I get that, but in the end you get what you pay for, and time is money unless you are enjoying what you are doing.

Yes, thanks for reminding me..... I have never regretted paying extra, and getting what I pay for.

Anyone have any input on a used mac mini? I see lots of them on ebay.

Just be sure it's a model from within the last year or two and has enough RAM. That way there won't be any trouble running the latest software version 10.10
I may have a used tower that you can have - I will check today

My youngest son has had two macs. Threw them both in the trash and built his own since from parts at NewEgg.
He is anal about reformatting and reloading every other month.

Sounds like a lot of work to me when I have not had to do that on a Mac for at least the last 5 years.
One can go on forever about Mac vs PC, but essentially if you want to think of a computer like an appliance that you turn on and it works, then Macs are ideal though more expensive. Thinking of a computer as an appliance was actually Steve Job's philosophy as to how he turned the company around into the worlds largest tech company.
If you want to build from parts, tinker, tear your hair out when things are not working, and spend a lot of time on maintenance issues etc, cheap is your priority over convenience, and you enjoy spending your time doing non-productive extra work and maintenance - get a PC. Even OS upgrades on a PC - 7 to 8 etc are a nightmare compared to Macs. I know from my experience with upgrading the one office PC that I have, every time the OS is upgraded. As mentioned before Mac OS from 10 onwards is Unix based, so still allows access for those who want to work under the hood,

Right, the wasted time trying to get something to work, or back up and running is what I hate spending time on

I don,t do any gaming just would like to be able to do some simple video editing etc. Then the standard web surfing email, a spreadsheet or two, nnothing super fancy. I used to always get myBrothers old machines, since He did autocad work, when He would upgrade He would just send me the old machine, perfect for what I use it for.
I JUST DON,'T LIKE WINDOWS!

Deals on Mac's:

https://www.macsales.com/

I've never used a mac, though I have heard from many that mac includes software that makes picture and video editing relatively easy. I do know that the out of the box graphics capabilities of the mac are much better for those type applications.

Which is better? Depends on what you want to use it for and the availability of the applications you want. Video & graphics work go with mac, simple web surfing and occasional documents and spreadsheets go with linux, cadd and most business applications go with pc. If you're still using xp for web surfing then you will be having problems sooner or later if not already (i would re-purpose all xp machines to linux because xp is vulnerable even if you are not running as an administrator).

For the most part, windows applications get more development efforts simply because of market share. About 90% of personal computers are running some version of windows so a lot more money is spent on applications for pc than all the others combined. Also, most large corporations are heavily invested in pc architecture because it does what they want and they can monitor and control what their employees can do with them.

I find windows is good, with paint to edit pics and movie maker to edit movies.... as long as there is plenty of multi terabyte hard drives for all of the porn... I am happy

Thanks for the suggestion Muz...

Gordon how do I find out what version of linux to try? Is mint different than kde? Whats ubuntu and whats up with all the goofy names for everything? I like the idea of using a cd or usb to start with.
Will linux be faster than win7? My xp netbook is WAY faster than the win 7 machine, even though it has a much slower processor speed.

There is a real misperception that business applications are limited on Macs. This was true years ago before OS10 but is really no longer true in practice for 99% of computer users. This may be true for custom applications to some degree, but not true for all standard apps including MS Office which is available Mac native. Mac have increased their share over the last few years largely due to the iPhone explosion. Ironically now viruses are more of a concern than they ever were. Macs always work seamlessly from their computer platform to their iPhones, synching through iCloud and iTunes and the iTunes store. Apple are pretty strict about which apps are accepted, to sell on the store which benefits security. If you chose to use non-approved apps then security issues etc are less certain.
It's true that if you need a custom built business or engineering application, then it's easier to find someone who can build it for you on PC, on the other hand there are thousands of Mac specific business apps from database software (Filemaker, Salon Transcripts), medical, accounting (MYOB, Quicken) etc (I use all of these). Gaming as well has increased though I never use these, as I'm not much of a gamer. The other thing is that if you really want to run Windows, you can do it easily on a Mac using VMWare or Parallels or even Bootcamp that comes packaged in the Mac OS. The other thing to remember is that more and more stuff is on the cloud, which then makes the platform irrelevant. I really think the concept of how you use computers is the key as I said. If you want to use it like an appliance where you turn it on and it simply works with minimal knowledge as to how it works under the hood then Macs are far superior, more intuitive to use etc. If you are inclined to want to build your own software, use freeware, shareware etc, then go PC. There's not really a right or wrong, just personal choice based on how you use them, balancing convenience vs cost etc.

I guess it is like ford and GMC You know what I mean? How fords suck.... and chevys are great, excellent vehicles

That sort of thing

IMO (not a geek, a user), this is a good summation of computers.

I made the mistake of not going to the Mac platform back in 2009... wish I had. I have too much $$$ invested in hardware.... so I cannot justify it now.
Maybe in another generation or so of hardware.

One will find: Windows... has a HUGE (albatross would be a getter word) of internal processing overhead.... to just run.
Literally ANY other OS... will use a lot less processing power to do basic functions.

I misspoke...he threw the macs in the trash and has since built his own windows machines.

I would go full blown linix if there was more AIO printer support.
But there is none for mine.
I do not have time to write my own printer drivers nor try endless recommendations from support groups that at the end do not work.
I got as far as getting one to advance the paper but it just sat there after doing that little.
Other than basic surfing and sending email the only other issue is learning how to install other programs like games. My wife likes games.

Some install and too many won't. There must be a secret handshake or something I can't seem to grasp.

Piss on it until it gets better.
I know how to get my windows boxes working again should they get a bug.

I have never looked back!!!!

This is one of the reasons that linux has not become much more popular than it is. Linux has always been a favorite of true geeks because they can change anything they want, recompile and see if it works. Most linux distributions are being developed by volunteers (no pay), so development is slow and sometimes uncoordinated.

Some of the members here have a lot of experience with linux and I would listen to their recommendations. My everyday box is win 8.1. I also have a laptop that dual boots to either win 8.1 or linux mint 17. Linux mint is based on ubuntu and what I like about linux mint is it includes all the codecs and drivers so it works for most web surfing (you have to google how to add these to ubuntu because they are not included in the install dvd).

Here is one of those 'user' questions:

If someone wanted to leave Windoz... and go to Linux... yet was not a geek, and did not want to have to fiddle with it any more than necessary (yeah, a little lazyness here)...

What is the EASIEST and MOST familiar flavor of Linux one should look at?
The goal is just load it and it works as (reasonably) close to windoz as one can expect.

And why would one be a better choice than another?

Zorin 9.1 can be set up as XP, 7 or 8 interface.
Almost no learning curve.
http://zorin-os.com/

That is what I am looking for....

Us old farts do not learn new tricks well...