What specifically is better about the Apple Macintosh?

Seriously.

I find them way more reliable then windows machines...no more blue screens of death is the best change of all!

:shrug:

a co-worker has had two of her PCs rendered nearly useless by virus/malware (and she's NOT even surfing porn or other "risky" sites) and has spent countless hours trying to trouble-shoot it on her own and is going to have to take it to the Geek Squad or someplace to get them fixed by professionals.

I still feel a lot of the interface is more intuitive, although sometimes you have no CHOICE but to be intuitive because cool software designers refuse to actually label things in ways that make sense.

No lost weekends trying to get something to work.
You plug something in, maybe run an easy installation disc, and it works, period.
No installing "the patch to the patch to the patch."
The user interface is the best-designed and the most user-friendly of any that I know.
Many Mac applications look and operate using the same standards, so learning a new program is pretty easy.
The Apple user community is very friendly and helpful and there are a lot of online help sites with many expert users who are happy to guide you through a certain process or procedure. discussions.apple.com is one such valuable forum.
Very few crashes - in fact the eMac I am typing this on I have used every day since the summer of 2004 and I do not recall one system crash, ever. Individual programs sometimes freeze up or crash out, but that is the fault of those programs, not the system. And when individual programs crash, the system does not. It keeps going like the program crash didn't affect it. Apple software in particular seems rock-solid to me.
High reliability. Apple hardware is well-made and in 20 years of using 7 different Macs, I have never had a hard disk crash, I have never had a montior fail, a keyboard fail... in fact I can't recall a single hardware problem with any Apple brand hardware. In 2006 there was a recall on one part and I simply took my eMac into the Apple Store and they replaced the part within 15 minutes and at no charge.
The software that comes pre-installed with a Mac is superb and valuable unto itself. The iLife suite (which includes iPhoto, iMovie, iTunes, iDVD, iWeb and GarageBand is easy to learn, easy to use, and the programs were designed to work with each other. When you are ready to make a DVD, your photos from iPhoto automatically show up in your menu, your music from iTunes, your videos from iMovie, they are all right there and the process of creating a DVD is very easy, with professional-looking results. Try doing that with the Windows software that comes pre-installed on a PC. And the other software is good too. There is an abundance of free software that you can download for specific tasks and uses, and generally they are pretty well-made and the authors are often available to answer questions about it. There's almost no need to buy any other software unless you want to go in the direction of a professional-level application for a professional task.
You can get software for your Mac that will allow you to run nearly any Windows program.
Very few viruses.
The damn thing works.

If you are in the market for a new computer, I would suggest that you visit an Apple Store and sit down at a few Macs and just play around with them for a while, before making any further decisions.

Well said!

very good customer service. Any problems, I pick up the Mac, take it to the store where I can talk to a real live human being and they sort it out (almost always) for free. When my motherboard melted down, they replaced it for free, no questions asked, even though the computer was five years old and not under warranty. And they updated my OS to Leopard even though I was running Tiger before. For free. Without my even asking for it.

I've had two Macs in ten years. I only upgraded because of game requirements. The old laptop still works.

My dad has had seven PCs in the same time. When something goes wrong, he has to pay to sit on hold while some call centre kid in Bangladesh flips through the instructional manual and then tries to blame the software or the ISP.

I was trying to sort an issue out for my parents last year. I called four times and literally got a completely different answer each time.

I use Windows at work and it isn't the end of the world but it's much glitchier, uglier and less intuitive than OS X. My Mac crashes a few times a year. The PC I use at work crashes a few times a week.

I do miss minesweeper though.

I had an iMac a few years back - the motherboard died a few weeks after the warranty expired. Brought it to the local Apple Store and it was $900 to replace, even though the prior version of the iMac had known motherboard problems. Too bad for you! So, I got a little over a year's use out of it.

(And, if you ask why didn't I buy Apple Care, everybody that I spoke with said that Apple was so fantastic it would run forever with virtually no maintenance.... why spend extra on a warranty if the product rarely has problems, as most extended warranties are rip-offs?)

So, I took half the $900 I would have spent on an iMac motherboard and bought a whole new PC that is still running fine after 2 1/2 years. The old HP that the iMac replaced is also still running (albeit slowly, as we don't use it often) and it is nearly 8 years old.

than all of the PC owners I know have--in total--spent to repair their PCs.

