Between the media focusing on the possibilities of the President-Elect’s new policies and the upcoming season of Jack Bauer’s next miserable 24 hours, (Tony Almeida’s alive?There’s a Love Connection reunion not to be missed) you would have had to exist in a cave not to notice the ‘I’m a Mac, I’m a PC’ ads. As hip, funny and cool they portray the Mac line up to be, they do have a point.

There is an ease to using a Mac, and they do ‘just work’. No problems, no hitches, no headaches. Isn’t that what you desire in your personal computing experience? I switched about three to four years ago. Long before the ads entered my consciousness. Why, do you ask?

I could ramble on about the new wave Apple culture or feeling as if I’ve melded with the universe, but it’s much simpler than that. I became fed up with the number of anti-virus protecting, spyware defending, Trojan safeguarding, bot shielding, and overall security software I constantly had running in the System Tray. No less than six, and added another two before I finally decided enough was enough. At what point do you arrive home, unlock the fifteen deadbolts and padlocks to your front door before you realize it’s time to move from the neighborhood?

In this day and age, identity and information theft isn’t going to disappear anytime soon. Why should I pay good coin of the realm to become a permanent beta tester for a security nightmare of an operating system so riddled with holes, I expect to find an RSS news feed stating the next software patch, due to be released a week from Tuesday, has already been hacked; Film at 11. As a side note, when uber nerd Bill Gates ran the show, there was a strong sense of vision, focus and direction. With Steve Ballmer at the helm, it’s akin to allowing Gilligan to chart the waters. After all, it’s only a three hour tour.

I didn’t immediately jump into the deep end. I spent three months of intense research, educating myself about the possibilities Apple afforded me. I devoted countless hours in forums, scouring user reviews, pouring into professional reviews such as CNET and others, trying to find anything negative about Apple’s hardware and software. What were my conclusions?

Apple makes a damn fine product. I fell in love with and purchased a 17 inch G4 Powerbook for its' quality construction and solid, sturdy dependability. I also found that it was slim and rather light in weight for a 17 inch laptop. The screen colors were vibrant, immediately catching my eye, this was a first for me it has an illuminated keyboard, and a dirt resistant aluminum touchpad. I loved the internal slot loading CD/DVD combo drive, over the traditional tray that shoots out from the front or side and the integrated AirPort Extreme WiFi card pretty much sealed the deal before my wallet cleared my pocket.

I also discovered, having arrived from the world of Windows, Apple’s operating system wasn’t a chore to learn it was a complete breeze, a stroll in the park, , whistle while you work type of feeling. I had a clutter free desktop workspace, that didn’t contain those icons that filled the screen up like a real estate ad. A secure browser that didn’t make the Internet news on a weekly basis including a secure and simple mail application that didn’t invite itself to unsecured complications (Are you noticing the word ‘secure’).

Most important, running a UNIX based system; no longer did I worry about Active X control security hacks. I finally had an operating system that didn’t belch the color blue and give me its impression of the next Ice Age whenever it gave up the ghost. On the extremely rare occasion when an application did crash (which in the past four years, I can count the number of times that happened, on less than one hand), it didn’t take the other open apps, all my data, and the rest of the entire planet with it into another dimension, never to return. My data was safe. That’s a very nice feeling. After all, who among us hasn’t churned out a huge chunk of database, spreadsheet or word processing information, recoiled in horror as your screen suddenly and without warning flashed some sort of error message and hexadecimal code that meant absolutely nothing to you, and cursed a streak as blue as your screen. Then, after shutting everything down and rebooting, immediately set the automatic save feature in your application to every ten seconds, fully aware what just happened wasn’t a one time anomaly. Oh, yes, then you had to recreate the lost data. That isn’t a very nice feeling.

It’s pretty sweet when the same company makes the hardware and underlying software. Makes you feel more than one person put some time, energy and thought into the process, desiring to provide the user with the best of both worlds. I’m sure you’re asking,‘what about the application software’?

A friend said the same thing. What about the availability of applications? I asked if she used every piece of software written for Windows since the dawn of civilization. If not, why does that become an issue? What is important is using the one software application necessary to get the job done. From word processing to spreadsheets, browsers to RSS readers, outliners to professional screen writing, photo editing to videos to desktop publishing, from music editing to learning a foreign language, with a damn good piece of chess software thrown in, I have everything I need. Including a bonus for added measure, something you’ve been probably searching for and desired as well, in your computing experience.Headache and stress free, piece of mind.