Via the internet and books I learned how to fix my PC. I got so proficient that I soon got known around the village and region for my new found talent. It soon became a second hobby and if I charged anything it was not monetary and was paid in gifts like fresh farm eggs, cheese, a bottle of wine or a free round at the local pub. I got so good, I even built my own dream-machine PC to my own needs and specs by ordering and buying parts abroad on visits to family in the US.

Then about 3 years ago I bought an Apple and I am yet to have one single simple problem with it. It’s a great machine for my line of work.

But that’s not to say that I stopped fixing PCs. Are you kidding? I have a wine cellar that you would probably kill for. I love PCs.

*What’s your friend’s name?
*How do you know him?
*Is he the same guy that your sister’s friend’s uncle knew who microwaved a Chihuahua?

What you actually said:
“My old roomate had an alienware, and he would always ask for my laptop to write his papers on.”

O_o?

So he spent $2,000+ on a custom computer (which he could have built himself for half) and he didn’t have Microsoft Word, so he wanted to use a Microsoft product on a laptop keyboard?

I rarely say this outright, because I like to give the benefit of the doubt, but your full of shit. Stop lying. I’m all for arguing/debating actual points, but why not just claim Jesus appeared to you in a burrito and said Macs were better?

Just because you have to give a child safety scissors doesn’t mean safety scissors are better than regular scissors. Now, charge more for those safety scissors…

@pheonyx74: And to save a lot of money.

Even the fastest, most tricked out PC I’ve ever used can’t come close to that. (Well, maybe if it’s running Linux.) Windows is still farting around, thinking about drawing the start menu and loading a bunch of Micro$haft shiat and third-party software that adds features that should have been included in the first place, and meanwhile on my Mac I’ve already finished what I needed to do. And that doesn’t even count the times that Windows will just throw up a dialog box titled something like “XTRDBRGLR.DLL” but is otherwise completely blank with a blank button to click on that makes the box slowly vanish.

Windows is a great operating system if you want to spend all your time fucking around trying to optimize the OS and get it to do what you want. Mac OS is great if you just want to, you know, USE your computer and don’t give a shit about the OS.

The most important point that make me buy a Mac: a full Unix Operating system, plus an excellent UI (minus this f*cking maximize button that do not maximize), plus Microsoft Office.
The best from both worlds (Unix/Windows).

Good combination of hardware by the time I searched for a laptop (the magnetic cord is a good plus too, the screen is excellent).

One point on the dark side: My slot-in optical drive broke (doesn’t eject discs anymore) after one year and half. Not the quality I hoped for.

I had got many computers with Windows, and now many with Linux/Unix and one Mac.
Despite the fact that games are -almost- exclusive to Windows, I’ve got tired of it. No centralized update for the whole system, time consuming to maintain it, anti-virus/anti-spyware mandatory and power-hungry…
I’ve got the choice between Linux and Mac.
I take a Mac mostly for my girlfriend: Good UI, hassle free, Microsoft Office available, a few games only but she doesn’t care, but no system-wide update.
For me, Linux do the trick with Unix-like system, system-wide update, hassle-free, quite good UI, but a few games only and no Office available.

Show items as a list still doesn’t give a separate navigation pane or provide any way to separate files and folders. It makes it unnecessarily time consuming to navigate to a different spot on your hard drive because you either have the option to a) clutter up your folder hierarchy with files and no navigation pane, or b) use the pane view (can’t remember what it’s called) and only see a couple levels back and not be able to see anything besides the direct parents of the current folder.

The only reason I mentioned the mouse is because all Macs come with the same horrible “mighty” mouse while all PCs come with a 3 button scroll mouse. I am well aware you can use any mouse you want, though most people won’t buy another mouse. I also should mention that the design of that mouse (and all Mac mice since the iMac came out) make it such an unnecessarily difficult undertaking just to click and drag something across the screen since they’re so awkward to pick up while holding the button down.

Why would you think I’m talking about DirectX when I mention Windows 2000? Obviously a gamer is going to have a newer computer. I mention Win2k directly after talking about web browsers and PDF readers and you think I’m talking about games? My point is that a 9 year old Windows system with no upgrades will still run fully up to date everyday use software while a 4 year old Mac can’t even do that without shelling out money for an OS upgrade.

Windows switcher isn’t a program. It’s an integrated feature.

I’ve mentioned Portland recently in Portland related threads. For example, Chuck Palahniuk (he’s a figure here) and Kells (a bar IN PORTLAND).

And, no, you can’t run Civ4 (with BtS… screw it, let’s say without) on full settings while simultaneously running a DVD (Venture Bros. or what have you)on a $999 MacBook.

You’re right in that it wouldn’t prove anything on speed (I did say I immediately lamented mentioning those things), but what are the specs on your 2 year old MacBook? If you change the argument, then you change my stance.

Even then I find it improbable (not impossible as with the $999 MacBook) that it can handle both Civ4, running a DVD video, and surfing the net at the same time without locking up.

That’s just addressing your quick points…

“Yes, reboot, I’m aware you’re a grad student in… what? Chemistry? Every time we get into a debate you bring it up. Congratulations.”
Sorry. You spend 14 hours a day doing something, it tends to come up in other conversations. You mention that you live in Portland a lot.

“And, no, you could not do all that on a $999 MacBook without major slowdown. The hardware simply isn’t there, and Macs don’t have the userbase to create noCD software, while running with vmware, all while playing a movie from it’s ONE drive. Throw that in with surfing multiple threads and you got the Mac freeze screen. Always fun repairing those.”
This is not hypothetical. I have Civ 4 installed under vmware (since BtS hasn’t been released for mac) on a 2 year old Macbook. Nokey software runs just like it does on a PC. I suppose I could post a screen capture with Venture Brothers and Civ 4, but that’s wouldn’t prove anything about speed.