I don't think I've said anywhere that I think that PCs are superior to Macs. Just that my own personal experience with a Mac was bad for some quite specific reasons--it kept crashing when I played the one game that came bundled in it, it didn't run some of the software I needed to use unless I payed more for a program to run Windows within it, and because after using DOS and then Windows-based machines for so long, and being dyslexic, I had trouble since so many things run "backwards." Some people who run specific programs or have specific needs, particularly artistic ones, find PCs problematic. Like I said, but like hardly anyone is acknowledging, many of the PC users here have no problem whatsoever saying Macs are darned good machines, at least as good as PCs, yet for one reason or another they prefer PCs. The tech people who work on both of them develop preferences, and obviously Windows has some serious problems, but overall the only two people I personally know who work on both kinds of machines at work have PCs at home--but they're both gamers.

But I do, in fact, LOVE my PC and laptop computers. Which is lucky because I use them so very much. And I love some of the fun features Microsoft has added to Office, and some of the features that are built into the operating system. Of course, what's fun for me is stupid or a pain in the neck for some other PC users. That's exactly the point. We are individuals. There are two big commercial corporations building operating systems (one of which also builds the computers needed to run their operating system). Neither company is a religion. Neither computer is a god. But it's an either-or situation for bazillions of individuals. Whichever we choose, for whatever reason, we're neither superior nor inferior to anyone else, at least not because of our computer choice.

But I am not a liar. My XP professional computer really has never once crashed. The fact that one person honestly seems to believe that I must be a liar tells me he's been indoctrinated, and chosen his computer not for rational reasons but because of some irrational beliefs.

My understanding was that Apple did a great job of getting their computers into classrooms, and they've always offered great deals to college students.

My first book, published in '94, HAD to be sent to the publisher using Word Star. My second, published in '97, HAD to be sent to the exact same publisher in Word Perfect. The one that came out last year HAD to be sent to a different publisher in Word, and the writing job I'm looking at requires using Office. I know there is a Mac version. But they said I'd be working on a PC. Period. Not to say it's a good choice or a bad choice. It's a choice I personally like because I like PCs. But it's definitely a reality for a writer.

The job where they said I'd be working on a P.C. is an on-site job--not one where I send in my stuff. The computer network there is with PCs.

I worked for one non-profit Webby-Award-winning site where some of us had PCs and a couple of people had Macs. There were just a few difficulties for one of the Mac users, but she's not very computer literate. We didn't have any problems with compatibility. The Mac users and we were all using Dreamweaver.

I'm a nature sound recordist. It's getting harder and harder to find places where I can record clean bird, frog, and insect songs. A good microphone picks up truck sounds from a highway five miles away. Motorboat sounds carry even farther on large lakes. Furnaces, dogs barking, chain saws, airplanes, buzzing power lines...even far away from a city, our human-generated sounds fill the air. I think we play music in part to block out all the noise. And then the music itself becomes part of the noise.

When I get a clean natural recording, I'm filled with pleasure. But it comes at a high cost in frustration borne of newly-awakened awareness of just how noisy a species we have become.

that there's an approach somewhere in between the old farts yelling out the window to shut the damned music down and going out and killing those who offend our sensibilities.

Customer service is indeed a soul-sucking occupation. I'd suggest that the husband search for a new job, wherever he thinks he'd truly be happy. If he finds one, he should move there and try it out. If indeed he finds a position that makes him as happy as the LW is, she should search for a new job or find out what the possibility is for her job to allow her to work remotely.

It IS possible for marriages to work long-distance, at least for a time. And this seems the safest approach to learning if what he wants really is "out there" without risking the loss of her job before they have another relatively certain financial safety net.

I can sort of understand why some people may think the husband is being picked on unfairly, but what exactly is your solution? Do you think the wife should quit her job with no assurance that either of them will get a job elsewhere, much less that he will be happy elsewhere? Please make sound suggestions for a fair and equitable solution that makes sense not as a female-bashing knee-jerk (emphasis on the jerk) response but as a way this issue might be resolved regardless of the gender of the party being asked to relocate. Does it makes sense to you that the LW should throw away her job with no assurance of a similar position anywhere else, when they both depend on her income, and when he doesn't have any kind of solid job offer anywhere else?