its a computer, so it will do virtually anything that a windows or linux PC can do.. some software is operating system specific (ie available on one OS but not the other). to a certain extent apple have circumvented that by providing a windows emulator.
Personally I don't think it makes a great deal of difference which PC you buy or use, unless there is a critical piece of software which you MUST have and is only available on one platform. the rest is all pure marketing bo11ux. Fundamentally there is no significant technical reason to chose one PC OS over another.
if you are dabbling wanting to see another OS then as others have said Id try a LINUX distribution. fundamentally Linux is not that different to the current MAC OS, and I've no doubt that Apple will converge further with LINUX over the years.
Linux is the leading edge of the open source movement, there are a lot of diverse programs at various stages of development (some are fully develoiped, well featured and effective [such as open office], Linux also has a plethroa of other tools &applications [such as database servers, web servers, practically anything you cna get elsewhere. it also has some programs which are still a bit klunky, a bit rudimentary and in some cases just not working. But as the age old adage goes you get what you pay for, but acutally you get a heck of a lot in a Linux distibution more than you could possibly need.
Personaly to me that 'Macs are easier to use' is a canard.. Ive used both.. i dont think there is a huge amount of difference between them, certainly nowhere near as much as the macs are wonderful school of thought would have you believe. It probably was true 15..10 years ago before Windows 3 came along.. but thats many many years ago.
Apple have a history of selling propriatory products at inflated prices, they are nearly always less capable then cheaper products (whether than be Ipods, computers, printers, phones or whatever). by going down the apple route you are opening yourself up to significant extra cost, with as far as I can see little or no gain..
So Id suggest its down to you as to what you want to do
If you are a fashionista, and looks are important to you, or you want to garner fashionista credit points then buy an apple, they do look very sexy very sleek.
if you are a bit geeky and want to tinker with the OS, have a play around buy a Linux distribution.. Ive used SUSE before.. but since their takeover by Novell Ubuntu seems to be the main contender to Red Hat.
If you have oodles of cash and cant think of anything better to spend it on.. then buy an Apple.. it will cost you more in the medium to long term. It seesm dumb to me to have both a windows PC and an Apple.
Whatever else you can say about Windows PC's they are easy to incremntally upgrade... running out of grunt install mor memeory form a generic suypplier, need a bigger PC... install a new motherboard & PC
when it comes to compatibility issues then the Windows PC wins hands down.. if you buy a new devices its almost guaranteed to be windows compatible and probably compatible for Linux & Apple. Quite often additional devices are only windows compatible, or only work best when talking to windows.. ie the Linux & Apple interfaces are much more restricted.
just because there are few Apple virus's out there.. doesn't mean there are none. bear in mind the reason why there are so many Windows viruses out there, is because there are so many Windows PC's out there. Yes you can argue, with some justification, that Windows has legacy security issues but all of these systems have have and continue to have security problems (Apples and Linux included).