[Thermal]

I could think of a million programs that would run better with 2 gigs of ram.

Inventor, any game made after 2006, any person that multi tasks a lot, inventor again just because its that important, and rendering program, any 3d modeling program, ect....

Personally I use windows because.. well... everything uses windows. It isn't that i'm reluctant to switch from Windows to OSX, its the fact that i'm HIGHLY reluctant to have my hardware monopolized and my OS have lacking software support from third parties. Not to mention the extra hit in my wallet for no gain in either speed, or ease of use.

Apple could gain a much larger market share if they would allow OSX to be installed on a "PC". But they keep showing that they have no interest in selling a OS, or allowing it to be used on non Mac hardware, their current lawsuit against Psystar perfectly shows that. If I could go out and purchase OSX at my local computer store, I just MIGHT do it to give it a whiz. Otherwise there is just no reason for me to ever buy a Mac, too big a hit in the wallet for what you get in return. I would not recieve any more security from using OSX than Windows. I run Avast!, Spybot and Adaware, those three programs (along with simply running the windows firewall) has kept me from recieving any high threat malware, as it simply just gets detected on download. (And yes, the only way that I would get infected is if I let it into the system, it's the only way anyone gets infected. They get it without knowing by downloading a file or program they percieve as safe).

So to directly answer your questions Mazin in short. I use windows because it is superior in 3rd party support, and OSX offers nothing in return for what I give up by switching. Also it very much is that Macs are overpriced, not in the fact that they have no "low end model". Just because something costs 600 doesnt technically mean its "low end". Considering a 600 dollar PC can perform on par, if not better than a 1100+ dollar Mac, i'd consider the Mac to be overpriced. I'd hate to see how underperforming a 600 dollar Mac would be, i'd probably cry if I had to see some simple processor and RAM benchmarks.

PS: XP 32 bit OEM only cost me 55 dollars when I purchased it two years ago. Microsoft regularly has OS blowout sales where you can get Vista 64 Bit home for 100 dollars. I'd rather drop an extra 100 dollars on an OS when building a computer, than dropping an extra 600 for a Mac. If you buy from Dell, that 550 dollar dell with its q6600 with 3 gigs of RAM comes with Vista anyways, so OS prices are moot in the retail industry. Also they've gotten much much better on the bloatware side of things.