[numberonepal]

So what? For those who use a laptop as a very large PDA or DVD player, that is just wonderful. Let’s try something like SolidWorks or Solid Edge and see how they perform, not.

Or have Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Word, Excel, Outlook, IE, FF, Safari, a chat program, Anti-Virus, Firewall, and WebLogic (web server) all running at the same time. I have a Mac Book Pro, and it can't handle that load. Only the HP 6530b I have can handle it without issue. When you need to WORK, get a PC.

[TXnMA]

I note you didn't specify how much RAM you have in the two machines; but I do heavy cartographic, graphic design, and GIS work on my MBP (along with the browsers, etc. you mention -- in nine running "Spaces") and I've never been able to slow it down one bit.

I admit that I don't run a webserver on my laptop -- but why would one do that?

[Scoutmaster]

Or have Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Word, Excel, Outlook, IE, FF, Safari, a chat program, Anti-Virus, Firewall, and WebLogic (web server) all running at the same time. I have a Mac Book Pro, and it can't handle that load. Only the HP 6530b I have can handle it without issue. When you need to WORK, get a PC.

Well, I'm also running Adobe After Effects CS5, Apple Motion, Fireworks, Apple Final Cut Pro, and the Juicer for Digital Juice. Sometimes, I have Compressor or Soreson Squeeze running. Of course, I'm not running Anti-Virus or the Firewall (it is, after all, a Mac), or running three different Internet browsers at once. I am running Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Word, and Excel.

And my MacPro is humming along without a blip. I'm doing serious work with the 8 gig of RAM and the i7 chip. That's the reason I no longer use a PC.

[antiRepublicrat]

There’s an old saying in computers:

Unix for networking
Windows for games
Mac for work

But now Mac is Unix, so it would be Windows for games, Mac for everything else.

[Scoutmaster]

Or have Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Word, Excel, Outlook, IE, FF, Safari, a chat program, Anti-Virus, Firewall, and WebLogic (web server) all running at the same time. I have a Mac Book Pro, and it can't handle that load. Only the HP 6530b I have can handle it without issue. When you need to WORK, get a PC.

Microsoft doesn't produce or support Internet Explorer for Apple OSX. I'd like to politely call BS on your post. If you really have a MacBook, then you know you're not running IE (unless you're running Fusion or Parallels and running Windows at the same time - and you would have added that to the list of programs running)

And your HP 6530b certainly isn't going to be able to run both systems simultaneously, is it?

And, as I said, I'm running what you're running and more. Plus, I'm rendering video on my Mac Pro (i7, 8 gig RAM0 in Final Cut Pro in 1/4 to 1/10 the time it would be rendering in Adobe Premiere on Windows - and I'm doing it while running other programs. When you're rendering on Windows in Premiere, the rest of your system is basically kaput. And with Apple Motion, I'm creating After Effects-style work with immediate preview, without rendering. Plus, because many of the Red Giant programs - used in professional film production - only work in After Effects, I'm running it, too.

As for running Word and Excel at the same time. Big deal. They're not performance hogs. They're not even performance piglets.

I've been known to run Maya with the other program, in Windows, while the others are running in OS 10.6 - because Maya isn't available for Mac.

Mac's are very definitely for work. In my case, I do office work and high duty video, 2d animation, and 3d animation work at the same time.