Yes I agree and I have a huge distaste for the platform religious these days. I used the Commodore-Amiga originally because it was much better than the PC and the MAC of it's day. Back when PCs had 8 or 16 color screens and no real windowing software that truly multi-tasked. The Mac of those days was a single tasking machine most of them were still black and white and a color mac II cost $10000.00 for a complete system. The Mac was so expensive because of it's proprietary hardware products (you couldn't buy a cheap laser printer, you had to have mac interface and one that had a driver, etc.) There was no such things as USB keyboards and mice, etc.
I tried really hard to "champion" the Amiga, but it failed. The Mac folks of today still sound like the Mac folks of yesterday (we are superior), even though their overall marketshare is still very small comparatively speaking. Apple sells more iPods than Macs. Now they have a multi-tasking OS and they have went to generic hardware (lets face it, if they didn't have that bios, it would be very much the same machine that HP sells). I keep hearing "we are better" even though underneath the new MacOS is Unix through and through, just an apple UI layer over it. I have access to Macs, PCs, Linux Boxes etc. I find no real advantages except the perceptions people have in their own minds. There isn't such things as custom hardware or a processor that is heads above anything else out there..
The PC has improved it multi-tasks, has more colors and a true multi-tasking OS, no they didn't steal a unix clone and repurpose to get it either (or steal NeXTSTEP). It's still a target for spyware etc. In the last 5 years of owning a PC I haven't had any viruses or spyware get past my software that checks for this. I don't have cheap 3rd party hardware in my machine that lacks driver support or is from a sketchy company. So I don't have problems with the PC, haven't under XP or Vista (maybe it's because I don't surf porn sites, open emails with attachments etc) go to piracy sites on the web.
When I hear people say I have a PC and I have spyware I wonder how they got it. I know where most of that stuff is, and I avoid it. Maybe it's because I am in the IT industry, I don't know but between Avast! Anti-virus and Ad-aware by lavasoft (which under vista only seems to find cookies left, thanks to IE protected mode) I have no problems at all.
I would suggest to you that when I hear a person got spyware I know where it probably came from and I don't feel bad for anyone about that. My email spam blocking from my ISP is pretty good too, I never get anything coming through there either..
Either way, computers are just tools, if one does better than the other, the other will catch up, it's cyclical in nature and that's the great thing about the industry, if one person wants something on another platform it creates a demand and they end up with it there or something pretty close.
I do agree with the guy who has a Java shop at work that the Mac is closer to what he needs at work. After all it is Unix underneath and Java is more predominant on the Mac. In Windows they have .Net..
Next time you see that iPhone ad about Seafood and kalamari look up windows live search for windows mobile and you will see they have been able to do that exact functionlity for sometime in a format that fits in your actual pocket. That's a good example of a demand for functionality that people are asking for across platforms that is being delivered.
Microsoft's one works if you have an outboard GPS or one built into your phone to give you directions already knowing where you are at. Something Apple's doesn't do yet, but probably will in the near future. Again parity.
Anyone, who says Apples and Macs don't have or get viruses are wrong. There are a few of them out there, and pre-OS X the macs had just as many viruses as PCs did, it plagued them just as bad (you can check out virus updates on the Symantec Anti-virus for Mac site if you don't believe me.
If you are happy spending the overpriced money on Apple and think you are superior, well go for it and maybe you are. I am happy with my x64 vista ultimate PC, and My old beige g3 power macs, and my Amiga 1200/3000/4000/WINUAE..
Saying "my platform" is better, is just a waste of time these days because all pretty much do the same thing, and if they don't they will soon enough. Also I don't know anyone unhappy with what they can do with a computer these days. Having said that you still have to invest knowledge and time and learn about your machine. The machine won't just do that for you, no matter which one you get.
The Amiga is still amazing today because of it's ability to stay "relavent" even with the OSes of today. As far as the Apple ads go, I don't see the mac vs pc ads as trying to get the PC people to switch (in fact the character PC makes fun of people). I see this as trying to keep their current "base" of users. They attacked Vista so much in the ads they were obviously really worried about losing customers to it. They want Apple owners/users to feel smug that they are better because they bought Apple. When reality is they all are now the same hardware and just the software and UI are different but not all that different.
