Mac: The best of Both (Three) Worlds?

Getting more nervous about my new laptop which should be arriving this week or maybe next (when I'll be in holiday). The reason is Vista. I've done lots of moaning about how people/MS have seriously underspec'd their PC's/laptops with the arrival of Vista. But the more I read the articles by people such as Robert Peston the more I start to sweat.

So I'm really wondering whether I should have ordered a Mac.

The real thing that's convincing me at the moment is a product called Parallels Coherence that allows you to run WinXP without rebooting the system. As you would need to if you had a duel boot machine or where using Apple's BootCamp. Neither are you running a separate virtual machine that is a standalone in it's own right. This means that I could use a Mac and still access all the essential Office and other Win-only Apps that I need. Pretty cool. Parallels even have a nice support blog with user questions answered regulary.

Only thing is you need to buy a copy of XP on top of your purchase of Parallels. I'm guessing that's not an OEM version either (Original Electronic Manufacturer - means you get the OS for about half the price of the retail).

Not so with Code Weavers' CrossOverMac product that "lets users operate Windows applications on a Mac without requiring users to install the Microsoft operating system" as the Wall Street Journal puts in this interesting article. I see from the site that CrossOver will even let you run Half-Life 2! I scrambling for credit card right now!

But the show stoppers are my concerns are over my lack of knowledge when it comes to Mac networking and support for the Mac. I'm no expert when it comes to Windows networking but I can usually figure out what's wrong when things go pear-shaped. When I can't there is usually a SysAdmin or two that I can throw things at until it's fixed. For the Mac I have almost no history and no known SysAdmins with Mac knowledge. Not sure if the SysAdmins where I work would be up for the idea of supporting a Mac.

Really I would be on my own if I went this direction. Though I like the thought of being somewhat of a pioneer, I require the support of my peers at this delicate teim in my career.

If I start a business again I will seriously consider the Mac as a viable alternative to the PC.