OK, I apologise for my tone in my earlier reply but it was due to raised hackles caused by the often bandied about dismissal of Macs with generic statements like
"..."out of the ordinary" specialist software." Can you please elaborate exactly what you mean by 'specialist'?
Whilst I worked for an AppleCentre, I must state that I was Technical Director and was heavily involved in integrating Macs into IT depratments where they allowed individuals or more likely groups to have their own choice of computer and those wanting Macs had to be able to integrate them into the existing networks, often requiring access into mainfame systems as well as data sharing with other PC users.
What used to frustrate me then as it does now, was the pooh pooing by IT managers who refused to even consider the qualities of the Mac just because it wasn't 'Big Blue'! Nowdays, those attitudes are probably still there but I don't see them because of my career change!
If you ask me what makes Macs better then I'd have to say that the consistency of the interface when using any application. Once you learn the basics of using a Mac you can apply that knowledge to any application.
Although the interface I mention above is probably at the core of what makes the Mac so good, it is also the quality of the design that has gone into the Operating System and the hardware. The latest incarnation of the Operating System actually is running on a Unix substructure. Compare Unix to the Dos that still lies at the heart of the Windoze operating system and you have no contest.
The price of Macs is actually very competitive when you compare it to a PC. The build quality is very high but more importantly, by the time you add all the extras to a PC to bring it up to a similar spec and quality to a Mac the Mac usually wins hands down.
Whilst Microsoft has gone a long way to improve its Windoze OS and now has a much slicker interface, it is still encumbered with all the extra fat that MS insists you need... whether you do or don't.
So, when refering to 'specialist software' what exactly are you refering to? I wonder if there is a Windows program that 'emulates' a fully blown Mac OS? I usually only use my 'emulator' when I need to run a Windoze browser to check programming changes to pages on the web for compatibility. Apart from that, I have found every piece of software I need available for the Mac, including all the 'specialist' ones.
If you are trying to decide whether to upgrade to a new PC or go the full hog and convert to a Mac just ask all the pople who have migrated from the PC to the Mac why, if the Mac userbase is less than 5% of all computer users is the response so favourable for the Mac and its OS? I don't see many people advocating moving to the PC after having been Mac users all their lives. Make sure you are comparing Operating Systems properly. The latest Mac OS is OS X and the Widoze one is, I believe Winows MX. I stand to be corrected though.
