The inevitable tripping points are that 1) custom configured machines *always* cost extra relative to off-the-shelf machines of similar specs, and 2) no two off-the-shelf machines at the same price point have exactly the same specs. So the more exactly a machine is configured to match the specs of another machine, the more its relative cost goes up. In both articles, it was the Windows PCs that were being configured to match the Mac specs, so they were hit with the configuration penalty. The comparison masks the relative costs/benefits of off-the-shelf machines.

Most purchasers are not so obsessive about matching specs from one manufacturer to those of another. In a real world scenario, the purchaser uses some combination of two approaches to making a decision. One considers the differences in specs,features, quality, and aesthetics between machines at an approximate price point, decides which are important (the benefit), and goes with the package deemed most beneficial. The other is to start with the features that are most beneficial and find the most desirable off-the-shelf machine that has them, with consideration of cost. That approach highlights the “Mac Tax” that is somewhat minimized by the approach of the author, honest effort that it may be.
We’re not talking about chump change.

I should mention that I began using computers back in the early 1980s with the Commodore 64. After that, I had a Tandy, which was almost useless by the time 1990 rolled around (I bought the Tandy in 1988). I went without for a spell, about five or six years, until I bought a Mac (a IIe or something like that–it was 1994, so a very long time ago). I absolutely LOVED the Mac, right from the very beginning. It was easy for me to fall in love, too: my college used Macs exclusively, as most educational institutions did and still do). However, when my Mac finally kicked some three or four years later, I didn’t have the funds to buy another Mac, so I caved and bought a Windows-based notebook.

Obviously, by 2000, the Internet was growing by leaps and bounds and was actually useful. However, My Windows machine was just not very upgradeable. As technology changed, my computer did not change with it. At the time, I was able to upgrade to Windows XP, but my computer was actually slower, as the OS taxed it more, and I had significantly less usable hard drive space as well as available memory for tasks outside of what the OS used for itself. I bought a new computer not long after that, a desktop, which was far cheaper than a notebook at the time.

Unfortunately for me, that desktop blew a motherboard just outside of a year (an HP bought circa 2002), leaving me high and dry. The cost of replacing the motherboard was relatively equal to the cost of buying a new computer. I bought a Gateway desktop to replace it, which was a good value and had everything I was getting used to, though it was faster and had more memory as well as a larger hard drive. I actually still have that computer today, and it works, what’s more. Of course, it’s all but unusable. It’s so slow that I can bake a cake from scratch in the time it takes to boot, and don’t ask it to open any new programs. It still runs XP–the upgrade to Vista would likely have left it a smoldering cinder. :-)

Luckily for me, I was married and had generous in-laws who sprung for a new Gateway Notebook about 9 months after we bought the desktop. Of course, we had problems with the Gateway after about a year. It seems that using it while plugged in wasn’t a good idea. The strain on the connector in the back of the notebook from the weight of the power supply distressed the connector so that it became loose and unreliable. I had to position it “just so” in order for the computer to work at all, and the battery didn’t charge whatsoever.

By this time, my wife and I had both graduated college (I finished grad school in 2002 and she finished a double-major in the same year), so by 2005 we had a house and jobs that paid much better than what we’d previously had. We were able to buy a new notebook (by this time the performance of notebooks was rivaling that of desktops, and mobility was a very desirable thing), so we bought a Sony FS-something-or-other. That was the best computer I’d had of all the Windows-based computers, period. It lasted about two years before the hard drive blew, mechanically, rendering it useless and costing us some precious data (we only had so much room for back-up because we used the more reliable solid-state devices for those purposes, and sony had a great reader, which included their proprietary Memory Stick that I still love–and have–to this day).

