Pc or mac?

yes - you can install MacOS on non-Apple but your average punter won't go there.........bit like you can crack iOS on an iPhone but again, more for the experts than the "masses"

sure ChromeOS is limited but if you look at the market they's pitching at - those who just need access to the internet, social networks, e-mail and perhaps some office (Google Apps) applications - I suspect it's on the button. with a netbook like form and a standard keyboard, I think it will do well. and because it has no big memory, no large drive, no DVD it will be quite cheap as well - that will appeal to many

Your average punter won't go anywhere near installing any OS on any machine.

I'm not knocking the ChromeOS machines at all. I like the idea of fast, light notebook, but they're not mass-market, and by the time they're available tablet devices may well have too strong a grip on the casual market. Perhaps that they offer a sub-set of features over netbooks will give them an edge over small laptops. As an option for students they're probably ideal, but the storage issue is a massive consideration for many. What about people who use digital cameras? A ChromeOS device could only viably be a second machine, just like an iPad2...

It'll be interesting to see what happens with 3G/4G data packages to make it a viable mobile device.

... and you get Angry Birds on iPad!

"As an option for students they're probably ideal, but the storage issue is a massive consideration for many."

I can also see a market with sales reps on the road, utilities guys, field staff of all sorts - a lot of these guys need simple data access and for reports with SaaS products. and they tend to like keyboards for this and cheap prices for the companies as they would be bought in bulk.

tablets are seen as a lifestyle product, ChromeOS could end up being a good business product. remember the Psion netbook in the 90's and their earlier MC range?? they were ahead of the game with a small portable PC - ChromeOS could be the product that the Psion could have been.

but as you say the rate limiting factor will be the data packages - if the ChromeOS boxes are wi-fi only, they'll die.

The practice of putting Mac OS on PCs is also known as "Hackintosh"

The PC. It's cheaper.

and has more games

If I just used a computer for a word processor, excel, internet and email, I would go with a PC. But my devotion to Mac is based purely on software for work. Lots of useful bits and bobs that I can only get on Mac, or that are far cheaper than the PC equivalent. So the initial costs were higher, but I saved on licensing costs. I personally don't use Microsoft office at all and don't need to. But the Mac interpretation of excel (Numbers) is really horrible if you need to do any macros or owt a bit more complicated.

For everyday stuff, photos, music etc my Mac just works and is really easy and instinctive to use. For work stuff, I have to put in a bit more work to track down what I need - but when you find it, it works well, is usually cheap, and often I am surprised by the genius of what can be done.

Also battery power on my MacBook Pro is incredible. I can get 8 or 9 hours out of it if I am not processing too much stuff at once. I have to travel a lot, and this is a really big plus to me.

I have a Mac and love it, never had any problems at all. Not going to pretend I bought it for any technical reasons though. It is pretty to look at the salesman was too!

I have absolutely no idea, but I saw this today and it made me think of this thread ......

The Oatmeal

LOL - love the Linux part of that. I recently set up an old laptop with Ubuntu Linux - probably the most user friendly version around - and it works well for most things like mail and web browsing, but there are some programs that you want to install when you have to get into Linux geek mode using command lines - bit like going back to the old MS-Dos days - which can be incredibly frustrating if you aren't familiar with it which I'm not.