I surrender, joining the ranks of the Airhead apocalypse

Erica,

You think that just because you "bought" OS X you can, in good consciousness, violate the terms of the license by installing it on non-Apple computers.

Did it ever occur to you that the reason Snow Leopard is priced inexpensively (compared to Windows 7 for example) is because a substantial portion of OS X R&D is subsidized by the income from legitimately purchased Macintosh computers?

In essence, all OS X retail packs are upgrades, and are priced accordingly. People who install OS X on non-Apple computers are basically freeloaders who take advantage of the fact that Apple doesn't incorporate draconian registration protocols to prevent pirating such as yours. Shame on you.

I can understand a cheapskate trying to have the Mac experience. Hay, we all want the best deal we can get. But it was your self-righteousness that offends me.

At least you are finally biting the bullet and buying a real Mac. Better late than never.

For the record,

Mac OSX 10.3.5ish saw an update that took peoples' battery life from 3+ hours to 15 minutes. I took the threat of a class action suit for Apple to acknowledge and fix it.

Around Mac OSX 10.4.8ish, it took five clients'/friends' destroyed USB/Firewire drives before I realized that their update was probably the root cause. I later read that Apple had brought the power on the USB ports to "within specifications" and that was their excuse. It made peoples' backup drives and archive drives unusable. The very thing you thought you were protecting yourself with.

The 10.5.x's were pretty uneventful but the beginning saw the first major problems with MobileMe (which is its own headache) and Apple File Sharing... but Leopard was a generally good update path.

But then around 10.6.2 you had peoples' computers failing during the update process, totally unusable, and requiring booting into safe mode along with a special version of the update package to install. No ordinary Mac user even knew that the Mac HAD a safe mode at that point. But the hackintosh community regularly uses safe mode and these installers to load up their systems so a solution made it into the mainstream fairly quickly. Ironically this would have been the most debilitating update (i.e. computer wouldn't start) -- and the most hackintosh-like -- were it not for this usage of safe mode. You would think by Snow Leopard they'd have this kind of thing worked out.

As for the babytalk regarding "piracy," the courts just said Apple couldn't dictate what people did with their iPhones: they can unlock and jailbreak them, in spite of a the implicit agreement at purchase that they not do these things. Apple law is not big boy law and "piracy" law is not constitutional law (and constitutional law is not, always, moral law).

It's only a matter of time before the EULAs fall and Apple law will be forced to catch up to reality. I will say this: I'd spent 2500$+ of credit card debt at least 3 times on Macs in the past 15 years that served me well enough. In retrospect, I'm pretty sure I was ripped off at least once. Aside from realizing that Apple could have been running their computers 10x faster on Intel processors a decade earlier if they hadn't been so stubborn about sticking with Motorola PPC architecture. I've seen old clunker PC laptops run Mac OSX buckets faster than the comparable iBooks of the time (let alone the same PC running WinXP or Win98).

7500$ later I've paid Apple all the money they need from me for awhile. But even without that I say, welcome to America people, land of the free. Enjoy yourselves.

Well, on the mini 9 there are two main quibbles: the screen is a bit small for the Mac OS, and "That %^&*$^ quote key." That key drives me insane, and may actually be the actual reason I switch. It's an impressive little machine otherwise, but the Macs keep getting getter.

No back-light = fail for me. It's a step back from the old MBAs.

I recently purchased the top of the line 11" MBA. It is hands down the best electronic device i have ever purchased in my life. It is the only truly mobile laptop.

As soon as the MBA gets upgraded with 3G wireless or better....then I'll buy one!

Best Laptop Ever: Just Needs Backlit Keyboard

"Problem Meet Solution: MacBook Air"

"I have seen the future and it is Apple's present." (More like a gift:).

I feel more secure with the Solid State Hard Drive and no longer have faith in the cloud...Keep everything on the drive and if the government uses their internet kill switch,,,I'll be fine with plenty to read and listen to...I won't be revolting in the streets as others may..

I'd like to join others in saying that the hackint0sh/OSX86 community was a big part of what led me to buy Apple products. I always used Dell XPS laptops and HP desktops. I had two Zunes, which I loved.

I put OSX leopard on my m1530 and loved the experience. I ended buying an iPhone and became determined that my next laptop would be a Mac. Since then I've owned 3 iPhones, a Mac Mini, and a MacBook. I've also bought more than $200 of software for my Macs and iOS devices.

I just got my 13" MBA on Thursday - I can honestly say this is the best computer I've ever used. It's like dating a super model.

Perhaps your shopping habits, to include your confessed shoplifting, would be more appropriate as a twitter post.

You could then update it when ever you booted up.

Welcome to the adult world. You paid for something instead of stealing it.

Good job.