Pepper,

I've been using both on a regular basis for many years now. It's mostly a matter of preference. Like others have said, keep in mind that you can easily run Windows on a mac too.

- To answer your question on file systems, you'll be able to read your ntfs windows-formatted hdds, but not write to them. There may be some kind of driver out there that you can install on OSX that will let you do both, but you'll want to google that.

- If you buy a newer mac retina, you'll get a thunderbolt port or two (that you can plug a mini-displayport-to-dual link DVI adapter into). You'll also have a Thunderbolt port -- which is fast, fast fast. -- in addition to an HDMI port and a USB 3.0 port (or two). You'll like Thunderbolt for an external raid enclosure like you were looking for earlier.


There are only three issues I really have with Macs. The first is price, but that's already been mentioned. Second, is the short length of the standard AppleCare warranty (1-year). Last, is how proprietary the OS and hardware are. You're going to have a much more limited choice of software and peripheral devices in OSX. Moreover, you will not be able to upgrade a modern Macbook's hardware, because that is also very proprietary or unchangeable. Memory is soldered onto the motherboard, batteries are literally glued to the cases and storage consists of this Apple-customized off-shoot of mSATA SSDs that are incredibly expensive. Point being, if your battery ever dies or if you need more memory or hard drive space, you can either upgrade or pay Apple $500 to install special new Apple stuff. If you were planning on buying a tablet or thin notebook, you may have run into these problems anyway.

Personally, I'd look at a used 2011 MacBook Pro with an i5, put in a regular SSD and 8GB of mem. If you want to splurge on the latest in greatest, just get the newest generation of Retina. Do *not* buy the first gen of Retinas (we bought 13 and have needed 13 repaired due to random power and video issues.)