I use Time Capsule for the Mac now. Works great.

> Implicit in your response is the notion that Apple hardware is somehow so much less reliable than whatever your PC brand of choice is that Macs are unworthy of the slightest consideration.
Not at all. Macs are certainly worth consideration. I’m simply saying that I don’t expect that a Mac experience is going to be a flawless one, whether it’s a hardware or software problem.
For the most part, Windows XP has worked very, very well for me. System Restore has been absolutely wonderful for getting out of the occasional problem. I like Windows. I want Windows to be better, and this was a serious issue. I’d rather Windows solve it instead of me having to switch to an entire new platform. I’m not there yet
Also, as a postscript, I’ve since applied all the updates and IE7. The problem hasn’t come back and seems to have been specific not to the updates or IE7 but a glitch with the actual update process.

Danny, you’re displaying a pretty poor quality of thinking in your earlier comment. To recap:

Danny: My Microsoft software fell over! Ack!

garypool & grnidone: Try a Mac! Apple’s software doesn’t fall over!

Danny: But their hardware isn’t 100% perfect and shiny and never-failing, so no!

Hrm. Coulda fooled me, but I thought you were struggling with a software problem, not a hardware problem. In a way you remind me of my brother-in-law who only last week, while I was handing him a Windows XP CD for reinstallation because his Thinkpad was giving him so many hardware-unrelated problems over the last few months, said to me, “I like Windows because I haven’t had to do much to fix it.” I asked him what it was he was doing and the light bulb went on.

Implicit in your response is the notion that Apple hardware is somehow so much less reliable than whatever your PC brand of choice is that Macs are unworthy of the slightest consideration. Until, that is, their hardware never fails. So in that spirit, allow me to introduce you to the most reliable computer I can think of: the abacus.

So before you rely on the quote of a random guy having a hardware problem on his PC to defend your handling of a software problem, and another random guy having trouble with his MacBook, you might want to consider the fruits of an industry borne out of the desire to stop making big decisions based on anecdotal evidence: this survey.

Full disclosure: My father uses a MacBook and is completely happy with it. I don’t use Macs much. I use generic PC hardware which tends to fall over from time to time, mostly because I’m cheap. I hate logical fallacies more than platform wars.

Hmm – few people moaning here about Windows Update causing their desktop machine to fail.
Sounds bad, but wait until it brings down your Windows 2003 server and you get to explain, one by one, to each employee of the company, why you are frantically wiring them to a direct net connection so they can get at least some work done, and slowly & carefully explaining how they can read their emails through a web browser because Exchange aint where it should be today. Then, and only then, shall you know true hatred of the upadte mechanism and it’s devilish plans for your day.

David Weinberger put it well a few days ago:
“Unless Mac hardware never fails, please do not tell me to get a Mac. Thank you.”
Meanwhile, Dave Winer’s struggles with his Macbook have gone on so long that I’m to the point of unsubscribing from his feed, I’m so tired of hearing about it. But his saga underscores that it’s all not happy Mac, either.
Whatever the platform, we all just want our systems to work. Honestly, I’d move to Ubuntu if I thought that would give me stability. But I suspect it would give me a host of other problems. Windows is far, far from perfect — but I know what I’m getting with it, and XP has been so, so much better than any version that came before it.

Have you considered moving to the other side?
http://www.apple.com

Hans, after a half hour, the update had shown no progress. It hadn’t moved to step 2 at all. That’s unusual. It’s a sign that the update wasn’t happening but instead that the computer froze. It’s sort of like putting that new tire on, lowering the car and discovering the tire is flat anyway.
Shutting off a computer before the operating system itself has closed is always a dangerous move, so I gave it a hard think before doing so. I did it in the end only because I was very confident something was wrong with the update situation.