To replace that, I finally returned to the computer I loved oh, so many years ago. I purchased my 15″ MacBook Pro in January 2007, and I’m typing this on it now. Unfortunately, my wife’s place of employment was Windows-centric, and some of the key software at the time was only available on Windows. Since she telecommutes at least 1-day a week and because her employer would not provide employees notebook computers at that time (her entire office had docking notebooks now), we had to also buy a new Window-based notebook, an HP, one that started with XP and was impossible to upgrade to Vista (we tried and found so many driver incompatibilities that I was surprised the keyboard worked, especially since everything from the built-in wi-fi to the trackpad failed). Fortunately for us, that computer had four major repair issues within 2 years (well within our 3-yr Performance Plan), so we got to put the entire purchase price toward a new computer, a Toshiba that she has currently.

The Toshiba came with Vista, but we had to buy new software for everything she did: MS Office with Outlook, Photoshop Elements, Norton Antivirus, etc, etc, etc. Fortunately, this machine was cheaper than the one it was replacing, so it only ended up costing us $300 out of pocket to make the switch, but we should have been able to spend that money on upgrading or getting her some new gadgets to increase her productivity or give her something for fun. Instead, MS made sure NOTHING was compatible from XP to Vista, and none of this even begins to address the many issues we had with Vista from the get-go.

On the other hand, I’ve been using my Mac, which came with OS X 10.4.x, without major issue for almost 3 years. I’ve since upgraded to OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and now OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). My internal wi-fi was upgraded as well–through firmware–when I bought our Apple Airport Extreme Basestation, which is Draft-N capable. My 802.11g went to an 802.11 Draft-N with the click of a mouse (and the running of a bit of software off the included DVD-ROM). Every piece of software I’ve purchased I still have and use, including MS Office and Photoshop Elements. What’s more, I can use Windows-formatted hard drives and flash drives without even blinking. I don’t need to push a button or flip a switch; I just put the suckers in and they work! I can also open any document in any format, including Windows formatted .doc files. In addition to that, I can also open the new .docx files due to free-from-Apple software that converts the files–without error–to a format that’s compatible with what I have now.

If you want to add everything I just said to the list, that would be reason enough for me to never buy another PC-anything with Windows-anything. Throw in the fact that I’ve got a keyboard that senses room conditions and lights up or turns its lights off as needed, ditto for the monitor for power conservation, a MagSafe AC adapter that is a magnetically attaching power adapter that disconnects itself if someone trips on the cord or too much force is applied when moving about while plugged in, 2 USB ports, a FireWire 400, a FireWire 800, and a DVI port (which allows me to connect to HDMI devices through a cable adapter), and the notebook that was the first with a built-in web cam with microphone, and I can tell you unequivocally that when I do need to buy another computer it will undoubtedly be a Mac!

People want to talk about a “Mac Tax” or complain about how expensive Macs are? I’ve got a simple sentence for you: “You get what you pay for!” I could conceivably use this computer effectively for another 3 years. If that’s what I get for my $2700 (after AppleCare purchase, which I strongly recommend and which you can buy anytime during the first year), then I’ll take it. In the same time I’ve had this Mac, we’ve spent more than $3400 to keep my wife in PCs, and that’s not even including what we could have spent had we not had one notebook fail within our Performance Plans’s lifespan!

The next time you hear someone crapping about a Mac Tax, ask them how much they had to spend buying software they already had when they went from XP to Vista. Ask them if they could even use the same computer for both! Then point out to them that my 3-yr-old MacBook Pro not only runs the latest, most advanced consumer OS on the market but that it can run BOTH XP and Vista. I wouldn’t be surprised if it will also run Windows 7 when that comes out, which is really nothing but a fancy bug-fix for Vista anyway, at full price no less.

Apple just came out with their OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard. Now, is it a major overhaul from Leopard? Not in the sense that it’s a completely new concept. However, it is entirely rebuilt from top to bottom to take advantage of multi-core processors and to take full advantage of today’s highly advanced technology. Oh, and did I mention that it does that all while having a reduced footprint? Yeah. I actually more than doubled my free hard drive space when I installed it, and it also is less taxing on the processors than before, leaving plenty of power left over for tasks my other software might want to do, making both more efficient than before. Oh, and I paid a whole $29 for the privilege. When MS comes out with a huge revamp of their OS and charges the price of dinner for 1 at a restaurant, then come talk to me. Until then, I’m going to still be using the same Mac that, like the Energizer Bunny, keeps going and going and going and going and going…

Thank you for the information; it makes me consider a MacIntosh. Its true that Windows makes you pay for commercial screen-readers. I use free ones only, and there’s even a portable version of NVDA that can be taken with you on a USB pendrive. Even Linux gives you free ones, from what I have seen.

