Scott, what Cadman's saying is, his Mac is way fast and has all kinds of nifty features, plus it doesn't get viruses and spyware problems. One of the nifty features is that the machine knows when you're using it in the dark, and then the letters on the keyboard light up like the digits on certain oldfashioned telephones. This is particularly useful for people in the graphics, music, moviemaking, and video production fields. But it's just one sign of the really careful attention to detail that Apple puts into its products.
Cadman, don't I wish I had one like that, eh? Me: My main machine is an Apple iBook G4, all the RAM it can take, extension keyboard and mouse, Mac OSX 10.3.5. The reason for the extension keyboard & mouse is so I can perch the laptop on a stand for better viewing (you can do this with PC laptops too), and if I spill something on the extension keyboard, it's a simple fix or inexpensive replacement. I also have a PC laptop, HP ze-4600, running WinXP, which I use for a couple of Windows-specific applications; but I keep that one away from the internet so it doesn't catch anything nasty.
Personally I think the plain white iBook design is beautiful, it reminds me of something in white porcelain from a 1950s kitchen, but with a rocketship under the hood.
The main thing about Macintoshes is: you pay about 10% more than for a PC, but what you get is rock-solid and immune to the problems that PC users have to deal with if they put their machines on the internet. And it will work with PCs just fine, all the file formats are convertible these days.
If you like interesting design aesthetics: last year's iMac is retro-cool with its hemisphere styling and the screen on the arm. That machine will be a classic soon, so pounce on one if you can find it.