[Loud Mime]

The moonbats do not care about tax hikes, they won't listen. This tax hike stuff will have every Democrat buying AppleMacs.

Of course, this system is not a monopoly, right? /s

[who_would_fardels_bear]

We have enough idiots and scoundrels labeling taxes as "revenue enhancers" we don't need some techie nimnold throwing around the word "tax" when all he is talking about are cost tradeoffs.

We should all go back to the abacus. In between doing sums we should be able to get some sort of a version of Pong going!

[KoRn]

/mark

[pleikumud]

Microsoft Windows Vista has a POS Tax

[Wayne07]

There is some validity to the underlying claim. I recently got a Macbook and wanted to disable the mouse acceleration which I found annoying. The OS didn’t offer the functionality, so the option was to buy a third party app to do it. Small example of the apple tax right there.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

When computers were over $5k (today's money), and the premium for a Mac was over $1k, the “Apple tax” was worth considering. Today, the premium for a Mac is far less & well worth it for the reduced aggravation.

[Ticonderoga34]

Yeah, Mac’s are more expensive. Everyone knows that fact but it’s not a tax. A tax is something you pay to the government.

More silliness from the company that has 92% of the PC OS market. Why does Microsoft care about Apple? Apple is no threat to Microsoft’s dominance and won’t be for the foreseeable future. Besides, you can run Windows on a Mac now. Maybe Microsoft should push that angle. And oh yeah, build a better version of Windows.

[CriticalJ]

Make good products and you won’t have to worry about Apple.

While some have Vista working fine, many more don’t.

Explorer 7.0 is unusable due to the layout. Why would the refresh button be located across the screen from the other stuff without the ability to customize?

Office 2007 has no ability to switch to a classic view. Simple thing yet left out.

Somebody is asleep at the wheel.

[TaxRelief]

Once you go MAC, you never go back!

[chris_bdba]

I am as conservative as anyone and we have run macs for years. This article is bunk! it cost me $9.99 after rebates for Parellels that allows me to run any Windows application and that included a copy of XP! I’m not even familiar with any colors that Apple is offering now, that stopped with the older iMacs and never cost extra though some colors had a waiting list. IMHO just another article to scare people back to what they know and just a bunch of BS!

[JSDude1]

idiots-since when did the free-market=taxes..? MS you are not the Fed Gov, and you certainly are not “God”.

We also have BHO labling welfare “tax-cuts” as well..only his welfare will only cause more inflation, and a weaking of the dollar (that’s what he won’t tell you!).

[JZelle]

Apple should counter with a BSOD tax.

[TexasRepublic]

Microsnot taxed my patience until I downloaded Linux.

[Swordmaker]

Sorry I missed this earlier. Microsoft claims that buying a Mac will cause a Mac Tax on the buyers... PING!

Mac Tax Ping!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[CORedneck]

It is kind of interesting. I am on the conservative/libertarian side but I have been in the Mac world since the Summer of 2002. I also been a Linux user since 1995 - hard to believe it has been 13 years. At the time Linux was only in the x386 world and not in the Sun/PPC/other processors yet. I not only toyed with Linux in the x386 world but also with the Sparc chip and PPC as well.

I also teach a class at the University concerning MS Office and the students kind of know my Apple and Unix slant especially since I have been a Unix Admin for many years.

Even with my political slant and I also like Rush Limbaugh - watched his TV show many years ago and I remember his requirement for the audience to wear business suits. Yet, I myself, I dislike business suits and prefer simple blue jeans, Teva sandals and t-shirt/sweatshirts over dressy type of clothes.

The people on the "right side" of the aisle are as varied in diversity (I hate to use the word - abused on the left side) . But it boils down to a simple word - freedom. the left talks about the word but yet when people want to practice the ideal, they get pretty p*ssed off about it. A manager I worked for is a liberal democrat but yet, anything I wanted to do even to going to go to take a d**p, I had to always ask permission, just like people in communist countries. In the two classes I teach, some of the freshman students actually asked me permission to use the bathroom. I mentioned that if you need to use the bathroom, just quietly go and do your thing and were adults and not in high school. If I am teaching next Fall, I will mention it.

Well, enough on my soapbox, it has been a long day, later....

[big'ol_freeper]

I didn’t know Rush Limbaugh was a Democrat...huh, who would have known.

[mysterio]

If Apple dropped all of their prices to undercut PCs right now, Microsoft would be sunk.

[Wayne07]

Here is a good rational explanation of the acceleration problem from a guy who is clearly a Mac advocate. Maybe it will help the kool-aid drinkers cool off to hear it from a friendly source:

http://db.tidbits.com/article/8893

[TheBattman]

Huh? I don’t understand...

* Choice tax - you mean like the choice to move to VISTA and lose compatibility and all the other issues that have shown their ugly faces?

* Application tax - let me guess - fewer applications means that folks would be penalized? I haven’t noticed in the last 14 years me paying a price there...

* Technology tax - Yeah, right - Apple is far superior to the Windows world in technology and its implementation in nearly every area. And the integration is what helps bring stability.

* Upgrade tax- Like the hardware upgrades to get VISTA to work right? Or the software upgrades necessary to be compatible with VISTA? Or the need for many new drivers to work with VISTA (some companies still lagging on those drivers).

OR the perceived higher prices of a lot of Apple hardware? I paid $1800 for my Apple PowerMacintosh MDD Dual 1Ghz G4 that I have had for 6 years. It still plugs along - running everything I have needed. While I would love to upgrade, the budget just won’t fit it. It still compares favorably to much newer machines.

Hmmm... longevity. Biggest hardware issue I have had - had a hard drive die (and it wasn’t even the one that came in the computer, but one I had added myself).

So - while I paid more for the computer than I might have paid for a “comparable “ Windows PC at the time (although I doubt it would have been much - this machine was considered fairly high-end at the time) - I have not had to replace it, while everyone I know with windows PC’s have upgraded to new machines at least a time or two (and some 3-4) times.

And this one can run the latest OS from Apple - but I have chosen to stay with Tiger for the time being...

[Vermont Lt]

Microsoft has a “reboot tax.” I used to have to reboot three or four times a day. About four minutes per reboot. 250 work days per year, thats about 4,000 minutes per year (4x4x250). So, each year I spent a work week waiting for this thing to reboot.

@ about $45 per hour, that means my customers were paying me 66 hours x $45 = $3,000.

The fact that I dont reboot repeatedly now, the savings in virus software, and the general ease of use means that I have become more productive.

I love my mac and I am not an elitist a-hole.

[bmwcyle]

I want a Microsoft $50.00 refund everytime I have to reboot.