Hi,
I will give you want advice I can but in the end no one can tell you
which machine is for you.

I know that all microsoft products like word and powerpoint can be
opened on both. But it's the software you use for music editiing that
you will have to research. Sorry I don't know more about the apple im
a computer science major so I only use PCs

The positive thing is that the new apple OS is built on Unix so it is
a much more stable system.

The most important thing is to figure out how much memory you want (I
would suggest no less than 512mb), how much hard drive, what ports
you need and the type/speed processor you want. The hardest one to
figure out is the processor (if you get an intel cause the names of
the processor only differ by 1 letter). Once you figure those things
out start reasearching till you find a machine the fits your budget.

- If you looking for battery life you want to get a Intel Mobile
Processor that are found in centrino notebooks (not 4M cause that's
different) because your going to get 4+ hours of life. (1.3 Mobile
runs about the same as a 2.0 P4 with less power)
- If your looking at cost a Intel P4 is the way to go. It's actually
a desktop processor so it's cheaper but it will run slightly hotter
and your only going to get a couple hours of battery life.
- There is also Intel 4M processors but everything I read said to stay
away from them.

Now about name brand When I bought my laptop I did research for
almost a month before I bought it. I found out while doing this that
alot of the name brands buy parts/machines from ODMs (original design
manufacturer). There are really only 5 ODM thats are making laptops
and they sell to HP, toshiba, dell and gateway.

When I bought mine I bought a centrino setup from a non-name brand
dealer and saved over $800 compared to name brands. And it's the same
ODM (compal) that sells to toshiba, HP and many others. I LOVE
MINE!!!! The important part of buying a non-name brand is to research
not only the machine but also the dealer and how much support they
offer. The two best ones I found are powernotebooks.com and
discountlaptops.com (thats where I got mine).

I hope this helps you. Sorry for such a long post, Carla