I recently switched from using a PC as a business user over the last 15 years to a Mac, having once been an Apple fan a long time ago. I also have integrated the use of an iPhone in lieu of a Blackberry with my computer through MobileMe. While there are some undeniable advantages of the Mac/iPhone combo, namely far better response times (start up/shutdown and applications) and a lot of slick applications on the media side, I would hesitate to make the switch to a Mac from say a PC running Windows 7 for business reasons. Here's why: The functionality of the Office products is considerably more limited in a Mac than in a PC. Entourage does not match Outlook in this regard at any level (mail, contacts or calendar) and syncing with an iPhone isn't straightforward. You cannot, for example, accept an calendar invitation on your iPhone from an Outlook source (there is no fix for this). Powerpoint is significantly reorganized and while it has a lot of nice potted graphics, its tough to relearn where everything is. You can't use macros in the Mac version of ppt and if someone sends you a password protected ppt document, you will not be able to open it in a Mac. It's worth noting also that iPhones will not play any videos that use Adobe Flash player, which is really a huge deal as it is commonly used by most news websites. And I really dislike typing on an IPhone compared to a Blackberry - I make far more mistakes and it's a lot slower. Excel is also not as good on a Mac and a lot of functionality is missing. I did some least squares regression analysis of some data a few days ago and it was really a pain to do. It isn't true that Mac's never hang: they do, but not very often and apparently only with office applications, as far as I can tell. If you do decide to convert from a PC to a MAC, you need to be very careful in doing the data transfer - I would get Apple to do this, and you need to be very explicit about what you want in terms of setting up mail accounts and so on. It caused me a lot of grief and many trips back to the store to sort syncing issues and so on out. Finally, be carful about printer interfaces - I had an old completely reliable HP laser printer that I had to junk because no Mac drivers existed for it. There were two reasons why I chose to go with a Mac: the first is the usual one that I was really tired of the time it took to do just about anything on my PC, the constant crashes and failures. The second was I thought the Mac was compatible and Apple provided a lot of tech support for free that I couldn't have got with a PC (am now working on my own instead of in a corporate environment). The fact is that Macs are not completely equivalent or compatible with the PC environment, despite what Apple says.

I just read on another blog:

"Know what software you want to run before you decide what hardware to buy."

That's what it comes down to. Know what you want to do with the machine, what you want to hook up and run on it and then decide on the hardware. A brand's image shouldn't be the main reason to buy a multifunctional tool. The functionality it provides and if that functionality matches your needs, that's what's important.

I build machines for myself and friends and families and the first thing I ask them is "What do you want to do with it?" That should be the question people should ask themselves, not "What makes me look cooler?" Although, if making you look cool is the main functionality you're looking for, then it's alright, too. Get a MacBook or a VAIO. :P

I personally think a plain black Thinkpad with Linux makes you look the coolest when you show up to repair people's MACs and PCs. XD