but this article is dummm. single most auxilliary concern ever. seriously.

I recycled my 7 yo Blueberry iMac last month and only after the harddrive ended up with zero space on it. I loved that iMac -- I grieved its loss! I am planning to buy a new iMac next year. Right now, I am using a 3 yo refurbished eMac with a 1.25 Ghz processor and 1.25 GB memory which I purchased online for $349. I love it! I love Apple! My only regret is not buying Apple stock 5 years ago when it was selling for $36. I use a PC at work. Yawn!

After 15 years using PCs, I switched to a Mac last year and it was the best decision I've ever made. They have the most stable OS married with a larger array of consumer apps than any Linux or other Unix system.

My Mac is a pleasure to use, and does 97% of what I needed from Windows. Until I can get off of every Windows app, I run it using Parallels.

Windows is a bloated, inferior operating system with all the wrong attitudes about everything, including the way it considers me a criminal until I can prove that I bought it and have a key.

If you're looking for a consumer-level computer that has a lot of power, why not give an operating system a chance that has been developed by universities to really work well?

I like Apples and everyone I know who owns one loves them, but my quick search of Ebay for a $250 HP Pavilion Media Center A1640n failed to find a single one. In fact the only thing close I DID find was a used 1640n tower only for $558. I don't why Mr Manjoo would make up prices to support his story but he apparently did.

Wow, now I see why these things invariably degrade into insult-laden pissing matches. Sorry, but you are just incredibly off here.

"spare me the "artistic" side of mac, windows has possessed greater third party tools for years (see fruityloops, the greatest amateur music production software in history)."

You have got to be kidding me. Of course the key word here is "amateur", but to say it's the greatest music production software in history tells me I should certainly not be hiring you for any work in the near future. I'll admit that FL is good for what it is (which could hardly be called production), but what a shortsighted view you proffer - geez. FL is popular because it's easy to use and you don't have to be musical at all to use it. It's a toy. You know, that actually sums up a number of the i-apps available only for the Mac, come to think of it!

Greater third-party tools available for Windows? I nearly spit out my bagel (still the preferred sustenance of overworked audio engineers) when I read that. I still can't get my head around that one and I've been continuously employed full-time in the studio business for over 20 years. I won't go so far as to say that there are no good third party tools available for Windows, but to say that there are more for Windows than Mac is just plain ignorance in its highest form. Perfect example (one of hundreds I can offer): look no further than Apogee Symphony (decidedly NOT at toy). You have absolutely no clue what you are talking about here.

If I took all of the Macs out of my studios and attempted to replace them with PCs with similar software (where available), I would lose 90% of my business overnight. Show me one professional, busy, top-end studio that uses anything but primarily Macs for its core production. Seriously. One that relies on functioning workstations as the very core of its operation and business. I've worked in all of them and I can tell you - you can't. Do you think that's by accident or because they are just trying to be "cool"? These studios spend sometimes millions of dollars upgrading gear to make sure they have the best equipment available. Fox just spent millions upgrading its audio facilities and Sony did the same a couple of years ago. Do you seriously think that if "third-party tools" were "greater" on the Windows platform that we wouldn't have seen them more in the professional ranks years ago? Walk into either one of those studios I mentioned today and you won't find one single PC that's used as part of the production artillery (hell, walk into ANY major studio, for that matter, Capitol, Westlake, Ocean Way, NRG, ). That's across the board. You may find one or two PC machines that are being used as Gigastudio samplers, but even those are being replaced by Macs running Kontakt or Mach5 these days. And do you know what the number one (and it isn't even close) app is for music post-production? Digital Performer, which isn't even available for PC. Logic is second. And yes, I know Pro Tools and Cubase are available both platforms, but there are far fewer people using them for PC than for Mac. FAR fewer. That's for a reason.

And BTW - I have never run Parallels or BootCamp on any of my machines. Since those are recent developments and Macs "survived" up to this point, does that they win (it was an either/or you posed)?

Bottom line - this is a ridiculous thing to be even talking about.

In the field of education, schools are no longer purchasing computers, they lease them. To save money and keep production/education progressing, schools must look at computer investment as described in this article. Based on this model of thinking, if purchasing, Macs can be cheaper.

I'll admit I'm no fan of Vista, nor Office '07, but that's only because they moved and renamed things and it's irritating. With my PC's I have always built my own, it's cheaper that way (for me). But the argument that I can build one myself cheaper doesn't hold any water here. Most of the home computer users do not build their own computer, they buy one off the shelf at Best-Buy (!shutter!). Currently I use a MacBook Pro and it's the best laptop I've ever used. I'm sold on mac from now on (so long as they don't do anything else like making ATT exclusive on the iPhone).