Very interesting points arithma. And sorry about before, I wasn't trying to diss Windows, but merely argue against the popularity excuse.
I still think you're missing what Macs are about. I know because I was like you. I used to think, as an open source enthusiast, that Apple takes it to the next level by bundeling its software into the hardware. Did you know that it is illegal to install Mac OS X on anything but Apple hardware? I used to hate that, and back in 08, I was the biggest Apple hater. I used to say the same things than you, arguing that Apple represents consumerism, the way they get you hookd on their products, ... I also used to strongly despise Macs users, as I found them to be arrogant, the way they would consider their product better, etc ...
What changed my mind was a small detail that made a huge difference. Try this: don't think of Macs as a computer, but rather as a separate appliance in your house, just like your TV, DVD player, digital frame, phone, microwave, fridge, ... Sure, as an engineer, you know that it's nothing more than an intel chip running an Unix-based operating system, but forget about that for a moment. Just think about it as a Mac, an appliance with cool featurs.
Take your gaming console for instance (Xbox, Playstation, whatever, ...). Everyone here knows that they're nothing but computers with operating systems restricted and optimized for gaming. But you don't look at them like that. Think of Macs the same way.
Sure it's expensive, but hey it's a luxury product. Apple is not targeting the masses, and it is very comfortable with its 5-10% market share. They actually want you to think of Macs as (and I'm quoting Steve Jobs) the "Jaguar of the computer industry". In that sens, I think that Apple's real rival is more
Bang & Olufsen than Microsoft. Or at least, ever since I started looking at it this way, I don't hate Apple anymore.
Now when it comes to special features, I'll let real Mac experts talk about it. They would know better than I do. But, since my girlfriend has a recent MacBook (I don't know which one exactly), I use it from times to time and can assess that when it comes to usability, intuitiveness and ergonomics, they're far above the mass-targeted pro-looking Windows or the performance-oriented geeky Unices.
So far the reason I stick to Windows is that Linux can't host Adobe Flash, which is my source of food.
Last, about flash and linux, you are absolutely right. There has been attempts to reverse engineer it, but Adobe still refuse to release the source code, or at least package it for linux. Since I know your work consist mainly of this, and Actionscript, I wouldn't recommend linux to you. However, an interesting project you should take a look at is
Moonlight, an open source implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight. Regardless of how you feel about Silverlight, just go check it out, I think you'll like it.
Cheers ;)
