Overall, I like the GUI of Windows better, though I wish it had a "real" shell. Explorer isn't great, but it's usable. The MacOS Finder is a real pain for power users.
I agree too much with -D-, so I'll just quote him. :-)
1. It's more stable in my experience (I had serious problems with shoddily-programmed Mac apps, mainly browsers, crashing to the point I had to constantly reboot the system)
I think a lot of modern Mac programmers are still doing things the old way.
2. The GUI is much faster and more responsive, with or without the "eye candy" (which, as others have pointed out, can be disabled in 2 seconds)
Seeing how Apple is the self-proclaimed World Genius for GUI Design(tm), I find it very hard to stomach. I saw a demo on a dual G5, and I thought the GUI was very slow and unresponsive. From the Apple menu, it took three seconds to open up the window that shows information on the system, and it did absolutetly nothing to let you know it was doing anything (unlike AmigaOS, which gives you that "Attempting to..." message in the title bar.
I'd expect a dual G5 to be just a wee bit faster, even with the eye candy turned on. :-)
3. XP boots and installs much faster (not really a 'major' reason, but true nonetheless)
Fully loaded with Apache and MySQL among other dev tools, my system has a boot time of 45 seconds. With everything off, it boots in 18. I've seen Windows machines boot in 3 minutes, but those systems are either running Win98 with high-end business tools, or they have a hundred spamware background tasks. No OS is gonna boot fast if it's loaded with junk. My Linux box with Mandrake takes about 1:20 to boot. At least Windows ships pretty clean, but Mandrake comes pre-installed with tons of junk!
I'd debate the install, though. I've not seen an OSX machine go from CD to boot, but XP is simply the longest install I've ever seen. It takes about an hour and a half, and most of the time it just sits there "registering components".
Given that it takes so long, you'd think Microsoft would give more information about what the XP install is doing. But I suppose priting, "Proliferating our licenses and protecting our profit margin" wouldn't be very convincing. :-)
3. Windows has a much better developed application base for most things...ever tried MacUAE, or checked out the Mac demoscene?
Funny, given how few dev tools actually come with the system, and how painful it is to do really simple things. Ever try to make a Windows app without a GUI builder or one of Microsoft's bloatware compilers? A million API calls are needed to do only the basics.
4. "IF" things do go wrong, Windows is generally easier to troubleshoot and repair
Well, that depends if you know where everything is and you have decent tools. I'm not to familiar with OSX, but if it's anything like other UNIX systems, I expect it to be pretty messy at the filesystem level, complete with trucated "quick" filenames and just about everything dumped into "etc". I really, really hate the Linux file tree.
Then again, Microsoft is moving everything from the Windows folder into bizarre hidden locations in Documents and Settings. Finding a config file or a cache isn't as easy as it used to be.
5. I don't like being raped as a consumer -- i.e, "Mac Edition" video cards, and things like RAM always cost three times as much, just to run what to me feels like a bloated home-brew Debian compile - and this doesn't even include the entrance "wham"...a $3000 system that comes with a Radeon 9600???
Exactly. Plus, you can't swap motherboards. Gotta buy a whole new machine next time. Even crappy, non-ATX PC clones can be rebuilt somewhat.
Bulk warehouses rarely even stock Mac hardware thanks to Apple's vertical monopolization of their market. I heard drivers are a big culprit, but I find that hard to believe given that OSX is so close to UNIX architectually, and Linux drivers are aplenety. It can't cost THAT much to make Mac-only drivers.
I remember trying to find an ATA-100 controller for our old 200Mhz Power Mac, and at the time the cheapest I could find was about $100. The PC versions were $26 for a decent one, and the hardware is identical. I just looked on NewEgg, and the Sonnet PCI ATA controller is $77 and it's based on a Promise chip. A genuine Promise FastTrack TX2 controller is $24. Old Macs are not a pretty sight.
