[KERMIT]

Where is the value in Apple? Its ability to trick Americans into buying very expensive, yet very restrictive, products that most of the time they really don't need? That's actually a very harmful thing, from an economic perspective.

[jackowayed]

iPods and iPhones are competitively priced.

Sure, the Macs are expensive, but the hardware is very high quality, and when you compare them to Thinkpads and Vaios--other high-end computers--it's pretty reasonable.

I'm no Apple fanboy (as of now, the only money I've ever given Apple is 30% of app purchases I've made for my hand-me-down iPhone 2G), but in a couple of days, I'm buying a MacBook Pro because it's a high quality unix system that Just Works. Given that I'm a programmer who will use it constantly, the time it will save me should cover the extra few hundred dollars by the end of summer.

[sjs]

This is so true. I like me some Linux, but OS X has won me over. I thought the iPod was a fad for people with money to waste, until I got a Mac and discovered how much thought Apple puts into their products. Sure I had a HDD based MP3 player (Creative Nomad Jukebox), but it took 2-3 minutes to boot if you put 2GB of music on it and it was the same size as a discman. The UI was atrocious. I went back to an MP3 discman because the Jukebox sucked.

Most people don't compare Macs to equivalent systems, often because there is no comparable alternative. Even if you spec out a similar machine from other manufacturers you are almost guaranteed to be giving up something, whether that be battery life, a good case, or just the little touches that make you happy day to day like the battery life indicator or addictive multi-touch gestures.

Even the Vaio-Z, which is pretty slick and only 13", isn't on par with a MacBook Pro when it comes to the little touches. Yet it costs as much as a 15" MBP.

People who like to compare specs think they're getting a better deal but they rarely take into account actually using the thing for 8+ hours a day. The little things make a big difference when you use your computer that much.

[nitrogen]

My experience with my first Mac has not been one of it "Just Working." I get periodic whole-screen graphics corruption (I took a photo of the screen with my digital camera I was so surprised), infinite loops when connecting to shared folders if I type the URI wrong, and other issues. Plus, its UI is a lot slower than the custom PC I paid the same price for. It mostly sits unused now.

[loewenskind]

Then you should have taken advantage of the other thing Mac does extremely well: support. There is obviously something wrong with your machine. Or did you think we're all just suffering through this, embarrased that we paid so much for a machine that doesn't run?