How to avoid the Apple tax?

[Steve Lamb]

Derek Broughton wrote:
> The difference is simple.  Apple makes hardware.  Microsoft doesn't.  It's
> perfectly acceptable (and proper) to provide the software to make hardware
> work.  Microsoft, however, forces vendors to package Windows with their own
> hardware.  That's an illegal business practice, and many courts have told
> them so.

     Then the courts should tell Apple the same thing.  And you should stop 
repeating falsehoods.  From <http://www.apple.com/macpro/specs.html>:

Processor and memory

8-core processing

     * Two 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5300 series processors
Quad-core Processing

     * Two 2.0GHz, 2.66GHz, or 3.0GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon 5100 series processors

Graphics and displays

     * Double-wide, 16-lane PCI Express graphics slot with one of the 
following graphics cards installed:
           o NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT with 256MB of GDDR2 SDRAM, one single-link 
DVI port, and one dual-link DVI port
           o ATI Radeon X1900 XT with 512MB of GDDR3 SDRAM and two dual-link 
DVI ports
           o NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 with 512MB of GDDR3 SDRAM, two dual-link 
DVI ports, and one stereo 3D port

     I'm not seeing much Apple in those tech specs for the base hardware.  I 
see Intel, same as a PC.  I see nVidia and ATI, same as a PC.  Do a Google 
search for "Vista Mac Pro" and find tons of sites detailing how to load Vista 
on a Mac.  The days of the RISC based Mac and proprietary video cards has long 
since past.  Please don't repeat this falsehood again.  Apple does not make 
hardware when it comes to its computers any more than Microsoft does.