This has become such a negative thread.
I love it when people proclaim "My PC runs circles around your Mac and it was cheaper!" Is your workflow running circles around mine because you own a computer that you saw a benchmark about? Are you really writing songs 2-3 times faster than me? Editing circles around me? Nah, I doubt it. If so, it's not the processor.
Macs are amazing, I own both platforms, Mac and PC - The PC (3ghz Pentium, shuttle box, 1 gig ram) is cool but for me, it's only good for Battlefield Vietnam. It could be for more, but why? The machine was cheaper and TECHNICALLY faster, but when it's time to WORK, which in my case is graphic design, video, and music, it is definitely NOT faster for me to deal with the Windows OS, the shoddy interface and low-quality hardware, etc... For me, at least, the Mac is the choice of professionals around me, in almost all areas. PCs are rarely in the picture, other than for Softimage XSi, which is not available on OSX. Nice render engines though.
The extra cost is worth it to me because it just works, plain and simple, it has for over a decade for me. 'Usability and Dependability' is faster than using my PC. Your machine is marginally faster and cheaper? Good for you, it's not running OSX, hands down a better, smoother operating system. G5s and PCs are running neck and neck, and to get that superior PC performance, many of the benchmarked PCs are costing more than the G5s. It's close enough that I'll stick to Mac.
If you want to talk about market share, then let's get to some nuts and bolts: in the professional CREATIVE fields, Mac has a larger percentage than PCs. But if you want to count all machines sold, everywhere, that means all the machines sold to people like your aunt, and the machines that run the registers down at Pep Boys, or in back stock rooms to keep inventory, then yes, you have a better market share.
But in creative? You will be hard pressed to find creative professionals like designers, editors, and musicians who would rather use a Windows machine. The cost is not a factor, that $500-1000 difference in machines can be made up in ONE morning at an agency or production house. And music? OSX has lower audio latency, system-level 'core audio' plug-ins, superior audio handling. Video? From iMovie to iDVD to DVD Studio Pro to Final Cut Pro HD, forget about it.
My advice to people who ask me what platform to get? I tell them to get what their friends have, Mac or PC. The ones who have faced the same problems or have some good tips for you if some *isht* goes crazy. People you can call at 3am for answers.
I mean, personally, I'd go Mac anytime, but they really aren't for everyone, I understand, sometimes that extra cost cannot be justified.
Hey, sorry to sound hostile, but there is just so much nonsense being written here, the same old tired pitch about how it's cheaper and faster to go PC, which is not always true... Like if someone won't work in your studio because you don't run Logic, or a Mac Avid, or Final Cut Pro... Is missing work opportunities really cheaper? It can go the other way too, but rarely in my fields.
Plus, if you don't need 'em, why you so mad at Apple? Why hold a grudge? Just don't buy their products.
Plus the macs just look sicker!
