pc's are the Ford Taurus' of the computer world was [Ti] PowerBook sighting!

[coccolithophorid at earthlink.net]

I often hear of reasons for not buying a Macintosh, that they are too 
expensive and there is not enough software. However, this is exactly 
the same (in my opinion) as complaining that a BMW 7 series is too 
expensive and hard to find parts for, and a Ford Taurus will get me 
from point a to point b just fine for half the cost, this is true, but 
comparing a BMW to a Ford Taurus is like comparing apples to oranges, 
they are totally different cars. It's true not everyone can afford a 
BMW 7 Series, not everyone can afford a Mac either.  A black plastic HP 
laptop with windows XP is the Ford Taurus of the computer world, it may 
do some tasks well, but with a Mac comes an operating system that is 
intuitive and stable and an industrial design that is often seen in 
museums, and copied by other companies (Porsche, Gateway). For some, a 
computer is a tool to get your email, check out some web sites and pay 
bills with quicken, for others a computer is a tool to do those things 
plus express yourself with a movie you made, or a DVD you burned, or 
perform your music composition to a crowd of 2000 +. The Mac operating 
system doesn't get in the way, it assumes that you are smart and you 
know what you are doing, it doesn't always ask "are you sure?" "do you 
really want to?" "do you need help with?" "the wizard can assist you 
with..." no puppies with wagging tails or talking paper clips, just a 
set of tools for you to do the job.

Every PC user I know uses Microsoft office and IE, that's it. They 
don't do anything with their computers that lets them be creative. The 
people I know that use a Mac use it to DJ, Make DV movies, Make Music 
etc. email, web and quicken...sure whatever, what's the big deal.  
Every time I hear that there is a lack of selection when it comes to 
software for a Mac, I ask what can't you do on a Mac that you can do on 
a PC? The answer is often that they had a Mac 10 years ago and it was 
really hard to find software for it, or that a friend of a friend had a 
Mac and they said the mac was hard to find software for. I think it's 
more like it's really hard to find a PC that comes with all the stuff 
that comes on a mac. Go into a Best Buy or Comp USA and try to do 
something that's really simple, put in a c.d. and see what's involved 
in copying a c.d. or plugging in a digital camera and downloading 
photos, or make a DV movie, or try and have the operating system do 5 
things at once, Mhz speed means nothing to me if the operating system 
can only do two things at once. Yesterday I tried to burn a c.d. on XP 
with musicmatch and it ended up taking about three hours, the OS bogged 
down (HP Pavilion n5000 1.1 gHz. AMD athlon 4 256 mb ram) when 
transferring mp3's and canceling a burn with the cancel button, 
couldn't force quit, couldn't restart, couldn't click on the desktop, 
nothing, we just sat and waited, if I were a business this would have 
cost a lot of money. I was so frustrated I almost wanted to yank the 
plug out of the wall, just so I had control over the computer, it had 
total control over my time, this has NEVER happened with os X (2 + 
years) whenever I see the spinning color wheel I go do something else, 
if it doesn't respond after a while, force quit, I'm always the one 
with control over the OS not the other way around.

This is not a flame,
peace,
Kevin

Mike Stanley wrote:
I've never owned my own Macintosh although I would
say before that was a choice dictated as much by cost as it was by my
own perception at the time (and still mostly today) of the MacOS over
the years being "not so great" to be nice.

For all I know Bill Gates made a deal with the devil years ago, but I'd
guess it is more likely related to the historically high price of Mac
machines and the comparative lack of selection when it comes to
software.  No flames, please, I'm on your side now - I'm just thinking
out loud based on my own experiences and those of people I know.