With two disclaimers:

1. I'm not counting upgrades as repairs.
2. I'm not counting large businesses in this calculation.

I can't remember the specifics, but he had a problem similar to yours--within days of his warranty's lapse, he suffered some kind of system meltdown that wound up costing him over $2,000 to get straightened out. He complained to Apple, and to their credit they were able to help him with the price, but it was an enormous hassle and resulted in massive data loss. And that was just for one repair!

I'm sure that his case is anecdotal, and every other Mac and Apple product run like clockwork forever and ever amen, but his experience was so bad--and in fact so much worse than anything I've run into with a PC--that I'm reluctant to invest a few thousand dollars to get a product that will do about the same thing for me that a $400 PC will do.


Incidentally, I've been running Windows Vista on my PC for over two years, and the platform itself has never crashed. Sure, I've had individual programs crap out on me, but not so regularly that it's a problem, and certainly not a few times per week.

He had a Compaq and got anal warts within weeks!

COINCIDENCE?:hide:

I suspect that he'd had them for a long time, probably contracting them from an old and desperate Apple IIE, and then had a quick tryst with a Compaq to try to cover it up.

We were closer than I felt we needed to be at the time. x(

Certainly not you yourself, but a friend, right? Right???


Additionally, even if "your friend" said that he got the alleged warts weeks after using the Compaq, we'd need to establish independently that he was not, in fact, concealing the warts prior to that time.

The Mac/PC war is much more intricate than most people realize.

Even after 20 years, Windows is still ugly compared to the Mac. It has improved, yes, and Windows 7 looks better than previous versions, but it still looks clunky to me, compared to the sleek elegance and functionality of the Mac. By the way you can download Minesweeper and similar programs for the Mac here. http://www.pure-mac.com/puzzle.html

I can also say about my PC. Don't have any problems at all and haven't had for many years. :shrug:

I'm not in the PC vs. MAC wars, so it doesn't really matter to me. I just think if someone knows how to properly use and protect their computer, they have few problems with whichever system they use.

:hi:

My Canon DSLR? No disk needed. The wife's Panasonic digital camera? No disk needed. The HP 4-in-1 printer? No disk needed. My new digital HD projector? No disk needed. The message I got every time was "Your new hardware is installed and ready to use." Seamless, no worries.

My PC is five years old, runs XP, and the restore disk is still sealed in its envelope. Can't remember a system crash EVER. When I need some kind of assistance? It's there.

Where do you people get this kind of shit? Reading BS posted by an Apple lover is about as believable as reading things posted by pathological liars.

Oh, and "very few viruses" doesn't mean NO viruses.

This damn thing works. And... lastly... my processor is just as fast as yours, I have just as much memory, a 21" monitor, and a 325 gig hard drive. All for well under a thousand bucks.

I wouldn't argue with them. You can't win against a mouse with a single button and a slogan like 'it just works'.

a computer that doesn't work can't argue against a computer that does work.

I've been using Macs for 20 years now and everything I posted is true.

I can assure you that what you posted about PCs wasn't.

You nailed it all on your post. Macintosh so extremely intuitive, elegant and user-friendly. And virus free. Excellent with graphics.

I worked at Apple for 10 years. My first day they gave me a loaner Macintosh and said take this home and learn it tonight. And I did, all by myself.

There's NO comparison. It costs more, but it saves so much time and frustration, it's beyond worth it. I just wish Apple made other things like kitchen appliances. Can you imagine what a great rotissserie oven they'd make?!

Meh. It's just not even fun anymore.

so i went osx and usually haven't regretted it. windows may be improved now, but i'm mostly happy with apple -- though from time to time i jump up and down and cuss at them. modern linux distros are starting to look pretty good too

"Sent from my trendy new shiny overpriced un-upgradable toy."

the Blue Screen of Death.

They signed a contract, then changed their minds and sent 4-5 goon/lawyers in $1000K 3-piece suits to say, "We changed our minds. We ain't doin' it."

Also, I've been told by one employee Microsoft's philosophy is dog-eat-dog even within the company, pitting work teams against one another like gladiators going at it.

I detest that co with all my heart. I wouldn't take one of their headache-inducing, virus-prone pc's if they gave it to me for free.

You'll pay far more for a mac and get far less value. You'll also get exactly the hardware and software that Steve Jobs wants you to have and your options for expansion or upgrade are extremely limited. If you want a piece of hardware or software designed for a very specific purpose, chances are you are shit out of luck with a mac. The set of software designed specifically for the mac is a drop in the bucket compared to software designed specifically for windows. Mac users will tell you they can load software that will allow them to run any windows software. While this may be true, it's a hassle and if you have trouble doing this you can forget about asking the software vendor for support. That's why very few businesses run them.

