You’re a fool if you don’t think macs are susceptible to viruses and malware. Read arstechnica.com for some of the scary mac malware and zero day vulnerabilities that are out in the wild.
It really doesn’t matter.
Macs do tend to last longer than your average PC because they are premium computers, but there are premium PCs that also last a long time. You can’t compare it to the average PC; you have to compare it to other well-made PCs in the same price range. Once you do that, you see more similarities between Macs and PCs, including longevity One area that Macs always seem to have an advantage in is battery life; I have yet to find a PC that has a battery life as long as the Mac (9 hours on the Pro Retina, up to 12 hours on the 13" MacBook Air). Apple also has really good technical support what with Apple stores and AppleCare, but some PC manufacturers might have that too. Less important, but still notable, is that there are a lot cuter accessories and cases made for Macs because they’re standardized. Trying to find a cute snap-on case for a Lenovo or a Toshiba might be nigh impossible, but there are entire companies that focus on making products just for or primarily for Macs, like Speck and Twelve South.
Learning a new operating system is easy. I switched from PC to Mac about 3.5 years ago and it didn’t take me long to learn the new OS. I’m also in the social sciences and there’s only one software program I use that doesn’t run on the Mac (SAS) and you won’t use it as a political scientist (they tend to use R or Stata, both of which run fine on Macs).
If you want more subjective opinions, I love my Mac and plan for the switch to be permanent. I use a Mac at work, as a personal computer, and I also have an iPad and iPhone. It’s not because I’m a fangirl; it’s because Apple’s products are very well integrated with each other, and it just makes sense. I can start texting someone on my phone on my way to work and pick it up on my work computer at work. I can sync music and other things across devices via iCloud. My Calendar coordinates between my iPad, iPhone and computers. Apple products plus cloud storage makes it very easy to integrate my life from home to work. Battery life was also a huge deal for me. I bought my MacBook Pro back when the battery life was 5-7 hours and that was good. 5-7 hours is still good for a laptop, honestly, and my computer is 3.5 years old and it still purrs like the day I bought it and I can still get a good 6 hours out of the battery even with WiFi on.
I’ve never had a computer before that has still be doing this well after this long; I don’t even have a real bad itch to replace it (I do plan to, because I want something lighter with more battery life, but I don’t NEED to yet). I’ve had PCs before that crapped out in 2-3 years. However, with the exception of an ill-fated Sony, I’ve almost always spent $800 or less on PCs - so again, not directly comparable.
However, if I were getting a PC, I’d probably go with a Lenovo, Asus, or Toshiba, and I’d get an ultrabook.
You can also configure Apple mice and trackpads to do right-click if you want. They’re customizable.
Macs are definitely susceptible to viruses and malware. There are fewer for Macs, sure, but as Macs take over a great proportion of the personal computer market there will be more.