[austinz]

Fine. Let's say that if you don't have HIDs or a monitor and you want a primary dev box, then it's not worth it. If you have the HIDs and monitor, are willing to do a little bit of third-party work, and want a machine that can competently serve beside whatever non-Apple machine you're currently using, then you can get started for far less than $2000. (I don't think this is a terribly uncommon use case, especially for people already developing for other platforms.) Would you say that is a fair assertion?

[vacri]

I would say that that is a fair assertion, but I would also say that it doesn't really detract from the OP's point: to get started with google, open a browser and start downloading; to get started with apple, first find a non-trivial lump of cash.