I'm getting to the point with the Mac where I want to chuck it through a window.

There was an update a day or so ago that was supposed to fix an issue some users had with stalled hard discs. Well, I don't know what else it's supposed to do, but my external hard drive seems to go to 'sleep' more frequently and takes longer to wake now (cue frozen computer for several seconds before the beachball eventually drags it's lazy butt onto the screen as the disc starts to spin up). Also moving 'word' windows around on screen has become jerky, with a second delay between dragging the window and it moving. And finally, I plugged in an external memory card reader yesterday and now the right mouse button doesn't work! I have become used to mouse settings being reset whenever other USB devices are plugged in (mouse suddenly becomes incredibly slow) but all the usual tricks like unplugging or restarting hasn't fixed it.

And the usual stuff still doesn't work: like clamshell mode with external monitor and keyboard, refusing to recognise the external monitor 2 boots out of 3, key strokes frequently failing to register and boot times getting ridiculously long for a 10 month old machine. The smudgy font display is an absolute nightmare when working with large spreadsheets and small fonts, and has resulted in eye strain and headaches. And windows management is simply lousy, and it's not just a case of unfamiliarity. I have become quite deft with the credit card, wedging CDs when the 'superdrive' fails to read them and having to reboot while jamming the disc so that it will spit out a perfectly good disc that I can use in any other drive. Maybe I could take another half day and go visit the apple shop in Milton keynes so that someone in the genius bar can tell me my Mac doesn't work and it will have to go away for another week or 2 to be fixed. Applecare can go where the sun don't shine, sideways.

I think I've reached the point where if I could get back £900 (original cost >£1200) for this thing then I'd be very pleased to let the damn thing go. Buying a Mac was a stupid, rose tinted spectacles mistake and entirely my own fault for being suckered by the pretty case and great trackpad.

My mood isn't helped by the main home PC suffering some kind of progressive hardware failure, resulting in increasingly frequent lock ups. Why am I not ranting about this? Because it was cheap, I can fix it myself, and it's been great to work with for the previous 2 years - until the hard drive failure earlier this year, every time I started it up it made me feel pleased about how smoothly, quickly and easily it ran. No amount of swooshy animated graphics and bouncing icons can compete with that feeling.

I never thought it would happen - I've firmly joined the Mac-hater camp.

Now I've got that off my chest I can go do something useful for the rest of the day.

*edit*
I've just removed the mouse from the USB hub and plugged it directly into the spare UBS port (apple generously provide a whole 2) and voila - right clicking works again. I wonder if USB implementation is any better in Snow Leopard, because it is put to shame in 10.5 by XP.

*edit 2*
I'm slightly tempted to resort to bootcamp and XP or even system 7, if it wasn't that I think the Macbook hardware's not that great overall.