Convince me to buy a Mac

I'm going to be buying a PowerMac (tower) unit when they go to Intel.

Why am I switching? Well, lets see...

First, I'm sick of MS saying that Vista is just around the corner when that corner is miles away. Pretty much all the features in Vista are already in OS X.

I can still run the games I am playing now on a Mac.

I'll be able to put Windows on the box if I want to. However, I'm hoping for OS X to have virtualization built-in so that I can run Windows apps right from within OS X and not have to dual boot to the Windows side. I'll still keep my decent Windows box for games that are not available for the Mac.

Now as far as you are concerned, I really can't put much weight in my assertions here since I don't currently own a Mac. However, from what I understand, GarageBand allows you to do podcasting, and from what I hear it's much nicer than anything a PC can do. Of course, GarageBand is great for any musician.

From my days of developing software for Mac's (4-5 years ago), they are not the easiest to write programs for if you want to use languages like C/C++. Java development is not too bad. They are keeping up with the latest JVM's much better now than back when I was doing Java development for them.

The only other thing I can say is that I think that the security that a Mac has over Windows is worth it alone. I keep reading over and over again how MS may have bitten off more than it can chew as far as Vista goes. I'm worried that Vista will make ME look like a solid, bug free piece of code.

You will buy a Mac. (performs jedi mind trick hand wave)

I think it comes down to the elegance of the Mac. I also enjoy building systems and work with Windows, Linux of various varieties and OS X on about a daily basis. On my iBook I can just get things done without worrying about the system itself. The software ties together pretty well and I can do what I want.

My iBook becomes a place that I can relax on while I work. Power and elegance tied together. A great GUI with a powerful command line to back it up.

I am looking forward to more intel based offerings such as the iBook, but won't be buying as my iBook is only 9 months old, though my rationality may flee when it is released.

You want a Mac because Apple seems to have a philosophy that says, "do what must be done to make this a positive, well rounded experience".

It's an interesting idea, and it got people (myself included) to realise that PC's are holding advances in tech back. Consider this, Apple ditched numerous PC staples that people relied on, and are only now realising they don't need:
1. Out dated peripheral ports (parallel, serial, ps2) choosing USB and Firewire alone to connect peripherals - and how much simpler is that?
2. Ditched floppies too. I would rather tech support a Mac than a PC for this reason alone...
3. Said goodbye to System 9. They supported it for a reasonable time, but made it clear all along that their system would not be bogged down trying to make everyone happy.
4. Have sort of shown that they will use stable, or new and emerging technologies (with their own spin on it) instead of insisting that people keep using 'updated' (feature-tacked-on) versions of their old proprietary technology. Again - System 9 was ditched in favour of a nix backbone. They include apache and php with the OS. Compare Microsoft who keep loading pile after pile of re-worked re-hashed proprietary stuff on the public, locking more and more people into 'their' system.

Sure these things annoyed some people, but it's clear that Mac's are 'moving forward' while PC's are stuck catering to people stuck in the past.

All in all, I feel like I'm taking charge when I buy a Mac - no one will tell me what to I have to use. Of course this isn't always true and I prefer Firefox because Apple decided I couldn't use the latest version of Safari without purchasing Tiger. But more often than not, if I see it coming to a PC in the future, Apple is already doing it.

If Apple pioneers something new (this is hypothetical) I can imagine that they will use existing standards to make it work securely and easily, and start to phase out whatever it replaces. If Microsoft or Dell were to make this hypothetical Doohicky(tm) it would use their own proprietary software/hardware combo, communicate in a completely new and patentable way, be full of bugs, and contain a bunch of bits and bobs that make it (theoretically) usable with technology I hated ten years ago when it was in it's prime, and now isn't used by anyone but my Gran.

You want a Mac because it speaks to you of future world that doesn't need endless configuration, doesn't rely on and adhere to old tech, and will move and change easily with the advances of our field.