Vista is pretty good, so don't feel bad for settling.
Let's see, my assessment of the Apple mac lineup:
iMac - Good machines. I think the new ones come with shit graphic cards, except for the 24" which costs like 2500.
MacBook - Great laptops. Small, good battery life, but again, no good video hardware. They still run WoW great, though.
MacBook Pro - Slightly faster processor than the MacBook and they come with videocards. The price gap between the MacBook and the Pro is a bit steep for the improvements offered. I'm a sucker for the stylish metal casing. Drinky can confirm that it is a sexy laptop.
MacMini - Have never used one. I think they are due for a refresh in a few months with better processors. Again, no good gpus.
Mac Pro - The quad core 45 pound sex machine. Quad SLI so you can have 4 videocards in at once.
I rag about some of the models lacking graphics cards, but that's really not that detrimental unless you're going to dual boot to windows to get your game on. WoW runs fine on the MacBook, which is good
Also, OS X 10.5 Leopard is coming out in like half a year, so it's probable that a number of models will be refreshed before the WWDC show in June/July.
The MacBook is a nice piece of machine. Sexy lookin', great battery life, compact. I almost want to buy one despite having no use for one.
Oh, whatever you get, make sure you get a gig of RAM. I think all standard configs come with that much now. The performance bump between 512 and a gig is huge.
What sucks about your buddy's macbook, Shake? The initial run had a number of defects, but things are hunky dory now.
