well I'm sorry, but I use OS X for work and THAT is a stable OS which is nowhere near as troublesome as ANY Windows OS.

We're not just talking about "will it start up and not crash on me?", we're talking about performance, security, stability, compatibility. Windows fails on it all because the concept behind it is wrong: you want something dependable and that works without too many itches? You have to follow the Apple philosophy.

I'm a pragmatist....I have a beefy desktop with Win7 which is the best win OS by far. A netbook running Ubuntu which satisfies my Linux urges. An iPad for laying on the couch and writing, such as this post. An Android phone for reading the news in the loo at work. And finally an ARM cortex dev board so I can waste a few hours trying to get a couple of LEDs to flash.

Life is good.

Stern.....you spend too much time at the altar of St Jobs, Apple suff only works because they limit the capabilities of their products, they just ensure stability by making sure you can't do anything beyond it's built in handicap, at least a windows tablet will never need a 'jailbreak' to unlock latent capabilities.

Apple fans love.....no worship apple products and that is just grand, Windows users couldn't be happier for them that they have found Nirvana, Apple users users condemn windows users as infidels.
Windows users like windows and think apple stuff is quite nice but limiting, I think my ipad is great but all I wan't is a jailbreak every time so I can use all the features the hardware is capable of, it's like buying an 'iCar2' and finding out the A/C is there but you aren't allowed to use it because it doesn't have the controls and besides the 'iCar3' will have the controls to operate the A/C........and no you can't buy the controls separately and install them in the iCar2.

fyp.

You cant crash w7.
unless:
- you OC
- install incompatible/defective hw
- use 3rd party programs which are, uh, "not so well" coded...

Only that this philosophy can never work for MS.
Didn't you say your a consultant...

We actually work across several platforms, and overall we all reckon Apple products just work better. What are the limitations you talk about, and above all how much does the average office user need stuff beyond the usual stuff?
As for jailbreaking, it's normally done to access illegal content, there are millions of talented apps out there.
what you want is not what necessarily the market wants. Customers want reliable, dependable software and hardware, and Microsoft simply can't offer that, nor is an ideal platform for tweakers (Linux is much better in that respect). Microsoft is a dying dinosaur, and the faster it dies, the better for everybody. Maybe they should stop making OS and just concentrate on office dedicated software really.

lol sure, you should have a look at the tickets of our IT helpdesk. The problem is not the software per se, it's the misuse of it. Users with little or no understanding of how an OS or PC really work will do a lot more damage than savvy ones, and that's where Microsoft loses in terms of quality.

I'm not a consultant, but I can tell that my 15 years' experience of use of PCs and Macs for professional use taught me that if you want to work and have a dependable platform for it, nothing comes close to the Apple combo of hardware and software in terms of quality, reliability and above all post-sale service.

If you want to play games obviously PCs are the best choice, but that's just a deformity of the market, where software houses push the boundaries in agreement with GPU makers to raise the bar of quality and increase sales.
Come to think of it, there have been very few innovative game concepts in the last 10 years, it's all been about visually stunning more than anything else.

No - it's the IT department. If you have a buddy at Ernest&young you might want to ask him for his laptop - there is nothing you fu, the user is locked out from pretty much everything. Those things wont even accept a foreign usb stick without formating and encrypting it(god knows what else it does to it). After that procedure you can only use it company PCs, that is, unless you format it again.
The problems they are experiencing are related to lotus(iirc) and other 3rd party software.
So yes, you can. Dont ask me how, but you can.

I guess you're referring to software, when it comes to hardware their service sux, in CH at least.

So limiting the access to the machines is the answer?! I'll keep on working with Apple,thank you!

The hardware support here is perfect: you call,they come pick it up,fix it and bring it back for free,no questions asked. Truth is that hardware problems are a less common occurrence with Macs,at least according to our IT folks.

Fix it, bring it back for free? Is that some kind of special company contract including this service? Certainly does not apply to my devices.

All Apple products have a compulsory 1 year warranty on hardware and software, once that expires you can buy an extended warranty package that covers for 3 years.

As a private customer you can also have them to pick it up via courier, but I'm not sure whether it's an extra cost or not (my Apple store is not far and I took mine in only once to have a hardware issue fixed).

I believe we have some sort of agreement re. pick up here, but everything else is done for free. They pride themselves about their after sale support, and rightly so!