Hi Charlie,

I am pretty sure that Thomas did not swich for a Media Center - you can't tell that iTV/FrontRow thing a Media Center (yet).

However, I stumbled over what you said with "a majority of his problems with Windows at the time he 'switched' seemed to stem from his chosen OEM".

This is actually the biggest problem with Windows - it's always the OEM, if not the specific hardware vendor, ect. - Apple's strong side here is that they deliver the hardware, they are their own OEM, and they are themselves able to make sure everything works.

I know we with Vista have just started getting new drivers, and it will properly be some months before everything is stable, but I still with my Media Center (and Vista) have a feeling that everything is waiting to quit on me, currently I am in a situation where:

- My Vista Ultimate with a NVidia 7600GT, latest NVidia drivers, ect. decides to bluescreen and reboot once I turn on the projector, properly a driver problem with HDCP communication.

- My XBox 360 has three (!) times this week decided to call the quits, disconnect from it's extender session because an online spotlight TV application had too much used bandwith on their feeds causing this to be unstable.

I know Microsoft aren't the one to blaim in most situations, but there is one point here - because Apple does things differently, I could have been pretty sure not to have such problems with buying a Mac.

So, I am still in a world where I love my Media Center, because I am a technology neard, and I can live with it not functioning right all the time, however I am also in a place were I cannot recommend anyone to replace their set-top boxes, dvd recorders with a Media Center.

Perhaps it's the OEM's, perhaps it's the hardware and the drivers, perhaps it's Microsoft software, or perhaps it's just a good mix of it all together.

Fact is though, that it just isen't good enough yet! Your fault or not your fault.

Don't take this the wrong way, what I am saying here is that I can understand why someone chooses to go with a Mac, that properly also has it's flaws, it's just that their way of being their own everything has the potential of making a more stable and flawless product.

Regards,

Brian Binnerup

"I was very disappointed by the way he ended this post today."

What exactly were you disappointed by? The fact that he said "XP sucks"? The whole post was about how he was fed up with Windows - why did that part in particular disappoint you?

I've had nothing but trouble w/Vista as well; the video drivers aren't up to snuff and some software I need is not yet compatible with it yet. Additionally, within Media Center I won't be able to roll my own CableCard solution for recording HD; not Microsoft's fault but a huge negative for me. Add in no DVD streaming as well to my 360 and I have zero excitement; now if XBMC was available for the 360 and played nicely with Media Center, color me excited.

My solution has been to deal with the lousy DVR that my cable company has and stream video via some of the TViX solutions and audio via a Squeezebox (switched from WMA lossless to FLAC). I've even begun looking into Ubuntu as an alternative; this from a long time Microsoft fan that now sees the product as protecting Hollywood's interest instead of allowing me to use the machine as I'd like.

Great Presentations!

I see. Thanks anyway :)