Features

17 Cheap OEM versions

Although, strictly, it breaches Microsoft's licensing terms and conditions, in practice there's little to stop experienced PC owners buying the vastly discounted OEM versions of Windows. dabs.com, for example, is selling Vista Home Premium OEM for £74, which makes it more than £15 cheaper than the latest version of Mac OS X. OEM versions come without the retail packaging and don't include support from Microsoft, but for the average PC Pro reader, that won't cause too much distress.

18 Far better media capability

Media-centre PCs have come on leaps and bounds over the past year or so, with a selection of attractive units that won't look horribly out of place underneath the svelte 32in LCD screen in the lounge, nor make a noise like a 747 preparing for take-off. Windows Media Center is now built into Vista Home Premium and Ultimate, and turns your PC into a very effective personal video recorder, with its excellent onscreen television guide and the option to record all the episodes in a series. Apple's Front Row, on the other hand, doesn't offer any television features - in fact, it's little more than a flashy front end for its iTunes software.

19 IT support expertise

When it comes to the workplace, Windows is the predominant OS by a mile. And while its vagaries may drive IT departments up the wall, there's an army of support professionals out there with vast experience of making it work. Switch

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platforms, however, and you can kiss all that goodbye: experienced Mac OS systems engineers are like gold dust. Couple the PC's comparative ease of support with the fact that almost all business apps are either cross-platform or Windows-only, and you don't need an MBA to spot the smart investment.

20 Not so insecure

Apple makes a great fuss about the Mac's supposed immunity to viruses, and it's true that the platform has historically been less vulnerable to virus attack than the PC. However, to suggest, as it does, that your PC is at risk from more than 100,000 viruses, is ludicrous. Make sure your Windows XP or Vista system is up to date, get a decent virus checker (such as the free AVG Antivirus package or the A-Listed F-Secure 2007 suite) and we sincerely doubt you'll be troubled by one virus a year, let alone 100,000.

21 Copious amount of freeware

One of the advantages of Windows' long tenure at the top is the vast quantity of freely downloadable software now available. To be sure, there's an active Mac shareware community as well, but the numbers speak for themselves: the download.com file repository lists more than 55,000 packages of freeware and shareware for Windows, compared to just 4,586 for the Mac. Which library would you rather have access to?

22 What is it with Steve Jobs?

Has there ever been such a self-serving, egotistical, irritating man as Apple CEO, Steve Jobs? Yes, he brilliantly rescued the company from the doldrums in the late-1990s, but boy, he doesn't half bang on about it.

Then there are the Jobs sermons from the mount: earlier this year, for example, he decided to upbraid the music industry for its addiction to DRM with a public statement on Apple's website, which was lapped up by a mass media that hangs on his every word. This, despite the fact that Apple has successfully locked people into the iPod upgrade cycle by applying its own proprietary DRM - but did anyone get to question the great man on this? Of course not, he doesn't do tough interviews.