People who prefer PCs must either:

1. Watch Macintosh's perverse anti-advertising which, decade after decade, staunchly refuses to tell the viewer if Macs even do anything.

2. Prefer the sort of women who advertize on their T-shirts, bumper stickers, and blog headers that they are bitches, like that makes it noble to be rude to people.

I will not go to second level with you! Zardoz

Dang, can't believe I got in this early on this thread.

Started with Commodore 64 then to Amiga.
Still have them.
Had PC's for as long as they were available.
Got sick and tired of them constantly locking up and crashing.
Bought my first Mac about 3 years ago. Now I have 3. They very seldom lock up. If an individual program locks up, you just quit it, you don't have to reboot the machine. I don't think they have any viruses.

I had to buy Mrs. Geezer a PC to do a Stained Glass creating program that was not available for Mac. It locked up the first day and I've had to reboot it at least once per week since then.

Didja know they have MS Office for Macs?
Several full length features have been edited on Macs. I may be wrong but I think Cold Mountain and Dreamer were two.
There are lots of other programs too... Just not Stained Glass programs.
Yep, they're spendy... but worth it.

It's a trap!!

spin bitches!

Huwa sharak!

This post was never here...

Don't second-guess your posting, Kraut.

You would not believe the stupid shit I've posted here.

One time I posted about my dog rolling in shit.
Seriously.

Ace is the very soul of generosity.

I've got one of each. . . Mac and a PC laptop. Both have their strengths but, I have to concur with most of the views expressed by Retired Geezer.

PCs were unstable crap until Windows 2000. Now they are an average, stable computing platform. The PCs best features are ubiquity and price. My 3.4GHz P4 makes a nice space heater too! My last Apple was a IIe, so I don't know Macs. But some people sure love them, so they must be OK too. For me to learn Macs at this point would be like learning another language. And I really suck at language.

You'd be surprised how nice and easy-to-pick-up Mac OSX's interface is. My wife and I switched 4 years ago and we don't miss Windows at all. VirtualPC will allow you to run most Windows programs on the Mac, if you must.

Now that OSX will run on Intel-based processors, I hope hardware prices will drop...

I run Linux on PC hardware. Mac OS X looks nice, though.

Being a mac user, I have to weigh in on this one. Macs don't have to worry about viruses, worms, or hackers. They have fewer crashes, and for most people, they are easier to use.

The only thing that makes Wintels more attractive is that you can get software for them just about anywhere. Hopefully, with the recent switch to Intel, and the hoped for gain in market share, this will change.

I absolutely LOVE my PowerBook G4 with OSX 10.4.4. I started in 1983 with an Apple IIe, then received a hand-me-down 8088 from our office with Word Perfect 5.0 and Lotus 1-2-3, all DOS, with the F1-F12 crib sheet. (It had a 30 meg hard drive, and 640K of ram.) Then a 386 laptop, 486 desktop, pentium desktops, all with various incarnations of Windows, from 3.1 to 95, 98, 2000, and XP now on my backup PC and laptop for work where our company intranet web stuff doesn't completely support the Mac's Safari browser.

Bought the PowerBook in 2002; burned a CD on the PC with all my .docs and .xls, etc. Popped it into the Mac, copied it to the desktop, and there it all was.

Appleworks, sort of like MS Works, the watered down suite of word processor, spread sheet, presentation program, which I believe is now included with new Macs (I paid $89 for it in 2002), will effortlessly convert the Word docs. (It just does it, doesn't say, "This appears to be a Word document. Do you want to translated it and open it with Appleworks?" It just does it! Some problems with Excel spread sheets and Powerpoint. But there is the MS Office suite for Mac (which I haven't bought) as RG mentioned above. Appleworks offers options to save the file as either Appleworks, or Word, with various versions of each program an option.

Also, the operating system is stable and solid. Viruses are essentially non-exisitent. None of those screens of blue death! If a program hangs up (infrequent), you can force it to quit. The OS will still be running just fine.

To put the laptop to sleep, merely close the cover. To wake it, just open the cover.

Further, one click will make happen what often takes two or three clicks with Windows. Rarely does it ask, "Do you really want to do this?" It simply does it. And if it's an Oops, Command-Z will usually undo that last step. If you put something in the trash accidentally, you can just drag it back out.

The Macs are more expensive, but, my 4-year old PowerBook is still more than adequate for my needs. It hasn't developed quirks that I've often experienced with Windows machines that require some work-arounds after a while.

The simplicity of the operating system is amazing. Sometime, when you have a new piece of hardward to install, take a look at the directions that come with it, and note the steps it takes to install it with Windows, versus those steps it takes to install it on a Mac.

The Mac programs like iPhoto are easy to use, and all Mac programs seem to me to be very intuitive. Must be that their programming teams think like I do. :)

Mac Mail is way easier to use than Outlook, imho, and I have it set to recieve/send mail in both my optonline account and my earthlink account, seamlessly.

I unequivocally recommend Macs to anyone looking for a new computer. The Mac Mini is an inexpensive way to try one out when you already have a display, keyboard and mouse.

