I have no intention whatsoever of getting caught up into one of those ridiculously endless arguments that characterize Usenet groups like comp.sys.mac.advocacy. Lately I've been asked why I returned to the Apple camp after almost a decade of having been a Windows guy. So here are some of my reasons.

• I like the OS X interface; it's elegant and thoughtful.

• I'm delighted to be free from viruses, spyware, and malware. Nor do I have to deal with typically psychotic anti-virus and anti-spyware programs.

• I trust the Mac; a decade of steady usage taught me never to trust Windows. It took me a while to realize just how defensive I had become--once the need for defensiveness had ceased. Oh, I still make backups and perform regular maintenance, naturally. One needn't be a fool about such things.

• I do a lot of presentations with a projector, and the Mac's ability to switch gracefully between single display, mirrored displays, and spanned displays, is a great advantage. Windows can do this, but awkwardly and with oddball limitations.

• The geek mentality which prevails in the Microsoft camp is happily absent in the Apple world. The design philosophy of "it just works" isn't just an Apple advertising slogan. It really does 'just work'.

• Mapping computer systems to basic personality types, I would say that while Windows encapsulates a classic aversive personality (i.e., focusing on avoiding what it doesn't want), the Macintosh is a prime example of a phlegmatic personality (i.e., equanimous, flexible, leaning towards optimism.) I'm enough of an aversive type as it is; I benefit from the Mac's easygoing friendliness.

• There are some applications which I value (Logic Pro, Digital Performer, Motion) which aren't available for Windows.

• The Mac design tends to favor system-wide features versus those provided by individual applications. Thus the calendar sends out reminders and alarms whether or not iCal is actually running; the address book is available from all applications; Spotlight (the terrific search engine in Tiger) is available throughout the system, and so forth.

• I really admire and value Apple's hardware design. The Apple products I own (PowerMac, PowerBook, iPod) are great examples of beauty and function. Sometimes you need to live with the product for a while to appreciate just how thoughtful the engineering has been.

• Unlike a lot of today's computer people, I'm pretty comfortable using a command line--and OS X is, after all, Unix with a spectacularly elegant graphical shell. There's a full-fledged Unix in there, including all those ultra-power programming tools.

• The sleep function actually works. I close the lid of my PowerBook and it goes instantly to sleep. I open the lid and it is instantly awake, and working properly. I've never seen the sleep/suspend function in Windows work all that well, especially not on laptops.