Salivating at the surface pro though I'm unsure if I should get one or those new touch screen W8 laptops.

I'm sorry but stability and security haven't been an issue since Windows 7 was released. OS X has a little fewer vulnerabilities but a higher passes before a patch is released.

I find it quite amusing when apple people hype up that they can use a terminal emulator, which or its windows equivelant has been in use for ages. Hey, good for you!

OS X has had Terminal for over a decade now.

And while Win7 has drastically improved its stability and security, they're still below where OS X currently sits. Most of that is due to Apple controlling both hardware and software but no matter the reason, it's still the case. I've run in a Mac environment for 12 years now and my last position was sysadmin for a Windows-based environment... I've seen plenty of both OSes to know the flaws/strengths of each.

As I said, you'll have a hard time convincing me one is better than the other. It all depends on your personal requirements.

One thing I find interesting is how web-based industries have latched onto Mac over the past half-decade. I spend most of my time contracting as a front-end web developer to various Minneapolis development houses and at least 50% of the developers run Macs. I thought the first place I contracted was an aberration... Then the second was the same, as was the third. It was shocking.

But it makes sense when you think about it... Developing on a Mac gives you the most flexibility to do whatever you need. You can develop for every major platform on a Mac thanks to its ability to also boot Windows and Linux, something you'll struggle to do on a Windows-only machine.

Office apps I get, though mostly I don't understand anything more than powerpoint for a tablet. It would seem to me you would only ever want to do touchups on documents and spreadsheets while on the go on your tablet. Otherwise you would do your true work when at a desktop with an actual good keyboard and mouse and multiple screens. But again, yeah I understand the major appeal of a full office on the Windows Surface Pro.

Email clients not so much. The mobile web interfaces and most of the tablet email clients work just fine and dandy. I've lived inside gmail for so long now when I am forced look at exchange, it is a foreign unweildy beast with little to no good utility. I love that while im truly out and about, i.e. walking, I can quickly look at my phone to see notifications of emails I am getting. When I am at a meeting or otherwise not in my office/home office I can use my 7" tablet to read emails on a bigger screen than I would while I am walking. I don't tend to reply to emails while using my 7" but I can if its a short quick reply. Otherwise I do the bulk of emailing when I am in my office. When I am in my small office with just the 2 screens I use my tablet for an extra screen to see notifications, emails, todos, and such, but when an important email comes up I use my desktop for replies. When I get the Nexus 10 we will see if my habits change.

I would never do photo editing on a tablet unless its single button touchup stuff, in which case even an phone is good enough for that.

Development software. This is where I can see the most potential, yet I am a bit warry. Right now the only thing I use tablets for here is to see emails and notifications of particular projects. I am eager to see what I can do with the Nexus 10 here as I really like the idea of going to a meeting or traveling and being able to connect remotly with one of the servers to do some on the spot programming. However, I do see the potential to be able to do that with a Windows Surface Pro using a full featured IDE or vi, but only ever really on the spot programming. When I am doing heavy programming I want multiple monitors and a really good keyboard/mouse. As good as that surface keyboard is, there is a reason I don't like to program on laptops, it blows.

As for games, for truly mobile games I use my dedicated gaming device thanks. Tablets need never apply, even if they can run windows games. For sitting down gaming, I'll use a real desktop.

Browsers: Meh. For a quick look at something I am doing just fine with the slimmed down versions of chrome. I have felt no need or really want of a full featured browser on a tablet. Also Internet Explorer is _still_ a peice of shit and needs to die.

Streaming and Video I have never had problems with.

Ultimately I think the Windows Surface Pro with be an expensive laptop replacement that ultimately won't be able to do the job very well.

I guess this is enough for me on this topic. As "last words" I would like give you something to think about. A vgchartz meme "software sells the hardware, not the other way around". I think that at least superchunk is familiar with that meme.

And where is software development heading?

iOS and Android.

I've run and set up many websites over the past 10 years and what has happened over the past five years (since the introduction of iPhone) is startling.

In 2006, my typical site traffic broke down like this:
Windows OS - 94%
Mac OS - 4%
Linux/Other - 2%

Today, my largest site (around a million hits a month during peak months) breaks down like this:
Windows OS - 60%
iOS - 15%
Mac OS - 13%
Android - 8%
Other (Blackberry, WinPhone, Linux, etc) - 4%

Five years. Five years and Windows has dropped 30% of site traffic. That's not a huge drop... That's a catastrophic drop if you're Microsoft.

And Android is barely getting going (and iOS still has plenty of room to grow). By this time next year, I expect to see a full 30% of my traffic come from Android/iOS.

For some reason, stuff tends to cost more in Japan than even Europe. But I don't know why.

But how can limited storage be a turn off for you when you got an ipad to put your music on, i'm sorry but you can't say that if you have an ipad. 

That's very interesting stats.  Just had a look around and it seems that over the last 2 years, mobile-based web hits (mobile+tablet) has jumped from around 2% to 10%.  That is a huge increase.  And of that 10%, 60% are iOS based.

It does seem to tie in with the release of the iPad, that has seen this surge in mobile-based web hits and it seems that over the next few years we will see a huge move on the stats and I wouldn't be surprised to see the 10% pushing 25-30% with the tech based around new phones and tablets.

Yep. My site is off-season right  now so the traffic is fluctuating (and therefore, the stats are somewhat unreliable) but during the peak season, mobile browsers (iOS/Android) were gaining over half a percentage point a month, sometimes a full percentage point. They went from ~15% in early 2012 to ~23% in the course of 5-6 months.

That's insane.

As a side note, I know a lot of application developers (figures, being that I'm a web developer myself). I know at least five groups of people who are working on mobile applications for either iOS, Android, or both.

I don't know a single person who is working on a Windows or Mac application. All the money is in mobile right now and people are flocking to it in huge numbers.

Oh man, such a fanboy post.

First post an anecdote, from your own site which you do not bother to link.  A link for those statistics would be also nice. You know, like we would have something concrete to analyse.

Also, have you even considered why ms is entering the tablet race? They want a slice of the market. If and when (imo) ms deals a crushing blow to android/ios on this market, do you think that there will be a) more software developed for android/ios or b) less software developed for androidIios? In case your answer is a, I would like to hear how do you figure that out?

I take that you don't have a magic crystal ball that tells you the future?

Some links to some statistics:

http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-ww-monthly-201110-201210

http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10