gah! fanboys!
Why the arguments? We know all OSen suck. Doesn't matter if it's Windows, OSX, Linux, Unix or even BeOs. They are all a pain in the arse.
Windows 98SE is actually perfectly acceptable for the majority of users out there. While most of us here are pretty tech-savvy, the average user doesn't care. They just want to turn the computer on, browse the web, shop and do their e-mails. Latest and Greatest doesn't come into it. Though to be fair, Macs aren't good value for money, even in a dim light if you squint. The newest laptop I bought (HP G6031EA, AMD TK-53, 2Gb RAM, GeForce Go6100) does everything I want of it, and then quite a bit more. It boots XP64 and 64Bit OpenSUSE. It "Just Works" once I got rid of the horribly bloated POS that is Vista.
My desktop box is a home built AMD 6000+, 4Gb and an X1950XT. Decent spec for what I use it for (Mainly Browsing and some gaming). Again this boots XP64 and OpenSUSE. The Reason i mention those is that at both points in time I took a serious look at Macs as a possible option. Both times I've had to conceed that for what each of these machines cost me I wouldn't have been able to get a Mac, and still have the same grunt. The Lappy was £375, the desktop was £550 all in. I wouldn't have been able to get the MacPro that would have been essential to actually play games on (once I had installed Windows alongside OSX). price/performance on Macs is a great big fail, and some of us really do work things out like that. Hell, I wouldn't have been able to get a MacBook pro to get away from the horrible Intel graphics chips on the MacBook either, even when you take the combined price of the machines into account.
Macs don't always "Just Work" either. They are just as bad as PCs for perferal hardware compatability. I picked up a cheap Samsung laser printer a few years back, and it refused to be recognised by either my G3 when I bought it, or my mate's Macbook about a month back. They are less prone to hardware conflicts and annoying driver issues essentially because Apple have such a tight level of control over the hardware, but they do still suffer with external devices.
Before I get accused of being a "Mac Hater" i'm not. Until recently I was still using a G3 that was sat under my desk, but after many years faithful service it finally let The Magic Smoke escape, and it's gone to the great recycler in the sky. I used Macs from System 6 onwards, running through various machines including a Powerbook 100, early Powerbook Duos (Now THAT was a snazzy idea), Quadra 630 DOS (shiny P90 card If my memory serves), PowerMac 6500 and eventually the rather awesome and uber reliable G3 (by way of a few other machines as well, including a few Power Computer servers we had at a place I was working). I've also pretty much always had a Windows/Linux box as well because of games, and software availability.
Now please, quit the bickering, it's like being in a playground.
ouchies, i just wrote an essay, nightshift is getting to me I think.