Quote Originally Posted by Florian
Hey Ericl,

please eleborate on why you think the Hardware is superior, please. This would interest me.

Cheers

Flo
Well, of course there are millions of windows box configurations out there, but when people say "windows machines are cheaper, i can get a dell for $399" they are buying something full of crappy components that are far more likely to fail down the stretch, and they often do.. Apple in general uses better quality components all around.

Apple has a limited set of hardware configurations, which are customized with the OS. The OS is made to work with those specific hardware configs. Its much better integration as opposed to slapping together a bunch of components, and installing windows, and then hoping that everything works together. XP is much better with different hardware, but it sitll has issues.

I am typing this on a Toshiba/winXP laptop that is about four months old, about $1200 new. It has an ongoing problem of the keyboard and monitor often (separately, these are two independent issues) just shutting themselves off and refusing to work until i reboot. What is that about? Not to mention that this thing is bulky, ugly, and more noisy than a Mac machine, it is really no contest. I think anyone who has really spent anytime with a mac feels the same way.

People have a built in misconception left over from the 90's of Macs not being able to handle lots of file formats, or have the same programs (like MS office). but that's just not true anymore. Macs can do pretty much anything. Add in that they have both windows virutalization software AND the new intel macs can dual boot to windows and you have a compelling case.

In the next few months I plan to sell my ibook g4 and this winXP laptop and buy a MacBook Pro. I will be able to run both OSes, and I'll have the best of both worlds. (I need windows for WORK, as our sites run on ASP.net and our internal tools are all developed on and for the windows platform. I can do most work chores on mac too, but there are still some issues.)