Software specifically designed for windows will almost always be better supported because there's an enormously bigger pool of people using it. So software updates and enhancements are generally always better with a PC. Mac users will tell you PCs have far more virus problems. That's because nobody uses macs so there's not too many viruses for them. Microsoft now provides anti-virus and anti-malware software completely free and it works incredibly well. I have seven computers at home and many more at work and I can't remember the last time I had a problem with either. Mac users will raise the specter of the blue screen of death. Again, I haven't seen that in years and I have PCs I run 24/7 that are rock solid.

But I can't stand Apple, especially in the last 5 or 6 years. The Apple system of operation now is now to hermetically seal, figuratively and literally, every product they sell. Want to alter, change, upgrade, take apart, put back together anything Apple? Too fucking bad. That's not what it's designed to do.

Every argument for buying a Mac (or any Apple product) is usually an argument for the opposite (Oh, and I mean real arguments - not the bullshit 'it just works' slogan). Here are some examples:

1. Macs are more expensive, but you get more for your money. Bullshit. Macs, hardware-wise, are PCs. Ten years ago, they were of totally different architecture but now, they are identical, part for part. Mac's, though, are usually 50-200% more expensive than their PC equivalent. Why is that? There's no good reason. What Apple is telling me is a 2000 dollar Mac is a 1000 dollar computer with a 1000 dollar OS. No built in software is worth that price.

2. There are more viruses on PC/There are no viruses for Mac OS. These arguments are very misleading. Yes there are viruses on PCs. There are also Mac viruses as well, which can do untold damage. More people use PCs so therefore, there are more viruses on PCs, and antiviruses, firewall capabilities, etc. Apple doesn't take their virus issue seriously and up until recently, didn't even acknowledge viruses were a viable threat to their users. Which is systemic to the Apple philosophy as a whole - pretend we're better until we have no choice but to address an issue. Sorry, I'll take my chances with known problems than a company that pretend there are no problems to begin with.

3. Macs don't have the blue screen of death. Neither has any PC I've owned since Windows 98. But, I have seen my friend's brand new iMac freeze up countless times, forcing him to use a paperclip to hit the reset button. Maybe his screen didn't turn blue like mine used to, but the end result was still the same: lost work. This forced us to have to re-record a song we were working on. But y'know, Macs - 'it just works'.

4. Macs can do anything PCs can do, usually better. Really? What about as a gaming device? Uh oh. More often than not when I raise that question to Mac people, I can almost mouth the response: that's what a game console is for. Wrong. A computer should be anything you want it to be. If I want it to be a DVR or a gaming device or a music recorder or a word processor, I should be able to make it what I want. Instead, an Apple user is spoon fed exactly what his machine can and can't do and told that it's best not to question why.

5. Drivers; I just plug in a device and it works. This argument is so old, it can almost vote. Most every device with a PC has the same fucking result. You plug it in, bam, you're using it. There's a big difference though. If a device doesn't work on a PC, you can go online and usually find a driver for said device. If a device doesn't work on Mac, TOO FUCKING BAD. That's right. If Apple did not authorize the device to be recognized by Mac OS, you get nothing. Zilch.

For me, most of Apple's bullshit is pretty forgivable, even their brand arrogance, if the price of their gadgets were reasonable. Maybe their interface is better. Maybe mice with only one button are the way to go. Maybe it makes more sense to have computers built only one way to keep other issues down. But I keep going back to the price and shaking my head and getting pissed off. It's insulting even to someone who probably wouldn't buy one anyways. And then it gets worse. The people who do buy into it act like they've somehow one upped you because they purchased an overpriced, white machine. Eat a dick. Your machine is no different than mine (see: hackintosh for more information) except yours somehow came bundled with a license to be a prick.

Again, I'm no Microsoft loyalist. I've used builds of Ubuntu, Windows, Red Hat, etc. all to varying degrees of success. If I had a desktop (I use laptops these days) I'd probably load up some Hackintosh action and see what's doing. And speaking of the OS scene, I hated Vista. It was complete shit. Never froze on me or anything detrimental, but man, was it a pain to use. And while I appreciate Win7 now, it took YEARS for MS to get something worthwhile to us. How does this relate to Apple? You'd think in that time period, Apple could have dominated the market. But they didn't. And then Win7 came along and it's pretty fucking cool ,y'know, for a Microsoft product. So what does that leave Apple to do? That's right, make an obsolete gadget out of the box in the form of an iPad, call it revolutionary, and pretend the problems it has (like not running Flash) is not their fault.

