Jon Udell is complaining about PowerBook rot. I think his TiBook issues are mostly age and to be expected. My TiBook is still going strong, but has a broken hinge. My son's using it at College. I think it's still the best piece of Apple gear I've ever owned.

Newer {Power,Mac}Books have been another story for me. I'm pretty hard on them, docking and undocking multiple times per day, using them pretty much non-stop for 12-15 hours per day, lots of compute intensive activity, and so on. Still, I've not had a single one that hasn't been in the shop at least once for repairs.

I've had the exact problem Jon's reporting: my lower memory slot on my last PowerBook stopped working and I had to have the motherboard replaced.

My newest MacBook Pro has fit and finish problems (like case bulges and a power button that's sinking into the case, but what I can't live with is the famed narcolepsy. Often when I put it to sleep, it mysteriously reboots at some point later (not immediately).

So, this one's probably headed for the shop. I kept my last MacBook on hand for just such a situation, so I'll still have a machine. The Apple repair techs know me by name, so that's telling you something?

Why do I put up with it? Because I love OS X. Simple as that.