Vodpod videos no longer available.

“CNBC: PCs need to pay $600 extra to perform as well as Mac”

this has got to the most ignorant bit i have ever seen!

here is the list they mentioned

Norton Anti-Virus: $50/year
Multimedia Software: $80-$104
Photoshop: $140
Video Editing: $100
Music Software: $100
Geek Squad Visit: $129

My break down
Norton Anti-Virus: $50/year
Listed here are 3 *FREE* respectable AV software no need to pay for it
http://www.free-av.com/
http://free.avg.com/
http://www.avast.com/index.html

Multimedia Software: $80-$104
there are free one as well with vista you get microsoft media center with all version except for vista basic and business
also there is http://xbmc.org/ another free multimedia software that’s also open source!
soon to be public is the windows version of boxee http://www.boxee.tv/ another free multimedia software.

Photoshop: $140
i dont know where you got this info but last time i checked photoshop  alone cost $699 ~ $999 http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/compare/ for us consumers. unless they are talking about Photoshop elements http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelwin/ which is $89.99,

Video Editing: $100
windows comes with a great integrated software call movie maker easy to use and its free. also there is a great free open source app call virualdub http://www.virtualdub.org/

Music Software: $100
if you are wanting to play music:
winamp (free) http://www.winamp.com/
windows media player (free)
itunes (free)
if you are wanting to record music:
Audacity (free/open source) http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Geek Squad Visit: $129
come on … geek squad? there are a lot of freelancers/your Local ISP and they are also most of the time a lot cheaper.