--snip--
The AVG and the "Doctor" (I know, Dr Who pun) is usually the only ones that
detect any infections or
questionable "stuff".  Spybot hasn't detected anything in the past 4 months
and it's updated daily.  I may uninstall it if it's just gonna take up space
on the laptop.
--snip--

Not that I think you're stoopid, but I immediately had this picture of you
running the AVG and Dr. first and then thinking 'wow, Spybot never finds
anything...'.
My Spybot catches stuff all the time. Guess it's one of those 'YMMV' things,
however in my experience a properly configured, maintained and defended XP
installation is relatively trouble-free. I too now spend much less time
keeping my family's computers running properly. As to the Apple argument, if
most of the people I know had to get an Apple product before they had a
computer in their lives and/or got on the Internet, it never would've
happened. I guess it's up to the beholder as to whether that's a good or bad
thing in general.

Cya,
Robert