Vista makes you pay just for larger fonts and high contrast themes, and I haven’t seen any Accessibility on it. Not even the kind I’m used to seeing on Windows XP.

I do a lot of the same support/design. I focus on video modeling, so I stress most of my system’s harshly. I also have to support several clients who are running legacy systems “UGGHH”(Database mostly). Moving them all over to VM servers in the next 12~18 months.

However, I use a Dell M6400. I have all the same capabilities using as either through VMware/Virtualization or booting from 2nd HD. Yes, I have 2x 320gb 7200rpm Hard Drives. It helps to cut down on running native versus emulation tests. I have it equiped with Quad-Core CPU and 8gb of DDR3. 1gb Video card. Dell gave my company a deal of $2000 grand off if we gave them some or our Macbook pros. We did, about 160 machines so far.

I can also use a Docking Station. So plenty of 30″ side-by-side action when needed. Only thing is weight. It does weigh about 10lbs but no issue’s with me. And battery is of no concern to me. Always keep 2 spare’s. All my travel is in business class, about 32000 miles up till last friday.

BTW, I am currently on my 3rd MacBook Pro 17″ unibody. Battery failure on 1st, have smoking pics of burn’t laptop(at least it didn’t set off fire alarm in hotel I was at). 2nd failed(Apple Replacement) due to excess heat coming from video card and video corruption after about 20 days. Regulated MacBook to frequent use as native OS-X, but don’t use for most of my clients(7 out fo 80ish)…

Working with colegues to use OS-X from my new Dell. Should have it working in another weeek or so.

I use computers as tools, professionally. I design and build big data warehouses, and MPP software too. I’ve worked in most of the OSs over the years… MVS, VM, VMS, Primos, Dos, Windows since before 3.0… 50 flavors of Unix, the Univac, yeah, it’s a long list.

Point is, I bought this box because I wanted to run multiple OSs, I wanted to run multiple images of windows with SUSE, and other images running – while I was doing development in the foreground image…

The significance of this, is that most programming environments are starting to follow this paradigm, in which the complexity of the application, and the appropriate choice of software to solve the problem (business, gaming, or home) is driving the selection of the OS, and then the Hardware. Such that the solution to a problem involves software which runs across multiple operating systems and hardware – ANY midrange website is an example.

There are three hardware detractions about this laptop I have found so far.
1 is the keyboard – what were they thinking? If you have the area, use a full 101 keyboard so the professional – who knows all the short cuts by touch – can use them… the old IBM thinkpads are still in a class of their own.
2 is the mini-port does not support enough screen resolution. I had two 1600×1200 screens attached to my previous dell docking station – and I used it all. The mini-port cannot sustain a 3200×1200 resolution.
3 No docking station support. I have two offices and one in my house.

In the long run, I need hardware that does it’s job without me having to think about it. Most of the products reviewed in the previous article, do just that – the non Mac machines here – do not. I was a weekly bi-coastal flyier for 10 years, and as such am the owner of many previous high end laptops (I still miss my ThinkPad A31p – which still out classes nearly all consumer models 10 years later), and can attest to the difference between the consumer and business models – it really is the little things.

When it’s all said and done, with the extra cables, the SSD drive, the extra CPU and memory, it’s a $5K machine. That said, I can do full scale development anywhere, which is really the point of a machine like this. It’s a portable workstation which happens to double as a high end consumer box. For me, being able to move my entire development and design environment, no matter which OS – paid for itself the day after I bought it…

BTW – the practical limit of the battery is about 4 to 5 hours under real use – which I think is quite good considering the weight.