Just got my MBP 17 and I'm loving it. With my Macbook, iPhone and Time Capsule, I'm very impressed how EVERYTHING worked perfectly right out of the box.

My MBP was $2,344 after the Education discount. As a comparison, the closest machine I could find in terms of features and components is the Dell/Alienware M17X - pricing out similar components gave me a price before ship/tax of $2,224.

On the higher end, there isn't much which differentiates Apple and MS-based laptops on price. It's on the lower end where Apple's entry-level laptops are typically twice the price (or more) of MS-based devices, although there is still a noticeable advantage going to Apple in terms of the components and features of their entry level laptops which tend to bend the price comparison at the low-end as well.

I installed Parallels (I found it's hybrid view much easier and better-featured than Fusion) to run a small number of Windows apps as needed.