I've not got any problem using Macs, it's just that their main reason to exist has come and gone. When they first came out in 1984, the typical mainstream computer alternative was either a DOS PC, or one running a very early version of Windows, and there were less people around that felt comfortable with computers, so at that time, it was a good idea to have a 'friendly-looking' computer with a one button mouse and a GUI that was purposely very difficult to get into (especially by accident).
But these days it is not surprising to find people of all ages on the internet, and fairly computer-savvy they are too. With Windows operating systems looking a lot more user-friendly, there is
far less need for a PC user to
have to be clued up on how it actually works. When that became the status quo, the only thing left for Apple to do, was to claim that their machines were more sleek and stylish and pretty. To an extent this has worked for them too; in the DTP and print industry, you will have a hard time convincing anyone (other than the IT people) that a PC is better, cheaper and more capable than a Mac, and you can point out the fact that when they upgrade their new Apple-certified graphics card, what they are buying is a card that PC users are thinking about replacing as it is getting on a bit until you are blue in the face, you won't convince them!
Even pointing out that Macs have now switched to using Intel processors, and have been through numerous mouse incarnations in recent years only to end up with a three-button mouse that has a scroll wheel on it, which is what PC users been shoving around their mouse mats for the past 15 years, will fall on deaf ears. As will the fact that most large Mac server networks in the media industry will either use Unix stations or even ordinary PCs with Windows 98 on them before they'll attempt to try it with a Macintosh OS!
Working for Apple and Adobe (among others), as I often do, they regard me as the antichrist because I prefer PCs by the way.
Macs: They are pretty, and the build quality is generally great, the design is not quite so clever sometimes, as anyone who has ever had a G3 give up the ghost in high temperatures, or had a CD that won't eject, will confirm. They do have the advantage of being a controllable environment when it comes to writing compatible applications, a bit like a games console to a large degree, although CS2 applications crash on the newer Intel Macs with annoying regularity. Also like a games console, they are overpriced and expensive/impossible to upgrade, so for a home user, they are quite simply a bad buy if keeping up with the times is a goal, and like a games console, you'll need the new model in three years, unlike a PC, which you can perform rolling upgrades on. On top of all that, because the Mac user base is smaller, the software costs more as there is not the economy of scale which can be achieved with a PC platform, which is why they are getting ever closer to becoming a PC in different box with a fancy logo on it that buyers will be paying 800 quid for. And Apple know this, which is why they started diversifying into the music industry.
And yes, I do know there is Linux as well. That penguin is cute.
Chock