And you will pay for that from Apple... $999 for a so-so laptop (Dell equiv. $400 w/ XP) or their pro version laptop for between $1500 and $2000 ... (Dell between $500 and $1200 So regardless.. one way or another...Front or Back.. It is going to cost you... And Linux (many versions) is free.. So us Open Office which emulates MS Office.. It's free for MS as well... (saves in xls and doc formats) You should research more on open source... Oh.. And Win7 for Vista users is free..... Apple charged you $30 for the upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard... There is no truth to once you go mac, you'll never go back by the way... It's based off of unix at a preimuim price... The average user cannot afford an all inclusive $1500 laptop.. But they can afford a $400 laptop with a $99 academic copy of Office or a free copy of OpenOffice.org... How is that more than a mac? You apple peeps crack me up....