A lot of interesting views here... so I'll throw in my 2 cents worth...
If you run Windows or Linux, build your next PC. I can build a PC for $1000 buying the parts from newegg.com and blow away a $2500 HP workstation in overall performance. Prebuilt HP, DELL, etc are crap for a power user who know how to actually build and tweak a system. Check out anandtech.com and sites like that to learn about hardware, etc.
Mac too expensive, your really pay about a 50% markup - and they are usually behind the curve on what you can buy/build for half as much plus vid cards/drivers a gen behind and Xcode/Objective-C just sucks.. "Let's take C++ and make it even more anal!"
Java dev and Mono cool on Mac, but actually easier on Windows or Linux!
Yeah, Amiga was a bright and shining light in the history of early personal computing, but we are in a Windoz world... but Linux is coming on strong and even where I work - typically a Microsoft Love Fest - we are looking at linux for file,ftp, and web servers. The cost of MS is going up - when we renew our Enterprise Agreement with MS in 2012 (you do 3 years deals typically) - we are expecting up to $30K per month more under new pricing plans...
Also, Redhat reported they are having they had their best year ever in 2009 - they just offer overall lower cost of ownership and open source tools like MySQL, Apache Webserver, Tomcat App Server, etc just rock...
Eclipse with an inexpensive MyEclipse subscription gives Visual Studio a run for its money in Development IDE. Now if I can talk my company into Java instead of C# we could cut our license/tools budget by 90%!
So if you hate windows, just learn linux and stop using ms... or at least put an XP install in VirtualBox on your linux box for those must run windows apps and just enjoy linux.
