Wow, a thread resurrected from 2003, cool!
Lessee - in the '70's I started with an IBM PC (the original 4.77 MHZ 8086), then went to an Atari 800, then back to a PC (this time the "Turbo" 8088-2), then to an AST 286, upgraded to a 386, then an Apple Mac (the original 128K), then a Commodore Amiga with a 68030 processer (now THAT was ahead of its time), then a 486/66 PC, then a Mac SE upgraded with an '030 processer, then a Powerbook.
By 1995, I had owned five PCs, three Macs, two Amigas and an Atari (and driven a whole bunch more). The Macs were always much more cohesive with the hardware/GUI/OS meld, but still managed to crash with as much regularity as any PC, and when they did, it was next to impossible to find out why. Upgrades? Fuggeddaboutit - if you could do it, it cost an arm and a leg.
I finally got so frustrated by my wife's Powerbook that I bought her a Sony VAIO and spent the time teaching her how to figure out Windows 98. That little VAIO went all over the world without a burp.
Right now, I am using the best computer I've owned yet - an HP Pavilion ZD7000 laptop, 17", 3.2GHZ, 1GB, 7200RPM 60GB drive. I'm not sure it has ever crashed.
Macs are wonderfully designed, beautifully packaged, and a pleasure to use, but in the end you can do more with a WinTel based machine for less money. If I had mondo cash to spend staying up-to-date with Apple hardware and software, I'd splurge, but dollar-for dollar you'll do much better in the PC world.
(And anyone who claims that Virtual PC runs as fast as an actual PC is only running Notepad!
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