I hate Apple.

I won't diminish it by calling it a rant, but you hit on all the key points--and in terrific detail!

:shrug:

nt

1. Athough yes Macs sometimes come at a premium, I don't think it is anywhere near 50-200% more. Maybe the Mac Pro which for whatever reason hasn't been upgraded in over a year. Previously, the Mac Pro usually came out as cheaper than an equivalent from other computers.

2. Evidence of Mac OS X viruses in the wild? Not saying there aren't security risks for the Mac but they are not on the level of Windows viruses. If security by obscurity is correct, why are there viruses for iPods hacked to run Linux?

3. I would be interested to find out this is a widespread problem. I have never had to do that. I don't know that I have even had an Apple built app have to force quit on my current computer.

4. I don't have any interest in gaming. If I did I would weigh that against the other things I feel are provided by the Mac and see if I would prefer to have a PC that I can play games on. Every product has its limitations. If you want to game, the limitations of a Mac probably keep you away from it. That does not make it worse than a PC. Just the same as a Prius is not worse than a F-350 depending on your needs.

5. No idea. I will accept that you are correct. But then I haven't run into any problems with things I have plugged into my Mac either.

As for the other things,

I do prefer the Mac interface. My current MBP has two button clicking in addition to multi-touch and the mouse I hook up to it is a 4 button mouse. Want to talk about complaints that are out of date, the one button mouse complaint is hugely out of date.

Some people really love their Mac and if you're in love with something, then the opposition really doesn't matter, does it? The above were just a few examples of why I don't care for Macs. But I'll counter your rebuttals.

1. Macs are more expensive. And it's not just in a 'kinda sorta' way. Their users will often site this is because they get so much 'performance' out of their machine and so much more out of their built in software. Then why is it the Hackintosh community can build PCs for a fraction of a Mac, running Mac OS, and actually gain performance points? I suspect the hacking community may have stumbled upon the reason why Mac OS is so blackboxed - it's not as efficient as Apple would lead you to believe, but still comes at an unreal premium. Hell, up until Apple sued them into oblivion, a company called Psystar was making PC Macs and blowing the lid of off Apple's secret. There's NO reason for these machines to be so expensive.

When Macs went Intel, I figured the next logical step was for Jobs to release the Mac OS for all of us to use. It makes sense, right? If Mac OS is so great, why not? Give us the specs to build a Mac and we'll use your software. But Apple doesn't want that. Scratch that; I believe Apple is scared of the population exploiting their glaring failures. See, if I were to build a Mac for 500 dollars and they sell their Mac for 2000, and they're essentially the same, then what incentive does anyone have to buy from Apple? Minus a warranty, none.

2. There are more viruses on the PC. I'll never argue otherwise. But the PC community has been dealing with the virus issue for decades. Apple refused to even acknowledge Macs could be infected until just recent. But either of these points are really pointless, because what it boils down to is the end user having to do SOMETHING about their security. I believe the burden is probably about the same: setting up anti-virus, setting up firewalls, monitoring mal-ware. Regardless of the volume, the steps taken are identical and therefore are the same burden on the end user. I call it a 'tie'.

3. Regardless of if it's a widespread problem, it was still a problem. Mac users seem to think Macs never have problems. No computer is without issue, and some more than others, whether it be a widespread glitch, or isolated to an individual machine. In this case, my friend's Mac was being unreliable. Mac users also seem to act like PC problems are endemic to the whole Windows community. There are millions of different PC's out there with different architectures, running different Windows builds, doing different things. If Windows crashing was SUCH a problem, the world would find a better way because it really wouldn't be cost effective to keep losing all this data.

4. When you buy a machine, you're buying it to match your lifestyle. My issue is, what if that changes, or what if you have multiple needs? Macs seems to cover the bases they feel like covering and acting like it's below or above them to tackle other aspects of computing. A few years ago, I took an old box of mine, wiped it, and turned it into a DVR essentially making a free Tivo that would edit out the commercials automatically. On another box, I upgraded the graphics card and turned it into a MAME/game emulation machine. My work computer now is a power house, so I download media and then stream it to my Xbox with Windows Media Center. All of the above took little effort and was relatively cheap to accomplish, if not free. With a Mac, it's too bad too sad if you want to step outside of the predetermined Apple way of computation. Whether or not Macs are better machines is subjective. But if we're asking which machine is more versatile then the answer is clear: a PC.

5. Yeah it's true that if Apple doesn't want to recognize a device, it simply won't. But, to be realistic, it doesn't happen very often.

