You have to get over price comparisons, but also HW comparisons, which can be deceiving. There are any number of sites where you can find Mac/PC speed and performance comparisons for various tasks (tho' they usually don't have the latest and greatest recent configurations). Something like Photoshop will run faster on certain Macs that have 1/2 the advertised speed of certain PCs; whether the Photoshop folks optimized for the Mac's processor, or the processor designer optimized for Photoshop I don't know-- doesn't really matter-- but all programs don't run the same on theoretically "equivalent" machines. Usually Graphics => Mac wins / Games => PC wins.
CFB says Apple is all marketing. But it's only in recent years that Apple has even DONE any serious marketing. They burst on the scene with the "1984" ad and then basically left people to make up their own minds for the next 15 years... It's only with the iPod, the mini, and OSX that they've started agressively selling their flavor of Kool-Aid.
Hey..I'm glad if, in the recent past, PC users have had a better time with XP than with previous versions; if you tell me that's the case, fantastic! But I'm still MORE glad that I avoided as much of the Microsoft BS as possible to begin with, and lived a comparatively tranquil life for 15 years while PC folks were, generally speaking, tearing out their hair.
CFB is undoubtedly right about the first releases of OSX. I didn't go there; I held off a couple years, as he wisely suggests doing with Vista, for those who swing that way. But when Vista matures, ask the OP if he knows whether he'll need "Home Basic", "Home Premium", or "Ultimate"? We'll leave out "Business" and "Enterprise". What a waste of time.. and you haven't even bought the damn thing yet!! It's worse than Quicken / TurboTax.
Check out the "Home Basic" Vista specs: you'll need 15GB. OSX fits in 3GB. Is it naive to assume that PCs need to have more firepower in order to deal with a bloated OS? And this is what a company with essentially unlimited resources came up with after [insert plausible number here; I have heard various numbers-- 17, 10, 5] years of development? A warmed-over version of what's been out there for a few years already? Color me not impressed.
Also, I'm (only mildly) curious about what you say is "automatic" PC virus protection that you don't have to think about. For something like McAfee, don't you need to buy ongoing yearly subscriptions? Do people factor that lifelong expense into their cost of ownership?
I highly doubt that M$ owns any significant part of Apple. Tried to investigate it a bit but didn't come up with much.. someone mentioning on a forum a $125M stake that someone else thought had been sold. Not much in any case. I'd actually heard a different kind of theory: that M$ instead had stakes in the anti-virus companies..!
MORE interesting, now that I'm on the virus jag.. is that is see that Microsoft has jumped into the anti-virus subscription market in its own right.. not only undercutting McAfee et al. pricewise, but now blocking independent security software sellers from looking at the Vista code they want to. Fox... Chicken coop... Does that spell better PC security for the future? Dunno..
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/53540.html
"Your computer may be at risk."
Yeah, the computer wars ARE a lot like politics and religion.. You can't seem to go wrong by exploiting people's fears in order to make money and establish power. Especially when you offer $olution$ to an instability that you created in the first place.
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Now, when will someone come out with a truly kid-proof (or let's say kid-resistant) computer?? When I last visited sis, her 3 y.o could often be seen emitting a string of drool aimed right at the little laptop trackpad. "Katie! Stop spitting on the computer!" Turns out she was just trying to get it so that her fingers would slide around better on the pad!
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