Oh boy, I haven't been asked this question a thousand times.
The answer I chose in the poll was both, because I own a windows desktop and a Macbook Pro. When I was 14 I decided it was time that I learned more about computer, I have always been pretty techie, so I watched some videos and read a book about how a computer works. I picked my parts, got them shipped, built the desktop and hoped it booted. Luckily for me I didn't screw up and it worked and have been upgrading it ever since. Ever since then I have always enjoyed a Windows based machine over a OSX.
I like my Windows machine more mainly because if it breaks, I bet I can fix it because I have had more time the operating system and I am comfortable tinkering with the hardware. The desktop is also pretty powerful, with a 4.0 GHZ Intel quadcore that has hyperthreading, 6 gigs of DDR3, GTX 260 core 216, SSD...stuff like that (just ignore that if your don't understand what it means ).
The reason I own a macbook pro ( besides that it seems like the cool thing to do 
) is that I felt it was important for me to start to learn and understand another popular operating system, just to satisfy me own techie needs. Also, when I purchased the notebook I was about to travel to Australia and I needed something that was going to be reliable and Macbooks seem to be quite resilient ( if something does go wrong its a b*tch to get it fixed though ).
As of now, I would say that my macbook to desktop pc usage is about 70:30 but that is simply for the portability of the Mac and not because I like OSX better. I never play games on my mac but do sometimes use it for video editing because I have some better software on it.
As for Linux, I have never tried it but have always been tempted to. Maybe when I add another harddrive to my desktop I will install Linux on that and dual boot, it would be nice to see what its all about.
Have you considered running a Boot Camp setup on the MacBook, or maybe Parallels? Have the best of both worlds on one machine. I think you can even add Linux as a second (or third) operating system, but you'll be carving up your hard drive for the necessary partitions.
I've been using computers since the days of the Apple II and, before that, the TRS-80 Model I. I used PCs ever since IBM-DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1. My first notebook ran Windows 95 on an Intel 80486 chip. When Macs started using Intel chips, I started using Macs as my primary machines. I never looked back.
I stated this in another forum, though certainly not word for word: when I used PCs at home, I spent way too much time trying to figure out how to make it work and why it wasn't working at some given moment. Or why some piece of hardware I got for it doesn't work, or works poorly. Or why some crap piece of shovelware the machine came with was so damn useless, and how to uninstall it without screwing up the OS.
When I started using Macs at home, there was a shallow learning curve, and I adapted quickly. While certain things about Mac OS X are a little annoying (like having to reach for just one corner of any window when I want to resize it rather than grabbing any edge or corner), but I've spent far less time dealing with headaches and far more time doing what I want to do with it. It's been around, I dunno, maybe six or seven years since I switched. I've had exactly two OS crashes in all that time, across four different machines. Each time, the operating system repaired itself without any need for me to figure out arcane instructions on a blue screen - it churned a little while, rebooted, and everything was working fine again.
Rather than coming prepacked with software I'll never use or that works poorly, it came with programs that I actually find useful. Since the App Store opened, software's a lot more reasonably priced. The cheapest version of Microsoft Office for either OS probably runs around a hundred-plus dollars, and that's for students and educators only - the rest of us pay much more. I can get the three programs of iWork (Pages, Numbers and Keynote), which replicate most of the useful functions of MS Office but in a more user-friendly way, for $19.95 each or $59.85 for the lot, downloaded to my machine from the comfort of my bedroom, and I don't have to lie about being a student to get them that cheap. Ever try buying just Excel in recent history, or downloading the whole Office suite?
If I were to compare my experiences with computers to owning cars, I'd say that a Mac was really good for someone who wanted to drive and enjoy the ride, while a PC was good for someone who knows how to pop the hood and repair the engine every now and then.
People do love, when defending Windows and PCs, to bring up something they call "the Mac tax", saying that even the cheapest Macs are more expensive than the cheapest PCs. Well, that probably has to do with the fact that you're getting useful programs instead of things you want to delete, and the cheapest Mac will run rings around the cheapest PCs in terms of performance.
I can't say Mac is perfect, nor can I say that when comparing an equally-equipped PC to a Mac that the PC won't be cheaper. But the thing I enjoy most about using a Mac is that only Apple makes Macs. They know precisely what configurations Macs will come in, and can perfectly prepare the OS to function in every single one of them. This minimizes the hardware conflict issues to practically nil.
Microsoft doesn't make PCs, they just make Windows. The permutations of PCs available from the manufacturers of the world could very well exceed the permutations of a five-card poker hand, or maybe even an entire deck. There's no way on Earth that Microsoft can make one operating system function perfectly on every single possible combination without some problems here and there involving hardware that doesn't play nice with the OS.
And that brings up another point - it's not even like there's only one current version of Windows! There's a stripped-down version, a middle-of-the-road version, a business version, an all-the-bells-and-whistles version... Most consumers have no idea which is best for their needs, and many will overpay for a version that exceeds those needs rather than one that fits them. I think Windows Vista came in seven different varieties. I don't even know what choices are available to Windows 7 users. Any current version of Mac OS X comes in one variety: Mac OS X, period, no confusing decisions and differing price points.
OK, now I'm just ranting here... but I think you guys have a clear idea of where I stand.
PC every time. Macs are better built but I hate OSX and they aren't worth the price.
So, if you got a Mac and Boot Camped it to run Windows, you'd love it?
If it's a better-built machine, what makes you also say that it's not worth the price?
Poll
