I hate to be "that guy"

~700$ cheaper? For the base model, yes. Make the specs comparable to the MBP: 2x2.2ghz, 2 gigs of ram, read/write drive, comparable battery: ~200 cheaper. They still dont exactly match, the MBP now has a better vidcard still, and the Sony has 1280x800 resolution instead of 1440x900.

Apple hardware is very comparable in price to most other providers.

Not everyone needs 1440x900, or a $2k comp. I am simply providing an alternative to the largely unjustified, yet astronomically priced MBP. I guess I should have looked for a budget.

Well, the VERY FIRST point he lists in his criteria is that he's not concerned about cost as much as he is a quality machine.

an apple with those specs isn't 2k. I bought one for a little over 1200 including 2GB ram

I'd have to cosign a previous post: Dell Vostro or Thinkpad T61. Do NOT get a Vaio. I've had a FZ-190 for about 4 months now. I got it for the exact reason he suggested, I really liked the MBP but knew I wasn't going to be using OSX as my primary OS (ubuntu) and the FZ matches up perfectly in terms of size/features. Problem is, the Linux drivers for this thing absoutely blow. No function keys, no video out, no webcam.

Another thought: they're a little harder to get, but Asus makes some great models.