Actually Microsoft beat them in another country(ies), to make it simple they changed their name generally.
MacOS X was developed from a BSD derivative, designed to match with Apple hardware. It is basically Unix with a Mac interface, designed around Apple hardware. Even if your computer was 5GHz 2GB Ram it would run crap with an emulator.
If you're tired of Windows, use Linux. Be ready for a BIG change, and don't expect to be an expert in a week. There is so much about Unix based operating systems that no one really knows everything. There are many programs that have been created that can usually do what most Windows and Mac programs can do, use Freshmeat to search for them.
I run Debian Linux on my server

One upon a time ago I used to run strictly linux on ALL workstations I owned.