We all use computers so what you like is what you like. And there are plenty arguments for a Mac against a PC - mainly interface. My problem is, the arguments that have the most impact are often misleading or outdated, especially on DU. Just look at this thread. If people like their Macs, fine. Great, even. It's in my opinion Apple has done something completely unique in the computer industry: they've sold a computer brand to people who don't like computers. That's pretty fucking smart. Really, that's like selling books to people who can't read. But to pretend the white box is without a fist full of fail (what computer isn't?) is insulting. Especially to people who know how to use computers.

Here's a relatively newer article I just googled, written by a Mac user, who seems to agree with many of my points. http://www.esquire.com/the-side/opinion/why-macs-suck

and I don't want to study so..... ;)

Apple is a hardware company, they do make software but they do it to make the hardware more attractive. Licensing didn't work before and things haven't changed. They have been wildly successful with this model. To go back to the old one they would have to sell one hell of a lot of licenses to maintain their success. Is that a function of having "overpriced" hardware, maybe. The fact remains that it is a lot easier to sell one MBP than 20 OS X licenses.

A lot of the positives people give for the Mac are aided by the limited hardware they run on. It is just easier to get everything in order on that small line rather than the infinite possibilites for running Windows. And I think that is another reason they don't want to license the software. They have an image for high quality, it can be lost through people loading it on questionable computers. It is easy to say everyone would obey running it only on certain specced machines, but it puts a little too much faith in people. The Flash on iPhone debate is another example of this. While a lot of what Jobs said about Flash is accurate the real issue, to me at least, is that Flash would kill already questionable battery life. Adobe wouldn't be the one blamed for that.

Macs are by no means immune to problems. You can't produce anything in such massive numbers and not have problems sometimes.

I really don't know too much about PC games. I'm not a gamer on any platform. However, at this point isn't the limitation with video games more in the hands of video game developers? I don't think Apple has said do not develop games for the Mac. Wouldn't most games be just fine on the Mac hardware if you booted into Windows?

This is kind of a question of philosophy. Apple has never been a "and the kitchen sink" brand. Doing a few things very well seems to be the motto and not adding a new feature until how to do it well has been figured out. It is a good thing we have both. Some people want something that does everything and some want something that does a few things very well. Those options are good. My Mac has met my needs for 6 years now.

I hate to lend credence to people calling Macs computers with training wheels, but I definitely feel like I would be much better with a Windows computer today than I was before I had a Mac. I saw a computer laid out in a way that made sense to me. Things went where I thought they should automatically. Now I think I can make them do that on a Windows computer. Who knows, Windows 7 may already make more sense. I haven't used one.

"This argument is so old, it can almost vote."

I really like it.

problems and more applications than the Mac heads I know. XP kinda knocked Macs out of the box, not that it was cooler or better, but it was real OS that Macs couldn't really slam. Vista was a mistake, but 7 looks like a winner. I have noticed that some hardware and software I use says they have limited features in the Mac versions, but I don't know why. And some of their basic stuff, like Appleworks, hasn't been upgraded in years, but they still throw it in there.

Anyway, my question a few years ago was when Apple dumped that RISC processor and went to Intel motherboards, why sell a few $500 PCs for $2,000 when you can sell millions of copies of a $200 OS to run on Wintel machines? That I'd buy.

Maybe they just didn't want to answer the phone when people tried to install it? Or maybe it isn't really worth much unless wrapped in Apple mystique.

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

I have some music software on both that won't run on my newer Mac, so I keep them around.

undisputed master of it's domain, right up until the time when some competition arrives.

PCs and Macs. I would never trade my PC for a Mac. I have some mechanical ability, and I credit that with my preference. It's a greater accomplishment in my mind to be able to understand a PC than to work with a Mac. And that's okay, too, if a person needs hand-holding. I don't need it, but I understand that some people might.

Hardly a project was completed without a machine locking up, spitting out the zip-disk during a large save, or just generally needing to be rebooted for some reason.

You are absolutely daft, and devoid of objectivity to the point that your opinion of Macs vs PCs isn't viable. Not to be personal, but there it is. I taught in a room full of G-4s, was Master of All I Surveyed, and couldn't get through a single class without at least FIVE total lockups.

:evilgrin:

"And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple’s platforms. For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X."

G4? That was years ago. IS the lockups Apple's fault, or Adobe's? Don't answer that. I already know what you're going to say and who your going to side with.:eyes:

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

has fewer software and hardware problems versus a windows machine.

