I broke down and bought a MacBook Pro last year, excited to take my first ever Graphic/Integrated Media workshop at CUNY.

Adobe Photoshop, the web page software Dreamweaver and Flash (cooool animation!!) all work lovely on Macs. Problem? Thousands and thousands of dollars more.

While I coughed up the $$ cash for the Mac, I was out of dimes to buy the software for my class and ended up only able to "rent" "trial" versions downloaded from the web site.

My trial versions all ran out just before the final and I ended up having to pull an all nighter at the computer lab at school.

Alas, my Mac Book Pro survived, but sits flacid without Adobe, Dreamweaver, Final Cut Pro or Flash. Lifeless and limpid.

THAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH BUYING A MAC!!!!!!!!

In no longer poor - but I was until the macintosh came into my life. Without a mac, there's no way I'd have my freelance career in the creative industry (graphics, branding, advertising, illustration, UI, etc.) it was always tough to come up with the cash for my next computer, but of course i realized this was the biggest investment i'd ever make in myself (never went to college).

Anyway, the four macs I bought over the past 14 years were my direct ticket into a well-paid reality, and have paid off something like 200-to-1.

... And there is absolutely NO way I could have done this with Windows machines... well maybe if i went into a more-boring, less-creatively-fullfilling career (although these days I do run XP on my mac so I can test multimedia files).

There's a big flaw to your logic here: Macs resell for more because the people buying them are a narrow group who believes they are worth more. Plus, supply and demand being what it is, since there are fewer of them the price goes up. If the numbers were reversed and a small group of fanatics were dedicated to PCs, the exact same numbers would probably be true.

Resale isn't a great way to determine or ascribe overall value.

[This message typed on a PowerBook G4 that's ridiculously slow and crash-prone compared to my 3-year-old Gateway at home]

After a promising start, Mr. Manjoo circles back to Steve Jobs exact quip - that Mac is the BMW of the computer world. Yes, they cost more - but think of the resale value!It's still sleight of hand.

Next time one smugly informs you how no viruses, adware or malware is running on their XP box, pull out a shareware AVG AntiSpyware copy, run it on his machine, and watch him turn white. After he cleans his "clean" computer, if actually all the adware, etc, REALLY comes out, he'll be just a tad more circumspect, and let's face it, informed.

Not all viruses, rootkits, spyware and malware causes big windows to open saying "Hi there! You're infected".. Any often, the only good you can get from antivirus software is notification AFTER you have been infected! Better pray its quarantine heuristics are spot on, AND you are up to date with virus definitions. And god help you if you connect a Windows computer to the internet with the firewall turned off (as was the default case for XP/98 prior to SP2 starting coming pre-installed)--you've got less than 20 minutes until you are someone's zombie- a casino-ad spewing, clogged, unsecure and unsafe computer

So much misinformation and outright lies in some of these letters. The joker who claims the 7300gt is the best video card one can get with the MacPro. Rubbish- it is the weakest card and there are two upgrade (1900xt and Quadro) and it has been this way since September 2006 when the darn machine came out. Or the "Susan" person who claims that OS/X doesn't "multitask" as well as XP. Heck, even Bill Gates would laugh at that one.

I provided IT support to a professional firm running 3.0/3.1/98/98se/NT/XP machines for 15 years, dating back to the 386sx'es I first built. We got plenty of work out while working in the MS operating system, but I also put in hundreds of hours of support, whether it was due to infections, crappy drivers, software incompatibilties, etc.. Fact is, until MS builds a savvy, networkable operating system from scratch, we're going to be stuck with the same buggy OS and third party band aids. Can't comment on Vista, as I've never had the pleasure, but it looks like perhaps the sloppiest high profile OS rollout since OS/2.

I'll concede this point without exception- Winboxes are superior for gaming, especially when you spend another $200 on Vista since XP can't do DirectX10. But hey, I use my computer to earn a living and feed my family- games are for consoles!

~gtd

Reading through the comments I've found three good reasons to buy a PC over a Mac.

1) You're too broke to think about cost of ownership. If saving money over the next year is more important to you than saving money now, get a Mac. If you just can't afford to think 12 months out, get a PC.

2) You like to tinker with things. PCs are great for the types who like to pull off the case and put in a new graphics card or add some other bit. If you like your computer to simply work, get a Mac. If you like to work on your computer, get a PC. The same is true for the software tinkerers, the Unix users. If you like to fiddle with your OS rather than use it, you should not get a Mac.

3) There are some esoteric pieces of software that don't run on a Mac. At least they're esoteric to 98% of users. If you must program Oracle databases, for example, you have to run an emulator on a Mac to make it work and your life might be better with a PC.

If you are in the 98% whose needs can be met with both a PC and a Mac, if you don't like to crack the case of your computer to switch bits around, if you can spend a little money now to save a lot of money, time, and pain in the long run, then you're a Mac guy, whether you know it or not.