Apple.

Latest results - sales up - especially Laptops.

I'm no fanboy of anything really (ok, maybe DS-10, Korg Radias, Roland drum machines, TNA, My girlfriend, my cats) but I ma going to say "I'm not surprised".

For years I owned a Sony Vaio T1XP. Tiny thing - had problems (CPU fan died, sound board had to be replace, HD died, dead pixels on screen) but it was so tiny and great and cost so much I kept using it - Win2K Pro + audio software + web software + Dev Studio and more... it did a lot.

So,eventually it gave up the ghost (won't even POST anymore but I might fix it up). I 'ummed' and 'arrrred' and boot a MacBook - cheapest Apple laptop. I have had NO problems (actually the first was DOA but that turned out to be Argos' fault). I never reboot it - I don't need to. XCode is a bit gnarly but QtCreator sorts me out on that front. It's been a great experience - reliable, solid, never crashes. Not something I can say about most PC laptops and Windows XP or Vista - although Win7 has proved to be pretty good.

I also have a desktop machine - dual core, stacks of RAM, every gadget you can imagine (I use it to recover other peoples data). Once apon a time I'd have put Windows on it but I tried Ubuntu 9 and it turned out to be very good... I upgrade to Ubuntu 10 and... BLIMEY! What do I need Windows for now? I don't!

Very reliable, very fast and the effects! Desktop cube (there are 4 desktops in a row) is awesome! Pick up a window and move it - as you bash the edge of the screen the screen rotates to the next desktop as if they're all mapped onto a cube. The "social" side (MSN and chums integrated into the main desktop menu) is actually useful and the software... the software!! TONS of it! All very easy to install (there's a little 'store' type app that does it all for you - you just search and click).

Ubuntu 9 was nice - Ubuntu 10 is REALLY good. Combined with all those lovely Unix tools & Qt Creator I've got a very hansom developer box - in fact - I do a lot of work on it now. My Mac comes everywhere and does my XCode/iPhone stuff too.

Sometimes technology really suprises me.