Help! Should I switch to a Mac?

So, the time has come for me to make the dreaded Mac vs. PC decision. My wife has begun to take classes in preparation for the CPA test in the summer. That means it’s time to purchase another laptop. The cycle of new computers in our house is usually a very slow one. We only dumped our 486 in 2000 for a P3 933. When I had to dump my work laptop when I changed jobs, I went for the Dell D620 back in August. A solid machine that has worked flawlessly for all the things I’ve thrown at it. This is definitely going to be the shortest time between computer purchases for us.

Here’s my background: I’ve worked in some fashion of computer support since 1995, Supported Windows and Mac machines at school, SGI Unix boxes in the weather office when I was in broadcasting, Windows laptops and hardware a-plenty at my last job, and a small combination of Windows and Mac machines at my current job.


My experience with Macs in the past have been terrifying and frustrating to say the least. OS 6 vexed my existence back in school, and these crash-in-toshes were some of the most unstable computers I had ever touched (and that was comparing them to Windows 95 machines at the time). If you’ve ever seen the old "Mac killed my inner-child" video, this was my experience with Macs. But, having gotten more intimately involved in the tech community through podcasting, I've begun to take a second look at the Mac. I just need some concrete thoughts on WHY I should switch to a Mac over a PC... and is it worth it in the long run?

Having been primarily a Windows user, I know a lot of the intimate details of the OS. It's comfortable and familiar enough to troubleshoot if I need to. If I plan to go the Mac route, I'd definitely be using Parallels. This for a few reasons.

1. I use Adobe Audition to produce my podcast. I paid good money for this program and absolutely love it. With now over 700 podcasts to my name, Audition has been a huge help. Unfortunately Audition is unavailable for the Mac (and no, I'm not switching to GarageBand).
2. Another program I use frequently in a variety of situations is AutoIt. A powerful, yet blatantly easy scripting tool that lets me automate many of my day-to-day tasks. Call it a cross between power of Virtual Basic and your garden variety cheepo macro program. I can schedule these to run at certain time to do everything from pulling the latest weather data over to my computer to adding macro support to programs. Also unavailable for the Mac. I realize that Apple Script can probably do much of this. Honestly though, I don't know if I have the patience to learn it.
   

My familiarity with OS X is still fairly lean. The UI is going to take some work to adjust to. I'm used to fully minimizing programs, having full use of mouse buttons, and other things. My few months periodically having my hands on a Mac again has been a bit of a uphill climb (as any new UI would be). On the plus side, I like the added security of the Unix platform, and the design of the MacBook Pro itself. The OS doesn’t get as cluttered and bogged-down as Windows, which is also a plus. I’ve been able to get around much of that with Altiris Software Virtualization Solution on the Windows side, but hey… it’s still Windows. Like a car that looses value the instant you drive it off the lot, Windows slows down the instant you start to use it. I also like the enhanced media capabilities of the MacBook Pro.

One fear I have is that I may use the bogged down version of Windows in Parallels more often than OS X. I am curious to use the Mac, but need some ammunition to get over the price tag (with myself and my wife). Most of the work I do with my computer centers around podcasting (audio, with the possibility of video in the future) and the processor burning program known as Second Life.

The questions for me are:

• What benefits will I gain from switching to OS X?
• Is it worth the extra $1000 to get a MacBook Pro with a decent video card and 2 gigs of RAM over a comparable PC like my Dell D620?
• Does the much touted “ease-of-use” of the Mac and security going to make a switch worthwhile? How does Vista land in this whole scenario? How about Leopard?
• What can the Mac offer me that a lower-priced Windows box can't?

I need to make a decision soon, so any help you could offer would be much appreciated! Mac zealots, Windows gurus... chime in!