It really isn't hard to learn the new system.

Thanks, Ace, for the opportunity to brag about my Mac!

w b h,
I started with my brother's word processor (Word Star, don't you know).
With my first 8086, we paid almost double to get it with the brand-new VGA monitors. Oh my, the rose looked beautiful. $3,350.00.

I have to remind the kids that 80Mb was the size of the whole hard drive.

Never had a mac. Too many programs that won't run on it. Hear they're good, though.

Wow! The chick over at "It Comes in Pints?" seems to have a few issues.

Check out the posts where she went in and changed what I wrote:

http://www.secondbreakfast.net/archives/002471.html

One time I posted about my dog rolling in shit.
Seriously.

One of your classics!

I'd use a PC if I was a "Gamer" but I've never gotten into it. Linux Fedora Core3 on my HP laptop has made me a Happy (amazed) Camper. I'm interested in the Mac, but it's WAY too expensive for what it is. While it took a bit of work to get all the multimedia working, I play/stream virtually anything with Xine/GXine. Free Office Apps that have opened everything I've asked them to. Windows XP would lock-up and/or Blue screen on the drop of a Hat. I've had three different lap-tops that XP would run worse on than Win98 (Not much better than 95). I'm done running windows on anything ever again. Is Linux for the faint of Heart? Nope. You have to spend a LOT of time learning the system structure and how it works, but I've learned more about computers that I ever thought I would and my company pays me stoooopid money (I have no college) for my talents. Well worth it for me. (Oh, and no viruses/spyware crap)

This guest blogging is working out splendidly. The AoS blog has never been more alive. I dig it.

The dog-poo story was quite enjoyable. Laura told the story in olde english or something. I remember being confused if she was talking about her husband or her dog. Quite funny. Yes, quite.

Yep that dog-poop washing story was a classic AoS moment. Didn't it also lead to the still unfinshed jugding of the famous AoS Poetry Contest?

"Laura told the story in olde english or something"

I recall it as biblical. And hilarious!

Maybe you can re-post it?

Pretty please?

"Check out the posts where she went in and changed what I wrote:"

My goodness Dogstar, what did you say to make her mad?

I mean, you're generally so shy and soft-spoken... :)

I can deliver on this one Lipstick.

And lauraw was hilarious.

LD, I really don't know what happened. A PG-13 fantasy about her riding me took a sudden left turn into goat-fucking and IP addresses.

She's definitely a little too thin-skinned for this place.

I advised a generous helping of ass-loosener creme, and followed with a helpful spelling tip (no double "v" in pervy).

Kind of odd behavior for someone who wants every Brit to see "South Park", isn't it?

Thanks Dave for finding it--that is a classic. As was your King James version.

Didn't it also lead to the still unfinshed jugding of the famous AoS Poetry Contest?

Yup. Ace STILL owes us the promised winners of the Loose Shit category.

I'm just sayin'. In case Ace thinks that nobody remembers. Cuz I figure that my Ode to Ogden Nash is a strong contender.

Rather, the Living Bible version.

knew what ya meant Lipstick. and thank you *bows*

it ain't the first time I've riffed off of lauraw's funnay. I'm a bass player, we're trained that way.

Sure Dogstar, she changed it. That's not what you really wrote at all. At least pervy sounds a lot better than perverted. Kind of like how they get bawdy strumpets and tarty little bits of crumpet or rumpy-pumpy or fanny or whatever, and we get stuck with sluts and skanks. Emily's a pretty sexy name, makes me think of Suzanne Pleshette from the Bob Newheart Show. I wonder what she's wearing right now?

Found this comment on lauraw's dog post.

Yeah. Get a mutt. Mutts tend to be more intelligent, due to the lack of inbreeding, I suppose. Specifically, go to the animal shelter and get a small-to-mid-sized terrier looking mutt. Our dogs have always been vaguely terrier-looking mutts, and they've all been great.

Posted by: Michael on September 26, 2005 07:14 PM

This post could have been written by me, word for word. Absolutely correct, terrier type mutts are the best, hands down.

Dave, like your post about Pink Floyd. Atom Heart Mother is a great album.

Dogstar,
If you think it's okay to stop into the blog of a woman you've never met and write the following:

"Emily, I want you to ride me. Ride me like the naughty boy I am.

Who's the bad one? Me, mommy, me!"

I don't know you. If you were joking, I had no way to tell. If you had been a regular commenter and I was familiar with your personality and knew you were just being lighthearted, I would have let it be. But that's not the case.

And then you posted a comment using my name and e-mail address as if it were me. That's incredibly wrong.

Well, the goat fucking thing kinda got me light-headed. Guess that's the Montana in me.

And, BTW, I'm sorry if I came on too strong. Won't happen again.

Or was it just the position? Because I could change that.

My apologies - that was definitely over the top, but I was still rather miffed at a stranger that I'd never encountered before coming to my blog and posting like he'd just called a sex hotline. I've removed the goat stuff and your IP address.

Balance is once again restored to The Force.