Thinking about getting a Mac laptop

[MikeLynch]

I am a lifelong PC user, first off. My prejudice against Macs is only mild.

My Dell laptop conked out on me last Spring and I'm going to need to replace it eventually. I'm thinking about a Mac primarily because I want to use iMovie. I have video projects in mind that would need to involve 2+ hours worth of footage at pretty decent quality -- not your typical YouTube movie, in other words. But I'd also need to use the laptop for MS Office purposes -- crunching Access databases, Word documents, text files. And running a few "wackier" PC programs I got free from online.

My questions are:
- Just how much of a hotrod would I need to do this with any degree of speed? Would the PC equivalent be cheaper?
- For those who have used both: how inferior to iMovie is Final Cut Express?
- I understand Macs can now run PC software; how expensive is this option? And can it run ANY PC software? Like Civ?!?! Reliably?

 

[GenMarshall]

Heritic!!

(I kid BTW )

Joking aside;
First I would recomend to look into seeing if they have a windows version of iMovie. If not, then you would have to resort to using a Mac.

The Good news is that there is a Mac version of MS Office, however to use any windows/PC based programs, you would need to have a windows/PC emulator. I dont remember the program off the top of my head, but Google would be a first bet to search for it

 

[Steve2000]

I am a PC and Mac owner so here is my 2 cents as a dual user.

I do not do extensive video editing by any stretch of the imagination - but I find iMovie much easier as a casual user. I have heard the Final Cut is a bit more robust so if you are a power user you may prefer it. There is no windows version of iMovie - it is part of Apple's iLife series of programs which they only make for their Macs.

As for Macs running PC software, many things like Microsoft Office, are written for OS X and work just the same (in fact the files are perfectly compatible between PCs and Macs). If you get a new Intel-based Mac you can also install Windows XP as a dual boot. Then you can definitely run pretty much any PC program assuming the hardware can handle it.