PC clone, read this post carefully, cause I don't want to have to say any of this again. I respect your wanting to debate, and you are being pretty cool about the response you're getting, now read carefully before you keep asking why mac?
I, like many here have a lot of windows experience.. about 12 years worth. I was one of the original PC users back in 83 when I was running a BBS out of the bay area that got 50+ calls a day with my 1200baud hayes modem... I was using DOS 3.1 and various MS apps before many of the guys you go to LAN parties were born. So I don't need lectures on the abilities of the PC platform. I simply got fed up with Windows..... the hardware on a PC is much the same as a Mac.. PCI, DDR, AGP, USB, IE1394, 802.11B..... the only propriatary mac hardware is the DVI screen connection which is superior to your VGA/XGA connection anyway.
The thing you need to understand is that people who use computers for serious stuff (read: not games) need a system that runs stable. While 90% of people use PC (because it's cheaper, and runs many cheap home apps)...kinda like a Chevy is for the massses, and a BMW is for the elite.
People in the "back office" of design/graphics/production companies use Mac 90% of the time because it is STABLE..... not always faster, though in many apps a duel 1.25 G4 is faster than any P4, but just more stable. A company called Autodesk has a product sold under their label Discreet, its called cleaner 6, they also have a cleaner 5 for windows.. but I am read in a press release that they sell the Mac version at a ratio of 4 to 1 vs the PC version, they also make high end editor, it's called Smoke and it is the top of the line DV edit system, costs more than $260,000... guess what platform it almost always runs on? Unix... not Windows 2000... OS X is Unix, and at only 2 years old, it already has 3000 commercial apps available, and more come every day. Read more about Unix and Smoke here:
http://www.digitalvideoediting.com/2001/07_jul/reviews/smoke_review.htm
For example, if you were to try to encode a 90 minute DV into mpeg2 on a PC, you will likely have a crash that will cause you to have to restart.... that has been demonstrated over and over.. In a Mac... its a one time job... and it's usually faster.
Also you want to know why my OS is better than your OS (and this is what it boils down to for me, OS)... well consider this:
Large computer systems that run Airline reservations systems, Bank data centers, DOD computers, the internet it's self, all run on Unix... either BSD, AT&T, HPUX, Solaris.... they are all a twist on the same system... well Mac OS X is a BSD unix (4.4 lite).
Now ask yourself, if the worlds largest supercomputers depend on Unix for up time and not Windows 2000 or NT (which share the same Kernel as XP).. which OS is more stable?
There are NO "serious" computers that are mission critical running windows in corporate america... maybe smaller companies that can't afford Sun, IBM or HP mainframes/Servers do, but the rest use Unix. Yes, there are amature projects where people strung togther a bunch of PC's into a large processor grouping, but large companies don't depend on that kind of set up to run.
Windows machines are great home computers and great game platforms (like an X-box)... but they are not mature enough for me to run a $1000 app to edit my DV, let alone a professional.
Finally, I don't hear any clamoring from Mac users to port windows to the Mac... but there are more than 100,000 people who signed a petition to port OS X to the PC... hmmm..