Why I choose PC comes down to several key factors.

1.Price- To get a comparable laptop from apple I'd have to spend twice as much or more.

2.Reliability- I'm not computer savvy and I've had no problems getting my PC to do whatever I wanted it to. I've had no problems with viruses or blue screens.

3.Software- My PC can run CATIA, Solidworks, and many video games all run on my PC with no extra steps. If I call Dassualt they will even help me if I'm having problems.

Less time learning how to make it happy = more time doing what you want to do with it in the first place

Mr. Apple hater is losing his touch..Also, god I would love to know what prompted a deleted sub-thread here...:rofl:

I've been a Mac user for a year and a half now. I was about to replace my dying Sony Vaio laptop (great hardware, but still, it was a Windows machine) with a netbook. Until I was on vacation with my kids, watching my son work on grad school applications on his Mac. Actually, he was working on grad school applications, cover letters, a resume, finishing a research presentation, posting on Facebook, listening to music and burning a picture CD...all at the same time. I watched in amazement as he switched applications (and even desktops) with the swipe of a few fingers. I was sold.

To the folks who talk about the Macs being more expensive, you're half right. They DO cost more out the door, no question about it. But after buying mine and taking it home, I was pretty much done spending money. No money for antivirus software (ClamXAV for Mac is free). Microsoft Office? Screw that. OpenOffice.org is free and for the way I use it, way better. Photo* and music software? Some of the best available already on the machine. Save, markup and annotate .pdfs? Mac does that out of the box. (In all fairness, maybe Windows does, but it's not as simple). (*Once you use iPhoto with faces/places, you'll never go back.) Wanna email a photo? Drag it from iPhoto into the body of your message and you're done. Want high end photo editing? Gimp for Mac is free and powerful (probably not enough for a Photoshop professional user, but works great for me).

The absolute best things I can say for Mac:

1. In a year and a half of use, I've never - EVER - had to reboot. The %$#@ thing just works

2. Mrs. Av8rdave has remarked several times about how much less time I spend using a computer. It's true. I'm not wasting any time trying to make it do something I want it to, and I waste no time troubleshooting bull$#!t OS problems.

In short, it's the antithesis of a Windows based computer.

Gimp and OpenOffice are linux programs ported to PC/Mac. Anyone has access to both programs, on any platform. I use OpenOffice on this machine. They are not 'Mac Only' and are completely free. But you are right - they are both fantastic programs.

Also, my living room laptop cost me 300 dollars from a Best Buy Christmas ad 1.5 years ago. I've never had to reboot it.

It's just not the same experience I've had with Windows. It could well be due to operator ignorance, but my many, many years of Windows use is littered with reboots, "illegal operations," blue screens of death, involuntary updates, missing or corrupted OS files and multitasking doing little but slowing the machine down.

I was aware of the OpenOffice status. I didn't realize Gimp was the same in that regard. Either way, they're great programs, and I wish I had known of them in the days when I was fighting with my Windows machines.

What I particularly love in Mac are Expose and Spaces. They allow you to manage applications and files so easily.

Are you running Windows 7? I understand it's a more stable system.

I dual boot into Ubuntu on one of them. I wish the world would switch to Linux... Ah. To dream.

Yeah, Windows 7 is nice. It's not perfect but it is FAR more intuitive than Vista, especially in the workplace. I would say, no bullshit, my work productivity has increased by hours, not minutes. The taskbar, the Start menu, and the explorer layout all work with each other and the user. Vista always felt like it was fighting me (are you sure you want to access the internet?) but 7 feels like it was designed to work with you and your tasking.

Anyways, a happy end user is a happy end user. I hope your machine lasts longer than your expectations. I think this summer I'm going to build a Hackintosh because I really want to experience the UI but I don't feel like plopping down 1500 dollars to figure out if I like it or not.

Again, that's based on the way I like to use a computer.

I was actually pretty computer savvy until Windows went the registry route in their OS. After that, it all got away from me pretty quickly.

I'm definitely not a "power user," which may be why the Mac OS is so agreeable to me.

they think about design and user-interfaces more.

I like Apple products -- always have -- because I can do the kind of things I want to do with them and I like the way they operate. They fit well with the way I think and work, and in my experience they have been very reliable. I have to use a PC at work, and I don't like it as well, but I can use it just fine and there's nothing actually wrong with it. I am not a techie, just a user. If I were a technical type I might feel differently. So while I prefer Macs for my own use I'm not a fanatic and I'm not about to tell someone else that they are the better product. They are just better for me.