Well, except for right here where you implied it:
Again, the notion that OS X is a $1300 premium over Vista is rather silly when my laptop didn't even cost $1300.
I was referring to the specific model I compared throughout this thread. Never once did I mention your cheap laptop that I had no idea you owned when I made that statement. But let's nitpick more...
FACT: What you fail to mention is that Dell only includes 15 months of anti-virus coverage. Surely you're not suggesting that someone use a Windows laptop for two years after that with no anti-virus software. Not to mention the regular spyware scans you need to run and adware scans. Even if they threw in 4 years of updates, lots of stuff these days gets past even regularly updated commercial anti-virus programs. I know two PC owners in the last month with benign surfing habits whose systems had all the latest anti-virus software but still managed to get their systems infected. Even Malwarebytes Anti-Malware wasn't able to clean them up. Each of them spent several hours with it and other scanners and basically had to reformat the whole drive. How much per hour is your time worth to you? If they each billed their own time at $50 an hour, they were easily over $250 each. I just prefer OS X where I really don't even need to worry about it.
You make running virus scans and downloading updates sound like some HUGE burden. Trevor, it's all automatic. You schedule your scans for every week/month/year and your updates can update on their own. You don't even need to manage it at all. It's just nitpicking, again, when you treat this like we have to perform some tedious task every time we get on our PC's. It's just not true at all.
Also, I've been a PC user my whole tech life. In the last 10 years I've never once got infected with anything that didn't get wiped out by a scheduled virus scan OR didn't get detected right away and quarantined/deleted. I haven't had so much as a BSOD or a freeze or random restart either.
FACT: I just randomly pulled up a Dell Inspiron laptop page and they only include a
1 year warranty standard:
Dell Inspiron 13 Laptop
That model along with every other model has a 2 year warranty available standard. Hell, Macs don't even have a warranty standard from what I can tell. On top of that, they only offer ONE option for a warranty and it's 3 years at $250!! I don't know about your but I like choices.
FACT: Of the three Dell computers I've owned, all three have had hardware issues that needed service. Haven't had a problem with my Mac. The two relatives and coworkers I know who own Macs also haven't had any issues after having issues with their previous PCs. It's also interesting that you're citing a Consumers Reports study. You might want to check out
this link which features a story from 2009 (not early 2008 like yours) where CR chose Apple as the highest rated laptops in the industry in all three laptop categories. So which is it locd? Are we to trust CR or not?
Hey that's great that you've had no problems! I haven't had any problems with my PC in 10 years! 
I think I'm going to take the testimonies of 75,000 people over you and the 4 people you know who own Macs though. 
Also, one of reports is based on opinions another is based on data. I'll take the data in this case.
FACT: You're just getting silly at this point if you're trying to claim that Dell's photo software or video editing software is on par with Apple's. To get anything on par with Apple's included software you basically need to buy one of Adobe's consumer level products with gets you in the $100 range.
Are you talking about Final Cut Express 4 and Aperture 2? If so, you have to pay extra for those apps. If you are talking about the other software that comes on the Mac then I would say that yes, the software I can obtain online free of charge works just as well. BUT, the standard software that comes with a Dell would work just fine for your average video editor. You do realize that you are not making blockbuster movies right? Are you really letting Apple convince you that you are? All the home vids you'll make on your camcorder can be edited just fine on the standard software that comes with any PC. You don't need all of that extra crap.
Is it worth paying roughly the same price? Hell, I'd pay more if I had to, but thankfully, I really didn't have to.
As I mentioned earlier, OS X is definitely worth the extra cost over Vista though, and even XP is worth a premium over Vista.
Wow, you actually buy into that stuff. 
Windows 7? You want me to run a beta Microsoft OS? Hell, most businesses won't even run a Microsoft OS until after the first Service Pack is released several months down the line.
There is a big difference between a beta and a release client. Beta ended a month ago...