Quite a stretch here. Trying to track the logic. Most people looking to acquire a new or used computer look at the entry price point not resale possibilities the way one might in choosing a new or previously occupied home. Apple is a singular culture that has made itself a recognizable feel good icon among its loyal followers and even those of us who don't own an Apple. Apple is to the computing world what Starbucks is to coffee whether or not you have a computer or drink coffee - a top of mind cultural icon, easy to say, easy to feel.

We live in a polarized computer world. Full disclosure, I have drunk the Apple koolaid, I upgraded to Leopard and I have an Iphone. But I am thinking of using a person's choice of computer as a factor in choosing Presidential candidates and I am considering using it to screen potential friends.

The "corporate" world, now I live in Chicago, how more middle of the country can u get, is a WIndows world. I am really starting to believe what type of computer someone uses is an indication of how they think and what they value. An old friend of mine here is becoming less and less of a friend. Is one factor because I keep going down the Mac road and he lives completely in the Windows corporate world?

The creativity that a Mac gives the simple person, like me, who isn't a techie is unbelievable. The integration of the Iphone with the Mac is unbelievable. My old media life, reading newspapers and watching TV is now becoming an Online media life as the Mac makes it so easy for me to interact with the web, access music, pictures,video, etc.

But for someone not to appreciate what the Mac/Apple world enables one to do is an indication of how they think overall I've decided.

The problem for me as I look for a job is that my Mac skills do not necessarily transfer over to the Windows world, because WIndows is much more rigid, I'll have to say it, "corporate".

So it easy for me to see why some people are reacting so angrily to your article. And I could probable tell u some more of their preferences, just because they r attached to PCs. But as Apple opens up the world of movies, DVD's, music, the web in an easy to use format for the average person I think the divide between PCs and MAC users will only get bigger.

That's funny.

Next week's column: "Once and for all, which is the One True Religion?"

Just because Mac's have a higher resale value does not necessarily mean that the total cost of owning the system is less than a PC.

Take one of my customers, for example. The hard drive in their iBook crashed. This drive contained a wealth of business data, some of which had not been backed up. Could they pop the hard drive out of the machine and bring it to a data recovery expert? Could they just put a new drive in the system and rebuild it? No. Why? Because you can't even open the damn computer except to upgrade memory. You have to go to the Apple store to have the unit serviced.

What happens if you want to run Windows applications like Microsoft Visio? You need to shell out $80 for Parallels or a similar product? Want a second button on the mouse? Gotta buy a new mouse as well because, heaven forbid, Apple sacrifice the slick single-button design for something that adds more functionality.

Apple does everything in its power to remain closed and proprietary. That costs their consumers time and money.

I've been in the IT services industry for 15 years and I can tell you that getting Macs to play nice with anything other than other Macs is hugely expensive, frustrating, and time consuming.

When you-

"sell or give away a Windows machine, I would never do it without first wiping the hard drive, thereby solving any concerns about it being "gummed up" with viruses and spyware"

...just how did you "wipe" it? XP/DOS delete/erase? Format maybe?? Or even FDisk to eliminate a partition??? Guess what, your data is still there! As is all the adware/malware/etc and even a noob could restore most of it (including the porn, of course) unless the drive saw serious write activity subsequent to your "wipe".

Now, if you actually used government spec erase software that actually WRITES OVER your old data, you may be safe. Did you do this? If not, you really didn't accomplish jack with your "wipe".

Mac users needn't waste time and money looking for software to do this- "Secure Erase" technology has been built into OS/X for ages.

~gtd

Two thoughts-----

Upgrading the mac mini to HP specs would cost much more than the bench price of the first comparison you used. (Thus apples and oranges)

Second, the Mac is a cost comparable, and superior and cleaner, operating system for the creative computer user because it includes standard software that is usable and desirable (as opposed to the come ons loaded on PC's), which balances out what I would need to spend on software for a PC.

Why is it that every place where I present Power Point programs that has a Mac system requests that speakers bring their own laptops to hook up to the projector, because no matter how they have them configured, they can't seem to run Power Point programs that were made on PCs on a Mac? I bought a Mac once, but it was too late for me--none of it made sense, and it was especially frustrating that the computer came with one game--Nanosaur--which crashed more than half of the time when I came close to winning. So much for the "more stable operating system" meme.

Actually, I've never believed either system is superior to the other. But it's like French and English. Whichever one you learned on, the other seems counter-intuitive and confusing. And really, neither is superior to the other.