One of my good friends, eventually to be known as Doctor Kuhl when he gets his Ph. D. from U. of Maryland, is in the market for a new laptop. He called me on Sunday to get my advice and I was a bit surprised in that he was already predisposed to getting an Apple Powerbook. Surprised because that's what I was going to recommend to him as well. From smarter co-workers, I've gotten the distinct impression that Mac's just work and there's less of the struggle-with-hardware that comes with PC's (both Windows and Linux).