the choice is really up to you. a Mac is a decent product and all the Apple fanboys/girls will certainly tell you why it's the best thing ever and that you can't live without one.

Apple has done a fantastic job of marketing their products to get their users to line up outside to upgrade when the new one comes out, even if you don't really need to upgrade.

but, apple builds products that are closed. they decide primarily how you should use your product and what you should do or not do with it. this does allow them to be more trouble free because they control what software will run on it, what peripherals will run on it, etc. but, software is more limited on them. the normal stuff is available so if that's all you'll be doing, then you probably won't miss out. but, there may be software you want to try that just doesn't exist on the MAC.

The argument that MACs are better because they aren't prone to virus attacks is flawed logic though. it is true. fewer viruses exist on the MAC platform thus fewer mac users suffer the ill effects of contracting a MAC virus. Why is this? is the product superior and virus detecting is so much better on a MAC? Heck no. there are fewer viruses for the MAC because there are fewer MACs and fewer MAC users. the virus people don't want to waste their time writing malicious code for the minority of the population. so, one the one hand, MACs don't get attacked by viruses. but they don't get attacked by viruses because on average, far fewer people actually use them. there are probably not many viruses for UNIX machines either yet most people don't run out to build a UNIX box.

cost is a biggie. MACs ain't cheap. but they last. on the other hand, if a MAC lasts 5 years and for the same price you can buy 2-3 decent windows based machines and simply discard each windows machine every 1.5-2 years and upgrade to a faster, cheaper, better model what is the better alternative? spend a lot now for a machine you know will last or spend less than half as much for one that still allows you to do the same type of work knowing you can buy an even better/faster one in 2 years for less. a very capable windows laptop costs $600 right now. less still gets you a quality machine if all you do is surf the net and write e-mails.

as far as time to load at startup. I can't argue that as your machine gets older, it gets bogged down as everything tries to load itself at startup. there are utilities available that allow you to quickly and easily eliminate things from your startup sequence. this one: http://download.cnet.com/WhatInStartup/3000-2094_4-10913139.html i find invaluable to clean out my boot up sequence and eliminate all the crap you don't want. one other thin that can be done is to periodically (once per year?), just reformat the old hard drive and do a fresh install. it's time consuming but it purges all the garbage out that you don't want. do you have to do it with a MAC? i dunno. probably not.

I'm an engineer so a MAC isn't an option for me. the CAD software I use just isn't available on a MAC. but I'm also cheap and can't see spending the money Apple wants for their computers either. computers are pretty darn cheap now. almost disposable. if they last 2 years you got your money from it. longer, even better.

it's personal choice though. Apple is superior for industrial design but personally, I don't buy a computer much based on what it looks like. i want it to work and my windows machines do work. I'm not trying to be too negative about Apple. I just would not buy one because I don't think they justify the cost. but that's just my opinion.