(Regrettably) in Defense of Macs
It wasn't that long ago that I openly and consistently despised Macs. As the PC user's mantra tends to go: "They're expensive, they aren't upgradeable, there are no games available other than half-assed ports of last year's Windows games, Mac OS is designed for computer simpletons."
But, having purchased a MacBook Pro several months ago and now considering replacing my desktop with one of the recently announced, 27", Intel i7 iMacs, I'm actually, and to my chagrin, finding myself defending Apple in a number of ways.
The revelation is perhaps summed up best by these two Penny Arcade comics and their associated news posts. You don't really recognize the questionable design in areas of Windows (or Linux, for that matter) until you can step away. And it's difficult to step away when you're proudly wearing the badge of honor of someone who's been wrestling with Windows machines since 3.0.
That's not to say I no longer find any fault with Mac OS. Their task bar is still inferior, especially when compared to that of Windows 7, though Snow Leopard's tweaks have left me close to fully satisfied (being able to browse folders within the task bar rather than opening them in Finder, and being able to click-hold an app in the task bar to bring up live previews of each open window were both big for me). I don't think I'll ever stop laughing at the program installers that require you to mount them on the desktop before they can be run (and that have to be "ejected" once complete). But I have slowly come to realize that most of my prior criticisms were either untrue to begin with, or have been addressed to varying degrees over time.
Are Macs expensive? Yes. Are they overpriced compared to comparable Windows PCs? It depends who you ask and what you consider "comparable". A MacBook Pro is more expensive than a lot of other laptops, but it's also made of aluminum that should hopefully prevent the overheating and chassis flexing that killed my previous, plastic-encased Dell. An iMac is more expensive than the collection of parts for a high-end PC, but includes a display far nicer than any they sell separately on NewEgg, and is priced lower than other all-in-ones that aren't nearly as outright sexy.
Are Macs really not upgradeable compared to their PC counterparts? The MacBook is no different from any other notebook -- the memory and disk can be swapped out fairly easily, but anything else is a no-go. That's just the nature of notebooks. As far as the iMac goes, it depends on how often you want to upgrade. I used to swap out video cards two or three times a year. I was deep into PC games, worked at a computer store, and the PC was more than accommodating for such frequent upgrades. But that was all of three or four years ago and my desktop is now essentially not upgradeable. Video cards have switched from AGP to PCIe, CPUs have switched socket types multiple times, RAM has gone from DDR to DDR2 to DDR3, hard drives are now SATA instead of IDE, and all these things require beefier power supplies with newer connectors than mine has. If I wanted to upgrade my current desktop, the only parts that would be of use would be the case and DVD drive -- two of the cheapest parts to replace. And nobody uses CRT monitors anymore, so that would need replacing too. Is this really any worse than an iMac? How many PC parts today will have compatible upgrades another three years down the road?
Upgradeability is one thing, but repairability is still an area of concern. If the power supply in a standard desktop dies, throw in a new one. If an iMac blows its power supply, it's off to Apple for repair. I admit this is a somewhat unfair comparison. The same issue would present itself if the PC were an all-in-one from Dell or HP rather than a standard desktop built from off-the-shelf parts. But, it's still an issue that must be considered since Apple has no other desktop machine between the underperforming Mac Mini and the far more expensive Mac Pro.
Are Macs lacking in the gaming arena? Definitely. Does that really matter? Obviously, it depends on the person. Spore and Quake III run natively on my MacBook Pro, and Half-Life 2 and its assorted cohorts play flawlessly within CrossOver (a highly customized, though sadly non-free version of Wine). But, yes, most new games are still Windows only. I haven't used Bootcamp personally, so I can't relate any experiences with installing Windows on my MacBook, but supposedly the process is mostly painless, if you don't mind having to restart your computer to play Windows games. Graphics-wise, Macs in general still leave something to be desired, but they're not nearly as bad as they used to be -- Spore runs just fine on the MacBook Pro, and there are plenty of demo videos on Youtube of people playing Crysis in high resolutions with high detail on their Radeon 4850-equipped iMacs. None of Apple's available graphics options are going to totally blow anyone's socks off, but they do have options now high above the cheesy video cards that used to reside in even their highest-end desktops, and that's really enough for me as someone who no longer has the time to be anything more than a casual gamer.
Is Mac OS for idiots who don't know how to use computers? Last time I checked, Windows didn't have a built-in, tabbed terminal application. In general, the more I've used my MacBook, the more I've found Apple's design philosophy isn't so much to not have advanced functionality as it is to hide the advanced functionality unless you really dig for it. I end up spending a lot of time Googling for how to accomplish X in Mac OS, and X usually ends up being possible, but hidden behind several layers of menus. This can make life frustrating, but I can also see the benefit in making it harder for novice users to completely hose their systems.
People still claim that Mac OS is more stable than Windows. In my experience, they're pretty much on par with each other nowadays. Windows XP, Vista, and now 7 have never given me any trouble that wasn't obviously my own doing. And Mac OS is not without its share of bugs.
In the end, I'm not a Mac devotee. I don't worship Steve Jobs. I won't have an Apple logo tattooed anywhere on my body. Mac OS is not some ultimately divine desktop operating system. But I appreciate what Apple has done over the last few years. It's sad in a way, since it was always so easy to hate Apple entirely, but they really have done a lot to address my, and a lot of people's past criticisms. Now, if they'd only give iTunes a directory browser and not force you to add everything you want to play to your library…