Thanks for that, I have looked at the bewilderingly humourous Microsoft site and couldn't find any justification anywhere of why they want £125 for a knobbled version of the most basic version, yes XP compatibility would be nice but this should be available for any version of Win 7 not only the more expensive ones -can't help feeling that it's all a bit of a rip-off
in an attempt to get back to the facts: OSX 10.6 costs £26, Win 7: Home Premium: £125; Pro: £220; Ultimate: £230. Not quite the same then. (prices come from Apple online store and Microsoft's online store).
Also, I've said it before, Bootcamp is exactly the same as using 'native Windows PC hardware' there is no more 'jumping through hoops' than anyone else running a similarly old OS (XP pro) would encounter.
Clearly we're never all going to agree, using both OS's extensively over a number of years, I know what my preferences are for certain circumstances and having the ability to switch OS for playing games, for example, is one of the great things about the Mac platform.
I'm not for one minute saying that you couldn't build a faster, better specced machine more cheaply (indeed I've done this myself in the past) but sometimes things like resiliance, compatibility and flexibility are more important and worth the perceived extra expense.
(and despite what you might have heard, OSX is a really nice, stable and speedy OS -probably not all that unlike Win 7 is attempting to be !
)
Can we just agree to disagree and get on with trying to enjoy the game ?
Cheers
(dives for cover)