"going back to the original post.." The Mac G5 kicks ass" ...my 2.5g p4 can kick its ass anytime, anywhere."
Taking the fun outta this question...I am pretty sure the G5 is taller, wider, deeper, heavier and stronger than your p4 (aluminum case)...so if there was going to be any ass kicking, the G5 would do it.
As for hardware...well, we all know the benchmarks and the real life examples of real life software situations and its been argued to death...so no need to bring it up.
As for Mac OS X being crash-proof...I can vouch that it is not...but its a lot better than most other OS's. I use my Dual 867 PowerMac as a file server, apache server, M-Beat server (streaming audio to appliances and other Macs), compiling platform, gaming system (when I get around to it -- I have a GeForce 4 Ti 4600 for a reason) and all the other little utilities needed to make a company function on a day to day basis including ssh and ftp and it doesn't crash. Its uptime as of the other day was 42 days....I then decided that maybe it was time to do some system updates and it required a restart. That is a general situation for most Mac users...remove the uptime when you have to. The uptime prior to that was erased by a power failure and then prior to that installing and testing Panther.
"Mac's are expensive because they charge what they want. In the computer world you don't necessarily have to pay the highest amount to get the best quality. However, you CAN pay alot of money for a piece of crap machine."
I agree...Apple has a monopoly on the hardware and can charge what they want...but like the standard challenge...build a rig comparable to a Dual G5 and match the price. Don't forget those firewire ports, optical audio out, superdrive, SATA, PCI-X, Mac OS X, all the free iApp's, a copy of OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, etc.
In the end, an Apple is expensive, but you get what you pay for.
Now as for lots of money for a crap machine...what was the return rate for Dell laptops last year? 26%?
"This is a mute point because Apple has such a small percent of marketshare."
I don't really think that is a mute point...it is fact. We have less market share and therefore there are less virii and Apple does not go around touting 'Trustworthy Computing' which on a whole has made virii writers write more just to make them look like arses.
I agree with your point that if Apple's marketshare was higher that there would be more virii...but it is not and won't be for a while if ever (this coming from an Apple shareholder and programmer whose daily earnings revolve around selling software on a Mac). If you put an XServe in an enterprise situation...it will not get nearly as many virii as a Windows box if any...simply because Apple has the lower marketshare and not because Mac OS X is more secure. I know how secure X is and it scares me....in fact I have written virii and exploits for many simple things...but have never released them.
"This again is a mute point. Every piece of software available for a Mac has a windows version available too, or there is a quality piece of software for windows that does the same thing."
Puhhhlleease do not try and use this point against a Mac. We have tons of innovate software that cannot possibly appear on the Windows platform because it hooks deep into Mac OS X.
Two blatant examples are Hydra and OmniGraffle which truly cannot be reincarnated on a Windows boxen without heaps of work and don't exist in any form.
Today I am writing software that will never see the light of day on a PC...and its innovative. I am trained in VC++ and was contemplating rewriting them for Windows (they have to do with the iPod...and there are 1/2million iPod customers on Windows) but the sheer effort it would take to rewrite the app in VC++ or C# is truly not worth it. Its the same with those two apps above.