Switching to a new computer

For Christmas, my wife bought me an iPod, and I bought her half a Mac (in the form of a gift certificate). She currently has an XP laptop, and I have two XP pro desktops. My work uses XP pro as well.

I installed iTunes on my main computer, but iTunes aborts when it tries to import music from my CDs. So I installed iTunes on my other computer, although I will have to do so again once I have figured out how to uninstall my old QuickTime.

Meanwhile I read documentation on the web and discovered that I have one "home" computer. Is there a way to switch which computer is "home"?

Also - it appears that my iPod will wither work with Apple or XP computers - but not both, at least when I want to use some of its disk space to transfer data. This may mean I will need to put on hold my desire to emulate my wife by going MacIntosh - that ability to transfer data is a valuable tool for me.

Is my understanding here correct?