Yeah, OS X is the reason why I'm making the switch.
Up through System 8.5 (the last version of the Mac OS I ever used prior to X, and still use on an old iMac) I thought that Macs were nice, but quaint. The software selection was very limited, and expensive, and it really didn't offer much of an advantage for me to switch. The hardware was always slick, but also very expensive. The sum total was not worth the cost of switching platforms.
All of that changed when I took a good look at OS X. It's Unix (I'd always wanted to replace Windows on my PCs with Linux, but it was always too clunky and difficult to sysadmin), it runs major software applications, it can do all the GNU and other *nix apps, it can do my C++ and Java development work, etc. All the advantages of that Unix environment I'd always wanted to set up on my PC, with the ease of use that I wanted, and the major apps that I needed. And hey, the hardware is still really slick, so there's a nice bonus.
Unfortunately price is still a bone of contention, but I have a nice student discount which reduces the disparity and I hope that the oft-stated "Macs stay in usable service longer than PC's" is true, as I find myself building a new PC practically every year or two.
Not having to deal with Windows security updates and viruses will be nice, though not a huge deal for me. In fact, I scotfed at all those who kept complaining about the endless virii, particularly SWEN.... "Geez," I said.. "I never worry about these silly updates, I'm behind a firewall and I never open unusual email attachments". Well, yesterday I discovered that one of my PC's indeed DOES have a virus... probably my first infection since the day I found the "Stoned" virus on a 5.25" floppy disk...
But the idea of running Unix is highly appealing to me. Without it, I would personally still not have taken the Mac very seriously as an alternative to Windows.
