Well, it's certainly not 8-track vs. CD. Having angst about whether or not you're using the "correct" personal computing platform is a variety of self-identification via consumer culture and is not a virtue.

I don't think it's that important and the OS wars bore the hell out of me. If it were up to me, we'd all be using a state-of-the-art BeOS running on, say, SGI hardware. I'm very familiar with a large variety of computing platforms and from that perspective I don't really have any idea how to go about saying what is "best" universally.

And another perspective is that all consumer personal computing platforms and consumer software suck very, very badly.

Stop worrying about it.

Well... Your comments are appreciated to a certain degree, but accusing me of "self-identification via consumer culture" is so far off-base that it's... almost as far off-base as "eight-track person in a cd world" when talking about pc vs. mac. I don't want to be all less-consumerist-than-thou, but trust me, I probably am. For reals.

I moved to the mac platform relatively painlessly, though I cheated slightly. I still use VirtualPC for a few bits that don't quite fit in, in the mac environment.

I'm not a PC gamer, so that was never a problem. For the most part I can do my job efficiently on mac, so long as I can read and write Office and PDF files, I'm good.

I think platform choice is *very* task dependant. for some tasks, ______ is just the best platform. Personally, I find that since I've switched to Mac I spend more time working productively, and less time fighting my computer. Obviously, your experience could vary.

Mac superiority is way overhyped. To be fair, though, I didn't start actively liking Macs again until OS X, which has a pretty shitty default user interface for power users when you analyze it. I used to be a total Apple whore, but back in the day when that was easy: There was the Apple //e and then there was the PC-XT (and some clones). And then there were computers like the Commodore 64 and 128, TRS-80s, Tandy Colors, Z80s and Sinclairs that were arguably much more toylike, less supported, and less market-penetrated. (Some purists will hate me for that, but even then, by that point is was pretty much down to Apple vs. PC. And even then, the IBM PC XT was really much more of a poweruser-friendly machine, it just got a late start.)

There are pros and cons to both sides, and unhinged jingoistic rhetoric for any piece of software or platform is much more often than not blind adoration and/or outright unhealthy. (on preview: not accusing you of this, just speaking in general about the platform wars.)

It's pretty unarguable that MS Windows has mostly or entirely sucked in almost all of it's iterations - but the task Windows faces as an OS is uneviable: An extremely large and wide-ranging hardware zoo, billions and trillions of lines of code in hundreds of thousands or millions of applications. I'm consistently amazed it works at all.

However, if it makes you feel any better, I don't trust Mac OS X system updates blindly either. There have been some that have broken things that didn't need to be fixed. But in Mac/Apple land - again - there's a constrained hardware and software base, so updates are easier, and since it's based on BSD-flavored unix, I would argue that that fosters better code discipline and more reliability from the get-go.

So why would I prefer Windows to OS X (or other) even if I don't trust it? It's cheaper. There's numerous bits and pieces of software and hardware - some contemporary and some legacy - that I can't run on Mac OS X, even with Windows emulators like Virtual PC, and like you, I have a broad amalgam of old and new tech I still want to use in a wide variety of domains.

However, here's how you switch if you're interested: Buy a lower end consumer Mac. It can be the new Mac Mini, it can be an iMac or even a used eMac. Put it on the network and open up remote login and admin. Start using it as a media station, server and a shell/root box and get familiar with the BSD-like commandline interface in OS X. If you like it, you can upgrade to a bigger machine. Or wait until the Intel based Macs come out. (Someone I know who saw that leaked copy of OS X for intel running on a P4 said it was much faster looking and feeling than a dual G5, which is pretty ironic. Hey, guess what, nerds on both sides of the platform gulf were actually right! Intel rules, but Windows sucks! PPC sucks, but MacOS rules! Whatever.)

Anyway.

There are a ton of useful or entertaining tasks that are a total effortless joy on a Mac OS X box. Serving personal web pages and FTP sites and the like, for fun or utility. Burning CDs or DVDs. Making art. Making music. Making movies. Watching movies or listening to music.

