No. At least, the mouse is two-button, and software-configurable to use both buttons. I think the default configuration is both left- and right-click act as left-click.

You mean the ever less fashionable multiple-document interface used by a million Windows 3.1 applications and ever fewer since versus floating toolbars aplenty and a bunch of separate toolbarless document windows? On CS3 onwards you can pick either.

Then you checked poorly. At present, Photoshop runs better on a PC than a Mac in at least one important respect; as of CS4 it's a 64bit application on Windows only. I assume that gives the OS X version a lower image size limit. The reason for this is that several of the legacy libraries on OS X won't be heading into the 64bit world.

To be honest though, given that Microsoft have decided to try to kill Adobe's Flash and PDF markets, I wouldn't be surprised if the quality of their software for the Windows platform goes rapidly downhill.

Cost of entry is a separate discussion to like-for-like pricing, and therefore quite separate to the topic we were discussing. Further to that, I don't think it was incorrect to ignore the issue for the time being, given that the direct comparison was begun by a category-by-category discussion.

If conflating issues were the purpose of the conversation, then I could say that $300 isn't enough to buy you the version of Windows Vista with all features included. However, it will buy you licences for the full version of OS X and of Apple's consumer and professional targetted application suites that allow installation on five computers on the same site.

Or do a two-finger tap if you have tap-to-click and two-finger tapping enabled. But the clicks that occur from touchpad taps are "instantaneous", so while all event-based software such as every GUI application will function, most Allegro (4.2 and earlier) games won't since they operate on discretely sampling the current state of the mouse buttons and hoping not to miss any changes.

In about 1 minute of research I found this

• Intel® Core™2 Duo @ 2GHZ

• 800 FSB

• 3GB RAM (They don't sell 2 anymore)

• 320 GB HDD (double yours)

• NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS

• Bluetooth

$924 ^[1]

I'll keep looking...

While I'm looking, I'd like to point out that Apple's "Nice" Macbooks are very easily beat.

I think Nvidia has very low adoption in the laptop market. I keep finding all these news articles about how nvidia screwed up and pissed of HP, Dell and probably others.

$774.99 or $24/month

Yeah you can't play games with those. You end up with crazy theories of how best to click the right button by putting your hand in awkward positions. Whatever you do though, eventually right click stops working. Frustrating as hell in Starcraft. It probably contributed to me losing many games.

Likewise, I could dismiss any claims you make about Apple's pricing by saying, "All you've shown that a mass produced model by Apple with set hardware costs the same as PC laptop custom modified from its original specs to match Apple's laptop."

Apple takes Ford's approach: "You can buy a car in any color you want, as long as it's black!"

What matters is if you are able to buy a computer that has the power you need for a price you can afford. So if you have $500, every Apple computer is too expensive. But if your budget is $1500, then you can build the best Apple laptop and the best PC laptop and compare them.

Just did a quick price check:

A 13" MacBook with 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, and 250GB HD costs $1700. The same screen/CPU/RAM/HD on a Dell was $1530.

My point is (as illustrated above) if you need to deviate away from Apple's base hardware on the lowest end model, you quickly start to overpay when compared to similar PCs. So yes, Apple hardware becomes overpriced as you move up the ladder.

But with a PC, you can buy from many vendors and are much more likely to find good deals regardless of the specs.

Is it this horrible abomination? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Mighty_Mouse

It's just awful.

Even though I agree with you, you must admit the laptop isn't even close at all. Pentium Dual Core vs Core2 Duo is a pretty huge difference.

Yes.

On the contrary, and as BAF says, you found a machine that is a little worse for a little cheaper and a machine that is a lot worse for a lot cheaper. You essentially make the same point Matthew does, which is valid but separate, specifically the bit about Apple's range noting cover the same ground as the range of available PCs at the low end.

My point on the price topic would be: if at least one Apple machine is priced much the same as equivalently specified PCs then it is clearly false to conclude that anyone who uses an Apple has paid extra for the privilege. That it is Apple's most popular machine (cause and effect no doubt being relevant) may even suggest that it is unlikely.

Sorry, I was obviously unclear. Photoshop has a Windows look as an option, it just isn't the default. Check it out:

{"name":"fig01.jpg","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/b\/7\/b7c47316497f35b6705b508afb1ddda1.jpg","w":550,"h":344,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/b\/7\/b7c47316497f35b6705b508afb1ddda1"}

EDIT: the only good thing about the Might Mouse is the scroll ball. Note: ball, not wheel; it's two dimensional. Note also: "the only good thing about <object X> is <property Y>" is a valid construction irrespective of the uniqueness of property Y.

I do like Apple's trackpads too, multitouch and their 2D scrolling (instead of a stupid scroll bar at the side) is nice. Too bad I may never buy an Apple notebook again though, due to the atrocious keyboards they use on all models now.

It has half the CPU. That is a pretty major thing there that heavily influences price. Nobody is arguing that Apple doesn't have cheap laptops. The argument was that their laptops aren't marked up by 100% or anything insane like that (I guess).