Thank you everyone for your advice. One thing that is clear...there is a variety of hardware and software that works well.

I purchased Logic for my mac and an apogee duet interface. When I talked with people about the two platforms (Mac and Windows) it seemed that the way that OS X speaks to the hardware is more efficient and stable. Logic seems to be highly thought of within the community. So, I ultimately went with my gut - I hope it all works out.