Getting to know unix-like systems is another huge plus - and Apple/Mac/OS X is uniquely positioned to leap into this world of unix/linux-based personal/consumer computing, and hopefully bring lots of people with it. Besides running Windows emulators like Virtual PC, you can also run linux and a huge variety of linux/unix based windowing systems like KDE, GNOME, X, and X11 all while still running OS X and it's native GUI, which just opens up a whole world of free/cheap and good software applications and utilities above and beyond what Apple offers.

And you can have both, really. Having a Mac in a mostly Windows home network just exponentially increases the usefulness of that network. You can feel fairly safe and comfortable having an updated OS X box facing out to the internet even without a dedicated firewall, and it'll still be useful.

And here's something I wrote about the whole 'switching' thing from a PC/Windows users perspective. I've linked to it here before, but the whole topic of "ACK! I feel like a crufty PC user" in light of the new Macs is a common refrain. Linky.

I've always had a PC at work and a Mac at home, which works well for me. They're suited to different tasks, as has been said many times before. Loquacious makes the excellent point that they can be on the same network, so really it's just a question of what your needs are.

well, I have a story along these lines. Windows is ubiquitous in India, and all my computer experience has been in Windows. Over the years I developed a quite good set of programs and tricks and stuff to let me do my work in peace, and especially in my professional computing (statistics software, ecological software that run only on windows etc). And then I got to this lab, where all the computers were macs. I had no choice but to use a mac. There are lots of limitations in using a mac for my purposes, but i've been looking for alternatives, and once those basic needs were met, and the more i use the mac, the more i like it. I do think its more dependable than any computer i've ever used, to the extent that im getting lazy with backups, and to the extent that i'm considering getting a personal mac as well.
The biggest pain was figuring out equivalents to programs i normally use and like, but its not that bad. The other problem is when say there's a new cool shiny program that i would really like to use but can't because its windows only. or mac is barely supported. Inspite of all these, i am happy to go from being a above average windows user to a just about average mac user even though it is a pain dealing with people with programs that are more advanced in the windows version.

Yeah, I don't really get the OS wars either. From what I can see they all have various downsides and it's just a case of trading one set of problems for another.

There are folks who love their Macs, and I can respect that. Personally I've never really got along with them and here's why. Firstly I can never shake the feeling that they're hiding stuff from me in the name of usability. Just look at the threads around here and AskMe about iTunes, it just confirms it for me really.

Another reason is that I've worked at two companies that have a small number of Macs. While it's not my job to I've tried sometimes to sort their problems out with mixed success. On the occasions I've failed they will call in their Mac experts and they'll sort it out. So, out of curiosity I've asked what they've done so I'm better able to help in future and the answer is always the same - they've reinstalled everything from scratch!

Maybe this has changed in more recent versions of OSX, but it does seem that Mac users are somewhat delusional about how often they rebuild their computers. They seem to just accept it as part of Mac ownership.

For what it's worth if I was going to change I'd switch to Suse Linux (which I've had good experiences with in the past), but to be honest I just don't have the time to invest at the moment. Maybe you might want to try a Knoppix CD and see if you like the look of it.

As for Microsoft's patches, I can say this. In the past Microsoft's reputation on patching has been atrocious and with good reason. Now though they seem to have got their act together and it's usually a good bet that if you haven't heard bad things after two weeks of release they're good to go. Also, in this day and age, it's riskier not to update. I push updates out to our workstations here (approx 300) and we've not had a single problem with an update.

Ack! This comment is so badly written but it's all I have time for now - Sorry!

