I think it just rubbed me the wrong way that the very first reaction to a specific question was to switch to a new OS, without any effort to offer the solution that was asked for. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if I've done that here before too, but I saw it here and bristled at it.

And no, I don't get a lot of calls about Macs, but I get some. Part of it is that I haven't sought it out much, because I wouldn't want to sell myself as an expert on an operating system I don't have experience in. I will agree that they have fewer problems, but they aren't devoid of them. They have plenty of problems, some of which are analogous to Windows issues and some all of their own. It's nice that they have so few viruses, that's for sure.

Personally, I've tried several times to live inside OSX. I used a MacBook as my sole computer for a few months. While I appreciate some things about the OS, other things drove me up the freaking wall. I came to two conclusions:

1) spending hours with hacks and 3rd party applications to get the UX to behave the way I wanted wasn't worth it, and

2) I do most things from within a browser anyway, so what's the point?

So I've stuck to the platform that behaves in a familiar way because it's just a gateway to the web for me. I would probably be fine using a Chromebook, frankly, but there isn't enough of an operating system there for the file management aspects and other little tasks (I have the same problem using tablets as work devices).

Anyway, this is rambling and getting even further away from the issue at hand. Doug, I'd love to hear what you got out of a safe boot.