Reasons why not to go Macintosh

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Reason 31 : "I don't like being limited to a single hardware vendor"

Validity level:

The Macintosh platform, is made up of one single brand; Apple. This means to buy into this platform, your choice of hardware is limited to that provided by Apple, whose narrow range does not cover the needs and wants of everyone.

See also 'Apple don't make the kind of Mac I want'

This in contrast to the huge combined ranges of the entire PC platform, whose primary defining parameter they all share, is Microsoft's Windows OS. They impose no such limitation on which hardware its OS is to run on. This time you could have a Dell; next time a Acer; time after that a self build. That's the kind of freedom you have to forsake if you buy into the Macintosh platform. Being effectively tied to a single operating system vendor is one thing, but being tied to one single hardware vendor too is something some are uncomfortable with.

So that's a unequivocal negative for the Macintosh platform. Yes?

Every cloud, etc...

There is a different side to this story. When Microsoft designs a new OS or OS update, it has to be able to work on a huge combination of potential hardware; many dozens of brands, each with many assorted models of different forms, plus the almost infinite combination of potential no-name-branded and self built hardware. Very few assumptions can be made about what kind of PC their OS will be running on. This inevitably requires huge resourses to conduct the extensive and lengthy development and testing. And frankly, this doesn't always go according to plan, to put it very mildly.

By contrast, when Apple designs a new OS, they know exactly what sort of hardware it will be running on, because they built it. It is PC hardware, but it will be with design and components of their decree. One manufacturer making the whole widget has obvious potential benefits. Having complete control over the direction of both hardware and software, makes OS development simpler, faster, and a lot less to go wrong; this leaving more time for fine tuning and customised integration. This is the positive side.

This advantage of course would disappear the moment Mac OS were opened up to work on non-Apple hardware, which would entail the kind of slow, lengthy, costly, and painful development and testing as Microsoft has to endure.

See also 'I'll wait until Mac OS comes out on the PC'

So...

...it's swings and roundabouts folks. Each philosophy has its advantages, but unfortunately, they are mutually exclusive. As for which is more important to an individual, well, one man's meat is another man's poison.

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