"But if you have thousands of $$$ of software for Windows and want to completely switch, you'll be hardpressed to 1) find the same or equivalent software in some cases and 2) have to dish out another thousands of $$$ to port over - even with competitive and cross-platform incentives."

Actually, that's not 100% the case anymore. Vue 4 came on a hybrid Win/Mac disk, as did a huge chunk of my games.

Let me put it this way: Before I got the Mac, I had to spend 45 minutes+ waiting for a P5 scene using Complex Global Lighting to render under Firefly. Now, the same .pz3 file would get done in an average of 10 minutes. That performance alone is more than worth the money to me.

(warning - mild anti-MS bias contained below: )

I'd decided two years ago to get off the Windows train entirely, and had spent most of that time moving to Linux, with a G4 Cube for my CG stuff. When I started moving things to the Mac for CG stuff, I only had to replace Poser itself, with equivalents for everything else that supports it either being available for free (from sites like www.versiontracker.com, www.freshmeat.net), or they had already been included as part of the OSX bundle (like the intro/LE version of MS Office 2004.)

Sure, I'll admit that there are a pile of small utilities for Poser that I'd like to see a Mac version for, but they are quite small in number, and I believe I can remedy the situation myself if the coders are agreeable to it. Otherwise, I can do without 'em, so long as I still have Blender and AC3D on the Linux box to model with.

Besides, how much money and time is wasted in the daily onslaught of Win32 virus attacks, forced computer rebuilds, and the hell of having to deal w/ PC parts that aren't as compatible as the manufacturer said they were? I won't evne have to go into the amount of CPU cycles that get wasted on running hidden spyware and adware, instead of going towards finishing the render.

Don't get me wrong, I still have and use the x86 PC architecture at home, right alongside the Mac. However, the Mac simply runs and runs damned fast, and I don't have to worry about all the ancillary crap that the Windows/Intel platform folks have to.

/P

Message edited on: 12/19/2004 11:59