A Turncoat's Tale

Let me set you straight before I start. I have been an Apple Mac user since 2001 and still think that they produce the best computers and the best operating system. Having got that out of the way let me try and explain why I'm writing this on my brand new HP system running Windows XP.

I brought my Mac in early 2001. At that time I was buying my first home computer and had decided on a Mac. Looking around I came across the G4 Cube, a stylish machine with a very impressive specification and took the plunge. With the computer I also bought the first version of Mac OS X (version 10.0) and installed both the OS9 and OS X. I have almost never regretted that decison as OS X has developed through the versions to a powerful but user friendly OS and the current version 10.4 (Tiger) is everything that Windows Vista should be but won't. Come 2006 and my trusty Mac is starting to show it's age. the G4 450 chip is barely adequate but the cost of having a Cube upgraded is too much for the gain. So, time to buy a new computer.

My first thought was to replace it with a new Mac as I would have been more than happy to stay with Apple. However, after my problems with the barely upgradeable Cube wanted to buy something I could easily keep up to date. That kind of restricted me to the PowerMac and here was the problem. Although a very good machine the PowerMac is nowhere near my budget. Even looking at a refurbished Mac it was way out of reach. Which left me contemplating the unthinkable. A Windows computer.

A trip out to local computer stores showed me that I could get much more 'computer' for my Pound Sterling. So, onto the internet for some lenghty browsing and finally, just what I was looking for. An HP Media Centre PC with an AMD Athlon 64 processor running Windows XP Media Centre, CD/DVD writer with Lightscribe, multi format memory card readers for the camera, 200Gb hard disk, HP 17" TFT and MS Office Professional, all for just over ₤800. And am I happy? Well, yes actually. Mac OS 10.4 is a great OS but XP gives me what I need, a wide choice of software to choose from, and all at a lower cost than the equivalent Apple product. So, am I now going to give up my iPod. No way of course.