I'm not sure how this is an argument in favor of Apple. OS X is missing many modern OS features, like automatic updates for all your software and programmable w

I'm not sure how this is an argument in favor of Apple. OS X is missing many modern OS features, like automatic updates for all your software and programmable window management (a la Xmonad). Most of my software does automatically update. I'm not entirely certain what programmable window management is, to be honest, so it doesn't seem entirely necessary. I don't think you quite understand -- if you don't follow their rules, you lose your job, your house, your freedom, and your way of life. As I said in my other response post: I'm not standing by Apple. I'm saying that I won't go out of my way to vilify them for this. I believe really firmly in an artist's right to control their creation, and I think that Apple's work qualifies. Jailbreaking is also removing a lot of profit from the app store developers. I think that's a damn shame. People are pirating the App Store applications. Jail time is pretty severe. But I won't criticize Apple for going after people who're refusing to play by their rules, because in all honesty, if I was in their position I don't know if I wouldn't be just as harsh. Finally, it's important to keep in mind that Macs are just Dell machines in a pretty case. Intel makes reference designs, and everyone uses those. Macs are truly pretty, but that's all -- they are not particularly functional. In my group of friends, there is about a 50/50 split between Apple laptops and Thinkpads. Among these people, there is not one broken Thinkpad, but there are three broken Macs. All the problems are keyboard-related, so they have to carry around an external keyboard until they have $1500 to buy a new computer. Apple won't fix them. It's an old adage that design isn't how something looks, it's how it works. Macbooks have far more elegant functionality. This is much contested, so let's not have yet another debate about this, but the computers' designs are leagues apart. I'm also a bit biased because the Apple Store has fixed my messed-up keyboard, and because I've spilled OFTEN on my Mac with no problem. This is a debate that has a lot of different perspectives. In my college, three Dell computers have died on my floor alone. No Macs have. There's a different story in every group. So anyway -- you are not really depriving yourself of anything if you go for a Linux box. The software you'll run on it is the same as anything else. The hardware is identical to what you get in a Mac. The price is probably the same. In fact, I think you'll find that the increased customizability will make the Linux box a better deal. I know this'll provoke another rant, so I apologize in advance, but again and again: if that's how you look at computers, yes. Linux will be better. I don't look at it that way: I look at built-in experience. I think that customization is a waste of time. My computer uses the graphite theme and a black background, no custom icons, and half the software I use is default Mac software. Out of the box, Mac offers more. That's my perspective, and the two of us have bitched back and forth about this enough that having this damn argument just doesn't seem worth the time.