General Mac Questions

First of all, this forum is great, been looking around and found quite a bit of useful information. My story; I have been a Windows user for... too long. I have been looking at Macs for quite some time now but have not taken the dive to getting one.

So, some questions:
1) My knowledge (not very much) is that now you can purchase the OS X and install it on any computer, is this correct? I know this might sound like a dumb question but I am trying to make 100% sure I know what I am doing, I live in a crappy little town and so have to travel 6 hours to the nearest Apple store (which has only just opened) and don't wish to get there and not get what I want.

2) I have been studying website design for about the last 2 years and have started to work part time as a kind of apprentice. I have purchased Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks CS3 and would like to know if these can be installed on Mac. Obviously I know you can use these programs on a Mac, but will I need to get specific Mac compatible versions? Once again I know very little about the operation of a Mac apart from what I have read, so I'm not too sure on the installation process. I have some experience with Linux (Ubuntu) and wasn't too impressed with how long it took and hard it was just to get a simple graphics driver.

3) I do enjoy online gaming and would like to know, from people who have experience playing on both Mac and Windows, of difference in performance (FPS, driver issues etc). I currently have a slightly older PC with a 512mb Graphics Card and 3.4GHz processor, I am planning an upgrade to a much cleaner, faster machine and so won't have any trouble actually playing the games on my machine.

4) In a general use kind of view how are the bundled applications like? I have used Sony Vegas 7 and Adobe After Effect on a few design projects in recent years and found both programs to be slightly cluttered and navigation to be unusual (though the actual use of these programs was quite smooth). In the future I am planning to spread out into some "Stop-Motion" and 3D works (3DSMax possibly) and have read quite a bit about programs like iStopMotion and other mac software but would like to know about the other i______ programs. I have used iTunes and find it to be easy to use and does everything I need it to but would like to know about the others and how they differ in positive or negative ways to Windows programs.

O.k, if you have read this far, THANKS. I realise I have asked a lot but I am just trying to make the most informed decision I can.

Regards,
Xager
P.S I realise i have the "OS 10.0" prefix even though I don't have a Mac at the moment. The evil forum witch wouldn't let me post without having a prefix .

I will do my best

1) it is technically feasible to install OS X on any PC, but do not expect it to work smoothly, and anyhow, it is illegal and more trouble than it is worth. You can buy online from the Apple store and get a Apple with OS X free. Hint: try looking at the Apple refurbs, you will save a lot of money and get an Apple cheaper but still with a full warranty, everybody here will swear by the Apple refurbs being absolute top quality

2) If you have puchased Adobe products for the PC you can crossgrade them to mac very easily and at minimal cost, just ask the question again when you buy a mac and I will tell you how

3) Online gaming - I cant really help you there but if a mac version of the game does not exist you can easily install XP and run windows games at native speads

4) You will find that apple apps bundled with OS X, as well as mac shareware and freeware to be top quality. Apple sets a very high quality standard for its own apps, like keynote, Garage Band and Pages etc. Third party developers, both commercial and open source create exceptional quality apps, partially because Apple sets a high standard and the fact that Apple provided all the developer tools and resources free of charge

Thank you for the reply louishen. I have read a bit about the fact apple allows user to purchase the OS alone and install it on any PC they have. I may have misunderstood. It isn't too much of a problem for me to get a new Mac as I need a decent machine to be able to run several of my programs. My current PC can only just handle my work load and is starting to drive me insane so I was really looking at getting either a new windows machine or changing over to a decent Mac, though I may get a cheap refurb to get the feel of the OS.

Good news about adobe products, I spent a small fortune on them and wasn't too chuffed about the possibility of having to get them again, but if I can crossgrade them it would be excellent (means more money I can spend on my final machine )

The games is not my highest priority, though it is nice to know I can use that Boot Camp program to run windows when I need it. Apple really has thought of the user, unlike Windows.

One of my biggest concerns is that I would not find the bundled applications very good. I have spent some time using Linux (Ubuntu), which I know isn't all that much like Mac, but was the closest thing I could find, but I found the programs to be rough and no where near what I needed. I have looked around and found a few different programs which are for Mac but also have Windows compatible counterparts and every one of them has been a great experience.

Thanks again for you reply louishen.

Any input from others is still very much appreciated. And any common bugs and little bits that often stumble new comers would be great to hear about.

One other thing I would really like to know:
I am currently running 3 monitors 2 19" wides (1 vertical for website viewing) and a 22" wide for my main, I am not sure as to what I will get for my Mac but can anyone "vouch" for dual monitor support? It is probably the most important thing I need to know right now, I am pretty happy with all the reports and info I have found and am eagerly looking through the shop for what I will get. So, yeah, any info on dual monitor bugs/setup problems/info would be awesome!

Regards,
Xager