now if it's notebook manufacturers altogether I'd say Apple is the way to go since you can run anything on it
Unless you're referencing the Boot Camp feature, you couldn't be farther from the truth. Your software selections are extremely limited on the Apple platform (though the major companies are represented so chances are, you'd be okay regardless).
Nonsense. That's why they made Boot Camp. So you could run Windows Natively and play all your games on the mac. (and believe me it is a lot of fun to game on that 24" iMac)
This is generally true but I've heard of quite a few driver issues when trying to run Windows natively. Granted, I haven't looked into it much lately and this may have been resolved a while back but I remember it being a concern when I first heard about it.
Personally, I'm not a fan of Apple but that may be due in part to the range of software I use and how a good portion of it isn't represented on their OS. I find that you can do a lot more with less effort on a Windows-based PC once you know how to do it, though the extensive keyboard shortcuts on a Mac are pretty nice (and I've had extensive experience with both platforms so I can speak from experience).
For those of you recommending HP, I have to disagree. I'm using an HP right now and I've had nothing but problems with it (and the one I exchanged for this one) since day one. Mind you, none of them have been software-related - it's all in the hardware.
I'd personally recommend Dell. While their base level support sort of sucks (and that's an understatement), their hardware is great and I've never had a problem with them in the past.
And, if not only to reinforce this fact, custom builds are probably the best way to go if you're getting a desktop though if you don't know how to build yourself, Dell also makes a good desktop.