My big Mac dilemma

It's been a strange week, and something just don't feel right. This could have something to do with the bout of food poinoning I received a few days ago, or the tail-end of a bug picked up somewhere along the way. Possibly, who knows.

What I can be sure of is that, for the first time, I have been having real (yes, genuine 'oooh...!') thoughts about the 'M' word. Quite, quite unusual. I'm not sure I can even bring myself to admit this, but here goes...

Deep breath...

I think I want a Mac.

There, I've said it. Are ya happy now?! For all those of you who have been saying "Just you wait... you'll soon come around...", well, don't go demanding your winnings from the sweepstake just yet; it's just at the 'on the cards' stage at the moment. But believe me when I tell you that this revelation has come as just as much of a shock to me as it has to you!

So what's going on? Why the change of heart? Well, you know, there comes a time when you just get fed up of shouting at your desktop for the umpteenth time because - in spite of doing 101 'optimisation' processes such as defrags, scan disks, antivirus and spyware checks - the only way the damn thing could process your work any slower would be if it was physically switched off at the mains!

Do you sense some bitterness on my part?! Hmm... Lord knows, I don't have so much hair on my head these days, thanks to a cruel trick of genetics - and quite honestly, I can't afford to pull any more out!

Here's what I do know (or, at least, here are 6 things that I'm led to believe by every Mac owner and his dog):

1. Macs never (or very rarely) go wrong; they're stable and they just work
2. Because Macs don't go wrong, they work out cheaper in the long run
   
3. Macs are the photographer's friend
4. Macs would make my life so much more pain free, thanks to their batch process facilities
   
5. Macs are very simple to use, even more so than PCs
6. Macs are so intuitive that I would not have to run a PC alongside in the beginning

Coincidentally, I've been talking more and more in depth about my dilema with a friend this week, too. (you know who you are!). She makes a good case for the pro-Mac camp and quite honestly I can't seem to find any sort of argument to put up in defense. My only 'safety net' with PCs is that because I've been using them for years, I'm pretty good at muddling through the typical hiccups that happen from time to time. But, frankly, that doesn't seem to count for much when you've tried everything and still the problem in question doesn't get resolved.

So here's where I'd like your input by following the Comments link below, please. If you're a recent convert from PC to Mac, let me know why you jumped and what your workflow/state-of-mind experience has been like since. If you switched some years ago, tell me why. And if you are one of the many Mac users who feels a bit giddy just at the sight or mention of a PC, please clean yourself up and then explain why I should stop arsing about, stop kidding myself and just get on with it.

Thanks.