Some people have started selling Windows 7 on laptops again, so that might be an idea??

Of course, I mention that only because I have no clue about anything regarding the MacBooks. =/

My Windows 7 ASUS laptop has been running since a little before I graduated high school - so right around the three year mark right now - and still runs Minecraft and Mechwarrior Online, the only games I care about, quite well. I've seen plenty of Windows-running laptops bite the dust well before then, so there is definitely an element of chance in buying one.

Some people have started selling Windows 7 on laptops again, so that might be an idea??

 

Of course, I mention that only because I have no clue about anything regarding the MacBooks. =/

That helps actually, but again, this thing is still running smooth as the day I bought it, so hopefully it'll last until I finish college and can get a job and can actually afford to replace it myself with something instead of having to get a summer job to pay for a cheap $300 piece of junk - no offense to anyone on a $300 laptop - since I can't get any decent-paying jobs while in college. By then I have no doubt that Windows 7 will be long-gone. We might even be onto Windows 10 by then.

Hopefully the time I need a replacement ends up being so far off that any worrying I do now is preemptive and meaningless, but in the off chance it broke tomorrow, it'd still be something I'd have to think about.

My Windows 7 ASUS laptop has been running since a little before I graduated high school - so right around the three year mark right now - and still runs Minecraft and Mechwarrior Online, the only games I care about, quite well. I've seen plenty of Windows-running laptops bite the dust well before then, so there is definitely an element of chance in buying one.

Oddly enough Asus is the brand of the one Windows laptop my family has that has lasted any significant time. Guess they're one of the good brands and it wasn't just a coincidence.

Honestly, I'm a lot less worried about gaming on it - I love CS:GO, Arkham City, there are a bunch of more modern/demanding games I love(Though I can't say I'm playing Crysis 3 or anything like that), but I can subsist with just FTL, Papers Please, and maybe TF2 to go along with Minecraft and my NES games and leave the rest to my PS3, 3DS, and Wii - and more worried about the "business" stuff I use this thing for running on whatever I get.

Music production and graphic design are very process-hungry, especially using professional-level programs. Plus I'm not sure how willing Adobe would be to give me Windows copies of CS6 since they're trying to phase out standalone copies in favor of a subscription service, and I'd have to completely switch over from Logic to a different audio program if I went over to Windows, which can be done, but it'd cost a lot of money(Professional programs aren't cheap!)

I'm keeping my options open because again, I'm not fond of where Apple's heading, but it'd be a lot easier to stay on OS X, so I'm hoping that can be done.

That makes sense, yeah. /nods. I got lucky with my laptop, it was on sale for about 200 dollars off; so it was some pretty big savings, and works awesomely. ^^

But yeah, hoping that a current computer lasts a long time is certainly a big thing to hope for first. =P