[citation][nom]chick0n[/nom]except that Apple releases "UPDATES" every year while a MS OS will last at least 5+ years ... sometimes 10. Look at XP.or are you too stupid to understand this ?[/citation]
Need too look at your Windows again. Microsoft doesn't want a 5-10 year release cycle, they want a 2-3 year release cycle of their major operating systems. Hence why they pushed out Windows 7 so quickly after Vista, and why they are pushing out Windows 8 so quickly after Windows 7.
Windows XP, of course, was an exception, and has lasted significantly longer than Microsoft ever wanted--largely because Windows Vista had a less than stellar release.
Leopard was released in 2007, like Vista. Leopard costed me $120, and an OEM version of Vista costed me about $200. Snow Leopard was released in 2009, along with Windows 7, and costed me $30. The OEM copy of Windows 7 costed me $180. Lion was released last month and costed me $30 again, Windows 8 is due to be released early next year and will probably cost me AT LEAST another $100.
So Mac OS X over the past 5 years has costed me $180. Windows will cost me at least $480, probably more, over the same period of time. That $300-$400 difference in software more than makes up Apple's extra hardware cost. Keep in mind that there was a $300-$400 difference for an OEM copy of Windows, and a retail copy of Mac OS X. If you wanna factor in the price for retail copies of Windows, then your looking at a $400-$500 difference, easy.
So when people claim that MS is cheaper in the log run, I strongly disagree. The only way Windows can be cheaper than Mac is if you build your own Windows system, which very few people on this planet actually do. But, it is why I own Mac laptops and Windows self-built desktops.