If you are looking to move to a computer hardware structure and an OS with the worst 'big brother' control of what you do, track everything you do.Then by all means buy a MAC.They are great, but Vista's 'spyware and big brother' is still 10 years behind Apple and the MAC.BTW - they are a #### to keep free of viruses.

If I could run a solid flight sim *without* Windows, I would do it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, I can't.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case

>Alex, being a Mac newb (and looking ahead and away from>Windows OS) can you give an idea of the cost of your Mac?Well, I don't have one at home. We have a few at the office though and I've been playing around with one of them recently.As for the price: Just looked @ apple store and a configuration with:* 2 x 3GHz Core 2 Xeon* 4 gig RAM* ATI 1900 XT (yes, not the fastest video card - but the fastest they offer right now, although any modern PCIe card can be used in a Mac Pro, so one could order the system with the cheapest video card they offer and then just replace it)* 250 gig SATA* usual stuff (keyboard, mouse, dvd drive etc.)* 23 inch cinema display (1920 x 1200 resolution)sells for about 5800 euros (that's about $7500).I'am sure, prices in the US are significantly lower though.

Reggie,How about posting a few links to verified and unbiased information confirming your accusations ?BTW, I have a PC at home for FS9 and FSX but have been using Macs professionally for the last 12 years so you'd better come up with something else than another urban legend.Jean-PaulAsus P5W DH Deluxe - Core 2 Duo E6600@3Ghz - Leadtek 7950 GT TDH 512 - 4 x 1GB Kingmax DDR2 667 CL5 RAM - 2 x 250GB Hitachi T7K250 SATA2 AHCI - Creative Audigy 2 Value - Antec Sonata 2 Case - 450W Antec SmartPower 2.0 PSU - Samsung SyncMaster 204B 20" - Windows XP Pro SP2 - TrackIR 4 Pro

First:Contray to some peoples beleifs, there are actually many of us who are quite happy with FSX on XP/Vista and are looking forward to MS SP1 and DX 10 update. For those who have given up on FSX your more than welcome to return to to FS9 and its forum.Second:Shouldn't this post be in the Hardware forum?Regards,Mark

>I hope your sadly mistaken about PC gaming coming to an end,>and consoles becoming the only gaming platform available. If>this were to happen, you would not have any "Simulation" games>to play at all. Console games simply are not capable of>running such huge realistic simulations such as Flight>Simualtor, Silent Hunter III, Operation Flashpoint, IL2>series, Falcon 4, ect......). If all we had were consoles,>all we would get would be arcade style games that none of us>would be interested in playing. Lets face it, console games>are dumbed down games that are more arcadish than realistic. >Have you ever seen a realistic PC game get transported to a>console and maintain the same level of realism as on the PC. >Never!!!!!!!>>As far as Microsoft is concerned, they are becoming there own>worst enemy. They are completely ignoring which direction the>overall industry is going in. I guess they think they got it>all figured out, and they assume that everyone will come along>with them. Instead, they create a huge industry market that>is out to get them, and alienate their best friends in the>process, their customers. Microsoft does not know how to>handle competition because they grew up without any>competition.>>Everything they touch anymore turns to disaster. Most>everybody hates them, and that includes the people who still>buys their products. Does this matter even though they still>buy their products. You bet it does. Look how many people>are starting to make the swith over to Macs in the past few>years. I just wish the gaming industry would wake up and>smell the coffee and start developing more games for the MAC. >If this were to happen, most all hard-core gamers and PC'ers>would make the jump over to MAC.>>I think Microsoft is screaming down the highway that IBM went>down back in the 1980's. They have created a world that>despises them, and they continue to do the things that made>that world despise them with more gusto each and every time. >How stupid!!!!!!!!!! A few observations/comments:- If Microsoft is so "despised" then why are they the 6th most admired company overall and the 2nd most admired company in the computer industry, ahead of Apple? Why does Bill Gates beat out Jobs as the most admired CEO (of course Ballmer is actually CEO and Gates is Chairman of the Board).http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/glo...pshots/879.htmlhttp://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/s...se&showText=all- If the Mac and Mac OS is so great, why won't Apple license it? Why can't I go buy a copy of Mac OS and use it with my own hardware? Maybe it runs well only on a very small subset of carefully controlled hardware, but Windows must be compatible with many, many combinations of hardware and drivers. That's much tougher to do, but provides much more in terms of "open-ness". Mac is a closed and proprietary product. http://www.applematters.com/index.php/sect...e-a-good-thing/- Why does Windows in many tests run better than OS X on Mac's own hardware? - If the Mac OS is so superior and everyone hates Microsoft, why isn't Apple's market share increasing and people switching to Macs in droves? Apple has dumped enough money into advertising and FUD, but if it wasn't for the iPod, they would not be significantly ahead of where they were 5 years ago. http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/pcs/mac-os-mark...-371-201914.phphttp://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34491- If MSFT is so "despised", "alienated," and "completely ignoring which direction the overall industry is going," why is its stock at 52 week highs?

>....and normal people are not scared of Microsoft and what it may or may not know about us. I doubt they care as long as my software is>legal.No....normal, INTELLIGENT, independent thinking people are not the slightest bit "scared" of Microsoft. They're just FED UP with their disdain and disrespect for their customers.

