Yes there are people out there who prefer to have countless choices and options but then again, there are also many people who have too many other important things in their lives that choosing a specific model of computer (out of the thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of possibility) AND an operating system may be more trouble than it's worth. Those are the people that Apple are going after.

Besides, it isn't like Apple doesn't offer ANY choices at all. After you've settled on whether you want a desktop vs laptop, then consumer vs pro machine, you can still tweak the specs to a certain extend. There is no way Apple can satisfy everyone (nor can any company for that matter) but Apple is flexible enough to satisfy enough people to stay in business and succeed.

If you have so much time on your hands to build your own PC AND choose an OS out of 10 choices, fine, you aren't part of Apple's target audience any way.

Hmm... the point is that when you buy OSX you get the equivalent of Vista Ultimate at a price lower than the home premium upgrade ($129). You can even get 5 licenses for 40 buck more. AND it's both 32bit and 64bit compliant (Leopard) - without a need for special drivers. One OS, any Mac computer. Full featured. Period.

Ten versions of Vista only confuses the heck out of most users. Did you know XP Pro can ONLY upgrade to Business or Ultimate? if you buy anything else you get a choice of quitting the installer or wiping everything off your drive and starting from scratch. This is choice?

What if you buy the 32 bit version and realize six months down the road you want the 64 bit version? wouldn't you rather have it all right away for the same low price?

You say "What if instead of Vista Ultimate, you only need Home Basic?" well, what if the price of Home Basic was the same as Ultimate? would you still install Basic? Really?

"there’s only one Mac OS X. It runs on every Mac. With a full set of features." again: IT COSTS LESS THAN HOME PREMIUM and 20 buck more than Basic... and it's full featured. Did I mention it's full featured?

You say "My home PC not only runs Windows, but Ubuntu too" yep... and Intel macs can run Ubuntu - and XP - and Vista - what's your point here?

And of course "What if you are fond of the right-click button?" you mean like the one I have on this mouse that came with my Mac? like the one you find on any two or three or fifteen button mouse that's been compatible with Macs for the last ten years?

I'm not mocking here believe me. But I just think you're not as informed as you should be. If lack of choice means getting a complete OS at the same price as the competition's crippled version, I hope we never get to choose anything.

Now of course, you can't build your own Mac if that's what you're into. That's just not the market they're in. And they don't make toasters. But you can't build a Toyota either - and most people wouldn't want to.

I respect your geekyness ;-) but I don't agree with your idea of "choice".