Thankfully Ed Bott has been through the process first hand and given us a full account of how much extra it costs to run a Mac than it does a Windows box. It’s around $500 for starters.

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Brad Brooks, Vice President of Windows Consumer Product Marketing used the term ‘Apple tax’ when comparing a purchase of a Windows based machine with an Apple machine. Actually he blurred the line a bit – because he included a Mac running Windows in the ‘Windows based machine’ category. We’re going to exclude that configuration from our discussion below.

Of course, we know Microsoft isn’t allowed to say anything negative about its competitors, because that’s just. not. right. Apple on the other hand can put the boot in and it gets congratulated. It’s an old double standard that’s been well documented over the years.

So, knee-jerk criticism of Brad aside, is he actually right? And surely the answer is a resounding Yes! Using a Mac is always a more expensive process. Don’t get us wrong, there’s plenty to like about Apple products (we’ve used Macs ourselves over the years, and have enjoyed the experience), but don’t go trying to tell us its price or functionally comparable to a Windows setup.

One reason we don’t use a Mac is because it doesn’t run the software we like. Look around, everything is written for Windows XP or Vista. Just getting a half decent game on the Mac is difficult. Yes, we still have problems with some software on Windows 2008 and Vista 64bit, but to be fair, these aren’t aimed at the general consumer.

Brad has a good run down of the various extra costs associated with running a Mac environment, and it’s hard to fault.

The interview by Ina Fried is a great insight into Microsoft’s own perception of Vista in the market place.

Microsoft still dominates the desktop PC market, with something in the order of 90% of desktops (still!).

If Windows dominance diminishes it won’t be over to Apple.

Lately we’ve been hearing that this dominance is going to be  endangered by Cloud computing and the like. This argument has some weight. But that extends out to other vendors to.

Apple is not a huge threat to Windows. If Cloud computing is really a game changer, then it will affect Apple just as much.