"Apple Tax" nonsense taken to reprehensible new heights!

Saw a new bit of Microsoft anti-mac FUD on the Windows Experience Blog thanks to MacNN. They pay noted mac-basher Roger L. Kay to "analyze" the Apple tax and basically see if he can make it look even worse. Now, it's impossible for this to be an objective or fair analysis. First, it's being paid for by Microsoft, and second it's being written by the guy who thinks he can look at a photograph of Steve Jobs, and diagnose him with cancer! And where exactly did you get your medical degree, Dr. Kay?

The report stresses the "cool" factor of the mac, and I guess I should feel that macs are cool, because these windows people keep telling me that I'm paying so much extra for the cool factor. Microsoft even spent millions trying to convince PC users that they were just as cool as mac users. The really amusing part of this is: so many people I know, both long time mac users and switcher, own macs because they like the reliable, easy to use hardware and the secure, stable OS. Nobody has ever asked me "will I be cool if I buy a mac?". So why do the PC pundits keep pushing the cool factor? It's because that's how they make people feel guilty for wanting a better computer experience than windows can offer. Since they can't beat the mac on things like security and UI, they admit it, as a lesser defeat to "coolness". Then posit that any responsible adult shouldn't be paying extra for "coolness" in this economy, when there are mouths to feed, etc. That's the crux of Kay's entire feature, that the apple tax pays for coolness, and it is entirely false.

I like my macs, they are cool and OS X is a cool operating system. But that's not why I use them.