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As a veteran PC user and Microsoft software instructor, I have seen the PC evolve from its MS-DOS, green cathode ray display to its modern graphical interface requiring a gigahertz of power and gigabytes of memory. I have observed my Mac-user friends snicker as they describe MS Windows as the equivalent of the Apple OS with a frontal lobotomy. So for over 20 years now, I have had no basis for comparing the Mac and PC computers and operating system - until about one month ago when I tired of my PC Vista computer's tortoise-paced loading and frequent crashes, and I bought a brand new supercharged Mac.

The first basis of comparison between my new Mac and old PC that has to be made is the cost. I spent a lot on this new Mac (over $2,600), and that was just for the console, keyboard and mouse. I did not buy a display, since I already had a perfectly good Samsung, 24-inch screen that looks and works fine. So a PC shopper could find a comparably powered (2 gigahertz) and loaded (2 gigabyte of memory) unit for probably less than half the cost of my new Mac. My Mac came with a DVD drive, a sound card (no speakers) and a generous number of bus and firewire ports. You can get a lesser powered Mac for less money, of course; but I decided to enter the high end, having in the past always had to upgrade to get satisfactory results from my previous PC's.

So now the question is this: Is the additional cost of the Mac worth it in terms of operating features and performance? Let me answer this question in terms of my first experiences with my new Mac as well as my ongoing current use:

Out-of-the-box and powering up

I hurried home with my new purchase, having bought the machine from a Mac Store not far from where I live in southern Denver. I removed the console (which is rather large) from its box. I attached my old Samsung screen (the Mac came with an adaptor coupler), plugged in the flat metallic keyboard and white mouse. The internal speaker sounded with the telltale Mac fanfare, and the operating system booted up within less than 30 seconds. After setting up my user account (name and password), the operating system (OS X) jumped up and was ready to use.

I could not help but compare the foregoing experience with the number of new PC's I have bought over the years. New PC's come with junk ware and ads, and you have to jump through hoops to get your new PC up and running on the web and hooked into networks. Moreover, the more programs you load onto a PC, the slower it boots up, as

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