I want a Mac

[SimonMac]

If you are going to buy a Mac go new as its a long term investment as a Mac will last you a lot longer than an equivalent spec'd WinTel machine before it starts to feel a bit dated.

[Ignis Fatuus]

Odd points:

If you buy a Mac you do get the OS with it so it's not a price to factor in. But yes, it is much cheaper than Windows, I guess because it's simpler (because its relationship to the hardware is much more tightly controlled), and because it's not the company's main profit centre. FWIW I believe that Apple are not applying to Macs their famed ability to gouge customers. If you want a price comparison, compare MacBooks to Thinkpads or HP Elitebooks.
ISTM that even low-end Macs work better than you might think from their specs, but YMMV.
Macs & OSs are not backwards compatible, i.e. you can't normally install an older OS version than the one that shipped with your Mac (just in case like me, you end up with a new Mac but prefer older OS versions).
New Macs come with OS X Lion: that is a bit of a change from the previous Leopard/Snow Leopard. None of my scanners work with Lion (grrr) which admittedly is Nikon's fault rather than Apple's.
MacBook Airs do not have a hole for a security lock. You're just supposed to keep it with you all the time.
They do last a long time, so it's worth buying new. Official refurbished models are not much cheaper.
Note: don't spill anything on the keyboard. Thinkpads have drain holes in case you do that; Macs have sensors to show that you did it, so that they can void your warranty.

I'm far from being an Apple fanboy, but I prefer Macs to anything else I've used, and can't see using anything else now by choice. The hardware seems very well built and the hardware + OS + applications work well together. As long as you STFU and just do it the way that Steve Il Jong wanted you to do it.

[Durbs]

£500 for a secondhand 13" core 2 duo 2GHz, 1gb RAM, 80 Gb HDD

I would really recommend paying that little extra and get a Core i5 over a Core2 as the performance leap is fairly substantial for the relatively minor extra cost.

[Sysman]

Apple do refurbished systems if you are looking to shave costs, but unless you have a specific role for one I'd recommend going for a brand new system to get the latest hardware interfaces etc.

All Apple systems come with the OS; there's no need to buy it separately unless you want to upgrade or run an extra instance in a virtual machine. This is where most price comparisons with Wintel kit fall flat on their face - the Wintel prices typically only include the cost of Win7 Home Premium (and in only one language too). OS X also includes a full development environment and X11, though these aren't installed by default.

Typically a new version of OS X doesn't mean upgrading your hardware. I ran OS X 10.1 to 10.4 on my first Mac, and with each upgrade the performance actually got better.

Since you live in Ze Vaterland, you might find the multilingual ability of OS X rather neat. Most serious OS X apps available today are multilingual too. If you want to write a document in German, complete with spell checker and German dates, times, numeric format, you can do that. Microsoft dropped a cobbler here in my opinion by restricting language pack availability to Win7 Ultimate; if you have a lesser version, you need to shell out again for the whole OS to change languages.

So don't be afraid of buying the beast in Germany. It will speak English.

[chef]

So don't be afraid of buying the beast in Germany. It will speak English.

hehe you said "beast"

[alreadypacked]

and for your iPhone

[chef]

don't have an iphone (yet), my HTC Desire Z Android keeps me content

santa may possibly be bringing gf chef an iphone though, maybe

[doodab]

Since you live in Ze Vaterland, you might find the multilingual ability of OS X rather neat. Most serious OS X apps available today are multilingual too. If you want to write a document in German, complete with spell checker and German dates, times, numeric format, you can do that. Microsoft dropped a cobbler here in my opinion by restricting language pack availability to Win7 Ultimate; if you have a lesser version, you need to shell out again for the whole OS to change languages.

I think that's only if you want to have UI messages and menus in multiple languages. I have win 7 pro and I can spell check in German and English, use German dates, and switch my keyboard into German with a single key combination and so on.

[Sysman]

I think that's only if you want to have UI messages and menus in multiple languages. I have win 7 pro and I can spell check in German and English, use German dates, and switch my keyboard into German with a single key combination and so on.

Do you mean Win 7 Pro with Office?

I don't know which of language setup, date format and time zone do this, but I come across apps on Win 7 Ultimate that decide to go German on me.

[scooterscot]

If you are going to buy a Mac go new as its a long term investment as a Mac will last you a lot longer than an equivalent spec'd WinTel machine before it starts to feel a bit dated.

Exactly WHS.

I still use my 2006 all white iMac which operates as fine as the day I bought it. I've no reason yet to replace it. Cost £1800 when new.

Don't think like you're buying another PC when shopping, the OS and hardware is generally more reliable from my experience.

After the honeymoon period passes you'll be just like, why did I not do this before?