A few years ago I bought the wife a Macbook (intel) hoping that she would really like OS X.

She didn't. She booted to XP every day of the week and twice on sunday.

So, it's been 4 years and while I like OS X and through parallels it is almost as good at running my windows software as a windows machine (virtually!) but the cost is far and above that of a regular old Dell.

I use a Dell at work, a 630 I think it is - it's nice. Has a nice screen and runs XP well. All of my problems with it are related to bloated security policy and the software that goes with it.

I've used Dells for a long time and really never had a serious problem with one. They are however - ordinary.

I'm okay with that because they are also 30% or less than that of a comparable Mac.

I recently replaced my wife's Macbook with a $500, 16" dual core having, 4gb Ram sporting, Windows 7 laptop.

While my personal preference is XP I have given it up because I know it will go away and I have to move on. She is very happy with her new windows machine. I then turned around and sold her 4 year old Macbook for....$460 cash.

So, the new dell cost me $60 (free shipping) not including tax.

It's a nice fast computer too - not an I5/7 though.

So - me - while I like Macs I just can't justify the spend. I'm cheap on computers, always have been. I still build my own desktops. So it's quad core Q8400 with 8GB of ram sitting in an 8 year old case (newer power supply though).

...and I've been using Apple's since my first apple IIe.