Logic is by no means the easiest thing to use, but the results are very very professional and also the amount of control and manipulation of sounds, inputs and samples is amazing! It is pretty much the industry standard!
Fruity loops Reason Cubase Add to that a good amplifier and a solid set of monitors. That's all I've been using at home. Good to start with, but I'm going to start adding to it very soon and build it up.
whats the minimum spec to run these progs realistically? an whats the min spec needed for mac's? (laptops)
dunno really, and decent computer will be able to cope. I havent tried them on enough different systems to tell you really. RAM seems to be the most important factor i think. 512mb is definitley needed. I have no idea about Macs. The ones ive used at Uni are G4 power Macs, so will cope with most things anyway...