Macintosh: I have been a Mac user since I bought my first computer... a Mac512 back sometime in the 80's. It cost over $2,000, but I loved it with all my heart. I used it for years and finally upgraded to a used MacPlus, although really I was not sure I needed all that disk space and power ! I had boxes of floppies, but I could always find what I wanted. By then I was using Macs at work too, even though I worked in a pretty DOS oriented environment. Then I bought a zippy Performa 450 -- just before CDs were becoming a standard. Rather than add a CD drive to it, I next bought a 6200 CD, which I used for quite awhile. I had a lot of trouble with the 6200 and when I tried to deal with Apple I was aghast at how uncooperative and unconcerned they were. I was not a novice user and I knew quite a bit about the MacOS, but they did not even seem to listen to the problem. They gave me canned answers, some of which I immediately knew were not relevant. It usually took several calls to even start to solve a problem. Finally I asked a young man to tell me the name of someone at Apple who would CARE about customer comments. He said he would pass my comments on. I said, "no, I want to tell the person who's job it is to CARE about what is happening to customers." He gave me the name and address, I wrote a long letter and got a form letter back that gave me a number I could call. The woman who wrote the letter explained that she could not call me because her phone did not call out ! But I could call this person to explain my problem -- even though I had explained it in painful detail in the letter. Disgusted, I dropped it, but at some point I e-mailed a message to them. I don't remember exactly what I said, but it was something to the effect that I would like a customer rep to contact me via e-mail so I could tell someone with a name what problems I was having. I got a canned response that said the customer service people only had the ability to get e-mail, not send it. Good grief. I gave up. But shortly after that I bought a Mac laptop... a 190C.. to use for my genealogy while traveling. After awhile it gave me problems; I surfed the net and found that my problems were shared by many and Apple was offering a no-charge repair. I took the laptop into the local Apple repair people and they called Apple, but found my laptop did not qualify. $300 worth of repairs later, the problem was still there. I was ready to cut my losses and toss the computer --which I figured cost be about $80.00 per day I ever used it -- but in the end I called Apple ONE MORE TIME. Expecting nothing, I was amazed to get an answer within the first few rings, a nice person who listened to my problem and quickly authorized the no-charge repair. There are still problems -- they replaced the motherboard, but the power supply was also defective and those were out of stock for 6-8 weeks -- but 1) they fixed and returned the computer in a matter of days and 2) they told me there was another problem instead of just letting me discover it when I tried to use it. So just when I was getting ready to totally give up on Macs, I'm started rethinking it. I think it is really too bad that the MacOS did not get to be the standard, but it didn't.... so a few year ago I went out and bought a windows machine. A Compaq, which I now use mostly for internet searching and personal business ( a calendar program, writing newsletters, doing these web pages, keeping track of my money etc. ). For awhile I kept my genealogy is still on the Mac, but after awhile it became too much of a hassle to go back and forth between the mac and windows, so I gave my 6300 to my mother and my laptop to my daughter and now I use only windows. I still think Macs are much better than the Windows machines, but there just isn't as much software. Also, fewer and fewer people know how to deal with Mac problems, so it is harder to get informal advice. I doubt I will ever buy another Mac-- but I will always look at them longingly.

Windows: OK. Devastated by Apple's attitude and weary of trying to do what I needed within the constraints of available software and compatibility with the rest of the world, I gave up and bought a Compaq. Without Windows I would never have switched from Macs, no matter how uninterested they were in my troubles, but that doesn't mean I love Windows like I did my Mac . It is not that Windows machines gives me less trouble than the Macs, it is just that I never expected anything better. Also, there is so much competition between various hardware/software companies, they at least pretend to listen to me. My best experience was with Hewlett Packard regarding a printing problem. They answered the phone within a reasonable number of rings and the person there was nice, competent and gave the problem the time it needed. I am put off by Compaq's "one free call" support, but they usually seemed to be the best deal so that is what I got. I bought one for me, one for my son and one for my daughter, all Compaqs. Recently I gave my older Compaq to my other daughter and bought a Presario 5070, which I got for a very low price, but quickly realized needs a hefty RAM upgrade. I use it with a CTX monitor. I have HP printers and will probably continue to always buy that brand for a printer. I have whatever scanner gave the best rebate-- a PaperPort One Touch 5300 (Visioneer, I think). I use a zip drive and have MediaOne internet access, so I guess the modem is not used. Since I use Windows at work, it is nice to be in sync. All in all, Windows is not bad; it's just not a Mac.