Ok, I just got a new mac on Friday (one of them sleek looking iMaccy screen thingies) on a lease that is so affordable I won't even notice it, and i opted for that all-risk insurance thing just in case I spill a coke into it or something equally dumb. Tiger and most basic software is in that thing, I reckon that you might fancy the complete adobe CS package as you do many graphic things. My old mac I bought cash in 2001, a g4 two days after it hit the market, bought a screen somewhere and I manhandle keyboards so I went through a few of those. ;) I have a wacom tablet (bliss) and share a usb/ethernet canon copier/fax/printer thing with the rest of the office. Anyway, old mac is dying and has been for a while - HD is clicking, the superdrive was always a bit effed up and repaiers were out of my price range. With my all-risk on this imac, repairs are included in case that superdrive goes wonky. wee!
So, what kind of periphials do you use? Scanner? Does it have usb (because if it does, I guarantee you that we can find a mac driver), printer? etc? What are the lease-to-buy costs like over there in greece? It might not be as big of a jump as you'd expect, I think the big investment for you would be in Adobe CS. I mean, hell I have a shiny new mac with my specs for 50 odd Euro a month! (36 months)

My first GUI was PLATO, dammit! I still miss it.

dabitch: yeah, it's mostly the software really - though buying two Macs is just totally out of the fiscal equasion for us at this time. And yes, it's Photoshop for me, but a ton of audio/video programs for mr. taz.

oh yeah and if you wanna try a linux flava, I second Suse as a nice one to start playing with.

Both work; both crash. It's easier to sort through the rubble of a bombed out PC.

But it's really all about the keyboard for me. As long as it clacks when I hit the keys, I'm okay. So I'm not such a mac fan (yeah, I know you can get aftermarket keyboards, but I want a noisy old keyboard bundled in, dammit!).

Plus when it comes to computers I don't much trust friendly.

taz, I didn't mean to be offensive and I apologize if I offended you. The thing is, though, is that I can't think of any other reasons why people make such a big deal about this matter. People really do make their personal computing choice part of their identity, aggressively so in the case of Mac users. This doesn't seem any different to me than, to provide an example, my family is a Ford truck family and hates Chevys. What's up with that? It's consumer identification. It's rationalized to be quality and other defensible things, but it's really just about identity associated with a consumer product.

I didn't mean to imply that I'm above this sort of thing. Intellectually I am, but practically I build my identity around these things just like anyone else. I probably couldn't force myself to buy a Chevrolet. Honest. It's silly. I don't consider myself a PC person, but I'd have some trouble buying a Mac (and since OS X, I've considered it, since I'm a UNIX person--whoops, there I go, huh?) if for no other reason than I'd not want to be thought of as a "Mac person".

A lot of this is about identity which is really just terribly silly. Do we care about the manufacturer of our toasters? Well, actually, lots of folks do.

On an objective basis, as said above by several people, there's not really that much difference. Unlike others above, I think that merely judging all versions of Mac OSs or all Windows OSs as one demonstrates a large degree of ignorance. Both OSs have gone through tremendous changes. The original NT was a fine, highly-regarded OS. One thing is pretty much inarguable, however: the Mac's GUI has always been "the best". Usability tests and expert opinion have validated that claim from ther very beginning. If you think of the the OS as nothing more than the GUI, then in those terms, you should get a Mac and you always should have gotten a Mac. But of course an OS is much, much more than the GUI. This is why in my opinion you can't compare OS X with what came before. It's a huge jump. But so also is the jump from Win9x to XP.

the big advantage of mac osx is that you get unix with a nice, reliable interface. that has traditionally been difficult with linux. however, with suse and kde/gnome, linux is really making a lot of progress. it's not as smooth as windows or macs, but it's getting noticeably better.

so, for me, apple combines the best of windows and linux. but if you don't care much for what linux buys you above windows (particularly for development) then i don't see the advatage over windows.

and if linux continues to improve, then i suspect by the time i can afford new hardware i'll stick with linux (given that i have a windows machine too for where that excels - mainly looking at media/junk on the web in various formats).

one other issue, that might influence things, is drm. you might want to switch from windows to mac to avoid over-restrictive drm in the future.

stuck or not, you bought the OS, you should you the updates. There's no reason not too. You're doing yourself more harm than good by not using them.