@StephenChapman
Stephen as someone that came from Windows to Mac about four years ago, when Leopard came out and Mac switched to Intel; I can sympathize with your woes. Try uninstalling a program on a Mac, good luck (I will not go into the details of how to do it or the programs you can BUY to do it here). Of on Lion, try changing your desktop picture for every desktop, good luck with that. After getting accustomed to both OSs, I think I can truthfully say that they both have their strengths and their weaknesses. Over all I think they are about equal. As far as the blandness of OSX, I could not agree more. There are some programs that are available to help with that. CandyBar will let you change your icons and dock (you can download docks at Leopard Docks or other sites), and Crystal Black will will change the UI colors and enable aero on OSX. Do not download the full Crystal Clear, it is not Lion compatible. You will find more freeware for the Mac, but you will also find a lot of programs that you like will not run on Mac. You will find maintenance to be much easier and the periods of maintenance to be less. Onyx is a great free utility for maintenance cleaning on a Mac. I would install an antivirus just to have one; I do not run one in real time and only scan maybe a few times a year. The only things I have found so far are Windows viruses, which are harmless and probably picked up through a friends emails; but delete these because they can be passed on to Windows users. Windows is more customizable, has a better looking UI and with the release of Windows 7 is more intuitive and easier to use than any OS I have used. Of course with Windows you have to have security software, as I am sure you well know. On my Windows desktops at work, all I use are Microsoft Security Essentials, Malwarebytes, and Iobit Security; all of which are free. As you also know you need to do maintenance and security scans more often than on OSX. Of course Mac is much more secure due to it's relatively small market share; but that will change if they ever become a real competitor to Windows, and then it will be interesting to see how not only Apple deals with it but also the hordes of Mac users who have an unfounded belief that OSX is inherently more secure and refuse to believe otherwise despite evidence to the contrary. The bottom line for me is that both OSs are about equal, I use Mac only at home because I enjoy the vastly superior build quality of their notebooks. If I was to buy an AIO or dekstop for home, it would be a Windows 7 and I would save a ton of money. Apple markets Mac as a luxury brand of computer, and that is what it is; so if someone does not want to pay the premium for better build quality and higher specs on the their low end computers, then Mac is for you. If you want more choice in brands, build specs, models, styles and sizes; than Windows is for you. Of course some PC vendors are really coming out with some outstanding designs that are well built and run great at half the price of Mac. See the new HP Envy 14 with it's all metal casing, and also the first laptop to offer serious hybrid drive technology without the price of a full SSD. Also all of the Sony VAIOs are great, well built machines as well. Just my two cents, I hope it helps you.
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