Being the senior PC tech here at the company I work for, I can see where Macs have improved alot over the last few years. I still think they lack severely in the hardware customization category, and that's honestly my biggest turnoff to them.
Sure, Macs do lack in the "hardware customization category" as you put it. However, this might be the reason that Mac's just work when you turn them on. I think that TD-1536 hit the nail on the head here when he said ....
I honestly can't see any practical reason to buy or use a PC with Windows. There is no software out there that specifically requires generic PC hardware with Windows running on it.
To expound on what TD-1536 said, PC's, with the vast selection of custom hardware available in generic PC building , and the endless sea of proprietary vendor hardware, like Dell, HP/Compaq, ect., it's impossible for software vendors to keep up WinOS compatibility across the board. I worked for Visoneer/Scansoft for alot of years, both in tech support, as well as software design. What a nightmare. Everytime we turn around, we fix a bug for one harware vendor, and sure as death and taxes, we'd get a call that some dynamic link library, or a virtual device driver is now conflicting with another vendor's harware or software. It was a constant round and around.
This is Apple's first commandment. Or credo, if you will. "Keep it compatible". This is why they will never openly license hardware for their computers again. They tried in the 90's, and it was a Mac Clone compatibility nightmare. Even with the move to Intel procs, they still kept their guts to themselves. It seems a little more nazi in a sense, but it has truly kept the bugs to a minimum. I think with OSX being unix based, they considered letting other vendors source their hardware, simply because the Unix backbone could handle it. But ultimately decided, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Just my 2 cents. Oh, and although I'm a certified PC platform Network Specialist by trade, I'm an avid Mac user, for 15+years. It's nice to come home and not have to fiddle around with fixing your own computer before you can use it
FP