Well Bonzo, I'm glad you're happy with Windows 7 - actually, had that come in preference to Vista, there'd be fewer Apple Macs out there.

I switched when Vista was the only alternative and they (Microsoft) announced that they weren't going to support XP further (they've gone back twice on that so far). We still use XP in the major aerospace company I work with.

Macs ARE expensive, but they do what they say on the can, I've had this MacBook Pro for 4 years and I'm not even looking at a replacement. I never owned a Windows laptop without getting really frustrated with it (within months), and a glitchy operating system that kept asking me stupid questions at every hands turn.

Major Apple software upgrades cost about £25 or so and are not disabled unless you pay a fortune to have the software capability turned back on. If your Mac has the hardware fitted (model dependent), then it'll work and furthermore, there are fewer incompatibilities (I haven't had one) with existing software/hardware.

So enjoy Windows, (7 is good and reliable), most of us who have switched to Mac, will never switch back to Windows - I think that speaks for itself. Hardware is expensive, software isn't - and it works.

I really hope the iPad is sorted, it's a lovely bit of kit (yes it's also expensive) which works really well and I'm sure she'll adore it.

Happy New Year (to ALL our readers).