What may appeal to you is quite repulsing for me.
This holds more appeal for me:
http://www.openmoko.org/

You're an idiot. The MS 'TCO' metric includes development and support costs for servers, Not recreational computer use. You actually spend less time supporting an Ubuntu Linux desktop than you do a Windows desktop for several reasons.

1. Little to no viruses on Linux (you can argue about why but it hardly changes that fact that there are very very few)

2. If you have to reinstall for any reason you don't have to get permission or jump through hoops.

3. Your computer will never decide that you are a pirate for updating your hardware causing more hoop jumping.

4. Updating of ALL programs is automatic, with no restart required.

Why do you think it's only $50 cheaper? If they put all the crap ware in I bet it would knock another $20 off the price.

iGadget?

Come on... I bet the profits from ad traffic (which came because of the iphone coverage) have already covered the $550

I like the looks of this one better:
http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/iaudio/t2/

Amazon.com: $269.99

That's hardly 'cheap'
My web server cost less than that to make...
But I guess People who will pay for Apple hardware are
also willing to pay for MS software? Strange how that works.

@big

I don't think the government would start on this if
it didn't think it would get any thing out of it.
You ever think that by shooting for Pluto we might
get to Mars? Nay-sayers never go any where...

Think of this as the Christopher Columbus of physics.

Necessity gets results. You gotta cheer them on for applying what they know to make their country better.

The essential problem is that when you buy a Mac you are buying hardware AND their OS. When you buy a PC you are buying a computing platform from one company and getting your software from another. Why should you have to be subservient to your software when you PC is capable of doing better things?

I haven't used Vista (and I won't) but if the claim is that you can turn off this MS search thing I suppose my above statements don't apply. But I bet you can't uninstall the MS live search thingy, which is just as bad as not being able to uninstall Explorer in Win 95.