Lately I’ve debated purchasing a Mac, going as far as spending about half an hour in our local Apple store and a few hours online reading reviews and specs. Our household doesn’t need a new computer, but now that Macs are UNIX-based, I’m dying to get my hands on one.

At work I use UNIX all day, every day. I never thought the day would come when I’d say this, but I’m more comfortable navigating in Linux than in Windows. I can write shell, Ruby, and Perl scripts to simplify my life; UNIX machines crash less often than Windows machines; there’s less of a chance of virus or spyware infection; the UNIX OS’s I’ve used seem to make more efficient use of resources (memory, CPU) than Windows. Asterisk runs well on UNIX. I could go on.

The geek in me is begging for a Mac. The thrifty financial conservative in me can’t pull the trigger. Maybe if Sherri’s laptop were to mysteriously die… hmmm…

I know several readers here have Macs they use personally. What has been your experience so far? What parts of the operating system took the most getting-used-to coming from a Windows world? Have you used Boot Camp or Parallels, and, if so, how often do you find yourself switching between Mac and Windows? Have you tried iChat with another Mac user, and, if so, how’s the video and audio quality? Any other thoughts you’d care to dump here?