im not pro pc, but i honestly can say since i bought this pc im using right now, pentium 4 1.8 ghz 512rdram, after getting my system to a stable point with xp, cuz i got xp when it first first came out, so after i dl'd the program drivers to make them compatible with the xp os...i cant say it ever crashes on me. its the most stable windows i've ever used. back in the day 98 used to crash on me on a regular, but i honestly cant remember the last time this pc has crashed on me, everyone gets different results but my system is STABLE. shit never hangs, then again i got it suped up and tweaked to (my) perfection standards. there isn't really a way to argue what is better, only can give opinions based on your own experiances with each os, i'd choose pc over mac respectivly, only based on the fact that my pc experiance over the last year has been close to flawless. xp is great and stable, however kind of insecure if you know how to exploit its faults.