If you buy a Mac now, you get one that can run Windows as easily as it runs Mac OS X.

Sort of, maybe, perhaps, soon ...

New Macs are being built with Intel processors. That's fact, and will apparently be true for the immediate future.

A BETA interface is available from Apple that permits running Windows, and Windows programs on the new "MacIntel" machines. This makes the machine bootable with Mac OS or with Windows, but you must have the Mac OS installed for Windows to run on this machine, and it does not (yet) permit running both kinds of programs in a single session. To run Windows only on a MacIntel machine requires additional klugery, only partially developed by a few maverick hackers. Disk partitioning is required, and depending on how you do it, the "Mac OS" should be able to read, but may or may not be able to write to the "Win OS" partition. Apparently by design, the Win OS will not be able to access anything saved on the Mac OS partition (per most recent reports).

The beta program is free from Mac, but is at present "unsupported" by Apple.

Speculation about the prospects for a "MacWindows" interface is widespread, but so far as I've seen nobody knows (publicly).

Some typical recent information:

     Update: Apple 'Boot Camp' Software Boots Windows On Macs: Dual-Boot Apple OS X, Windows XP, 04.05.06, By Mark Hachman and Michael Miller, PC Magazine.

     The public beta of Boot Camp is available immediately as an 83-Mbyte download at Apple's Boot Camp web site, and is "preview software licensed" for use on a trial basis for an undisclosed, limited time. (NOTE the 83 MB download, you'll need a fast connection or a lot of time).

      Bootcamp: End of Apple?, 04.05.06, By Lance Ulanoff, PC Magazine.

     Windows on Mac: Who Wants It and Why?, By Mary Jo Foley, April 6, 2006, eWeek


There is little justification for arguing which is "the best machine." With a Mac, at least until sometime tomorrow or the day after, you had the assurance that the machine was built strictly to the standards set by Apple, while there have been, and are, numerous "clones" of Windows machines that may have various "idiosyncracies." ("Buying cheap," done to excess, can cause problems with Windows.)

Similarly, in the past virtually all Mac software – regardless of who created it – came to you directly through Apple or under their rigid control, while almost anybody could produce and sell software "for Windows," with or without strictly conforming to Windows coding standards.

Macs had a large initial advantage for some kinds of graphics work, largely through incorporating support for PostScript page processing from the beginning. This allowed them to establish some dominance in art and publishing. The difference is now virtually a non-issue, unless you work for some place where they've "standardized" on one or the other; and with Adobe's greater attention to Windows, many professionals now consider the Windows versions of Adobe publishing software slightly more usable than the Mac versions. The differences probably aren't large, and most users don't need these programs, or don't need the features where the difference matters.

For the majority of useful program types, there are excellent choices available for either OS. Now, and for the immediate future, the area in which Mac users complain that they are shut out is in "gaming." Many of the currently most popular games are Windows only; but as a musician you don't have time to play them anyway(?)(?)(?)(?)(?)(?).

Take your pick.

Be sure that software for what you want to do is available and affordable on the OS you choose.

Get the best price available on an up to date machine with current software of either kind; and you'll likely be good until the world changes enough to make something else necessary. (give it two weeks, at least)

John