(Come check me out at http://www.thesleepygeek.com)

I have wanted to try OS X for such a long time now. I remember seeing the first versions at a friend’s house when it was still not cool among my PC geek buddies to use a Mac. I was still intrigued with the interface. I am not sure what it was at the time but it just looked polished.

I am in the IT field and need to use a PC at work simply because I am troubleshooting problems on them and writing scripts on them. It doesn’t leave me with much of a choice really, and it doesn’t bother me either. For work purposes I understand why corporations use Windows based machines and quite frankly they do their job very well.

That being said about work, at home I have always felt that something was lacking with my computer. I am always trying a different Linux distro or another Windows add-on to try something new. So when I first heard that Apple was going to release Intel based Macs, I was excited! Here is the first opportunity for me to get a system that was able to run both OS X and Windows. This is an exciting proposition. The problem with that is I already have many computers and they are all working. It is very hard to justify buying a new computer just to change OSes.

This lead me to wish that Apple would release OS X for the masses. I would definitely use it. Many people already are with hacked versions of the OS calling them Hackintoshes or labeling the practice the “OSX86 project.” That means that there are some people out there wanting to try OS X but most likely financial reasons are holding them from buying a Mac.

Let’s look at this financially. Take the MacBook Pro from the Apple Store, which sells for $1999 and compare it to the Dell XPS which sells for $1049.99 on Bestbuy.com. The Dell has more memory, a larger hard drive and it also comes with an OS, Windows Vista. So when we are comparing apples to apples here (no pun intended :)) the Dell seems to win the battle. My conclusion to the money battle is that even if Apple charged $300 for OS X, it seems like you would be better off with the Dell. Or would you?

Apple has always been in complete control of their entire product. This is the OS on the hardware they are manufacturing. By only using certain components and in certain situations, Apple has managed to keep their product pretty sound. There are many arguments from Windows fans that OS X has many of the same shortcomings as Windows, but I feel that some of Windows shortcomings affect the day to day experience.

Apple has had the Mac vs. PC ad campaign for quite some time now and one of the ads that still catches my attention is the ad that pokes at the need for a major upgrade for you to run Windows Vista. It’s funny because Apple has stopped support for legacy hardware on a number of occasions. There were many systems that were left behind when OS X first was released. Where as some people in the Windows community think that is a negative point and now even Apple has brought it up, I think that ties into the polish of the product.

Let’s look at this another way. Apple doesn’t release OS X because it is not in the OS business. Maybe people would disagree, but I feel that they have written an OS to put on their hardware so that the user is offered a complete solution which is sound due to control.

So would I run OS X on my PC? Only for the geek factor. Really what I want is a Mac and I think my next computer will be one.