I used to have a PC (old one) and a PC at work, but when my old PC gave out, a friend talked me into checking out Macs. So I got an ibook and it's been GREAT!

And, just FYI, it cost me $999.00 and has served me very well for about two and a half years now. If I had known what I know now, I might have gotten the slightly bigger model with a DVD burner built in, coz now I could use that. But at the time I had no idea how deeply I'd get into IM!

Once I sell a bunch of my stuff, I might upgrade to a Macbook Pro

Anyway, back to where I left off:

No more hassles with constant need to upgrade this or that and running out of RAM (though I did buy more memory because I'm just loading up so many mp3s). Or those pesky viruses. Or even worries about power surges!

It's also so cool that it goes to sleep instead of me having to reboot it all the time, so I just open it up and type. And when I'm done or want to take a break, I close it, and that's the end of it.

One tiny little drawback: On airplanes, it's easy to forget I haven't exactly turned it off, so I had to retrieve it a few times from the overhead bin and turn it off

The one real drawback: yes, it's a pain that there are programs that just won't work on the Mac and so I've got a big PC (bought on ebay) that I will eventually take out of its box and put to work, for Camtasia and the various little programs I've got sitting in my "PC programs" section of my back-up hard drive.

So yes, two machines eventually, but my ibook will remain my favorite.

The funny thing -- I was afraid it would be uncomfortable typing on it, and now I find it's ergonomically even better (far better) than the PC was. No pressure needed, hardly any movement. I just rest my wrists right on the (what do you call it, the thing right before the keys start) and extend my fingers over the keys and type.

And what Steve said (quoted below), about Apple being so friendly and helpful -- I could hardly believe my luck. I had a $99 deal for one year's worth of weekly hour-long tutorials and those guys were so friendly and efficient, I feel like a pro now (well almost). And there's a camaraderie there too that I really like.

Elisabeth
(who loves her Mac)

Check out ScreenFlow, in many ways it's better than Camtasia Also iShowU is great.

Elizabeth,

Kyle is right - Screenflow is so much better than Camtasia.

But you do need the Leopard OS system on your Mac to be able to use it.

Of course you may already have Leopard - but if not nip into your Apple Store and buy it (or get it online from Apple).

Costs about $150.00 but you'll be well impressed with all the "extra" stuff you get with it.

Steve

Personal preferences aside, Consumer Reports just rated Apple "Most Reliable Brand" and gave their tech support top honors according to this article

Wow, just stumbled on this thread and it's hitting me square in the gut...

For years I wrote copy in-house for several employers on a Mac. Had a PC at home just for surfing and such, so I was used to both.

Then when I decided to hang my shingle, I went with a PC laptop because it seemed like the safer choice businesswise. And for 2 years it worked great.

But about a month ago, I decided to upgrade to a bigger, better model. And a friend talked me into the Mac world once again.

So I got me a nice little white MacBook, bumped up the processor and RAM, picked up Parallels so I could run both systems, and went to work.

Since then it's been a bumpy road. Parallels is not nearly the program I thought it was (slow, quirky). I'm having issues jumping back and forth between the systems, and it's really becoming more of a pain than a pleasure. VM Fusion doesn't look like the answer either.

Then the final straw--I bought a high end keyboard and mouse from Logitech and didn't realize until I got it home that there's no Mac driver for it. AAARRRGGGHH!

So I've decided to go get me a smokin' hot PC, keep the Mac, and run both for what they do best ala Jo Mo. Probably do most of my video and surfing on the Mac, while keeping the PC for business only.

Now the big question--what PC laptop? I like the looks of the new Dell Vostro...

Plainwords, are you using your 150lb mouse again? I'm telling you, man, you can get one that weighs less than a pound these days.

I've used PC's and *NIX machines for about 24 years. Just bought my wife a laptop that was twice as powerful and 1/2 the price of the MacBook Pro. Don't have to make me read a sales letter to get that math. A lot of my friends have Macs and they swear by them. Most also have iPhones.

I used to be a techno head big time buying all the gadgets and building servers, etc. Those days are over though. We have 6 PCs in the house now but no Macs. I'm also using a quad-core computer running Ubuntu and I may be slowly moving to that one when I write software. Cheers.

Within a few short years after buying it, my first Mac was basically a doorstop. It ran so slow I would type a URL in my browser and go in the other room and do my hair for a while, checking on the progress of opening a siimple web page every few minutes. It annoyed me that all kinds of software were unavailable to me.

Eventually the clock battery died and I had to reset the system time every day. At the time there was only one place in all San Diego that would do it, and I think when I tried to see about going, they said they didn't do it anymore. Forget about opening the "hood" and doing it myself!

When I could take it no more, I bought a PC. It scared me at first, but eventually I realized things that not only did a whole world of software open up, but the PC was much easier. It was Windows 98, so it was every bit as "intuitive" and gui as a Mac. I still actually have that computer, though I don't use it regularly, and after 10 years it's probably more useful than that Mac was after 6 months. And I could open the thing up and put in more memory or change the CD-ROM drive ... all by myself!

I noticed things took fewer steps on a PC. For example, someone e-mails me a photo. I right-click and save it, creating a new folder right there in the dialog box. With a Mac, I would have to first drag the photo to my desktop, then create a new folder, then drag the photo to the folder, then drag the folder where I needed it. Four steps to PC's one. Add another if I want to rename it. I can't tell you how many times I would lose photos because as I was dragging, my finger accidentally released the mouse while it was over another folder.

There was only one feature I missed from my Mac, and that was the ability to double-click a file or application from an open folder while holding one of the keys (Alt? Shift? I don't remember) and once the file opened, the folder would close. I can't figure out how to do that on a PC. But seeing as how most Mac people I've talked to don't even know they can do that trick, it's not helping them much.

While I think much of one's preference depends on what one is accustomed to, Mac people don't seem to care whether Macs are truly better or not, because to them it's a "lifestyle" choice and they wouldn't feel as cool with a PC. To them, it would be like trading a sports car in to get a minivan. Who cares if the minivan is actually faster and more useful?