All that can be done on Macs, using either Boot Camp (built in, runs Windows as a separate OS) or Parallels (http://www.parallels.com/) or VMWare (http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/). The latter 2 integrate with OS X as just other windows. It’s pretty slick.. I used it when I first switched because I didn’t want to pay for the old version of MS Office when I had a perfectly good Windows version.

Which is why the only Apple hardware item I own is a 4G iPod Classic, 60GB, used ($170), dying. I’m seeing pre-owned 30GB Touches for under $200…if I had the bucks I’d snag one. I refuse to over-pay for a new ‘pod…better but unnecessarily expensive is not the way I go.

I won’t touch a Mac computer until there’s an easy way for my favorite Windows XP software (Cakewalk Pyro 2003, Nero Ultra 6/7 et.al) to run on it.

Then Bill Gates “created” Windows and the rest of you saw what we’d always known. Computers can be fun and user friendly. Windows, as we all know, is just a mirror of Mac OS with everything on the wrong side. (I digress into anti-Windows world, sorry. Gates is a good guy helping the world with all that $$$$$).

We finally got the upper hand – and popularity – then Steve Jobs started rat-a-tat-tat bringing out things fast. And people like you, my friend, began to understand what we’ve been saying since 1984. Mac rules! So we like to keep on that wave of momentum if you don’t mind. But, that’s OK. We can have some gaps year-to-year. We still know we’ve got the best because we are the best.

I’m surprised how upset the macrumor.comers and the slashdotters are about the 17″’s non-removable battery. It’s seems they’re just looking for anything to rend garments over. They act as though the 17″ machine is the kind of machine that people should take on 13 hour plane flights. It’s not. I own one and I live in a part of the world that takes a 12 hour flight to get to from the states and lugging that 17″ around is such a pain that it’s the wrong choice. It’s effectively a desktop machine which is why the internal battery is such a smart choice.

Many of the threads I’ve read keep saying that the 17″ is a pro machine and professionals want swappable batteries. Pro users mostly use these laptops plugged in, especially if they’re doing photo or film work, that kind of work drains the batteries too quickly. Finally, if you’re going to be carrying around 2 batteries anyways why does the second one need to go inside the computer? Couldn’t Apple or some 3rd party make a battery that just plugs in to the charging plug?

Anybody who thought apple would go out with a huge bang at macworld should consider why apple would be motivated to do that.

heh.