There's a fair amount of consternation in the Macintosh community about these two ads from Microsoft:

The consternation is not so much that in each case Lauren and Giampaolo each end up buying an HP laptop. It's more about the fact that the underlying argument, if I can call it that, is that it's all about money/price, and hardware. There's no discussion, at all, about the ease of use, the user experience, as we call it in the industry, meaning how difficult or easy, or pleasant it is to use the computer. That is a large part is about software, and most particularly, ease of use has to do with the operating system. And now, Vista is not as easy to use, or to maintain, for the average user, as Mac OS X is. It just isn't. For one thing, the constant daily frustration of having to deal with malware is an enormous headache for a lot of users. And it's such a problem that Vista actually nags you about it if you haven't installed anti-virus software.

There's also no discussion of the software that comes on the laptops; I note that Mac laptops include the complete iLife suite. Mac laptops also include a number of other applications as part of the basic OS X install. So, yes, the commercials seem a little one-sided and a little annoying. That said, if you're interested in comparing hardware, you can take a look at these articles:

Harry McCracken Hey, Lauren! Is Apple's 17-Inch MacBook Pro Expensive?

McCraken compares Dell's Precision M6400 Mobile Workstation, HP's EliteBook 8730W, Lenovo's ThinkPad W700, Sony's VAIO FW, and Apple's 17-inch MacBook Pro.

James A. Martin, PC World $1,000 MacBook versus PC PC World compares Mac, Windows laptops

Martin flips the questions, and asks what would he get if he spent $1000 on a MacBook, and what would the same amount of money buy me in a reasonably similar Windows laptop? (Here Martin looks at what $2000 will buy in a MacBook vs. a Windows laptop).

Dan Frakes, MacWorld Cost-comparison caveats and lessons

Frakes picks up on the same issues I do, the user experience, and the bundled software, but then adds some very smart suggestions for what Apple could do to improve the apparent price difference.

I don't know about you, but those two Microsoft ads sort of irritated me; I'm awfully tired of seeing women using computers in ads behaving like total airheads. Lauren actually says that she's "Not cool enough to be a Mac person." Giampaolo says that Macs are "so sexy" (is he going to work on it or sleep with it? Please, dude, get some counseling), but then dismisses the Mac laptop because Macs are more about "aesthetics." Neither one of them actually tried using the laptops they looked at. Here's some free advice: if you're buying a computer, especially a laptop, you need to spend at least a half hour using the keyboard and the screen doing the kind of tasks you ordinarily would do, with the kind of text and images you would be working with. Because a poor keyboard or screen will completely zero out the underlying CPU, and both keyboard and screen response are pretty much matters of individual taste.

Because I'm a kind, thoughtful person, I'm going to leave you with this very funny, very well-done parody commercial about a new Mac laptop; the MacWheel. Put your beverage down, and enjoy.