"The Mac was already a good machine, And Apple improved upon it with OS X."

The Macintosh, first introduced in the 1980's, has been Apple's main selling point for years and years to come. Macintoshes have already made up most of Apple. Now, with the introduction of the iTunes music store, and the iPod, Apple is beginning to be as strong as windows. But heed my warning; I am not looking to attack Windows, or Microsoft. Just do not assume I am doing that.

Anyway, here we go.

Graphics: The graphics of any Macintosh these days are mind blowing. The Macintosh, now, as standard hardware, have ATI Radeon's loaded up in them, with 128MB of memory. While this may not sound like a good amount to have, it certainly does get the job done, and for a low cost.

Sound: The sound is excellent. Most Macintoshes use the onboard audio, which sounds great. And most Macintoshes are outfitted with soundcards at an additional cost. Still, I say the onboard audio is perfect. So it is good enough for me, who just listens to music, however, if you need to record music, or record music from, say, your electric guitar, then you need a sound card, which Macintoshes handle extra sound cards very well in my experience.

Support: Apple's support also gets two thumbs up with me too. Apple is one of those companies, which when they sell you your computer, they offer you the responsibility of fixing it yourself. You only call support if you need help dealing with your problem, or if it is out of your power to fix. In this case, you send your computer in, or send the defunct part in for repair. They do not try to point fingers at anyone; they just try to fix the dang problem (Microsoft, on the other hand, accused me of piracy when trying to install Service pack 1 for windows XP...).

User Base: The user base for the Macintosh is pretty good. The majority of Macintosh users (I am talking about 51%)usually leave windows alone, but the other 49 percent of those usually attack windows. But anyway, the user base is a mixed bag. It can be good; it can be bad. Some Macintosh users expect you to attack windows, while some say that they use both. Try to keep away from the super fanatics, who would just confuse you a lot.

Software: yes, as a Macintosh fanatic, I will admit it; this is where the Macintosh really does not do so well. The Macintosh usually is used for multimedia, graphics, and office work; so many do not see the Macintosh as a capable gaming machine. It actually is, but many do not support it. The good thing is that most of the greatest hits out there (Unreal, Diablo 2) are available for the Macintosh. So it is not that bad really. And now, Halo, the big PC game, is also hitting the Macintosh (oh joy!) so the Macintosh will have some games worth getting.

Operating System: A Mixed bag...The new Mac OS X is very good or extremely bad, depending on what version you use. 10.0 is utter trash, While anything 10.1 to 10.3 is excellent. Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger, As it's called) is much better than 10.0 (of course...10.0 was so bug-ridden that it was unusable) but really (in my tests and opinion) cannot hold a candle to older Mac OS X Versions such as 10.2/3.

The classic Mac OS (OS 7.5 to 9.2) is good, but not that good. crashes are frequent, but doesn't match those of Windows 98 (But XP beats it, but that's unfair comparison). If you can get OS X, get it. If not, go for 9.2 or 9.1.

Hardware: Unlike PC's, you cannot build your own computer. Of course, there is a tradeoff. The tradeoff is, that all of Apple's parts are very high quality. I have yet to see an Apple Hard Disk drive fail in front of my eyes. I collect Macintoshes from 1995, and none of them, not one of them, have had to have replacements, and they have been running all their life, with no repairs. My 9500 has still got the 1GB HDD in it, and still has the old 64MB of Apple certified RAM in it. Not one failure in the hardware at all. Apple still maintains its quality control these days as well. People wonder why Apple doesn't have as much market share; that's because their computers don't die as much as Intel/AMD based computers do (Im not calling you out, Windows users, I mean ANY OS used on Intel boxes. Yes, that DOES include Linux) Also, their new 64-bit processors are very stable, as I stress tested one in the store, by playing multiple music files, and running a word processor, and then running a game AND music at the same time. The new 64 bit processors are very stable; much more than the 32 bit counterparts. At time of update, all Macs are now loaded with 512MB memory STANDARD. In the big scheme of things, that's a LOT of memory (from someone who uses about 256MB in all his machines...). Besides, who needs 1GB of memory?

Also, I have found that AMD boxes do last longer than Intel boxes, but both do not last long at all. Just quieting an argument between those users.

Conclusion:

If you need a good computer, with good stability, and you are willing to shell out some cash (about 1500 dollars) for some really good quality, than get a Macintosh. Or at this time of writing, You can buy the Mac Mini, a $500 dollar machine that comes with the CPU unit alone, you must provide your own keyboard/mouse, display and other stuff. If you have the stuff already needed to do that, the Mini is a steal. Also, I docked the score a point because...well...no one can let Apple get away with unleashing the unholy pile of crap that was Mac OS 10.0. Not even a fanatic or super fanatic.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/15/04, Updated 08/15/05