I always find these "Macs are over-expensive" arguments pretty ignorant. I suspect they come from people who have never used a modern Mac regularly.
I have a recent Macbook pro sitting in front of me. Granted, you could match it feature-for-feature and probably save a bit of money (not as much as you think, though), but, there's one feature you wouldn't get with any alternative: build quality.
This lovely piece of kit is far and away the best laptop I've ever owned, from a hardware point of view. Not only is it sleek and elegant, but it feels really good and solid (thanks to the single-piece shell). The trackpad is second to none. The keyboard is brilliant. The suspend/resume is flawless. Everything is basically perfect about it (ok, except for the glossy screen).
You can't get that by cobbling together hardware like most other laptop manufacturers seem to. And for a piece of kit that I sit in front of for about 14 hours a day, it's nice to have something that's so finished. No dell or HP or Acer or whatever ever did that for me.
So, no, you can't get the same hardware for cheaper. Because the way the hardware is put together is part of the hardware.
I have a recent Macbook pro sitting in front of me. Granted, you could match it feature-for-feature and probably save a bit of money (not as much as you think, though), but, there's one feature you wouldn't get with any alternative: build quality
I am typing this on a recent $2,200 Macbook Pro equipped with a econo-Sony-style el-cheapo keyboard and 6-bit low-contrast (and, therefore, glossy) TN display capable of only 256K native colors, the same junk Dell puts in their $599 laptops. My wife's white macbook is falling apart, literally - little pieces of plastic just chipping off its shell, I think it was by far the worst laptop we ever owned. My previous MBP used to overheat when pushed to full CPU/GPU speed (just like any other MBP).
As far as hardware is concerned, Macs aren't "premium" - they're quite cheaply built yet beautifully styled objects overpriced beyond funny.
Go for Thinkpads and HP EliteBooks, the latest Dell Precisions/Latitudes are pretty well built too. HP, for instance, is the only laptop manufacturer in the world who still offers 24-bit LCDs as an option, i.e. you can actually use their laptops to look a a photo without connecting an external display. All these machines require Linux, of course, to be HN-approved :-)
I have a recent Macbook pro sitting in front of me. Granted, you could match it feature-for-feature and probably save a bit of money (not as much as you think, though), but, there's one feature you wouldn't get with any alternative: build quality.
This lovely piece of kit is far and away the best laptop I've ever owned, from a hardware point of view. Not only is it sleek and elegant, but it feels really good and solid (thanks to the single-piece shell). The trackpad is second to none. The keyboard is brilliant. The suspend/resume is flawless. Everything is basically perfect about it (ok, except for the glossy screen).
You can't get that by cobbling together hardware like most other laptop manufacturers seem to. And for a piece of kit that I sit in front of for about 14 hours a day, it's nice to have something that's so finished. No dell or HP or Acer or whatever ever did that for me.
So, no, you can't get the same hardware for cheaper. Because the way the hardware is put together is part of the hardware.