Big Day for apple.

come to the dark side Reid!! :-) Forget Windows, it's pathetic. And besides, with boot camp or parallels, one can still run Windows and applications therein.

Yeah, but i have to buy the Mac (read expensive), then a copy of parallels, and a copy of windows and MS Publisher - which I have too much legacy stuff in...it would be a HUGE financial investment. I just may be an Apple Inc. gadget guy (ipods, iphone)

We'll see

Unless you're doing some kind of serious media production, like multitrack audio, or editing films, I don't see the need to upgrade (yes, I said upgrade) to Mac.

Who are we kidding, they are more expensive, and why spend more money just so you can dumb down. :-)

I've never been one who needs the latest, greatest, biggest, fastest. So I can support you in this.

I'm a Mac guy, 100 percent, but I'm also the guy who lets the other guy take the financial hit. I bought my Powerbook used for $1k less, and I'll do the same with the MacBook whenever I decide to upgrade.

As a life-long PC guy who just made the transition to Mac a few month back, I have to admit that the hype is everything that people make it out to be. I LOVE my MacBook.

Yes, I severely hated Mac a few years back. Yes, it's a bit more expensive (sort of... see http://www.systemshootouts.org for detailed cost comparisons). Yes, it takes a bit getting used to.

But man... between its ease of use (things just work logically), its plethora of great freeware apps, and its integration of first-party applications (and peripherals), I have to say that it's going to be tough for me to go back to PC (even with the price differences).

Now of course... there's the questions that were brought up today with the introduction of the AppleTV and the iPhone -- clearly Apple is a champion in the gadget world, and with the introduction of these two new devices, I don't see their place on the pedestal going away anytime soon (exhibit A: see the stock prices of AAPL, PALM, and RIMM from today).

Apple is here to stay... Might as well join the band wagon and integrate your world ;)

I really think to go Mac and never go back it is going to cost me twice as much money:

The Mac - 30-40% more than PCs (Chip that web site comparison is good, but very biased. I did my own shopping yesterday for "my needs" in hardware/software and th Mac was substantially more)

Windows - 200.00
Parallels - 80.00
Office for MAC? 399.00 Do I need it? probably do - another
Office for Windows to run in parrells - I use Publisher (I have tons of legacy stuff designed in this)and MS Access (I probably could migrate from this to another RDMS, but either way I have to pay) - 200 bucks for Publisher and Access upgrade

So, a more expensive computer, then 900 bucks of software...it is almost double what i would do with a Vista/MS office machine.

But I am interested - really. We'll see.

Well, I do have parallels and windows on my system, although I was able to use the copy of windows from my old laptop (which is now sitting in a closet, so I think that's ok. Parallels I was able to get in the bundle from MacMall for like $5, so that wasn't a big deal either.

As for Office, I use NeoOffice, which is a Mac port of the OpenOffice project. For the most part, this works flawlessly for all Word and Excel docs, although I have not really heard much about Publisher or Access equivalents (there is an Access equivalent, but I haven't used it). You can open and save in the native Microsoft formats when editing in NeoOffice (along with a number of other formats including PDF).

So *really* you may just be talking about a Publisher license...

Just some thoughts. ;)

Touche - nice reply - I remember when Open Office came out (I believe it was originally Star Office or something)

You are quite a good Mac Evangelist.