I thought I'd start a conversation about Macs. Now that Macs can do Windows, I took the plunge about a month ago and bought a 20" iMac. I am very pleased. The first thing people ask me about is why I wasted my money on such an expensive computer, but I recently did a side-by-side comparison with Dell for a friend of mine who is thinking about purchasing a computer. Not only are these similar specs, but they're practically the same off-the-shelf parts, just with a different "brain" controlling it all. Here is the run down (education pricing):
17" iMac
20" display
2.16 Ghz Core Duo Processor
2 GB Ram
250GB Hard Drive
256MB ATI Radeon Graphics Card
AppleCare 3 Year tech support and warranty
Microsoft Office 2004 (Word, Excel, Powerpoint)
Total = $1750
Dell Dimension 9200
17" Flat Panel Monitor
2.13 Ghz Core Duo Processor
2GB Ram
250GB Hard Drive
256MB ATI Radeon Graphics Card
Dell 3 year tech support and warranty
Includes Microsoft Office 2003 (Word, Excel, Powerpoint)
Includes PC-Cillin Virus Protection + 2 year subscription (this is a hedge - you don't really need this on the Mac, and you should really plan on 4 years of protection over the life of the PC, but I'm willing to bet in a couple years Macs are going to join the virus party again.)
Total = $1641
You're paying $109 more for a gorgeous looking unit that doesn't come with all the Windows baggage. Plus, if you want, you can still get Windows for it. You'll pay extra, but I use Windows on my Mac because I'm a geek and I like to tinker. All of my mission critical stuff gets done on the Mac side. I think the Mac is becoming a an alternative I can start to recommend to people.