I have never had to find out what Dell customer service is like in ten years of using it simply because none of them ever broke, honest not once. Microsoft software has had some trouble with viruses over the years, but they have online support for every conceivable problem so on those few occasions when things were not going right I just googled up a solution. Sometimes I even had to dig using the Microsoft forums to get a remedy, but the sheer number of users guarantees someone out there has had the same issue and found a solution. If Dell and MS were not working for me I would jump ship in a heartbeat. The only times I have been tempted to go with Mac is when I was into graphics, computer simulation, or when I wanted to impress someone. Not having ever given in to that temptation I know nothing about them but I see them like German cars- they run and look great and people really like them but parts are hard to get and everything costs too much.

I went to a public speech this evening given by Buzz Carpenter the former SR-71 pilot. His slide show was nice, but what I took with me was his comment that Kelly Johnson did not like unreliable cockpit instruments so the SR-71 panel was filled with off the shelf instruments.