>I wholeheartedly agree. Until 6 months ago, I'd never thought>to consider an alternative platform to Microsoft (Linux, Mac),>now I'm seriously thinking about it.>>>Marco>>>My situation exactly. I'm going to make my second recent trip to my Apple store this afternoon - thinking about coming home with a MAC mini.

I find it funny that the only company that ranked higher in your "money.cnn.com" ranking than Microsoft is IBM. Ha!!!!Ha!!!!Ha!!!! I thought Microsoft was the company that ended IBM.Anyway, that should say something about your list. Don't always assume a company is financially successful only because how well it is being managed. This is not always the case. Microsoft broke all kinds of ground by bringing personal computers to the mainstream with Windows95. As a result, they fell into what is called a "Natural Monopoly". (1) Software developers wanted to develop software for a single operating system, (2) Microsoft was the first widely purchased single operating system for the mainstream of consumers, and (3) now everyone else wants to have an operating system that most software developers create software for. Here is Microsoft's "natural monopoly". We all go out and buy the new MS OS not because it is Microsoft's new Operating System, but because we want to run other software on our computers that require Microsoft's Operating System (like FSX). This is why Microsoft is financially successful, and this is why they rank high in your rankings. You can see how difficult it would be to try to break this mold. There would always be that one little piece of software that you love to use that requires Microsoft's OS to run that would keep you buying it. Many people mistake the company for being a well ran company. Actually, I don't think we can say they are a well ran company. Lets face it, many of us are dreading changing over to Vista because of all of its built in hasstles. More and more people are becoming computer savvy and starting to rebel about how intrusive Microsoft's OS is, and this is during an era where everybody is concerned about personal privacy. I think Microsoft is digging their own grave.Hey, I agree with you that Microsoft has brought a lot of good things to personal computers. I am not hoping they fall apart either. I would just love for their to be a little bit of competition out there so we, the consumers, get alot better products in the end. Right now, it is like we are buying these really nice flashy cars, but the car maker decided not to put a gas peddle in the car. We will get that in the first patch.

>- If the Mac OS is so superior and everyone hates Microsoft,>why isn't Apple's market share increasing and people switching>to Macs in droves? It takes time to change momentum. The 90% market share is tough mo to overcome. Me, as a few others who have posted comment on this thread, are now just beginning to become open to the possibility of other PC platforms. That's a shift. I find I am often right in sync with others and it wouldn't surprise me to find there are many more thinking as I am now. PC games was the reason I went with MS: FS, and Links Golf. The situation has changed bigtime now. No longer is PC gaming driving PC development. And when you take gaming out of the picture, then things like audio/video development, web browsing, email, office software start becoming more important issues. We'll see on Vista. I am not buying new hardware until I've seen if Vista/FSX/DX10 all turn out to be a good thing, I mean a REAL good thing vs what I have now. So far, no one can for sure say if or when this will be. Fortunately my 3 y/o hardware is running everything ok so I hope it lasts until it's more obvious which way to go. I bypassed XP entirely as it added very little to Win2K Pro, and I was certain I would be ready for Vista etc. Well, not as sure today.Running legacy MS software on a MAC pro may end up being the ulimate solution. $4,500 tho is a bit steep for this!

I don't buy this one bit. The only reason many in this forum have a top-of-the-line-high-end-pixel-blasting-cell-shading computer is because of FSX/FS9. I mean, come on. You don't need much of a computer for Word Processing, Photo processing, Excell, or even video. So you trying to tell me you'd spend 7500.00 for a word processor? Not a chance. Pretty funny when you think about it.

"- If MSFT is so "despised", "alienated," and "completely ignoring which direction the overall industry is going," why is its stock at 52 week highs?"Do you need the stock market to decide for what you will have for breakfast ? Unless "Stock Market" has become the new Intelligence Quotient...Jean-Paul Asus P5W DH Deluxe - Core 2 Duo E6600@3Ghz - Leadtek 7950 GT TDH 512 - 4 x 1GB Kingmax DDR2 667 CL5 RAM - 2 x 250GB Hitachi T7K250 SATA2 AHCI - Creative Audigy 2 Value - Antec Sonata 2 Case - 450W Antec SmartPower 2.0 PSU - Samsung SyncMaster 204B 20" - Windows XP Pro SP2 - TrackIR 4 Pro

bump

One point of contention is the supposed demise of pc gaming. According to the NPD group sales were up 20 million in 2006 from 950 million to 970 million, although still down from the peak in 2004 of 1.1 billion boxed sales. These are US figures only though. Still, seems PC gaming is still going strong considering the console competition.As far a Vista, still waiting till the smoke clears from the gloom and doom and the optimists. I read a bit on DRM and HDCP and it seems both Apple and MS don't have a choice as far as HD content as the industry is encoding automatic downgrading but I still need to research further to get the full picture and understand the utter disdain for Vista.Overall, I have nearly 6 pc games installed (50 overall) on my pc, my son has about 10, I own a PS2, x-box, atari flashback and xbox360. Being 38 I use the PC the most for video conferencing my father in Wales, bills, web development, MS office and programming (dev c), online etc... and games. My teenagers use the pc for ipodding, games and myspace. I'll ask if vista eliminates any of this? If not, then I'll use it. If MS has a bunker and is tracking me then it's no different than the 65 tracking cookies I eliminate with adaware everyday. Track me, I'm not hacking into the defense grid or stealing from a bank. If I could do that I'd be able to disable tracking anyway.Ian.

I think I've heard of MAC.They're computers for kids, aren't they?Peter Sydney Australia