I’ve been using Macs since ‘92. I was a Mac user working with OS 6 and Photoshop 2. I’ve used Windows 98/2K/XP alongside the Apple machines. I’ve prolonged the useful lives of both PC and Mac hardware with various flavors of Linux (Yellow Dog, Fedora, Ubuntu, etc). I know my OS’es inside out and I am happy about Intel Macs, Boot Camp and XP-on-a-Mac.

In the last year or so I’ve realized that I’m ready to switch back to Apple. Here’s why.

1. Apple makes fantastic hardware.

When we (meaning the College where I work) buy a brand new Mac lab and a PC lab at the same time and run them concurrently, we usually have to replace the PC lab hardware around the time the Macs have reached half their useful life. And we do try to get quality PC hardware.

The Apple machines are replaced because they are older and slower than what the new apps and OS versions require - not because the hardware has failed, which is what happens in the PC labs.

In this sense I’d feel secure, as in one less headache to deal with, installing XP on a Mac as opposed to on PC hardware.

2. The software I really need is available on both platforms. MS Office (or Open Office); the Adobe Macromedia suite(s), Quark, Firefox, etc, etc - its all pretty much 4 quarters to the dollar.

The only thorn in my side is MS Access. But then I must say that Access is very beginner-unfriendly and requires a lot of end user training before users become productive. I could use FileMaker Pro instead (which is Win/Mac anyway) and get people up and running in hours rather than days. Or I can forget the whole proprietary single user DB thing and use MySQL instead.

Anyway, if I need a PC just for MS Access I can either dual boot, virtualize or simply set aside one box out of the bunch for that purpose.

3. With Boot Camp now I can install any OS I want on one box. Speak of saving desktop space and reducing my hardware acquisition costs! For those of you thinking “Wait a minute, Macs ain’t cheap!”, yes you are right. But they are cheaper than buying a Mac and a PC and the Apple machines last years longer, so in the long run they are a lot cheaper.

4. I love my PC, really I do. But I get more work done on my Mac. Why? Because I spend so much bloody time taking care of my PC instead of using it to do real work. Constantly updating antivirus and antispyware apps, applying Windows Updates, patches, scanning for viruses and spyware, tracing the root cause of some erratic BSOD, resolving conflicts… and the list goes on. Prevention and repair take up too much time.

Yet I know my hardware and software stuff really well. Imagine those who aren’t technically savvy. Argh! It makes using a PC a real drag and drains the pleasure out of using XP, which otherwise is a nice OS to use.

Macs on the other hand bring a new level of meaning to the term ‘Plug n Play’. Isn’t that what end users want anyway? Being a closed platform does have its advantages.

5. Most end users really don’t care what hardware or OS you have. Users are creatures of habit and “prefer” Windows not out of loyalty but out of acquired experience. Or knowledge of any viable alternatives.

When you consider tha most users live their lives reading and writing email, surfing the web, typing in Word and adding up sums in Excel - they can do that in any operating system and their user experience will hardly change at all. So the brand isn’t of any value as an argument anymore.

6. There’s lots of really cool open source software already ported or being ported to OS X, and it grows every day. Lack of apps isn’t an argument against Macs anymore.

In the end, if having a Mac on my desktop saves me money and anguish, makes me more productive and runs all my software why should I bother with anything else?