Lots of people are computer illiterate so of course statistics can be skewed.
Indeed. I never assumed the overall literacy level was so low until I saw it from my own eyes.
Also , Windows allows for a lot more freedom than Mac OS X so you can run more programs and have much better hardware support. For my engineering work , I mostly use Windows based PCs since Macs are generally too slow or just a pain to deal with.
Choice is not synonymous for efficiency. Thanks to Microsoft inexistent QC checks on hardware drivers, many experience with Windows is simply awful and "mysterious" bugs happen because of that. Windows only works properly when used in a sealed environment. For example, we just learnt that Win8 PDF viewer couldn't properly print a document with URLs in it. No idea why, but my friend wrote a note so people wouldn't try to use it.
Slowness has to do with your hardware + software
together. At the help counter, I routinely see quad-core i7 Windows 8 machines running much slower than many Core2Duo OS X machines. Sure if you're looking for raw power, most non-Mac portables above $2k will beat one hands down. Just not true otherwise.
You also forgot to mention that business class Windows based PCs are not the same as consumer class Windows based PCs. There is a huge difference between quality of hardware and warranty service.
Indeed. I was talking about machines that individuals can buy. I would never recommend an consumer-level HP (seen way too many problems and flaky hardware), but individuals typically can't buy a business-class HP (or any other brand). On the organization-issued HP PCs, arguably business machines, I wanted to log on one to do some Word-based revision, and it couldn't start. Years ago I needed to run Linux on a HP machine from the same organization because Windows couldn't properly manage 4GB of RAM (This was Windows XP, and we all know there was never a suitable 64 bits version of this OS). I spent a week back and forth between my Mac and the HP because HP decided to make its machine incompatible, just to get some work done. At the time VirtualBox wasn't as evolved as it is now, and my Mac didn't have enough power to run it anyway.
Another anecdotal evidence, another friend was a hardcore Windows gamer. He knew it all, how to make the machine run smoothly, select solid parts and stable drivers. Then his girlfriend won a MacBook, pre-unibody, at a local sweepstake. He used it from time to time, and got hooked. She had a Sony machine and was not willing to pay big bucks for a larger-screen Mac, although she really liked it, and he got her an iMac. A week after, he sold me his gaming machine, which I converted to Linux (this was seamless as he selected compatible components, although it was not voluntary on his part) and used for an additional year, until the Asus mobo started failing. I converted to a laptop Mac after a series of incredibly bad experience with various PC makers service. Also was seamless since I considered all the advantages Mac OS had over those two in terms of efficiency. On a desktop PC, I would have to deal with at least 5 different manufacturers (power supply, mobo, graphics card, hard drive, monitor - and pay for shipping), excluding Microsoft since they don't provide any support for their OS at the consumer level. With Linux, all is forums, volunter-based, but if they can't reproduce your issue, you're pretty much stuck. With Apple, only 1, locally. Even now, I spend far more time than reasonable just to maintain proper virtualized Windows than I do Linuces.
When I hear a lot of complaints about Windows based PCs giving trouble , I tend to think that either someone didn't know what they were doing and/or someone was being cheap.
I'd say, usually both. Computer-illiterate people tend to buy a price, not a computer, and they end up with getting the issues that come with cheap hardware (chiefly "Sudden Battery Death Syndrome", a disease I never saw or heard of on a Mac) and lack of knowledge (coming for help with no backup and a bunch of malware, sometimes a non-bootable OS). I've seen non-knowledgeable ppl on the Mac as well, but at least the OS is solid enough not to crap out for no reason. And it respect standards without issues, unlike Windows. And when they have money (though not that much, a Mac is not especially expensive considering the reliability you get) AND a reasonable amount of knowledge, they usually buy a Mac, including in the engineering department because such a machine is more compatible. At least it was true before Apple killed the 17".
How many of
these have you seen?
Three. In a lab, used to control a video projection system. Ironically enough, as soon as data was acquired, the researcher transferred it on a standards-based computer running Red Hat. And used his own Mac to analyze data and write papers.
Now, I am not saying I would exclude a non-Mac from any future hardware purchase, and indeed, I wanted to build a $300 NAS from compatible desktop parts. But from all sources I consulted, this seems impossible.
I recommend you stay with Apple as you only get what you pay for. If you need Windows 8 try Apple with Bootcamp or Parallels or VMWare. I am unimpressed with Surface with QWERTY cover. I only use PC at work - not by choice.