I am and have been a Windows PC user for all of my computing life.  Windows is what I'm used to but I am seriously thinking about switching to Apple.  The only think holding me back is the price.

Yeah I agree it does seem a little steep when you compare it to a similarly specced windows PC.

Why do you want to buy a mac? I don't really recommend ppl who has been using windows for years to go buy a mac. It takes a little bit of getting use to but definitely worth it once you get over the initial shock.

More and more now, I hear stories from people saying once they switch to Mac, they can't even imagine using anything else.  Another thing holding me back is that I spent the last year learning about Windows to get my A+ Certification.  So I can't imagine leaving Windows for good.  But adding Boot Camp or Parallels to an Apple would just further increase the price.

I was a 20 year pc user and now I went Mac. I've had some good things, but with some hardware problems which I know are rare, and the challenge in tweaking my mac, I don't rave about it.

If it wasn't for http://www.plasq.com/skitch I'd go back today. 

I definitely love my mac but I didn't jump into the deepend though. I've been a long time linux user and the mac isn't much different in terms of the backend so it didn't take me long to understand the quirks of it. Also developing on it while working at Tangler helps a lot. 

Boot Camp comes for free so I'm not sure how that would increase the price. Parallels is nice if you need to use windows applications that you can't find the equivalent for on the mac. Just don't expect it to run games really quickly. 

Even though Boot Camp if free, I'd still have to dish out more for a Windows liscense

I often have these discussion with pc friends. There are so many reasons but one of the best reasons is its community. How can a product have that loyal users that always try to convince others to use it if it isn't good? I have become tired of convincing people. After starting with my commodore 64 and after that sticking to PC, and now been using  Mac OS X for two years, I will never switch back. So many are afraid it will not be compatible but why would people use it if not?

Love all applications you can find, commercial and open source, that are so well thought through when it comes to interface and usage. That seldom happens with windows. And then there is something like adware and virus that I no longer give any thought...

I've been looking at a Macbook (not pro).  Will 1 gig RAM do, or is the upgrade to 2 really worth it?
 

Depends on what you're doing with it, if you're going to use it for development then yes, definitely get 2gb of RAM.

2GB of ram is so cheap right now, there is no reason not to get it.

If the RAM is a decent price,  grab it. Treat it like money - you can never have 'too much'.

I can't believe Skitch is the 'killer app' for Mick. I mean, it's really well done and everything, but surely there must be some thing else...  native PDF support, Quicksilver, Expose, CoreAudio,  FireWire target mode...