I stopped by the local Best Buy store yesterday, and was pleased to find that they are now selling Macintosh computers. This area has never had many options for Apple retailers; the nearest Apple store is a day’s drive away. Having a new retailer is welcome news, especially one with a good selection. The salesman I spoke to said that they had begun carrying the Macintosh just that morning and had already sold out of several models.

In the store, they had the Windows and Macintosh computers set up in aisles adjacent to each other. I thought that the manner in which they were presented spoke volumes. One of the Windows computers was frozen with a blue screen of death. Another had stalled on boot-up and was displaying a BIOS error in text mode. Another had a screen filled with cascading error boxes. The remaining Windows computers were displaying a very dark, drab wallpaper, and it was unclear if customers could try them.

On the other hand, all of the Macintoshes were working and all were displaying colorful screens.  One was running a bright and cheerful demo. The other Macintoshes were clearly available for customers to try. That said more about the setup at that store than the merits of the Macintosh versus Windows, but it was still an interesting contrast.