Not sure if this reflect your daughter's experience, only my wife's.
At her work they use mostly MAC because the company's board of directors are also on Apple's board (Genentech), and my wife hated Mac completely.
She is used to PC and couldn't stand the 1 button mouse, the way applications would not close by clicking the X but hide in the background, the dashboard, the safari browser, the way some of its office application isn't opening the PC version's file the same way. She is used to Windows and has always been using Windows, and after using a mac for 4 years she still hates it. Well, less prefer is the more correct phrase than hate.
Mind you this is with a company computer, there is no way she would pay this MAC tax to get a MAC. I do see the benefit of a MAC, it's sexier, it's plastic is higher quality, it's fit and finish is better. For the VW and German car crowd (aka dash stroker), it is a more "luxury" experience, as all MAC are consistent in build quality despite some of them have very low end performance spec.
PC is a mix bag, DELL in particular. The Vostro lines are usually Walmart plastic toys, the Latitude Laptop are very good quality (80% of thinkpad in quality, much cheaper), the Precision is very very good (we run it in the lab for all the high performance simulation). I've been running my 2 Optiplex at work for 3 years 247 and its fit and finish and quality are better than any MAC I've seen in my life, and it is very very silent.
As I used to work for Maxtor and we OEM to all manufactures as 1st tier supplier. I can tell you that we ship them the prime drives, and DELL and Apple both have the highest spec, then HP and Compaq, and then other OEMs, then retails. I'd imagine if you are shipping to OEM they are all about the same, even Apple, as they outsource to the tier 1 contractors in Taiwan/China who buy the same component grades anyways.
Now for your daughter. I'd imagine it is because she got a low end machine that has poor fit and finish. I've seen these laptops 1st hand, developing green line in the LCD and a key fall out, etc. I've also seen a high quality latitude laptop in the same generation (Core Duo) but build much better than anything else I've seen.
Having a Mac is like having an automatic transmission. It is easier for you to use if you are used to it, but if you are not used to it, it won't make your life better (i.e. my wife) and you may think that it is "hard to use".
