Mac > PC. There, I said it.

The PC Versus Mac war rumbles on, then. The never-ending debate continues, with still the overwhelming majority plumping for the four small multi-coloured squares of Bill Gates' Microsoft over the little half-eaten apple of, erm, Apple. Everywhere you look, there are Windows computers, and now to back them up is that annoying "I'm a PC" advert doing the rounds.
Now, me and Apple have never gotten on terribly well in the past. I've never been a fan of their sly advertising tactics, which has meant that they have managed to advertise the iPod into everybody's pockets, even though there are so many other models of mp3 player which are in some cases better and much more cost-effective than the 'Pod. I now also dislike the iPhone, which suffers similarly from being achingly hip, despite being overpriced and underspecced compared to other modern phones - I was amazed to discover that the first version didn't even have 3G. But, for the first time, I find myself siding with Apple on this one. And I firmly believe that their range of computers, despite being named after a raincoat, are a better option than their dominant Windows counterparts.
I once dared to say this on that great 'social networking site', Facebook - I've never seen so much bitching and arguements in one place - and I was shot down by a bunch of people who have plainly used Windows all of their lives. Okay, so one guy had used one in my Media class, for all of five minutes before he promptly threw a tantrum because the interface was a bit different from the blue toolbar with the 'Start' button he had been accustomed to all of his life. Actually, I say shot down - I was more not in the mood to go into a long-winded discussion about it. Now, if anybody tries to argue that, I shall point them in the direction of this blog. Because now, I'm going to explain why I prefer Macs over PCs.
Firstly, the interface is something of personal preference, and the Mac interface can be a little confusing. But work with it for a little bit - I took about a week to get used to it - and it starts to become easy. But this is personal preference, and I prefer the Mac's shiny and slick userface. Windows has taken a while to catch up, and Vista actually takes some cues from the long-standing Mac interface. But I can understand why people would prefer Window's long-established interface.
But what cannot be argued is the issue of reliability - Macs are streets ahead in this area.
And nobody who uses a Windows PC can deny this, because nobody can say they haven't suffered at one point or another due to Window's poor reliability.
This isn't actually because Macs are very good here; it's more that Windows is just biblically rubbish in comparision. And this is nothing new. Back when Windows 98 was released, Bill Gates attempted to demonstrate a great new feature of this new OS at a press release, only for the computer to very publically crash on him in front of a multitude of top journalists.
And this was no one-off. So often do errors and crashes occur on Windows PCs that the error screen that appears has it's own name - the Blue Screen of Death. How many times have you seen this lovely blue screen of grey text, a metaphorical two-fingered salute at you as whatever you had open at the time, unsaved or not, is lost forever. You simply cannot say this has not happened to you before, because it has.
That's not all. Windows also has the power to infuriate by being incredibly stupid. My computer has taken to trying to wind me up when, at random times when click Log Off or Shut Down, instead of coming up with the box with options to, say, Shut Down, or Restart, or Standby etc, it simply comes up with an error message saying that Windows Explorer (the main interface) has encountered a problem and needs to close. So what it's basically saying is that it has encountered a problem in closing itself down and needs to close down? On the new Vista it is even worse - you get a question every time you open any program, asking you if you're sure you want to open it. Patronising? Just a little. But I'll talk more about Vista later.
The list of idiotic things my computer does is endless. I have in fact had to re-install Windows XP three times on my PC, and Im getting to the stage where I will have to do it for our office PC, and it has already been done for our house laptop. Why? I don't know. All I know is the warning signs that the installation of Windows is corrupt - erratic CPU usage (increases and decreases very quickly for no reason), random error messages, and it struggles to recognise new hardware that it should be able to recognise anyway by default. And the re-installation process is just so long and so tedious - it takes about 3 hours, and then you have to re-install absolutly every single program on there. Oh, and you risk loosing all your documents in the process.
Oh, and it gets better - Vista is even worse. It is an undeniable fact that many people are now buying brand-new PCs and actually uninstalling Vista and installing some other operating system on there. What does it say about Microsoft that they spend so many years and so much money on their new operating system which turns out to actually be even less reliable than its predecessor? It is, quite frankly, ridiculous. And the monumental stupidity has actually increased - the other day I discovered that, on a friend's laptop, they had a very good video card - about 512MB video RAM. However, for some reason, the computer itself had only allocated 32MB for usage. It beggers belief.
I am nowhere near finished. I could give even more examples if I wanted to. But I think the message is clear. Macs are better overall because they work better and for longer. They do cost more than Windows PCs, granted, but this is the same as comparing the prices of a similar-spec BMW 5-series saloon and a Ford Mondeo - yes, you do pay for the badge in the BMW's case, but you also pay for the quality that that badge brings. Everything is made of a higher quality, and everything feels that bit better. You get that same feeling with a Mac, I feel. Not just the Mac computers themselves, which are well-designed, sleek and quite attractive, but the operating system itself just feels smoother and gives an impression of quality.
A lot of this is my opinion. And if you disagree, then fair enough. But I shall say it again - Macs are more reliable. And you won't be able to disagree with me because its likely that you're PC will have crashed before you manage to post a response.

Oh, and by the way - remember earlier when I mentioned about that 'I'm a PC' advert that Windows have made? What they have neglected to mention on that advert is that the advert itself was actually made on a Mac.