I do believe that it's the "Revenge on M/S" syndrome. They believe they are getting even with Gates and his inferior product............and they don't care about how much it costs to do it.

Macs have their place in the world.............for those people who do not desire to learn anything about the maintenance or the quirks of the machine...........they probably are preferred.

I agree about the four year time frame. I've been on a four year cycle since the 286...........only the last XP machine went five years. I expect this one to also go five years.