You know, 90% of computers in this country are NOT Macs. Seems like 90% of this column should be free of white plastic and Jobs-worship.

Don't hate, rinkrat. Save up. And you can get one too. ;)

It is true that they are only about ten percent of the market, but that's far more than the share of five years ago. And as every customer satisfaction survey continues to show, Mac users like their computer experience the most. Windows machines (and Unix machines, for that matter) have come a long way, but there is still something uniquely Apple about Macs.

This sounds like a lovely combination, and perhaps the sort of thing I'll do when I replace my iMac.

down with whitey. and oh, I blame Israel.

The laptop mentioned in the article goes for about 2.5 times the price of my (very, very nice) Toshiba laptop, but it doesn't have enough USB ports, or a fingerprint reader, or even an interchangable battery - all things that my Toshiba has and that I use often.

I'm typing this while using a gorgeous display from Samsung with the same number of pixels, for 1/3 the price of Mac's display.

Of course, a big monitor is very un-portable, so why would you couple it with a laptop? You can't take that big monitor to bankruptcy court, and when your MacBook Air runs out of battery on those hard wooden benches, you can't change it out for an extra. Bring a paper notepad and pen with you at all times.

Face it, PC fan boyz. The Mac ain't Vista and it ain't plastic.

To they people making cracks about China and eating babies/etc, and where are your plastic pee cee's made? Heaven?

I have a very fast HP notebook (C2Duo) and my MacBook Pro and the HP takes almost twice as long to start up. I also run Fusion and XP Pro and it takes a long time to start up too on the MBP.

Macs handle wireless better, cameras better and video cameras better. I have been using my MacBook Pro to support my clients for over a year. They all run Windows XP and Windows servers. One client did buy a MacBook Pro and he now wants a Mac on his desk.

Why buy the Apple monitors? The style.

Yes, I AM cool enough for a mac. Are you?

Did I read that correctly? $899 for a MONITOR?

I have an Acer laptop which cost me $350. It has a 14 inch screen. I plug my laptop into a 22 inch flat screen that I got at Microcenter for $119.

I really don't think your Mac set up is worth it. My computer works fine. And, yes, I run Photoshop on it with a browser open, music playing and sometimes even a movie going. I have never had any problems.

It's like you feel like you need to take a stealth bomber to work when you could just ride the bus for a fraction of the cost. Who benefits?

@Pinky –

Did I understand you correctly –

You’re running your own business, and you spent the extra money for Apple hardware, at no benefit to the bottom line? You’re advocating spending an extra $600 for a monitor, for *style*? Umm, you never went to business school, did you?

Why should I care if my chassis is plastic or aluminum, given that it works just great either way? Oh right, the Mac is prettier.

Apple Inc. spends a lot of advertising that’s very effective at getting people to take a vacation from reality, join their cult, and spend the extra money to feel “cool”. Tell you what: I don’t have to own certain things to be “cool”. You can feel as “cool” as you want when you hitch your baggy pants way, way up in order to run home to your parents’ house for dinner, because you can’t afford to rent your own place because you spent all that extra money on Apple hardware. But, you’ll learn eventually.

BTW, read the news: Vista is significantly more secure than the current iteration of OSX, if you do the easy and Microsoft-recommended thing and keep up to date on patches. Apple doesn’t appear to bother plugging their security holes as they’re found, so you might be running a stealthy keyboard logger right now, and you’d never know. Apple Inc. sure wouldn’t tell you.

Also, I highly recommend even the beta of Windows 7, if you can get it.