I wouldn't go with a PC, now that the Vista came out. Honestly, I think Vista is a total copycat of the Mac, except it's even worst than Mac. Here is why:
My family has one Windows 98 desktop, two Windows XP desktops, one Windows XP laptop, and one Vista desktop...and guess what? The HP Windows 98 lasted the longest, until I got into high school--now it's useless. The HP Windows XP that I own, keeps giving a message in the beginning that says "backup and restore your hard drive, it's about to crash," after I had it for two years. And the HP Vista, keeps losing information--all of a sudden the printer just disappeared off of the Printers list. Too many problems, and I have to sit too many hours to figure it out. As you've noticed, they were all HPs, but we had friends that had Dell, and they have problems with it too- it works slow, and all that stuff. My friend also had a PC, and it got too many viruses the first year they got it. The PCs also had a limit as to how much they can do on one workspace. Adobe Photoshop isn't the best on it as it is on a Mac. With Internet Explorer 6, the Windows MovieMaker stopped playing. Things take hours to download, and I've had the computers freezing too many times. I had to strain my eyes just to find certain programs, and things. Things would disappear; updates downloaded without control even though I wanted to update manually. I would have to restore the entire computer to factory settings, just to make it work right and it caused me to stay up late. It just got to be too much and I've had it with all the bullcrap.
So this time, I got myself a Mac for college, and it works Splendid! (To be honest, I was introduced to the Macs in my first year of high school for my digital arts class, and I hated them because, I didn't know how to work with them; but by the second year, I got a somewhat the hang of it.) I can get all my work done, and have four work areas that I can switch in between. Even though the Macbook was pricey, I find it to be the best thing I've had in years. And it's not any different with the commands than the PC. Also, the Airport on the Mac, automatically finds you the closest wireless network, so that you don't have to have cables connected. (It's not crap, maybe your router had a different broadband signal, such as an "n" instead of a "g". One of my friends took her Macbook with her to Spain, and it worked there with no problem!) With a PC, I often found that you have to get a network adapter in order to get wireless network, or a card from one of the cellular phone stores, like Sprint, or even connect through the Ethernet cables. With Mac, you don't have to do anything of that sort.
You can drag the stuff off your dock, and it'll disappear in a puff of smoke, and you can put other applications onto the dock. I find that having that dock, creates less clutter, and helps me not strain my eyes as I did with the Windows to find a program amongst the list of many. Put the essential things that you use a lot in the dock, and delete what you don't use. Keep the Finder, System Preferences and Preview on the dock. You can also do the stacks by dragging the folder onto the dock next to the Trash can, but I personally don't need all the applications to be next to the Trash, plus I don't use them all. There is always the preferences that you can change, by going onto System Preferences and changing the dock and the styles. I also got rid of the Dashboard icon in the dock, because I could use F4 to get the dashboard. I also love how you can switch work places by pressing F5, and have a new clean space to work on. Also I love the Expose feature on F3, which allows you to find the particular window that you are looking for without minimizing all of the other windows. And of course, the Isight Camera. I haven't found any other notebooks to have that, and seeing as I'm out of the States for College this semester, it helps me keep in touch with family and friends so that they could see me and I can see them. Downloading things is not much different than the PC, but uninstalling things, you have to go to your applications folder, click on the application, and then click on the button next to the eye on the top, and go down to "Show Package contents," and then you just have to drag out the thing you want to uninstalled, and it's done. The only problem with that is, is that you might accidentally delete some files that are necessary for the computer...so be careful. Also, if you have Iworks 08, you can export your work to Microsoft Word from Pages, Microsoft Exel from Numbers, and Microsoft PowerPower from Keynote. Aside from the uninstalling thing, I'm utterly happy with my Macbook. I will not return it, and it's not a piece of crap, as some say, what I would've returned is a freaking PC. I would do anything to return this crappy four year old HP Windows XP desktop, and buy myself a IMac or whatever is the desktop called these days from Mac. Alas, I can't do that, because it's old and no one will want to pay the original price for it. The Macbook is small, and very light; I barely felt the weight in my hands, as I went through the airport last week. I love it.