So, what's your reasoning for telling me to get a mac?
Stability and compatibility for a basic to advanced personal user. Never heard of one crash like Windows is known for, and the ones I've seen that run slow are simply older hardware trying to run a newer OS or are in need of memory.
Then again, I've no real bones to pick with XP (aside from the forced-upgrade practices by its maker). It's been very stable for me, and for the first time in my career I dread the onset of the shiny new replacement.
There is an independant Apple Dealer here but when I was in there with my friend they were kinda jerks, I'll need to see if there are any others.
The one here is known for that too, from what I've heard. Couple of friends here are Apple reps for two state schools and know more about the product lines than the dealers anyway--got a nearby college bookstore or similar you could try?
Doesn't look like Corel is in the market to support Mac. There appear to be workarounds for running WordPerfect in Mac OS, but nothing standard for the present or future. So its Parallels or BootCamp.
I've installed Parallels for some clients in the past. I don't like it, and would rather do the dual-boot option myself. With Vista, it was really slow and sometimes wouldn't resume after being paused. A coworker does bootcamp, and she swears by it. She's doing all our mac clients who want windows that way, and have heard no complaints.
YMMV, of course, but there's my limited experience. Personally, in this situation there isn't a overwhelming functional reason for me to bang a drum for either one. Its not like you're a complete novice who needs to keep things the same between work and home to stay sane, or a business user who needs to be a member of a domain for access to files, or have to run the Pesky Software XYZ v1.2 made only for a particular OS. I just think the Mac would be neat for a change, and I'd like to use something different for kicks.
There you have it, a noncommittal post favoring both your options fairly evenly. Enjoy!