Mac or PC?

Alot of people are asking these days "What about Macs?," "Should I get a Mac?" and similar questions.
The answer is "it depends;" it depends on what you want to do with your computer, how much you want to spend, and are you willing to unlearn and re-learn how to work with your computer.

If you want to play high-end video games (in addition to everyday use), you need a PC. If, however, you are(or plan to be) creative then you may be better off buying a Macintosh.
Be aware however, that Mac are 2-3 times as expensive as an average PC(an average PC that costs $600-700).

The reason Mac's are looking so much more attractive now than they have been is due in large part to the fact that the current Macs are compatible with PC hardware and that you are able to run Windows(Windows XP only) on a Mac at the same time the Mac operating system is running. Like a picture-in-picture TV.
This is called "running a virtual machine" and it means that with the addition of a small program, you can run Windows in a program window on the Mac desktop, and run any Windows program you have as if it were on a PC.
When you are using a virtual Windows, however, Windows XP is just as vulnerable to all the bad stuff it is normally vulnerable to, so you would need to have all the same anti-virus and other security programs installed in your virtual Windows.
The good news about having a "virtual machine" running Windows is that nothing that happens in the virtual machine(or VM, for short) window affects the host computer(the Mac). So if Windows XP should "blue screen," or otherwise crash, you would just close the program window that Windows is in and re-open it... to a fresh un-crashed Windows.

So, if you are wondering whether your next computer should be a Mac, consider:
price: more an investment than a purchase
usability: how hard will it be to use
compatibility: will it run the programs I already have
creativity: does my job, or my artisitic impulses justify having a better machine

Once you have considered all these things, go out and buy that Mac!
(and dont forget your virtual machine program!)

Your PC guy, Peter