You're opening a can of worms here...people can get very uptight about these things. At the end of the day it's just personal preference....like what kind of car you buy, or if you prefer meat or fish.
It's really not worth flaming about...but people always seem to feel the need to...
I own a mac but I'm not going to say I think they are implicitly better, I (personally, just me and my opinion) prefer OSX to Windows as an everyday operating system.
Why did I get one?
Well, I needed a laptop and I was looking at the top end spec laptops because I do a lot of photographic work and wanted something that could shift heavy images, and I also wanted something that could play some games at a decent resolution.
When you look at the top end spec laptops, then there really is no difference in price between macs and Windows machines. Macs are only expensive compared to a home-built desktop system.
At the same time I was really really sick of Windows. I use it every day at work and it regularly frustrated me. Nothing specific, just little niggles about how it didn't seem to operate intuitively....as though the way I work at stuff isn't compatible with the way Windows works.
I'd had some experience with Macs before and liked them so decided to invest in a G4 Powerbook 15".
To be honest, I've never really regretted it. I find OSX much more intune with the way I like to work and I love the whole ilife suite of programs and their connectivity. iphoto and imovie in particular are lovely programs and the whole system feels more balanced and harmonised compared to Windows systems I've used. I love the whole Finder system of files and the Dashboard is a really lovely, useable idea.
It's also superb with photoshop. The mac version feels better than the XP version and the computer handles huge image manipulation without a hiccup.
The other thing I like is the screen and the keyboard, which I prefer to my friends Sony Vaio. Photos seem to be crisper in my system...but that could be me.
A few months after I bought it, my girlfriend kept having problems with her Windows desktop. She's an architect and was using AutoCAD. Over the course of a few weeks various system crashes caused her to lose a lot of work which she had been working on for months.....she was distraught, I mean, it's not like it's something that you can just go "Oh well, sucks". She had strict deadlines which were hard to hit anyway, and consequently she missed them.
So she bought a 17" Powerbook, principally for Vectorworks and ArchiCAD and says she much prefers it to her Windows system...she's also never had a single crash with it in two years. It helps also that the atelier she works in now only use Mac (because of their graphic manipulation ability).
She's never had a problem with hers, but mine, two years to the day that i bought it just stopped working. The graphics card stopped working and it meant replacing the whole logic board of the laptop. I was told by apple that this is a "known" problem with the 15" Powerbooks, and it took them months to get the new logic board from America to Portugal (where I live).
So I'm not impressed with their customer care.
However, software wise it's never been a problem. There aren't any applications on Windows that i want that don't have a Mac version that I actually prefer. There aren't many games on a Mac, but to I'm really not the kind of person who needs to have the latest games and is constantly buying new ones.
I play UT2k4 basically and that's enough for me. I'll get 2k7 and I really never think about games beyond that. I've got a PS2, but I rarely buy games for it because I'm not really a gamer.
So I AM pissed off about the hardware problems I had, but in October I'm getting a Macbook Pro (dual core laptops). Again, they are totally comparable pricewise with Sony Vaios and I just much prefer OSX to Windows (although I'll be able to dual boot Windows on that machine...not sure if I will though).
So, for me it's a matter of personal preference of operating system. Many people prefer Windows and I accept that. Two of my good friends are network operators and really don't like macs, citing all manner of deficiencies they have compared with Windows. That's fair enough, it's horses for courses, but for my personal use, I really can't see myself using Windows again....I just don't get on with it.
PS. And my mac has never even been in a coffee shop...infact, it rarely even leaves my apartment and most people don't even know I own one.
Where I live, there's not really that "elitism" thing with macs. People are more likely to say "Why did you get that?"
.) Other than that, solid machines with great quality.
