I am sure I am not the only one saying this. But I am extremely unhappy about Mac OS 10.(anything) .

As a scientist, I am regularly required to use odd software and hardware that doesn't come with much support, or is often one-of-a-kind in terms of its functionality. In this scenario, Mac OS X is a nightmare. While Parallels goes a long way into making Mac OS X more useful by allowing to run other OS, in terms of efficiency and redundacy, why run two OSs, when you can just run.

I understand that Windows has its problems. It is perhaps not as stable , but I reckon that is simply because Windows is used by more people, and most of these people do not seem to know how to treat a computer well. How often have I cringed at ridiculously messy desktops and a startup of list of programs that runs into 2-digit numbers.

At work, we all use iMacs, and users are fairly technical even though not in terms of computers. And beleive me, when let out in the wild and subjected to the same ill-use as Windows, Mac OS X also crashes, and develops similar problems as does any Windows system.

All in all, I give Apple credit for great marketing, they have managed to make their product cool, but in my personal experience, all available OSs at this point, are on par as far as the average user is concerned. It depends on your specific use of the computer that should dictate the OS for specific applications.

The analogy I provide about Macs is a kitchen blender. It works out of the box, does its job very well - blends, mixes, doesnt take up space. But if you try to get creative and use the blenders motor and blades as a chainsaw , well, it just doesn't cut it (no pun intended).