Time for a change?

**Update: Scroll Down

Apparently so...

I've been computer shopping for a couple of months now.  No hurry, but the realization that my trusty Dell 8600 isn't going to last forever finally struck me and has been perpetuated by the consistent freezing up, sporadic shutting down and general decreased functionality of the formerly 'ole reliable.'  The prospects of purchasing a new Dell were slim due to several difficult bouts with somebody in a far away land who pretends to speak English and works for Dell tech support.  They were lessened even further when my mothers dell (less than 2 years old at the time) simply stopped working just a few days after it's warranty expired.

So I began looking around with Dell in the back of my mind.  By many accounts, the Sony Vaio reigns supreme in the PC world, but with a very high starting price and the simple fact that whether it's in a Dell or a Sony case it's still a Windows based machine (and it was not the Dell case that was freezing up now was it...) I decided to explore the world of Mac.

Now for the past couple of years I've given one of my long time friends a very hard time about being a Mac-fanatic.  Mostly it's just be being a pain in the ass, but part of it was a general dislike Mac.  As one of the blogs I read during my investigation admitted, "Sadly, I was simply afraid of what I did not know."  As my investigation became more serious, I emailed said friend with a list of questions.  She--upon getting over the initial shock--was quite helpful to me.

Anyway, to make an already long story short, I, like Glenn Reynold's, just ordered a Mac after years of swearing by the trusty ole PC.  To be specific, I ordered a MacBook 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Black. 

Here's a little breakdown on why I decided to switch:

• I have yet to read an entry via the blogs OR professionally owned/operated technology websites that has anything but praise over security.  While I have always been lucky in staying clear of viruses, they've been a long time worry for me.
• Most of what I read swears by the speed of the Mac, especially for booting up.
• I have tried and tried to master image and music editing (more image than music) via PC.  Again, blogs and other sites that I read had nothing but praise for the ease of such editing via mac.
• Mac's incorporation of the Intel chip.
• Something different.  As bad a reason as that may sound, the same old windows was getting a little old.

At any rate, for better or worse there is a black MacBook on it's way.  I shall be back with my first impressions sometime between Tuesday and Friday of next week...

 ** Update:  It looks like I may have made the right choice in opting for Mac over Vista:

[Microsoft] on Friday confirmed the vulnerabilities, which were first reported by independent third parties, but pointed out that no malicious programmes taking advantage of the flaws had yet appeared.

The flaw allows a user with standard system privileges to gain wider access to system tools and settings without the approval of a network administrator. This potentially disables a key security feature of Vista but attackers would first need to gain access to a computer through some other means before exploiting the vulnerability. A vulnerability in the new web browser Internet Explorer 7 was reported at the same time.

Oh my...

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