A recent (and fun to read) thread of comments on a pic on my fb account has got me thinking about all that was said there.

The short and long of it was tepid-to-warm discussion about Macs & PCs.
I've never been too keen on pidgin-holing myself-  Marriage is for.. people, but not other stuff.  I won't consider myself married to PCs/Windows just because that's primarily what I code/design/play/create with.

Every operating system and platform has their place and each are superkeen at what they do, but their respective benefits/caveats are not mutually exclusive by any means.  
Anyone who proclaims that Macs don't crash, or can't get viruses is tooting their horn with no backup section.   I've sadly seen my Macbook Pro do the fade-to-white lockdown many-a-time, and though a fade-to-white crash is more gentle than a stark blue screen full of (helpful) hex nums it's still a painful crash and loss of work.  And no system is impervious.. what was made by mankind can be taken down by mankind ;)   Just that simple.  There are viruses for PCs and there are viruses for the rest.. it's just that the hacky-powers-that-be are, in greater numbers, directing their collective attention to the holes poked in Windows os's.

I love my Mac, and I love my homebuilt PC (and homebuilt is why I love it a lot).  They both have their place in my house and are both excellent every time I use them (or 18 hours of my life per day).   For example:

I simply can't imagine putting together a movie outside of iMovie on the MBP, it's just magical and happens without effort and thought, while turning out great.  There is some software for Windows, both free and expensive, none of which I can 1) make something rad in, or 2) afford to learn.  Not to completely disparage Windows Movie Maker.. it has its place, and I've popped out a couple of fine youtube vids using it in a pinch (but nothing stunning).

MBP has Front Row.. it's ok, but kind of a pain in the butt and has never made its case to me, not for lack of trying.   Vista and 7 (7 Pro is where I live now) have won me over for years and years now with their built in Media Center.. that cornerstone of an included software package has made this movie/TV buff one happy camper.   With now over 600 blurays stored on the PC drives and dual TV tuners built into it, I have all the movies I can never find the time to watch and a no-strings-attached-better-than-Tivo experience.  All this wrapped up in a sexy UI that keeps this guy and his future-wife very happy.

When I was the art director for the ad agency in Reno a few year back, I bought the MBP and used it at my office for dedicated graphic, web, and logic design.  It did that excellently, but honestly, what platform can't?  I cut my coding teeth in in MS-DOS Basic back in 1984, graduated to Javascript, ARM coding,  and C++, etc. in college, not to mention all the Linux we had to use (and love).  

What about the cost? Macs cost a ton right? Nah.  My MBP cost like $2900 new in 2006, and I've easily poured the cost of a new Hyundai into the uber PC built in 2005 (which still smokes a lot of benchmarks out there, PS).  But if you want something that will last, you pay.  The cost of either one doesn't make either more awesome.  But from my experience, buy a cheap Mac or a cheap PC and it will be a short lived and regretful time (with exceptions based on the use of these cheap machines).

So why do they say that Vista is/was so terrible?? Well, they are trying to sell Macs! Duh.  Apple has somethings going for it, 1) Excellent design that leads the industry in function and form, 2) Excellent packaging designers, 3) Excellent ad agencies, 4)  and software that is pretty damned good!  But number 3 is the most important one.  Publicity makes or breaks ya and boy they know how to crow better than anyone else!  Next time a presidential candidate runs for office, they should hire Apple's ad team ;)  Microsoft tried to answer back with those "I'm a PC" commercials, but meh.. just not as effective or good.  Their new "Windows 7 was my idea.." bits are cute tho.  

Microsoft has some excellent things going for themselves as well.  You don't get as rich as Mr. Gates without having something good to offer, right (in this case, answer yes)?
Back to Vista's problems, yeah it had some and so did OS9,X,and XSL.  Vista did give me a lot of blue screens and heartache due to (ONLY) the fact that I had a custom built machine with hardware not intended to work seemlessly.  Do take note that this is probably why Apple doesn't allow anyone but Apple to build Apple machines hehe- that's fine, and I respect the reasoning but I, like my father, am a tinkerer.  I like to do it myself.  Spending the cost of a car on something that just sits on your desk is depressing.  Customizing it takes the edge off of that pain, for me hehe.  Over the years I watched news venues report on 'how bad vista is', read many a blog about 'how could microsoft do this??', and saw many commercials hitting Microsoft over the head for this major fail.. all that time I was sitting behind my pretty-much-just-great Vista Ultimate x86 and x64 operating systems, wondering what everyone else was doing wrong to have such a bad experience!  Again- yes I had troubles in Vista, but the undertone to this is that all operating systems have let me down at some point.

Setting up camp and shouting at the other team is of no use, in my opinion.  I adore BMWs but would gladly drive a Chevy if it works just as well (k bad example).  But I wouldn't, while driving my excellent BMW 2002, shout "YOU SUCK, BUY A REAL CAR" when I see a Chevy pulled over on the side of the road with steam billowing out its hood!  Guess what, BMWs break down too..... and, like BMWs, when your Apple breaks down you'll pay a hell of a lot more to get the Genius Bar folks to get her running right again ;)

The short and sticky of this useless ramble goes thusly:
It's your money, spend it where you want.  Enjoy what you like and screw what anyone has to say about it (and don't shout at them for their choices)!

(and if someone yells at me to 'Buy a Mac' once more, I just might cry)