yoshi, it is not so simple to downgrade. many computer manufacturers never made drivers for xp, especially on laptops, where all the gadgetry it comes with has very specific drivers. they can be a nightmare once downgraded. unless the computer came with that option originally, i advise against downgrading without help from someone who knows what they are doing. there is no customer service number to downgrade to xp. unless you want to pay microsoft 100 bucks for ap phone call!
as for buying a mac, my feelings about them are negative at best. they are overpriced. there is no software for them, and they are structurely garbage. the engineers are given a back seat to the designers. that would be equivalent of building a building based on the interior designer over what the building engineers and contractors say! for years they knocked the intel chip, yet when they finally realized it was far superior, they adopted it as well. i will give them this, their marketing is impressive, but the machines dont stand up. in benchmark tests, they never beat out pc’s, especially ones built by people, something unable to be done with mac’s. upgrading them is a pain in the neck, if near impossible. for the same inflated price of a mac, you can get a massively fast pc, that will blow the mac out of the water.