Quote - Quote - "Sorry, but I don't get into debates like this as I have pointed out my credentials which speak for themself. They are based on known facts and have nothing to do with personal feelings."

You speak as if your knowledge is so great that you know the ultimate truth. You know for sure what countless experts have discussed before and have not agreed on. You are the ultimate expert. Ok.

Quote - "... as I said before, their OS has a better kernal than Windows"
 
Admitting this is true (whatever "better" means in this context...), how does that benefit the normal user? The user doesn't see it. The user sees the "graphical user interface", or GUI. And 96.8% of all personal computers in the world are Windows (95% in USA). So, why even start to get used to a new GUI that so few people in the world use? During the course of a normal life, it's much more probable to accidentaly run into a PC than a Mac (at a future job, at a friend's house, etc). I don't see how having a better kernel (assuming it's true) justifies any choice, when confronted with the power of numbers. Like it or not, Windows is a "de facto" standard, whereas Mac is a deviation, a niche. We all know the disadvantages of going for non-standards.
 
Does having a better kernel could translate into real benefits? For example, speed or security. Regarding speed, there are several benchmarks available that state otherwise. On the same hardware, Vista runs faster than OS X. Regarding security, with the proper care (regular update, antivirus and firewall) there's no advantage to OS X. I had PC's all my life and never had any security problem.
 
 
Quote - "In terms of Vue and 64bit on the Mac, I am hoping Vue 8 will address that."
 
Hope... Is that really a purchase criteria? :-)
 
 
Quote - "However, it's more of having the programming talent in place and the resources to do it because there is no reason it can't be done right now to a certain degree."
 
So, e-on doesn't have programming talent and/or resources?... :-) Somehow, I find that hard to believe. But even if it were true, who could blame them for not investing as much effort for 3.2% of the market as for 96.8%? It's just pure business logic.
Same logic is used by countless other software houses around the world. Take GeoControl, for example. A must-have companion for a serious Vue'er, that doesn't have a Mac version.
So, your sentence is in fact a strong argument against Macs...
 
 
Anyway, regardlessly of which OS or hardware is "better" in the general sense, the thread title mentions "perfect Vue computer". So, general sense is not relevant. Focus is Vue.
Let's see:

• Not taking hope as a criteria, can Vue run on 64 bits in OS X? No. Can it run on 64 bits in Windows? Yes. Is this important for Vue? Yes! Comfortable memory space is fundamental for Vue.
• Does Vista have problems? Yes. Does Vue work great on Vista? Yes, as many people will testify (me included). So, does it matter if Vista has problems? No.
• Is OS X "better" than Windows? I don't know. Does it matter? No, because user can't see it, particularly if he wants to run Vue in 64 bits.
• Does OS X have more authoring and media tools? Yes. Does it matter for Vue? No.
• Is a Mac more elegant than a PC? Maybe. Is that relevant for Vue? No!
• Is a Mac more expensive than an equivalent PC? Yes!! I just went to Apple store and saw the base price for an 8 core was $3299 (with only 6GB). That's just crazy. You could buy a small PC render farm for that price.
• Can a Mac run Windows? Yes. But if we run Windows+Vue on a Mac we actually ended up buying two operating systems: OS X (that we never use) and Windows. Does this sound like good business logic? No.
   

Sorry, but I won't debate this as obviously you have no intent on reading actual facts from other media sources than myself in the points I have made.

FACT: Mac users now take up 12% market share, NOT 3.2% as you quoted. Source, Mac World Magazine, Macbreak Weekly and others.

"So, e-on doesn't have programming talent and/or resources?... :-) Somehow, I find that hard to believe. But even if it were true, who could blame them for not investing as much effort for 3.2% of the market as for 96.8%? It's just pure business logic.
Same logic is used by countless other software houses around the world. Take GeoControl, for example. A must-have companion for a serious Vue'er, that doesn't have a Mac version.
So, your sentence is in fact a strong argument against Macs..."

WRONG: FACT - In order to understand this you must know the way development teams are implemented and work. Most companies, rather e-on or others rarely maintain a full time technical team of program coders. Typically, this means that when a company wants to put out another release and has looked at the market they hire additional programmers to augment at that time. The reason e-on and others would and are investing more now than ever in the Mac platform is because they and other developers know that more serious users are moving to a Mac. The figure you quoted about PC users are largely from the average Joe and NOT the high-end users like myself that make up those statistics.

"Is a Mac more expensive than an equivalent PC? Yes!! I just went to Apple store and saw the base price for an 8 core was $3299 (with only 6GB). That's just crazy. You could buy a small PC render farm for that price."

As mentioned before, you pay for what you get. The Mac can run nearly any OS, NOT a PC. Also, the service with Apple Care is much better and American based support. I don't know of any "render farm" that could be done on that scale. You would need to network at least 2 of those along with a good 16GB of RAM each to produce a farm with good speed. So about $10K should do the job. Note, Leo Leporte is running a 2009 Mac Pro that is going to just sit in his closet for a video server type of system. Price was just north of $5K. Also, that price you quoted on the PC was in fact cheaper as has always been the case with Apple products in comparison. It's like comparing a Ferrari to a Chevy.

It seems to me like I have hit a nerve that is not a-typical of forums on the net when someone tries to explain facts, that have even been reported by many technical news media outlets. As I said before, use what you want, makes no difference to any of us here. I am simply stating known scientific facts that were also backed up by others. All this talk has no regard to personal choice and use as now many times and was ignored, use what you like, it's YOUR MONEY.

Best of luck and happy rendering.

Jeff

Development on: Mac Pro 2008, Duel-Boot OS - Snow Leopard 10.6.6 & Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit, 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon , 10GB 800 MHz DDR2 RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT.