RW - I'm not quite clear on why you'd find it surprising that a question about photography would result in responses from those who knew about photography. People who do it to make a living and actually depend on their gear to put food on their table and pay their mortgage had damn well better know the tools they work with, just as you'd better know your development apps! As had been said on more then one post, the drawback to a Mac will be available software for diverse applications. If the question is addressing Photography (as it was) and Graphic Design then I'd always recommend a Mac as making those processes relatively simple, fast and stable, as well as being very intuitive in the case of their integral applications like iPhoto. I didn't read about anyone telling this guy to go out and drop 3 large on a brand new G5. Used G4's are abundant in virtually every city and town across the US as well as on the Internet, at very reasonable prices and are plenty of Mac for what the poster require. Heck, even a G3 is a dead-stable platform to run any version of OSX on and still not be lacking for basic applications. Those can be had for only a few hundred dollars. As far as surfing the Internet goes, money invested there should go into a DSL or Cable conection as most of the browsers do a fine job, and virtually all are available at no cost.
Prpixel - Glad to hear the PC is finally catching up with Mac where stability is concerned. All I can say is that it's about time. PC viruses are still a problem, especially on boxes that send and recieve email and surf that net. Mac's remain relatively impervious to that and I can say that I've absolutely never had a virus or worm on my Macs over the years. Mac has such a stronghold on the photography/design community at large. BUT recent tests are showing the the Pentium 4 processor is actually faster (compared to a dual-processor G4 which is NOT the current state of the art) in many Photoshop proceses and especially in converting raw files (crucial to a pro, or anyone wanting the utmost in quality from their digital images). Anyone interested in those recent tests, which have come under much scrutiny and criticism since Macs have always been considered the faster route, can read the original test on
Rob Galbraith's Website. Incidently, the PC's used in this test were all over $3K as was the Mac (as configured). I don't know how the G5 and OS10.3 have changed the balance. Apple has a strong reliance of the graphics/photography community on their choice to use Macs above PC's because they've always been superior. If PC's continue to improve as they have been in these realms, then Apple may be in big trouble since the graphics community has always been one of their most staunch supporters
Obviously you don't need to spend large coin to just do snapshots and surf the web. If the original poster just wants to buy something brand new and as cheap as possible, and wants to play games on their computer, and perhaps eventually become a Prototyper for Microsoft.... well then, go get yer'self a chop-shop PC and have at it. I, myself, prefer the stability and reliability of Macs when using them in grahics applications. They have a long history based on these strengths and continue to do these things very very well.
Marco
