You're downplaying the software to suit your opinion. Windows is a good operating system on its own (some usability flaws can be ignored by the user) but the way applications and dependencies work with the OS is an orgy that usually ends in problems for heavy users.
Opinion schmoponion, this is my experience.
I work with graphic design and audio, sometimes making graphics for applications, sometimes making lengthy Flash ads with music soundtrack. Freelancing, always on standby for projects, tight deadlines and all that.
For this I use two PCs, one with Vista only, the other with three partitions (Vista, XP, Win7 beta). If there was even the slightest hint of glitches that got in the way of my work, I would use something else. I had trouble with two drivers in the beginning - Intel's wireless driver and NVidias gfx card driver, but these were not harmful to my work and they were fixed within a month after I installed Vista on these two machines that shipped with XP Professional. That's the end of my Vista "problems", just over two years ago. These machines run, run, and run again, the laptop probably taking the worst hit as it's virtually an "always on" machine. After just under 3 years, the motherboard on my desktop machine died. Dell replaced it the next day, and that was the end of it. So all in all I've had less than 24 hrs downtime in 3 years.
Now, enter the Mac (late 2007). One of my clients reeeeally wanted me to work on a Mac, on location, so I said OK, look, we'll make a deal: You buy me an iMac 24" with Adobe CS3, I'll buy it when the project is over for the residual value.
OK, so the Mac arrives (came with Leopard) after taking FOREVER to be delivered, nine weeks or whatever it was, and I start working. Day one: Very flakey wireless, had to use wired network; very flakey Mail app, server timeouts half the time for no apparent reason (Leopard issue, the other guys at the office were on Tiger and had no issues with mail); weird video glitches, when returning from sleep mode the screen was flickering like a stroboscope so I had to reboot (later fixed with a firmware update. MUCH later.). Lots of random crashes in Safari. Day two, working on some PSD files on the server. And what does the Mac go ahead and do? It
destroys my client's files! Look it up on the web, and sure enough, several reports of CS3 corrupting documents under Leopard when you save to a server. Fortunately they had a backup. Few weeks later: Tried to install a driver for a firewire audio device called Yamaha 01X. Decided I didn't like it. Uninstalled.
Not. The iMac started doing the infamous perpetual blue screen thing that so many people were experiencing with Leopard. Took me a day to track down some puny MIDI driver file that was buried deep in the Library somewhere, it made Leopard hang on startup. Starting to feel like Windows 98 here. After these minor and one major, MAJOR glitch it worked pretty well.
After the project I brought the machine home and more or less gave it to my girlfriend. It ran for a few months, then died completely (black screen, no 'bing' startup sound, only a faint whirr from the DVD drive). Call Apple support. Turns out my AppleCare plan wasn't registered, huge ordeal to register when a year has passed, faxing receipts and all sorts of crap. Anyway, talked to the snarkiest person ever to disgrace a support line, went through a ridiculous troubleshooting routine despite my assurances that I know a dead computer when I see one, and if I insert the OS X DVD it will only get stuck inside the machine. She insisted. The DVD got stuck. I asked about on-site repairs like I'm used to with my PCs. Apparently a ridiculous request, for two reasons -- A) an iMac isn't a desktop computer when it needs service, only in advertising, and B) I lived "too far" from the nearest service center (60 miles/100 km).
It's still sitting in a corner, I have to register the damn AppleCare plan and then transport the machine somehow to Stockholm, drop it off, and then travel back to pick it up an unknown number of days later.
Every single aspect of my Mac experience has been awful -- the purchase, the stability, the hardware quality, the support and service. Meanwhile the Vista machines are chugging along happily.
So forgive me if I feel like I'm in the twilight zone when people say stuff like "go Mac, it just works, you don't want a PC with the blah blah viruses and yada yada malware and bleh bluhh driver hell". Yeah mmmmkay, on what planet is that happening?
