Johnny,
I ha ve been an electronic engineer for longer than I care to admit. In the old days, when I got funded to
do a project, I usually had to build my own PC. This was in the late 80's early 90s before Grandma was connected
to the internet and you had to know how to use a FTP site and before everyone knew what HyperText Transfer Protocol
meant. I would run down to the computer store and buy the power supply the mother board , the CPU , the RAM, the
Drives, the case the operating system and I would put it together. Prolly did that 30 times. So when we needed one for
home I did the same thing, got on the net went to New Egg and bought all the stuff and it was when we first had DSL,
I think. At work we were behind a hardware and software firewall, so I never got hammered. Well I build that first one
for my house, and my plan was to build it which I did, install the operating system which I did, then put on Norton.
Well somewhere between installing the OS (Windows 42 or what ever) and getting the virus protection on, my brand
new machine got hammered by some virus. Took me HOURS to get it off and the system up and cleaned up and running
right again. I always stayed away from Apple because it was a closed architecture and you couldnt modify the OS. So
for me designing interface boards that plugged into the motherboard itself, that just wouldnt do. So I stayed away.
Some guys started using MacII (boy talk about dating myself, which just makes me beside myself when I do that)
and Labview but Labview is very expensive.
In 2005 I started doing the video for my sons football team (that won the SoCal Southern Section title by the way) and
the video software for the PC was horrendous to use. Not to mention I kept getting viruses. So in 2006, I bought a MacBook
just for video and surfing. Well the nights staying up till 5 AM editing video for my sons football team were OVER (I had to
get the DVDs ready for Sat morning video study), it took minutes to do what it took hours on my PC. Finally, after years
the screen started to go on the Apple so I bought a Apple Mac bookPro. (the first macbook still works) Then I bought a
Mac Pro desktop with 8 cores, and then macbook Air for the wife, and now a Macbook pro with retina display for me.
Since then all the photo work is flawless, I havent had to relaod the operating system EVER. I have never had to deal with
the BLUE screen of Death. They are easy to use and over time cost effective. AND on top of that, since they are all INTEL
MACS I can intall a VIRTUAL PC on my desktop to program my flying machines and my CNC machine. I also bought a less
expensive PC desktop to run my CNC machine so I dont endanger my MacBook Pro out in the shop. These machines are
BETTER PC's than DEDICATED PC"S are. No glitches no nothing. I have had to reinstall the Windows 7 on the desktop and
the laptop I bought for another purpose THREE times.
So my point is if you can get one, get a MAC so you dont keep getting hammered on your PC. Even ifs an old one.
for email, surfing pictures and such the mac will save you alot of headaches.