When it comes to Mac vs Windows, they are not comparable. People don’t normally weigh the two options against each other. I build my own boxes so I would never look at a Mac. I would use Linux instead.
I use Macs on campus and they seem wickedly fast compared to a PC. We would save a lot of money by banning Windows on campus because it costs so much to deal with pwn3d boxen. We are constanty going into the dorms and yanking wires out of PC’s. When studentsmove into the dorms, the first thing they do is pull down the firewall.
Alright, you can’t blame Windows for user stupidity.
That’s like blaming guns for murder.
One thing OS-X got right was revamping it's painting system to be up to date with modern video cards. When windows overlap in Windows (XP), they really overlap, and sections must be repainted. Video has to use overlays that the video card takes care of, but it's very limited. Move a window on a Mac and there is no problem, no delay. Move a window in front of other windows in Windows, and you will see each window underneath slowly repainting itself, even on a blazingly fast machine. I believe Vista fixed this, but they tried to do too much and sent the hardware requirements too high for many computer buyers.