For their notebooks it comes down to size/weight to performance ratio, battery life, display quality, the keyboard, and the multitouch trackpad. Being able to run both OS X and Windows is a plus, ditto customer service should something go wrong. The OS X UI is also very well tuned to work on laptops and displays of a limited size, between things like window layouts and workspace management features like Expose and Spaces (which can also be triggered via multitouch gestures).
The only other notebook I'd consider getting is a Lenovo, those also have good keyboards and build quality. Most notebooks are garbage, but they are also priced accordingly.
I started using OS X in 2002 when OS 10.2 came out, and I used it only as a Final Cut Pro machine for cutting my demo reels. I became a huge fan when OS 10.4 came out and was head and shoulders better than Windows XP. Like, it wasn't even close, there was this tremendous gap in operating system quality going for a few years. Vista came out and addressed most of the issues XP had, even though it took a couple months for the issues to get shaken out of it, and things like Windows Search were not nearly as good as Spotlight. By the time SP1 came out it was fine. Windows 7 (aka - Vista SP3) is really good and I'm happy jumping back and forth between them both. The only thing that really needs fixing IMHO is streamlining the preferences tabs, submenus, and the control panel. The big difference I'd say is that OS X is fantastic right out of the box, whereas with Windows I need to run Ninite and customize the crap out of things before I'm happy with it. No big deal, I was just reminded of that when I did a Windows 7 install on a new machine last month.
Anyway, my main work machine is an iMac, and it also doubles as a monitor for my gaming PC. Given that those 27" 2560x1440 IPS displays start at $1000 by themselves, I'm pretty happy with the deal. If you don't want to spend on a Mac and can put together a good PC by yourself, by all means. If you can afford a Mac and the advantages make sense to you, by all means. Of the non-100% Mac people I know, I know quite a few who have PC desktops and Mac laptops and it works out well for them.
Like everything else, look at the pros and cons, just don't assume that the pros are the result of RDF. Believe it or not, there are many well informed and technical users (far more technical than I am, especially web devs and *nix nerds) who actually use OS X for legit reasons.
The only other notebook I'd consider getting is a Lenovo, those also have good keyboards and build quality. Most notebooks are garbage, but they are also priced accordingly.
I started using OS X in 2002 when OS 10.2 came out, and I used it only as a Final Cut Pro machine for cutting my demo reels. I became a huge fan when OS 10.4 came out and was head and shoulders better than Windows XP. Like, it wasn't even close, there was this tremendous gap in operating system quality going for a few years. Vista came out and addressed most of the issues XP had, even though it took a couple months for the issues to get shaken out of it, and things like Windows Search were not nearly as good as Spotlight. By the time SP1 came out it was fine. Windows 7 (aka - Vista SP3) is really good and I'm happy jumping back and forth between them both. The only thing that really needs fixing IMHO is streamlining the preferences tabs, submenus, and the control panel. The big difference I'd say is that OS X is fantastic right out of the box, whereas with Windows I need to run Ninite and customize the crap out of things before I'm happy with it. No big deal, I was just reminded of that when I did a Windows 7 install on a new machine last month.
Anyway, my main work machine is an iMac, and it also doubles as a monitor for my gaming PC. Given that those 27" 2560x1440 IPS displays start at $1000 by themselves, I'm pretty happy with the deal. If you don't want to spend on a Mac and can put together a good PC by yourself, by all means. If you can afford a Mac and the advantages make sense to you, by all means. Of the non-100% Mac people I know, I know quite a few who have PC desktops and Mac laptops and it works out well for them.
Like everything else, look at the pros and cons, just don't assume that the pros are the result of RDF. Believe it or not, there are many well informed and technical users (far more technical than I am, especially web devs and *nix nerds) who actually use OS X for legit reasons.