[Bill@WelcomeHome]

Apple's vision has never changed. They want to control every aspect of your computing experience, and they want to own all the pieces/parts to make that happen in house. Been that way since Day One, when they sealed their computers so that you could not work on them, and the same Teac floppy drive was $79 for a PC and $379 for a Mac, because of the connector difference on the back of the drive. The iPod and iPhone have helped to move that vision into the whole of mainstream life. Their marketing is brilliant, and their products are Teflon... no matter what is wrong with any of them, or no matter how someone else may do it better/cheaper or whatever, the public equates Apple with being the superior product, worth a premium price. I'd call that a success story.

Personally, I believe that tools is tools, and I try to use the tool that does what I need it to do best, not because of any name that might be associated with the product. I don't own an iPod or iPhone, I have other choices that work better for me. The software that I happen to run runs better or only on PCs. Were I doing other work with software that worked better on a Mac, I'd be using a Mac. Where there is no difference in how a software performs under either platform, since I own a pile of PCs, why would I buy a Mac?

If you don't like the choice that you've made, it is easy enough to change. I really don't understand the whole debate, because I spend my time in applications, rarely needing to piss around in the OS and not finding much difference in the end result, other than it is easier for me to find my way around the PC OS because I am more familiar with it. (shrug...)