Macs benefit from low virus count & app longev (Score 2, Interesting)

I picked up my Powerbook G4 550 in the first part of 2001. I cranked up the RAM to 512, added an old style airport card I found on ebay (after Apple quit making them), and picked up an extra power supply after the wires frayed. The only other problem I've had with it is the screen had a loose connector. I take it apart every 6 months or so and re-seat the connector and it works fine for a while. I added a firewire external hard drive (160Gb) to suppliment the internal 18Gb. I also hooked up a firewire M-audio input box for my musical recording into GarageBand. The only reason I'd want to upgrade is that I can't burn my movies to DVD (iDVD requires 733Mhz and it only has a cd-rw) and iMovie has a hard time even exporting back to tape.

For a 5 year old machine, it runs like a dream and still runs 90% of the apps I need it to. As an added bonus, I can't remember the last time I re-booted it.

In the same time frame, I've re-built new machines for my daughter twice (probably due to just plain physical abuse and constant spyware downloading), my wife is on a PC laptop after her desktop couldn't cut it anymore (a virus that couldn't be eradicated), and I re-built my PIII 600 to be a dual P4 1Ghz that I run all non-mac stuff on it.

I could probably use a new G5 in the next year or so that will allow me to make DVDs from movies, but the P4 powerbook is still my main computer and probably will be for another year or so. I can't even imagine a 6+ year old PC running the same apps, without a virus checker.

The Dell desktop we bought at the same time as my powerbook is in the storage room in the basement as spare parts