After using Windows PCs for years, I am thinking of buying a Macintosh for our home. (The work PC, unfortunately, is given by the employer and will stay Windows.) The reason--more than anything Apple has done--is the work of Google, Yahoo, Amazon, and eBay. These four companies are gradually moving an increasing amount of "computing" to the Web.

Now Microsoft and Adobe are bracing themselves for a race to bring "rich Internet applications" to the Web, using Silverlight (Microsoft) and Flex (Adobe). This further reduces the need for desktop apps, many of which are only available on Windows. Hallelujah!

BTW, I have owned Dell and Compaq computers over the years, and have been thoroughly disappointed with the poor workmanship. These computers are noisy, way too big, and power hogs. Windows OS is the anti-thesis of design elegance.

Aneesh Shrikhande

Not for nothing, but you essentially said that people use PCs because they are lazy, sheep, cheap and/or thieves, are too dumb to keep track of their money, are hypocritical, blind to other points of view, are kids who like to play games, and don't like change. This is in spite of 30 pages and counting of letters that, in large part, list a ton of very valid reasons why people like their Wintel machines or, at least, are agnostic about the whole thing.

Your remarks bring to mind a post from way back around page five that opined that Mac aficiandos think they know what's best for everybody else.

Maybe people use PCs because they work just fine for them?

People have been 'proving' to me that Macs are a better buy for years, without proving they'd be better for me.

I keep my PCs, as does my wife, until they are not re-sellable to anyone - that is, when they stop working and I can't fix them. So the resale value doesn't apply to my situation.

I like Macs well, I used one at work for the last four years. But I need to accomplish a vast and varying amount of tasks. When I needed a piece of software for a single, one-time, job I'd search for Mac software, and there was often, though not always something, and almost always for-pay.

We had one PC in this office, and I was the only one who would touch it - the Mac people acted like it would give you cancer.

I'd always find a fantastic piece of freeware for whatever job I needed doing, so I'd download the software and process whatever needed processing and send it back to the Mac. Luckily, I needed to process text files, Word files, database files, things that easily flow between PCs and Macs.

The cost saving on these utilities really added up. The amount of time I put into switching over to the PC for these activities was minimal. If I was being paid hundreds of dollars an hour it would have made sense to just buy the Mac software, but only if I didn't have to waste time getting approval for the purchases.

But I was paid $25 an hour and the few extra minutes I'd take to move over to the PC cost the company a few bucks each time, no more, and of course the freeware saved vast amounts of time.

So, it would seem to me that unless you buy a new computer every one or two years, and never, ever have to use specialty utilities once or twice, and are willing to use pirated versions of Office and Adobe products to replace the PC versions you can't use on that brand new Mac (though your legit copies'll work just fine on a new PC), then you really don't fall into Manjoo's subset of people who will do better by buying a Mac.

A large subset of the PC people I know also save money on advice. They call me or another geek friend, learn what they need to learn, and I've been able to be a good friend.

When someone switches to a Mac and call me for advice, sorry, I don't know enough to solve your problem. Take it in and if someone at the Genius Bar can't help you, better pull out that wallet.

One hidden cost in Macs: belief that upgrading your OS to the new version is going to change your productivity. I didn't upgrade to Vista - wouldn't have even if it were a great system because XP has been so reliable. The macs at work crashed constantly, my XP machines have crashed once in 4 years.

But my mac friends just saved negative $150 by upgrading to Leopard, mainly for new utilities they'll use for a few days and then go back to work. If you watched Steve Jobs introduce Leopard while you were at work, if you played with multiple desktops for a few days before realizing that few jobs actually need them - your company lost money on their mac investment. (Of course, I wasted my 'multiple desktop' hour around 1991, when utilities started allowing that on PCs, so that's a wash.)

Every year or so someone twists logic around to demonstrate the advantages of switching over the Mac. Nice try.

Hey Lister

Coming from 20+ years in the PC world, I understand how hard the transition to Mac can be.

>>>You want to open second browser window?

Fine, go to the Safari menu bar (top of the screen) and choose "File/New Window".

at?===

~gtd>>>>

My point wasn't that you can't open a second Safari window. I'm sure you can. You can probably open 10 of them. My point is just that whatever system is new to you, it's going to be difficult to learn. And also that hyper types like me can crash anything, therefore it's not right to say that Macs never crash.

Also that my friend, a longtime Mac user, knew very little about her system and so when she talked about how great Mac is, I suspect she isn't that credible. But she's happy with what she has, and I'm happy with what I have.

I just saw utterly no reason to switch. And I'd suggest that many of the PC users feel the same-- whatever allure Mac has, it's not alluring us. Do Mac users really think we're crazy or something? Or maybe it's just that we know what we want?