1. Apple clearly picked tests for the keynote that would easily show the "superiority" of the G5. I don't think any of us would dispute that.
2. By Apple's own admission, one of the SPEC scenarios put the G5 10% behind.
3. Nobody has a G5 yet, so it's interesting that everyone is suddenly an expert.
4. However, bottom line is that, by all accounts except the most ardent Mac-haters, the G5 is going to be really, really fast. It appears that it will more or less level the playing field. Yes, Intel will deliver a better chip shortly, but then the next G5 will seesaw back once again. At least the seesaw is moving again. For a long time it was a big fat kid with an ice cream cone against a skinny little girl eating a cracker.
5. In the end, even if it turns out that across the board the G5 is slightly slower than a P4/Xeon in many ways (which I doubt BTW), it's still virtually guaranteed to be a full 3-4 times faster than my machine right now and that's saying something. And I get to use my favorite OS on a really fast machine. Let em troll, whine and otherwise. I'm going to be very, very happy for a while.
6. For those requesting that Apple not say it's the fastest PC in the world, remember that it's really mostly a marketing phrase, like Best Tasting Butter. Apple can back up their claim to a certain extent and many of believe that for a short period it really is going to be the fastest personal machine overall. If that's the case, they sure as hell should be saying so. If it's not the case, the world will find out and let us know.
7. 3 gig in 12 months. 50% performance increase in 12 months. That is a freaking huge boost in a short span. Nice roadpath.