Since then I have had about 8 or nine computers (I would have to go to the attic and count the carcasses to know for sure – and that would start THAT conversation again with my wife)

Best computer ever was the Seequa
Second best a NEC Desktop (open it up it looked like a jewelry store it was so nice.
Third best a Viao – until the thermal shutdown problem –
The worst – the crap HP dv2000 I have now – Vista not the problem it is that HP shipped about a billion of these things with bad motherboards – but I keep it limping along. Just NEVER shut it off!! (so not so portable now – I use an ACER netbook for that – no I did not make it into a quasi XP laptop, it is a basic Linux machine so it does EXACTLY what it is designed for.}

So what? Well in all that time you see nary a Mac – have hated them from day 1 stupid box they put out that took about two days and 75 disk swaps to boot. Last year I thought I would use MAcs in my univ class so the students could produce a class video – one day it took an hour and 15 min to process a 12 min vid from cam. My crap HP did it in about 2 min. So my conclusion is that the difference between Mac and Windows machine users is this:

1 – MAC users periodically bale a wad of cash up with twine and send it to Steve just for the priveledge of using the (admittedly) classy looking machines — PC users go find what they want, hack it and steal it.
2 – MAC users trust that their machine is actually doing what it says it is doing so sit and stare in patient limbo as it assures them it will be done in less than 60 seconds (same state as when they are contemplating some nice green recreation drug) – PC users KNOW the machine is crashing about 50% of the time so have all sorts of escape strategies and recovery schemes.
3 – MAC users are into more creative kinds of programs that look really KOOL on the MAC – but the freeware stuff for PC can be used nearly as well.
4 – BOTH Mac and PC users forget that both camps are run by for-profit companies that plan and push obsolescence. So how did that work out for Detroit??
5 – IBM stands for I’m Becoming a Mac and MAC stand for Marginally Accessible Computer – you pays your monies and you takes your chances…..
Hmm – lets see maybe for my next portable computer I will buy a Sun Workstation and a van (at the rate things are going, probably not a GM product!)

George was right (no not W — Orwell!)

If you own a Viao, yeah it’s got all the cool bells and whistles but if your don’t have the system memory, settings or requirements to support all that stuff, then what do you expect!! The same applies for any MAC as well.

So many consumers want all the lastest hardware and software…yet don’t realize the first thing is to shell out the cash for upgrades to keep your systems operating smoothly. USER ERRORS & BUYERS REMORSE boo hoo

“Well I am sorry to rain on your parade but my Mac has had nothing but issue after issue and the KIND people at mac are a bunch of NOT KIND PEOPLE just like you expeienced.JUST COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS ANDS SAVE YOUR ”

I am very interested in hearing what these “issues” are. You’re lack of specifics leads me to believe your problems are not as “rotton” as you say they are.

I have had four macs in the past few years. They are not perfect. I’ve had a number of different issues where things have either broken or went bad. I can’t tell you how many times I lost data because of an update that crashed my system. That being said, I have owned PC/WIN computers before that and the level of frustration was so much more I don’t even want to think about it.

When it comes down to it, its about what your expectations are and what you are using the machine for. Apple has fixed 2 issues with my macbook and in both cases parts/fixes were done through overnight service that took no more than 3 days.