Wow! Brandon, tell us what you REALLY think

Thanks for sharing that, actually. At a certain level, I agree with each of your points. I've always felt that Macs push an image - image over substance. Having said that, I have been genuinely happy using OS X (10.2 and 10.4), enough to upgrade the iBook that I inherited to allow me to run 10.4 so that I can continue to use it... I want to connect it to a WPA encrypted wireless network and play with Quicksilver and see what all the fuss has been about these past four years. FWIW, I have upgraded the RAM and the HD in my parent's 20" iMac and have replaced the optical drive in my iBook and upgraded the RAM and the Harddrive and installed an AirPort card* (initial view on this last is more or less in line with yours: why the heck does it keep dropping the connection? At least it is trivial to reconnect...). Overall, I am a Windows guy out to experience Linux and OSX. So far, I've enjoyed the "ride"

*NB replacing components in the iMac is easy. the iBook is a real nightmare! Check out this
link for the steps involved in upgrading the harddrive - most of them are the same for the optical drive...!