If you're looking at laptops, it's really hard to go wrong with Apple these days. Give it a try; if you decide OSX isn't your thing, they make damn good Windows machines... but all of my friends who used my iBook G4 for more than 30 minutes or so are now mac users.
My #1 concern at first was the single-button trackpad, but it turned out to be a complete non-issue. You can "right-click" by either control-clicking or just putting two fingers on the trackpad when you click the button.
It's a great machine for general use, where OSX's lack of routine maintenance really shines. The overall level of polish on both the software and hardware is tough to describe -- you just sort of get used to things working in obvious ways, and after a few months Windows seems clunky.
btw, what's up with all-capsing "MAC"? it's not an acronym, just Mac.
