>>>but then I remember what I paid for my laptop that is twice as powerful as their MacBooks yet half the price, and then I feel not-so-clueless any longer.
>
>I too remember a few good years ago, I visited this young guy who was doing his Graphics Artist studies. Hi father had bought him this you-beaut Apple Mac. and he showed me some stuff he was doing in a software package.
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>I asked how much the package was and was astonished to find that the package has cost about $25000 + graphics software was another $1200. Don't remember the app name but I knew that the Windows version cost about $.300
>
>So I informed him that I had a computer at home that was significantly faster than his, had more disk space, more powerful graphics etc. and only cost me $4500. And why did he opt for a MAC? For that money he could have got a screamer of a PC. (These were the prices about 10-12 years ago :()
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>He refused to believe me and proceeded to explain how his Mac was better.
>
>Anyway, I also informed him that if I needed parts for my computer I could easily source them very cheaply in the computer market rather than paying premium for MAC parts.
>
>This is all a lot of hype about the MAC, I believe. PC users are now spoilt for price and choice, paying a hell of a lot less for more. Best to let MAC users live in their make believe world.

Just don't try posting anything like this on a more "visible" side than UT -- you'll get death threats from the Mac Faithful. Seriously. It may seem like make believe world to the non-believers, but it is a very real world for the people who love Macs. My 14 year old daughter worked most of the summer to scrape together $1,400 so that she could buy a MacBook. I recommended that she should get a Dell instead and use the extra $1,000 for shoes or the latest Twilight series books or whatever else teenage girls love these days. "Dad, why should I listen to you? You are working on a PC day in and day out!" was her response. I had to take a deep breath and Zen-ter myself in order to not feel like a pudgy, clueless PC user...

Seriously. Now that Windows 7 is out, the difference between the two platforms UI-wise is much less than it used to be.