Make your next laptop a Mac
Recently Apple switched from PowerPC to Intel chips. This is a great move, because Intel chips run both faster and more efficiently. It also means that Macs can run Windows alongside Apple’s OS X more easily, with very little performance loss.
Mac laptops come in two flavors: the smaller MacBook and the more powerful MacBook Pro. Macs are easier to use, safer from the nastiness that plagues PCs, and just better engineered all around. If you look at the new series of Apple ads, they hit all the high points. I compared Dell’s prices to Apple’s and they are very close. Even if Apple prices were higher, I would say it’s worth it. (Would you prefer to buy a Ford or a Toyota? Pay the extra and you’ll avoid the hassles.)
However, one thing the ads don’t talk about is the fact that the new Macs can run Windows very well. (When the MacBook Pros came out, they were actually the fastest laptops to run Windows!) You can configure your Mac to boot into either Windows or OS X, but the Parallels company is going to be releasing software that allows you to run Windows inside of OS X. This means you can still run all the software that you already have. But to tell you the truth, there’s nothing I miss from the Windows world–I can get Acrobat, Microsoft Office, Firefox, and other software for the Mac.
MacBooks start at about $1200, and MacBook Pros at about $2200. If you are sick of dealing with Windows-based PCs that work fine for 3 months then start breaking down or running slow, I suggest you switch to Mac now. There’s really no reason not to. If you already have a monitor, keyboard and mouse, you can even buy a Mac Mini for $600. Apple has a nice laptop comparison chart.