"It's an OK deal if you want to run Apple's operating system (which only runs on Apple hardware)."
I was always under the impression that Apple's OS was quite a bit more stable than Windoze.
I can't say because I don't use Apple's OS. It's based on Unix and up until about 8 or 9 years ago, I was a Unix guy (professionally), so that's a plus. But now I'm a Windows guy (that's what makes me money). As for "stable", I guess it depends on your definition of "stable". I use XP and Window 2003 and I don't consider them unstable.
But it's more than that. The software I need to use runs on Windows, and people pay me to develop software on Windows, so that's what I use. It doesn't much matter to me if Apple's OS is more "stable" or "better". Those criteria can be used by someone who might be using their PC for fun/casual use or just uses it for generic things like word processing, web surfing, etc. and can accomplish those generic things with any OS. In the business that I am in, it's mostly Windows. (And computers to me are business, not a religion.)