I'm a little tired of all of the Microsoft bashing. Everyone copies from everyone else. Who cares if they admit it or not? If they are copying they should be copying from Compiz, not Apple.
"I may make jokes about Microsoft at times, but at the same time, I think the Microsoft hatred is a disease." -- Linus Torvalds
I see your point about Dell, but have you looked at other companies? Laptops by Asus are quite nice in terms of quality and are much less expensive. My point wasn't that Apple hardware is not well-designed and well put together -- it was that it wasn't really worth the cost difference (especially when you are choosing to not take advantage of a great operating system like OSX). There has got to be some other hardware out there that will make you happy.
"I may make jokes about Microsoft at times, but at the same time, I think the Microsoft hatred is a disease." -- Linus Torvalds