ok, hb2998, gonna have to disagree with you.
First off, as far as the legality of running Windows Vista on a mac... the only thing you can't do (legally) at this time is virtualize windows Vista Home. That means that you can't use parallels or vmware to run Vista Home. However, you can legally virtualize other versions of Vista. You can also legally run all of them natively (bootcamp). So, really that's not a limiting factor at all.
Thanks for the information. I knew there was something you couldn't do, but wasn't sure where they drew the lines.
Second, as far as being able to customize and tweak your operating system and applications.. you can't beat mac os x. As you stated earlier it has unix like underpinnings (the mach kernel actually) and if you want you can feel free to crack open a terminal (there is one included) and hack away all you want. Its vastly better for customization compared to windows as well (as is every *nix system)... your preferences aren't stored in a damn database (the registry? are you kidding me?), but rather nice and easy to edit text based files. As far as apple applications, well, they are what they are, but another advantage of the unix underpinnings are that you can run pretty much any *nix app you want (and with parallels I can run any windows app i want too).
Unix/Linux will always be more customizable and versatile than Windows if you were to make adjustments manually. OS X is based on FreeBSD, so naturally it inherited some of the many positive aspects of Unix. Databases are much more robust than simple text files, which is performance boost Windows has over any kernal based system. Mac OS X's XNU, although mach kernel based, has many BSD components (from FreeBSD). This mixture of kernels leads to incredible performance downfalls. If Apple lights up and switches to Linux Kernel I think many elite mac users will be very happy. I think it was a very smart move for apple to move to Intel, they should take the next step and ditch the out dated kernel.
Third, as far as Apple's hardware and customer service and support. In my experience its pretty good, or at least comparable to other major vendors. The best is if you live near an apple store, you can just visit the genius bar and they'll help you out for free. Also, I've found the apple community to be very knowledgeable and helpful (generally more so than the windows community - I'm talking official forums here).
Fortunately your experience has been good. I've personally been fed up with the forums myself (many many many times). Just recently I went on to see why do both my 30gb and 60gb ipod reboot when I play a video podcast distributed by Itunes. Well, that didn't go anywhere. (Please don't get me started on IPods!)
Lets say you have a problem with your Harddrive. Being techy in nature we know when the HDD is dead. You call Apple Care and ask them to send you a HDD, they say they can't because you live close to a Apple Store, hard drivers are not an end-user replaceable item as they claim and have to go there for it to get diagnosed. So you go there, wait in line, talk to the Apple Care dude (hopefully well trained/more knowledgeable than yourself). They diagnose the problem as being the harddrive... but they don't happen to have your harddrive in stock (the place is designed to look pretty, no room for storing essential replacement parts). Unfortunately there is a no communication between the Apple Store staff who diagnose and fix the issue and Apple Care. When they're out of parts they have no way of ordering it for you. You have to call Apple Care wait 7-10 days for the part to come into the store, then go in to have them install it. I actually prefer Dell's method of assessing everything over the phone and sending you a harddrive or technician. Sure they will send out some harddrives to replace functioning harddrives but the customer no longer feels that they have an obligation to prove themselves.
Fourth, as far as upgrade-ability... well, laptops aren't that upgradeable anyway, but Apple's are more or less comparable to other small form factor manufacturers. It can be a bit trickier to replace an optical drive in an apple, but a RAM upgrade or even hdd upgrade isn't that difficult. The mac pro is as easily upgradeable as any beige box... more so really, because its been designed around the basic architecture of the system.
I agree, laptops suck when it comes to upgrading. I'm going to argue cost. I went online and priced RAM 1gb for Mac Pro and for Dell Inspiron $179.99 ($269 retail) vs $114.99. Upgrading the dell wasn't really hard as you just unscrew and take out the part. I'm impressed by how thin the Mac Pros are (hats off to their ergonomic design), but then again maybe you should google mac pro overheating problems and excessive use of
thermal grease 
.
Fifth, apple gives back a great deal of source code to the open source community (they have to, it's required by the gpl). Yes, there have been some concerns that it isn't as usable as it might be (not fully commented, basically), but in my opinion thats *nix developers looking a gift horse in the mouth. Already kde has taken some significant suggestions from launchd and there has been some big give and take with safari/konquerer.
Apple is not a team player.
Apple uses an incompatible version-control system to manage its code.
Apple links to its own proprietary APIs rather than open source ones.
Apple writes patches in Objective-C rather than C++.
Apple's coding style is inconsistent, and as you mentioned they don't comment their code right.
Open source community doesn't really have a right to be upset (most open source licenses basically say: take it, do whatever you want with it, if you'd like charge money for it.) But still, I don't blame them for wanting Apple, which puts out this image as the first corporation to really support open source work, to contribute more.
You have very valid points, and its always nice to have an intelligent conversation as after all we're comparing apples and oranges. They both have advantages and disadvantages. I personally LOVE the terminal! I really wish windows had something similar (please don't post a reply with cygwin). I wish apple had more keyboard shortcuts (i know they have plenty but I want more as their mouse sucks!). We put down microsoft, remember microsoft vs google last year? people need to remember that microsoft hires more staff each in a year than google has on payroll. I'm surprised you didn't argue apple's security, sure there have been many issues with security
windows xp vs os x, apple wins hands down, but vista is different, and I'm sure it will make a significant statement for security. I must be very lucky since my computers
never freeze (I don't overload the system when its thinking really hard by clicking repeatedly switching between windows, I just wait. I've seen unix freeze, don't tell me Macs never freeze.) and I've never had a virus or spyware problem, but I understand that many aren't so fortunate, or don't take evasive action such as updating their system/virus protection software, etc. If enough people use Macs, malware authors will take notice and target them sooner or later, but as the article points out there are many inherit benefits to os x over xp, but vista is supposed to be the ultimate in security.
If I was an Apple stock holder I would be concerned about Vista and would personally send a card to Steve Jobs wishing him good health as hes the genius behind company. If something happens to Steve boy that stock will crash as rapidly as it went up during their IPO (I think it still holds the record for best IPO performance).
If it comes down to it, I think I would take the advice of Biscuit799, buy a cheap computer now and replace it later. That always works.
Tristy - I have a friend that has a fujitsu, he loves it, its really light. How do you like the Tablet PC feature? do you use it often? is the pen quality any good? Could you write neatly on the screen or you can only make big rough remarks?
