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The Mac is the most popular Unix computer on the planet and by far the most popular Unix laptop. Go to a Linux conference and look at all the Mac laptops. Sure, Windows has 95% of the computer market, but that is split among 500+ harware manufacturers. When you compare Apples to Dells, Apple looks a lot better. One quarter in the last two years, they moved more boxes than any other company, including Dell and Gateway.

OK. Your point is...

Apple is a niche player like BMW is a niche player. Actually, BMW has less of the automobile market than Apple has of the computer market. That is not an argument that BMW aren't nice cars or that BMW is unsuccessful. Steve Jobs' little company has about $5,000,000,000 in cash lying around. Not a lot of computer companies can say that.

One problem. A computer is not a luxury car. Sorry to burst your bubble. Mac still has zero presence in most business sectors and that is what really matters unless you selling style (like pretending a computer is a luxury car). Mac's have the flash and big budget advertisements but where the rubber meets the road the WinTel world blows the doors off the Mac world each and every day. I drive a BWM.

If you are looking for style flash and a "lifestyle" - Mac is the big winner.

Mac clearly has the best hype. As a business tool a Mac is all but worthless. Mac is to computers what beta is to VCRs - maybe Beta is better but it really doesn't matter anymore although you can still watch movies with a beta VCR just a handful of companies use Macs for business.

I've never had to spend my own money on work-related hardware. Now I'm shopping for a laptop and I have a max budget of around $2500. What would give me the best bang for the buck?

BTW, I do not consider my computer a political statement. I need it for DB admin, MX web app development, and playing movies and music on long flights. I've done a lot of online shopping to compare and contrast but I want the opinions of folks that have hands-on experience with multiple platforms.

My point is that
A) The Mac is part of the UNIX family, a technically superior computing platform to the Windows family.
B) Comparing Apple to the entire PC industry is a spurious gauge of its success.

Why is it silly to compare a computer to a car? I spend more time in front of my computer than in my car; why shouldn't I then apply aesthetic judgement to the purchase? A car is a complicated expensive piece of high tech equipment that gets you where to need to go on the highway. A computer is a complicated machine that gets you where you need to go on the information superhighway. Most people use their computers for games, e-mail, browsing the web, watching DVDs and listening to MP3s, and with the exception of games you can do this stuff better on a Mac than on a PC. And you can put a Mac in a living room without embarassing the furniture. If you want a cheap, fast, homely, standardized machine, get a PC. If you want an elegant, hassle-free machine, spend the extra money and get a Mac.

Apple is the company that -- while they didn't invent these all these technologies -- first popularized them: the 3 1/2 inch floppy, the CD ROM drive, the mouse, the graphical windowing system, the laser printer, the DVD recorder, plug and play, plug and play peer to peer networking, multimedia, digital video, streaming digital video, digital video editing, WYSIWYG editing, wireless networking, all-in-one computing appliances, firewire. Even the World Wide Web had its genesis in Apple's Hypercard. The only technology, other than raw computing power, that first appeared on a PC that I can think of is USB. Quite simply, Apple is the most innovative computer company in history. It is the R&D arm of the entire PC industry. It is worth billions of dollars, and the man who started the company in his garage with one other employee and is now still running it is personally a billionaire. And this is how you define failure?

I visit a number of businesses, large and small, and guess what? Many are using MACS. Doctors and dentists are big Mac users around town. Why is that, I asked? They like the simplicity and ease of use, and it's an easy computer to teach new employees to use They all use business software too and are impressed with the reliability and problem-free aspect of their MACs. As for financial use, my own accounting company is standardized on MACS too. Is this perhaps an anomaly?

The local Staples store sells only PCs and my buddy who works there said that PCs are rotting on the shelves. No one wants to buy Compacs and HPs in this city--they are losers even with their frequently lowered prices!