You write:

> After just a year or two of use, a Windows

> machine gets so gummed up with spyware,

> viruses and other nasty stuff

Let me be plain: I am a Mac user (MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, Mac mini. My wife has a MacBook).

I think they are truly great machines and OS X is nearly second-to-none. But your statement lacks credulity.

I can buy a used PC / PC laptop and reformat and re-install the OS (from the disc the seller *better* be providing me!). Or I can skip that process entirely, and buy a very inexpensive PC. I don't consider that PC on par with the Apple computers I have purchased (they are budget-oriented and lack most of the hardware features I want and get from a Mac).

But I'm not sure your "resale" argument is valid.

> If people like running Unix on an intel box,
> just get Ubuntu Linux for free. It is cheaper
> than a mac or windows, and it is better than
> both. Mac people are paying for something
> that others get for free. Why? Is the
> Apple Icon really worth the extra money?

Hey! Thanks for pointing that out!!

Now, let me see here .... I will need to run Adobe Creative Suite 2, and I will need to run MS Office (unfortunately). I'd really like iTunes and video chat (iChat) and I have some video I would like to edit easily.

Oh. I guess I have to run WINE (which makes me whine) or Crossover Office ($$) or some other bizarre incantation.

Hang on, I need to recompile my kernel on my Linux box here ..... so I can use my new video card ....

Thanks but no thanks. I did that road for almost ten years. I was so cool. I ran WindowMaker and I lived by the xterm.

Today I get *REAL* Unix (FreeBSD) with Mac OS X, not some bizarre clone that doesn't provide me with what I want.

> "Virtually everyone who watches it comes away
> liking the "PC guy" while wanting to push the "Mac
> guy" under a bus," and "Why was Long dropped,
> specifically? Perhaps for striking people as a
> "smug little twit," in the words of Seth
> Stevenson, ad critic for Slate."

Haven't we already been down this road? I heard this rumor about a year ago. Nothing came of it.

> Are you kidding? Who would do that? It's enough
> of a pain transfering files, settings and
> applications after five years. It would be as
> dumb as trading a BMW after one year.

You're not trading in a BMW. You are trading in a VW Bug.

Anyway, the problem of transferring files between machines is really impressively addressed by Apple. I got a new MacBook Pro. It asked me, after about one minute or so of answering a few other questions, if I had another Mac that I wanted to transfer everything from.

I said 'Yes.'

I hooked up the old machine to the new one via firewire.

After about 40 minutes, everything (applications, my preferences, control panels, email accounts, etc) had been completely transferred to the new computer I just bought.

Done.

Try *that* in &^%$#@# Windowz.

> the uses for your computer are so simplistic they
> could be done on the OLPC, hell they could be done
> on a typewriter.

OLPC? WTF is that?

As for a typewriter, I am not entirely clear on how I might do video editing on my typewriter. But, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

> if you say that your pc has NEVER crashed in
> 5 years than you are a liar. Its as simple as
> that. Liar, that is a lie... your pants have
> burst into flames.

Well, it's not my PC. It is my server. It runs FreeBSD. It hasn't crashed in about six years.

So there.

>The real reason we buy PCs is Apples ad campaign.
> The PC guy is hilarious and the Mac guy is just
> kind of smug and jerky.

I think that is a great reason. God forbid I would actually want to get any work done ......