[antiRepublicrat]

MacOS and Windows got their start from the same source.

MacOS was a successful attempt to improve on Xerox's work. Windows was an unsuccessful attempt to copy MacOS.

The base machine usually costs 2 to 3 times as much for the same stuff

See my earlier laptop comparison.

Need more RAM? You can't buy the standard sticks, you need the parity stuff for $100s more - and so on.

The extra 2 GB for my iMac was standard laptop RAM from NewEgg. Only the Mac Pros need special RAM, and that's because they're Xeon, and all Xeons need this RAM. The only difference is that Apple requires a quality heat spreader (easily available from non-Apple sources).

Plus Mac software tends to cost more.

Have you compared the price of iWork and MS Office? have you compared the upgrade price of the OS itself, especially if you're upgrading multiple machines?

As for the virus and malware argument, the real issue is that the coders don’t bother with Macs because nobody uses them. . . that's hardly a real advantage.

It's pretty big. In fact, it's been more than doubling recently. Plus, OS X being UNIX gives them the UNIX developers.

I used Macs since the first one, but not as my main machine. I've used Windows since the unbearable 80s editions. There is now no comparison: Going to the Mac as my main machine was a major relief in every way.

[Filo]

MacOS was a successful attempt to improve on Xerox's work. Windows was an unsuccessful attempt to copy MacOS.

Absolutely incorrect. Both Apple and Microsoft were given tours at PARC at pretty much the same time. Both borrowed heavily from Xerox' work and both borrowed from each other.

Statements like the above expose the Mac fanatics true bias and lack of perspective.

Have you compared the price of iWork and MS Office? have you compared the upgrade price of the OS itself, especially if you're upgrading multiple machines?

So you can cherry-pick a couple of examples of cheaper software, ignoring the various other products that either don't exist on the Mac or are more expensive for that platform. Sounds fair.

Going to the Mac as my main machine was a major relief in every way.

I'm more of a CP/M guy myself but I'm having a little difficulty staying current.

Seriously, though, I'm not knocking the Mac per se. I'm just not buying into all the hype. The Macs are solid, well engineered machines with lots of great features but they aren't perfect, they aren't cheap and they aren't a panacea.

Plus they generally attract the same idiots that buy Volvos or Prius' and slap John Kerry stickers on the back.

Apple has made a lot of mistakes since the late 1970s and they are just now looking like they might be able to recover from them as a company. They aren’t doing it on their computer line, though.

They should have realized long ago that they are a software company. The real competition in the OS space would have done everyone a world of good.