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They're about exactly double the normal price of hardware usually would be for a base model. For more expensive models though the multiplier increases. For the price you buy an Apple PC you can make a Windows or Linux PC with twice as powerful components.

Also the components are soldered in meaning if one day you find your top of the range Apple PC going out of date (Moore's Law people. It's virtually certain that it'll happen.) You can't change parts as and when necessary but must buy an entirely new PC.

To give an example. Let's talk about the Mac Pro series. A Quad Core (Which really only costs £150) with an ATI 5870 GPU (That's an out of date model) and a few SSDs is going to cost you £2000. For the same price is you picked the components yourself you could make a PC which would put that machine to shame.

So yes. Apple Mac PCs are decent however any computer with the components they use at the base line will be equal if not better. When you buy an Apple PC without needing one for work then you've made a mistake and there are fewer and fewer applications for work which Apple isn't killing off in favour of making the software 'accessible' and all the nonsense about 'apps'.

All that said we might see gaming move to Linux if Windows 8 is as s**t as we all expect it to be. I definitely won't be upgrading to Windows 8.

No they're just more expensive than the materials are worth.

There are negligible differences one way or the other. It's hard to say if there's a different in performance at all. The only difference is what programs run on what system.

Yes and No.

Apple Macs can in theory dual boot or triple boot Windows. They can also emulate Windows. In truth Dual Booting is more stable than Emulating however.

Thus in theory they can access all Windows programs. The case is quite different though. We can't even emulate the functions of a Playstation 1 fully correctly so there's no chance that it'll flawlessly emulate Windows.

You could dual boot. Though that requires you to turn on and off your computer to switch operating systems. I'm also not sure how much the Apple computers are compatible with this. Windows computers can do this the other way but all the same I'm not sure how much it likes it.

If you're going to be using it on an extremely basic level (MOST USERS) then yes. It is literally impossible to run certain types of files. The same applies to Windows PCs and Linux PCs however.

The bottom line is your choice in OS is negligible (unless it's specialist stuff like servers) but using Windows will suffice in most cases and thus Apple PCs are often a fantastic waste of money.

Often.

I felt the urge to kick this thread.

So, is anyone else here expecting to get hit by that monster of a hurricane/nor'easter coming up? While a part of me hopes I get to miss school because of it, it sounds rather serious and if I lose my internet/the Common App goes down because of it and I can't submit my college apps, I'll be mighty pissed.

There has to be some sort of irony in that, being safe from a hurricane in Florida of all places. I expect a huge case of Schadenfraude coming from you, hahaha.

I remember last year's, my power went down for 4 days and I had to go to bed at 9:00 PM every night because there was nothing to do.