
join:2002-07-09
Lanett, AL

JoelC707 to howardfine

Premium Member

to howardfine

Re: Computers for Home/Small Business

said by howardfine:

Hondas don't smoke and I've had a few of those.

Genius...
said by howardfine:

They do far more testing/analyzing/surveying than any other source so their statements should carry a lot of weight.

What skills or training do these people have to perform this testing? Let's take the Mac vs. PC thing. Are they a bunch of Mac users who dislike the PC? Are they a bunch of PC users who have never used a Mac before? Neither one is a good sign for proper testing. Do they hire in a bunch of temps that come from different backgrounds and can be objective in their analysis?
said by howardfine:

You'll find people on this board who will diss CR and say it's untrusted, unverified, unreliable, etc., and, instead, will rely on comments here from anonymous posters.

I'm not saying to ignore them and I sure don't put more stock in anon posters here or elsewhere. What I am saying is don't put 100% stock in them (or any one source, no matter how reliable). If that one source says one thing and every other source says the opposite, which one do you think is probably right?

To be honest, you can argue that CR (or insert any other favorite source) ranks Mac better than PC until you are blue in the face. Personal experience overrides anything testing methodology indicates. Let me give you another example. I don't know how CR ranks HP laptops but I have had nothing but problems out of every single HP laptop I have owned or known about through friends/relatives. Because of that experience with them, I flat out refuse to buy another HP laptop.
said by howardfine:

Too often people complain that a Mac or Linux computer doesn't run a particular Windows program as if it was a fault while ignoring the fact that Windows computers don't run a lot of Mac and Linux programs but that's not a fault.

True, that's not the right way to make comparisons and it's not a fair comparison but I think I understand WHY those comparisons are made. Through the use of WINE, Linux (and possibly Mac) can run Windows programs. The results of this are of course hit or miss and is honestly a fault of WINE, not Linux or Mac.

howardfine
join:2002-08-09
Saint Louis, MO

howardfine

Member

said by JoelC707:

What skills or training do these people have to perform this testing?

About CR
iirc, they have a few PhD computer scientists on staff.
said by JoelC707:

Personal experience overrides anything testing methodology indicates.

That's why they do an annual survey of their subscribers, all who pay for the magazine. The survey never asks for opinion but asks questions like, "Did you ever get this fixed?" and "How much did it cost you to get it fixed?". There are one million surveys returned.
said by JoelC707:

I have had nothing but problems out of every single HP laptop I have owned

CR agrees with you and downgrades mostly for poor performance.

Wily_One
Premium Member
join:2002-11-24
San Jose, CA

Wily_One

Premium Member

said by howardfine:

iirc, they have a few PhD computer scientists on staff.

If you're trying to make the point that they have no real world expertise or experience in operations, then you have succeeded! LOL.

howardfine
join:2002-08-09
Saint Louis, MO

howardfine

Member

Of course not. They need people who understand the science of computers just like they have scientists for all the sciences such as medicine. The testing labs are for comparing what one computer does against another. That's where usability engineers are.

Apparently you've never looked at CR before. CR has 8 million paid subscribers. You should get a copy.