Okay, let me get this right. First, in a single sentence, you dismissed the user who builds their machine from scratch. With this machine, they are welcome to run Windows, FreeBSD, Linux, Frankly, whatever they choose. If they are unix users, I promise you this machine will be in use much longer than your latest Leopard Mac, and at half the cost. To make matters worse, low end macs are particularly low end. Skimping on the cheapest of parts (RAM, HD, and processor specifically) and asking what I believe to be a premium on upgrade (RAM being particularly abused). Geeks do not buy a computer with the idea "what will I get for this on EBay a year from now!?" Perhaps we should, but we don't. To say that "Mac has won" though, is a pretty high statement, especially considering all you have is EBay to back you up. This argument is thin at best.

Note, I am writing this on a macbook pro 2.66. Literally, the single most inhibited, unconfigurable machine running it's native OS I have ever used. There is so much I cannot do on this machine to appease myself perhaps I should place it on Ebay according to the author's ideal circumstance.

Mac will win under a single condition as far as I am concerned. 1) If they can prove life if MS decides to nix office (of which they have Iwork and non-native OO to replace), or if they can survive without Parallels or Boot Camp. Plus, spare me the "artistic" side of mac, windows has possessed greater third party tools for years (see fruityloops, the greatest amateur music production software in history). MS screwed up for certain releasing Vista in it's current state, but to say Mac won based on resale? Then you call it a Ford and not a Honda?

You sir, are an idiot.