I won’t disagree on the criminal front, as by law it’s a crime. Do I personally view it as immoral? No, I don’t-but I have my reasons why (regarding music) which I’ve said ad infinitum. It has a lot to do with working at a record label and an artist management company in my youth.
I’m sorry you feel it’s making life harder for you. To me, it makes me lose respect for people that are willing to shell out $15 for a CD when the artist is getting $0.05 out of that. It just further’s the Major Label’s view that people are idiots and will buy anything at any price so long as they package it and make it pretty.
It’s the same view that leads to Foo Fighter’s concert tix (among many others) costing $40 for crap seats when just 8 years ago I could see Rage Against the Machine anywhere for under $20 and get $10 shirts. I’m sick of getting raped for buying a CD, and then raped for seeing the bands.
That’s how I felt using Macs at my last office job.
That said, I think the majority of the world uses PCs and Windows, so you can join the Apple elite in that uphill battle.
Come on now, we both know that Windows is nothing more than a thinly veiled copy of the Mac UI.
As for a bargain, no it’s not.
If you want to talk Customer Service, then that’s fine. The fact that you need customer service is indicative to me of the fact that you don’t know much about computers.
I can upgrade my PC component by component for a far cheaper price than you, and I can buy it at an initially cheaper price as well-all that for the same amount of power. If my PC starts becoming outdated, I can go buy a new video card, or a new mobo/cpu and with a little finetuning by up and running at the industry standard. With a Mac you start out a little above said standard and slowly lose ground until the point where you have to shell out $2k for a new Mac and repeat the process.
I think you’re the one being stubborn, really.