I strongly suggest you purchase this eBook -

http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/windows-on-mac.html

Very well written, simple to understand and should answer most of your questions re above. And it includes $10 coupon for parallels if that's the route you decide to take.

And
http://macwindows.com/

I'll surely look into the book.

Looks like I can install XP via Parallels AND Bootcamp - in other words, I have two installations of XP and hence three distinct partitions - Mac, XP+Parallels, XP+Bootcamp. I can have Parallels running (in parallel) with Mac OS X so that I have access to both Windows and Mac files while logging into XP using Bootcamp results in Mac & Parallels files being unavailable (I refer to files on the respective partitions).

With Vista on the horizon, I'd like to be prepared to "upgrade" - do I need a Macbook Pro to unlock ALL of Vista's Aero interface or will the Macbook suffice?

If I buy a 100GB HDD, can I partition it as 80 + 10 (Parallels) + 10 (Bootcamp) and U/G Bootcamp to Vista and leave Parallels running XP? I'll be sure to buy 2 GB RAM from Newegg or another retailer.

Also, do I technically need two licenses to load XP twice (Bootcamp & Parallels)? Same with software loaded onto these installations?

I'm confused, sounds to me like you're after a PC (given all the Windows questions) rather than a Mac, why are you considering a mac?

There is Quicken mac which would replace Microsoft Money, it even imports from it.
There is Omnigraffle which produces much sexier diagrams than I've seen visio produce.
And you shouldn't have any problem with the VPN under OS X.

OS X all the way baby!

I have actually encountered a PC user who has OS X on his PC laptop. He thought it was a better OS.

/E

Yes, I shouldn't have a problem with VPN except that my client does not support Macs. We are required to install some Nortel VPN software that isn't available for Macs. Also, I don't imagine my clients being too thrilled about me asking them to use Omnigraffle and dump their Visio documents. Oh and yeah, syncing my wife's Blackberry and Exchange server won't be fun on a Mac.

As for Quicken/Money, I can possibly make the switch but only after this financial year.

Basically, I'm ready to switch to a Mac but can't possibly walk away from Windows altogether. As more software becomes available for Macs over time, I suppose I can dump Windows completely.

Sounds to me like you'd be better off spending your money on a PC rather than a Mac, given that you've already pretty much stated that you'll be spending most of your time in Windows. Sounds like your only use for OS X will be surfing the net!

Doesn't sound like you're ready to switch to a Mac to me, but if you do, welcome to the fold.

(And I never thought I'd hear myself suggesting that somebody actually buys a PC over a mac!)

Parallels doesn't use a partition. It uses a file for the hard drive that can be set to expand when it needs more space.

My understanding is that you'll need two licenses because of Windows Activation. Windows will see it as two different machines when you go to activate it.

Oh, I don't know. Sounds like OP wants to dabble in Mac while he continues to deal with crap that keeps him somewhat stuck in Windows. I think that's a reasonable approach to take.

My first thought was "Okay, you can find substitutes for those things listed" as Sn00p mentioned. But that can take time. The VPN may or may not be well covered. There are various options in place of something like MS Money, so that could be changed. Visio is tougher if you need to keep exchanging documents in it (I won't pretend to know the ins and outs of that, but I think there are options or could be if you want to switch bad enough). So I'd say running the MacBook with Parallels would be a good option, once you've tested to see that your chosen apps work okay that way. If you want to go Mac, BootCamp is less desirable because you'll end up not wanting to reboot all the time, which means if you need to do this stuff right now you'll end up booted into Windows. So if your stuff can work in Parallels, that would be good and give you the chance to do the less software-specific stuff in Mac (stuff like email, web browsing, anything personal with photos and music, etc.) without rebooting.

BTW, you can sync Blackberry and Exchange on a Mac. The Blackberry requires third-party software (provided for free and endorsed by RIM as I recall, but not written by them). Exchange you can do with MS Entourage (part of Office Mac), although it's still not as complete as Outlook from what I understand.

The horrible support for Exchange in both Entourage and mail.app is one of the main reasons I will not switch OSes. Despite the bullets on the shiny software boxes, it's essentially unusable.

what exactly is missing using entourage with exchange? I seem to be able to download, sync fine, meeting updates, calender, etc.

?

I agree with all the Parallels recommendations. Dual booting is a pain, and unless you want to play video games, performance in Parallels is good. You don't need to do any special partitioning - it runs in a disk image, which is just a big file. Here's a little blog entry that actually has a screenshot of Visio and Project running in Parallels.

I'd get the regular MacBook, kick it up to a gig or two of ram, and run parallels. I have the same VPN problem as you - Checkpoint don't make a VPN client that runs on OS 10.4.

Good luck - with the MacBook + Parallels, you really get the best of both worlds. Also, Parallels apparently employs the world's speediest programmers - it seems like they improve it every couple of weeks.

true, although I guess I think of MUCH more space, as more than 11% wider or 11% taller which is all it really is. If a floating pallette takes up one quarter of the screen space, I cannot add a FIFTH pallette, simply because the screen is 11% wider.

The pixel density is not too much higher. If one REALLY wants MUCH more space, then the 17" model is ideal, but be prepared to have some long arms too

:-)

Yes, because they are seperate Windows installations that don't (and cannot) see each other.

With Parallels, no. If you install Vista and XP using Bootcamp on 2 different partitions, they can share data. Mac OS can also read the NTFS partitions to share data.

OS X allows you to save any document as PDF really easily.

Just go to file->print (command-P) and select the PDF button from the bottom-left of the print pane. A number of options will drop-down, including save as pdf.

Very handy.

Also, keep this in mind for online purchases, as there's an option to save a document as pdf to a folder called "webreceipts".