interesting thread, in my experience I would have to say the mac experience is by FAR superior to windows. I have had my iMac for almost a year now, and I am glad to say it's never frozen, I've had one application unexpectedly quit (which used to be a common occurence on my PC) and that was Safari Beta. I experienced the beach ball twice in Jaguar, and I have not seen it yet in Panther, which I bought roughly a week and half after it was available. I have restarted only whenever Apple has released a 10.2.x or 10.3.x update, or the like. I usually have at least 8 to 15 apps open, if not more. That includes Safari, MSN Messenger, iChat, Photoshop CS, Konfabulator, iTunes, Camino, and Mail constanty open.
On the other hand, my old eMachines ( I know they aren't good but I bought one of the more expensive ones, at the time) that had Windows XP Professional failed me on a daily to weekly basis. I ran similiar programs on there as well, and I'm not computer illiterate either. I knew that I couldn't suffice to have more then say 4, 5 apps open at a time during those days. Otherwise I'd almost expect one or two of those open apps to freeze up, unexpectedly quit, or the whole system to just go down every once in a while. That machine had a 1.8 ghz P4, 512 mb ram, and an Nvidia card (dont remember what it was) with 64 mb vram. My iMac is quite comparable to this system, with a 1 Ghz PowerPC G4 with AltiVec, 512 mb ram, and a 64 mb Nvidia Geforce 4 MX card. Now I know simply because the processor is 1 Ghz that doesn't mean it isn't as good or better then the 1.8, but either way you would think results on both machines would be similiar. This is not the case. And I do not blame eMachines for the reason why it wasn't the case, I hold it entirely responsible to Microsoft. I even run Virtual PC with Win XP Pro on my iMac, and hey it may be a lot slower but It's way less problems in terms of unexpectedly quitting/freezing/and viruses ( haven't had one yet, but I've heard you can get one?)
My friend's Dell (1.5 ghz P4, 512 mb ram, 32 mb nvidia card geforce 2 mx) which is running ME, is almost a joke. No , it is a joke. He runs dial-up, almost never gets on the internet, doesn't run any "P2P' apps or anything that would give him spyware or adware, and he had 12 viruses when I ran norton over there the other day. It gets to the point where when it freezes, you can't even hold down the power button to turn it off, the only remedy is turning off the power surge which is horrible. And, my other friend's Gateway freezes at least 3-5 times a day (his dad may not be computer literate, but he only uses it for internet) and sometimes his cd drive will uncontrollably just start opening and closing for no reason. His computer has similiar specs to that of the Dell. Also, the friend with the gateway bought a 333 mhz iMac off of eBay. He put 512 mb ram in it, upgraded the processor to 600 mhz G3 and put firewire on it thanks to Sonnet. His parents no longer use the Gateway, they go in his room to use his Mac. They've also decided their next home computer is going to be an eMac, as has my friend with the Dell's family.
Also, I hate when people make the comparison that PCs are cheaper then Macs. Take this scenario, my friend with the Gateway's sister and her husband just got a new Dell about a month ago. The cheap one that you see in their non-stop commercials that is I believe 599 (at the time it was at least) , after an $ 100 dollar mail-in rebate. So really they are paying 700 dollars and hoping they get the money back from the rebate. It has Win Xp Home, a Intel Celeron at 2.4 Ghz, 128 mb of ram which is pitiful, 40 gb drive, and the Intel Built-In Graphics. The reason this computers so cheap is obvious, first Intel Celeron? bleh. 128 mb ram? more bleh. Intel Built-In Graphics? this is starting to become very ugly......Win XP Pro? better then running ME or 98 i suppose, but its still Windows. Also, a CD-RW cd drive, and an ugly big black case and monitor. The only good thing about this cheap computer is the 40 GB HD, at least its not 20. Look at what you could have gotten if you'd thrown in 100-250 more bucks. 1.25 ghz G4 - obviously WAY better then a Celeron, maybe even a P4. 256 mb ram - respectable, much better then only 128. 40 GB drive (only 50 bucks more for an 80) - respectable like I said for the Dell. Mac OS X Panther - this is were the extra 100-250 really shine, for this is why a Mac is so much more valuable.....throw in the new iLife with Garageband and wow. ATI Radeon 9200 with 32 mb vram - MUCH better then built-in intel graphics. Also, two firewire 400 ports (probably none if one on the Dell), thre USB 2.0 and two USB 1.1, all the software that it comes with besides iLife ( quicken, appleworks, two games , world book. And alos a free HP hp printer or 99 off any HP all-in-one product. The difference is substanstial, and the price difference not much at all, you could even go get an older 1 ghz eMac off a Apple Reseller or eBay and probably match the price of the dell. Oh and a great looking white enclosure with a great looking flat 17" crt built-in screen. Also, you can play DVDs too on it thanks to the combo drive. This iny my eyes justifies the fact that macs are better then pcs, and are as affordable as them as well for what you are getting. I am tired of the PC vs. Mac comparisons, when there really shouldnt be any. Alas, everyone is free to their opinion and it's their right to like what they want too. Please do not take anything I've said against you if your a pc user, its only my opinion.
