It’s not a line you’d stand in for rock concert tickets, or Hannah Montana tickets for your kids, or a chance to win a free laptop or Super Bowl tickets, but it might as well be from the way it’s starting to look: A San Francisco television station is reporting that the first person to begin standing in the line for a seat at the Macworld Expo showed up at 8:30 a.m. On Monday. The Keynote address begins at 9:00 a.m. On Tuesday.

It’s debatable whether Steve Jobs has reached the same financial success as Bill Gates, but I think it’s safe to say there’s no longer a question as to which tech billionaire has achieved rock star status. Many Windows users would stand in line at 11:00 p.m. to buy the latest version of Windows or the newest Xbox Console or Xbox 360 game at Midnight. But I don’t think I know of any that would stand in line 24 hours ahead of time to hear Bill Gates make an announcement about the new product. Regardless of how you feel about him, Jobs’ has obviously won the rock star contest.

And the line continues to form. As of this writing, at Tuesday, 12:05 a.m. San Francisco Time, 9 hours before the start of the keynote, there are about 40 people in line. You might expect seating to be on a first come, first served basis, but: Think Different, that’s not how it works at the Macworld Expo. Priority seating is arranged for attendees that paid $1495 to $1895 for Super Pass and Platinum Pass tickets to the Macworld Expo. Those that paid $99 to $895 will stand in a separate line, and not be entitled to priority seating. Other ticket packages, such as “A Day at the Office: Microsoft Office 2008”, which sells for $199 (the tickets, not the software), do not include seating at the keynote. Of course, the more expensive tickets come with educational conferences and other bells and whistles, complete details can be found on the Macworld Expo website.

As one of my closest friends is fond of saying, “money is for hardware”. If you were thinking of attending Macworld, slide your credit card back in your wallet, use the money you saved to buy something you really need (like a new laptop), and keep your browser pointed here for continuing coverage of Macworld 2008.