There's a great deal of drivel on this thread, but some things are worth saying if anyone's interested.
There are 3 reasons why you might run XP on a Mac
- to sometimes use applications only available on MS Windows
- to play PC games
- because you like the hardware but want XP
The first reason is better served by running a Windows OS inside, or alongside MacOS. It is already possible to run windows inside MacOS using the free open source Q (QEMU), and the networking works, so that covers things like web browsers, outlook, bookkeeping and online trading apps adequately. I have Windows 2000 running inside OSX on my intel imac and speed is fine for these purposes (unlike virtual PC on power Mac).
For the other two, you will want to install MS Windows directly on the machine. Although this has now been done, there are not yet drivers for all the devices. The most important one is the video driver; you are stuck with a generic one for now, meaning video is unaccelerated. That's not good enough for gaming or "design" applications.
These solutions are a bit geeky at the moment, and there are problems that haven't been ironed out - so it's best to wait if you're inclined to heed advice. There will be more and better solutions, including ones that use the virtualisation features of the Intel CPUs Apple is using (allowing OS's to run side-by-side).
There are good technical reasons why OS X is less susceptible to viruses than Windows XP and earlier Windows OS's, especially if they haven't been kept patched up to date. The switch to Intel is irrelevant to this. Windows Vista may well be the equal of OS X in this respect. It will be some years before Macs outnumber Wintel PC's (if ever), so it will be some years before they are a more attractive target for virus writers.
As regards Macs being expensive, if you truly configure a Dell system the same as the equivalent Mac, it is almost always slightly more expensive. Some things (like proper firewire on laptops or firewire target disk mode) are simply not available from Dell. Dell tricks to take into account: no OS media; weedy standard laptop battery; two memory modules instead of one (saving Dell a bit, but filling the upgrade slot); shipping and handling extra; delayed shipment (cost prices drop be several percent per month, but your buy price was fixed); constantly changing specs for the defined "price point".
Well it's turned into a bit of a rant. I am unlikely to revisit this thread; sorry.
Edit: As has been mentioned MS Office is available for Mac OS. It covers all the features of the PC version except for the Access database. (There may also be features of Outlook with Exchange Server that aren't the same in Mac Entourage.)