Mac or PC?

[Adrynalyne]

No, but if you have a local Apple Store, you can play with them to your heart's content in the store

[cnybud]

This is true, but to be honest the local Mac store has a problem. I stood in there one day for twenty five minutes waiting on someone to come over to me and ask me if I had questions, even tried to make eye contact with a few of them but they took everyone before and after me. I did have questions but I was going t buy a Mac that day. Never did.

The local Mac guru said i probably didn't look the "Mac" type so they didn't bother.

Maybe I will take some graphics files in there on a thumb drive and test out Photoshop next time I am there and see if that gets any attention

[krazykrl]

If you get a new Intel Mac, you don't have to give up Windows cold turkey. You can dual boot into Windows if you really needed to. I am pretty sure though that after you get used to OS X, you won't want to go back unless you're forced to.

[littledoc]

I used Macs for years, and currently use PCs because of gaming.

In terms of price, software choices, upgrading, gaming, and customization of the OS, Windows is the superior choice. Incidentally, Windows can even be configured to have an identical interface as OSX.

Certain Macs are good for certain people. If you don't make upgrades aside from maybe adding some RAM, you don't do much gaming, you don't do any overclocking or system tweaking, and you have an aversion to installing anti-virus/anti-spyware programs, an iMac is a decent PC. The OS is easy to use and secure, and the iLife suite has some reasonably good software (although I'd argue that Windows allows you vastly more choices in that regard).

But with Vista out, I think Windows has stolen some of the thunder that made Mac better, from security and ease of navigation to the integration of software and Windows Media Center for movies, dvr, TV, music, photos, etc.

As I see it though, the biggest problem with Mac is the "toss it" upgrading. What do you do with an old Mac? Throw it away and spend $1500 on a new one. What do you do with an old PC? Spend a few hundred bucks on upgrades and keep it for a few more years.

[Adrynalyne]

OS X can be customized quite a bit with third party applications, same as Windows.