What do you want in a Mac?

Whether you're a regular Mac owner or a Pro-user, what do you want most out of your Mac and/or why did you get a Mac?

i work with computers other than macs all day.

i wanted something i could come home to, get on the net or whatever with no worries while sitting on my couch and relaxing. for my main uses though, it's probably no easier to use than a windows machine, it's just a nicer, less high maintenance environment in which to do them.

I want it to work. I don't like computers.

Simplicity and honestly I like to go away from the crowd on some things. I thought I would give it a shot with the student discount. Currently I couldn't see switching back under regular circumstances.

1. They look nice!
2. Something a little different!
3. I do a lot of design work!

I wanted good quality hardware that lasts, and a good quality OS that doesn't require constant maintenance if you do anything more than look at your desktop.

Alienware was my last refuge on the hardware side of PCs until it was bought out by Dell. On the software side, the learning curve with OSX was sometimes frustrating, but the system requires very little maintenance once you get it setup the way you like.

So, while the shoddy hardware state of the PC market forced me into Apple's arms, OSX made staying with the Mac is a no-brainer.

I'm even learning PHP so I can fully banish Windows from my life (it currently lives inside VMWare - which is nice too) while continuing to develop websites for my clients.

I was fed up with Vista after only 5 months of using it - that caused me to switch to a Mac.

Now that I've owned my Mac for about a year, everything about it is so much better than Windows ever was.

• Not having to defrag the hard drive JUST to get the machine to run faster.
• OS X's stability, robustness and memory management are years ahead of anything Windows has ever done (thanks to the UNIX underpinnings in OS X.)
• Well-designed user interfaces in just about all of the Mac software I've used so far.

I bought the Mac Pro (overkill for what I use it for) over what would have been a capable machine in an iMac for a few reasons as well:

• I'm used to being able to open my machine and install upgrades - you can't upgrade a hard drive in an iMac without voiding your warranty.
• I don't like All-in-One computers. Apple is great, but they aren't perfect. If the screen dies, I'm out a computer for at least several days, and I can't afford that kind of downtime.
• The Mac Pro is powerful enough that I'm future-proofed for at least the next 3 or 4 years (and I've already owned it for a year....)
• Resale value should be pretty good, and I can afford a new Mac Pro for around the cost of a midrange iMac. (I didn't even pay full price for my Mac, so that's even better.)

I like the way that they are now, I just wish it was easier to mod them. >_>" although I wouldn't mind if they were a little bit more energy efficient.

I bought it because it's UNIX with a pretty UI. I can get Kung Fu on the OS if I want to, or just let it run along indefinitely. Plus, it actually does stuff with just the OS installed. I could do all sorts of things on Mac with just what ships in the box - no plug-ins. extra downloads, etc were needed to do everything I wanted. Free applications were a bonus as well. In fact, looking through my applications, I've only paid for 2: Parallels, and MS Office 2004: mac.