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I've been doing a bit of comparison shopping for notebooks recently, and have to say that I think Mac's can be just plain cheaper out of the box, or at least no more expensive, depending on what you want to do with the computer. Unless I'm missing something, there's no real equivalent to iLife that comes bundled for free with any Windows-based computers. Also, the base MacBook comes with a 2Ghz processor, which is faster than what comes on the ~ $1000 notebooks I've been pricing. To get a PC notebook comparably equipped and configured for what I might want to do, I can't see how I would spend less on a PC than I would for a MacBook (which I can get for $1039 with workplace discounts). This is one of the real selling points of the Mac -- it's a useful multimedia platfrom with no ugrades at all. The flipside is that for these uses, cheap PC's are no bargain -- you have to buy software that you get for free from Apple, and this adds up. As someone upthread said, a computer is a tool. Assessing the value of one has to begin with defining what it's being used for.
