My main qualm is with the MAC prices....the cheapest of the cheap they offer is the "mac mini" and the baseline one is $599. My much much more powerful system that I built cost quite a bit less, even including my nice 20" LCD. Their bottom end stuff is pricey, but their higher end stuff is just insane. Who pays that much for a computer? If one did a self-build for the $$ that a higher end MAC costs....you could build an absolutely incredibly powerful system + a HUUUGE LCD....and still be within budget. I consider it cheating that their OS is tailored to their own specific line of about 4 variations of computer. When the range of hardware you offer encompasses about 10 options that your own company designed, it better darn well work perfectly. Think of the logistics of what MSoft has to accomplish with drivers and hardware support....when you consider all of that, its astonishing how well Win7 works. (and all of the free Linux distro's as well)

Studies have shown that 33% of MAC households make over 100k a year....vs. only 21% of PC homes.

Don't even get me started on the new MAC commercials. They are getting very old.....

__________________
-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

Well, I pay that much for my computers (I'm running three or four of them at the moment). I will gladly pay a couple/few $1000 for a computer that doesn't cause me any hassles. I guess I could build my own computers, I could also grow my own vegetables and make my own shoes, but I have better things to do with my time.

The fact that the mac OS is designed to run on very specific hardware is exactly why it works (nearly) perfectly. Maybe that is cheating, so be it. If you want a more open (less expensive) system you have to live with the glitches, that's the trade-off.

I don't understand why people get upset by the price of products they don't own, if you think they are too expensive you don't have to buy one. I'm not complaining because I think the new G-class is too expensive, I'm just not going to buy one. Should I be mad at ferrari because most of their customers earn over $1M per year and I could buy a 'vette with similar performance for a lot less money?

I do hope that windows 7 works well, lots of folks will be happier without vista.

They get upset because they would prefer to own the product............if the price was not quite so high.

Whether they admit to the preference is an entirely different discussion.

If someone gave me a MAC I would put it on ebay immediately.

__________________
-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

Give me a chance to buy it first.

Except in most cases that is not true. My PC cost me less than $300, and took about 45 minutes for me to build + another 30 to install the OS. VS a comparative mac, it is hands down faster and cheaper....and I've had 0 issues at all. People who get "glitches" are the ones with really really cheapo hardware, if you buy decent stuff problems are very rare. For a person that likes to do a wide variety of potentially advanced computing tasks, the MAC is much more frustrating and less adaptable.

I complain about MAC's prices because they make a killing on overcharging their customers for the same thing everyone else has, except it has a shiny cover on it and Steve Jobs saying its "fantastic", and "awesome".

__________________
-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

I'm glad you were able to get what you wanted for a good price, I hope it works well for you.

Sorry, but I still don't understand why you care how much I pay for my macs. I'm currently using a MacBook Pro that cost about $2000 last year, and it meets my needs perfectly. I have a couple more at home that do their jobs very well. When the time comes I will buy replacement macs, regardless of cost. If I didn't think they were worth the price I wouldn't buy them. If I buy a $400 pair of shoes, are you going to get upset because I could have bought a $50 pair that is "just as good"?

This makes absolutely no sense unless you covet the machine...........which is clearly not the case.

I certainly don't care that an S-550 costs over $100K............clearly way overpriced based upon the product. M/B makes a killing by overcharging their customers for this vehicle because it has a shiny cover on it and the M/B star on the hood.

Do you get your panties in a wad about the S-550? It's the precisely the same situation.

If you really want to get torqued off.............how about the prices of some women's shoes? A fellow by the name of Jimmy Choo makes an absolute killing by selling shoes for $600. per pair...........shoes that he probably paid less than $50 to manufacture.

Plenty of companies capitalize on their name to sell overpriced products. I say...........more power to them..........it keeps our economy humming.

After 20 years of marriage, I have the perfect solution to that problem; don't ask, don't tell.

I don't know why people (including mac fans) take computers so personally, it's just a tool; with a maximum useful life of about 4 years.

I do believe that it's the "Revenge on M/S" syndrome. They believe they are getting even with Gates and his inferior product............and they don't care about how much it costs to do it.

Macs have their place in the world.............for those people who do not desire to learn anything about the maintenance or the quirks of the machine...........they probably are preferred.

I agree about the four year time frame. I've been on a four year cycle since the 286...........only the last XP machine went five years. I expect this one to also go five years.

That's me, I just want my computers to work. I've been playing around with them since the punch-card days, and it's still not my idea of fun. I will gladly pay twice as much to have a machine that doesn't piss me off and simply does what it's supposed to do. I just don't want to download drivers, worry about service packs, or deal with AV software updates. I will also pay double not to get "maintenance" calls from home because a computer ate my kid's homework when I'm trying to work 2000 miles from home. It's just another time/money/hassle trade-off.

Wow, most of my computers should be dead by now . . .

I have some that work just fine, but they are too slow to run current software and not worth upgrading, or (in the case of macs) are no longer supported by the current software.

so says the guy with a 25 year old car with almost 500k miles on it

cars are just tools to get someone from point a to point b, with a maximum useful life of no longer than the dealer warranty runs out

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LOL, let's see what you can do with a 1980 vintage computer (I actually had to use them, punch cards and all)?