Hey Lee,

I was a heavy windows user since version 3.1, I've now got a mac laptop and we have mainly macs in the office and I can honestly say to you that OSX is an viable option for windows die-hards.

Video production is so damn easy, the adobe stuff is all exactly the same and the latest version of Microsoft office is as good if not better than the windows version. Anything to do with graphics, video or audio will happen 10 times faster on a mac in so many ways. Integration, hardware speed and software reliability.

EG, just plug your camera into the firewire port and in a minute or two an entire miniDV is loaded onto your desktop, chopped into scenes and ready for editing. Same with stills. All that while you make a coffee. Or you can sit in front of your poota and start playing your clips as its importing.

The only problem is keyboard shortcuts. If you are a big alt-tabber and ride your keyboad alot with those standard windows key combos (eg, alt-F4), then the mac will piss you off BIG TIME. Alot of "standard" key combos in windows are different between apps on the mac and alt-tab just isn't the same. Took me 6 months to remember all the different key combos I needed and to get back into the swing of things and I'm still not 100% happy. I have been told there are some apps out to fix the problem.

If you are a heavy mouse user, you will find the switch to OSX dead easy, like 1 month learning curve tops.

They aren't immune to crashing, but if you keep your install clean and choose your apps carefully, your machine will stay up for months.

The OS doesn't need regular re-installs to stay clean and it can automatically upgrade both minor bugfixes and major versions without a re-install.

File-management stuff on the mac (the Finder) is a bit of a nuisance compared to windows explorer mainly because OSX hides a bit too much stuff sometimes. You will get used to it and you can always drop to a unix shell if you want to get real hardcore.

Maybee keep your PC handy for a year or two though and maybee setup file sharing between the two during the changeover.

One cool thing about macs is it either works or it doesnt. No farting around with drivers or problem solving why a piece of hardware wont work or how to get an app running. It either works or it doesn't, either way you have your answer normally in a few minutes.

Plus the interface is soooooooo sexy.

Best of all price per ounce of raw grunt power, macs are dirt cheap these days. If you buy a Mac and you get twice the power of an equivalently priced PC.

One last thing. If you switch to mac, you wil need this site: versiontracker.com. Took me a few months to find out about it

ap.