I've stayed out of this one because I'm pretty passionate about the Mac/Wintel wars.
I'll preface any comments by saying "These comments are based on my own personal observations".
My first computer was an Apple IIe. It had no hard drive, but I had two floppy drives... bad ass. First real exposure was Dr J vs Larry Bird. I was in love. Now, 20 years later, I'm an IT manager... and have very strong feelings against Apple. BTW I have two at my house and four at work, so I'm not just spouting off.
I'll try to debunk the popular statements made either in favor of Macs or in discredit to PCs:
Macs don't get viruses: While it's true that Macs get LESS virus attacks than PCs, it's for a good reason: less than 10% of the world uses Macs. Virus writers don't waste their time writing malware for Macs because it's not going to affect enough people. I promise you, if and when Macs become more accepted, you'll see a dramatic increase in viruses/malware.
Macs don't crash as much as PCs. I'm torn on this one, truthfully. Starting with Windows NT, Windows is really a fairly stable operating system. I'll also advise that I'm referring soley to the NTFS based systems and not the 9x/Me crap. A machine running strictly Windows will run just fine. It's not until you start adding all that software to it that it starts having problems.
Here's the double edged sword: Software is readily available and made by major corporations and 12 year olds alike for Windows. Mac software has to be certified by Apple to work with it's O/S. That's why there's a LOT more options for Windows based PCs. More options means more competition which means lower prices for you, the consumer. Unfortunately ANYONE can write a program for Windows so there's always that deep breath you take before pushing "next" to install the new piece of software you got.
My wife uses a Mac Powerbook about 12 hours a day. She's a graphic designer and is in love with Apple. She constantly complains about how slow her computer is, how it's always crashing on her and how she has to take it to the Mac store in the mall. She has to do that because I refuse to work on it. She reboots at least twice daily.
I use a Dell Latitude D600 here at work, that I've had for four years now. I haven't rebooted my notebook in weeks. I use suspend to get it off and back on the docking station. How do I do it you say? It's my work notebook, I don't have any crap software installed. I really just have Microsoft made software and utilities installed and you know what? It works beautifully. I have 4 PC based machines at home and all of them have memory leaks or need to be rebooted at least twice a week. Why? Because those are the machines that I'm running all sorts of different software on. Those are the ones with Guitar Port and Video capture devices, etc.
Back to the Mac. For years, artists and musicians hung their hat on Macs because of their superior processor, the PowerPC. In benchmark tests, the Mac beat the Wintel based platform hands down for graphics based programs. You can bet it was a sad day for most of them when Apple announced that they were switching to an Intel chip. Now all they can say is "yeah, but ours is prettier and we don't get viruses." Just wait. With Vista Aero, Microsoft has made the pretty argument null and when the masses move to the Macs, so will the viruses.
This is where I get into the "opinion" part of my speech:
Macs work great for some people. Just not me. I've found that most of the Volkswagon driving, Starbuck drinking, black turtleneck and jeans wearing Mac types will tell you that you have to "think different" and "think outside the box". I'm not buying it.
I wouldn't care if Apple said "Hey, every computer has problems, we have less, give us a try" but I get real tired of the smear campaign that Apple feels it has to go on. Don't tell me why PC sucks, tell me why you're sooo much better. The last few Mac commercials haven't even said anything about the Mac, just how much PCs suck. It's like a friggin election year here in the states. Mac users will tell you "it just works". Sometimes it does, and that's great, but don't tell me it ALWAYS just works because it doesn't. Firsthand knowledge here both at work and at home. I deal with pissy users at work who can't print to the plotters and then I deal with a pissy wife at home who can't get photoshop to work like she wants.
Bottom line (because I'm ready to go home now, but I have plenty more) PCs are just as stable if not more so than Macs until you start loading them up with applications.
