For other engineering things, MATLAB is available on mac, as is Mathematica, and while Pro/E and AutoCAD aren’t, there are alternatives: Google Sketchup, TurboCAD, ConceptDraw (~Visio), etc. Personally, I just boot into Windows 7 when I want to run AutoCAD (bootcamp). I like it better that way, going into the Windows side is like going into the office and it just feels like less distractions… For office documents, the MS Office suite is available (minus visio), but personally i’ve grown fonder of iWork (apple’s ‘Office’). It’s snappier, and I was won over when I found I could click and drag individual cells in Numbers (excel equivalent) rather than doing the cut/paste I had to do in Excel. Also, while MS Office installs a few thousand files all over your system, iWork is comprised of 3 files: Pages.app (word, publisher), Numbers.app (excel), and Keynote.app (powerpoint). Mac comes with Mail.app, iCal.app, Address Book.app, etc that take the place of crappy entourage. Plus it all has that simple-yet-powerful mac style.

You’ll come to find that OS X is simple and pretty for the casual user, and incredibly powerful for the knowledgeable one. You can do so much more on a mac as you become an experienced user, from setting up complex networks and using terminal, to customization, all with the simplistic no-hassle environment that Windows has forced us to crave.

From one engineer to another, i promise you that you will not be disappointed.

Also, remote desktop really is a whole generation ahead of vnc. VNC is just a viewer which sends low quality jpgs across the internet. Remote desktop has video acceleration and easily 10 times faster with significantly better quality. The way it creates it’s own desktop and resizes to the remote client’s screen is very useful. It also drops expensive themes and drops back to win2k look if required. On the other hand VNC doesn’t even have the brains to disable the background bitmap.

Don’t get me wrong, I really like my mac but this is one area where microsoft is a loooonnggg way ahead. If MS would just drop the silly restrictions such as not being available on home editions and allow a server to be installed on all machines it would be just about perfect.

FROM.microsoft Corporation

Science just isn’t done in Windows when it comes to simulation. I’m not saying science is done on just Macs; I’m saying that my MacBook is an irreplaceable tool. Simulations are written and performed on a unix or linux system. Guess what? Mac basically has Unix under the hood. It’s so damn stable because it’s an OS that is a few decades old!

Sorry, just had to represent what is probably less than a 1% of all Mac users, the science community. It’s kind of hard to come across anybody that uses Windows for science, when so many free, more stable, or easier to program for OS’s exist.

Um, I didn’t count, but weren’t like 1/4 of your reasons somehow related to running Windows on your Mac? Sort of counter-intuitive, don’t you think?

Not to mention how you envision this world where everyone will see the need to triple-boot operating systems…the same people who, in your mind, only play games on their PC now.

I could go on, and on.

I like my new Mac, but you’re no advocate. Sounds more like someone who’s been trying so hard to talk himself into something that he’s lost the ability to reason on this subject.

Apple is a money-grubbing big business, just like gates & gang. They’re not a bunch of tender hippies trying to make the world better. Sheesh!

Advice to all reading this: get a cheap used windows machine & network it to your mac machine. You will be much happier!