Since Apple announced its "Intel Macs," (Macintosh computers with an Intel CPU that would let you run both Windows and Mac operating systems), whole new markets have opened up for the Macintosh. And many people from all walks of life have been excited by the prospect of running two operating systems on one machine.

Why would you want to do this?

First, it's a lot cheaper than buying separate Macintosh and PC computers.

Why would you want two?

Well, let's face it, each system has its own advantages. The Windows system has its ubiquity, more types of software, and most of the games. The Mac system has greater simplicity; works better with media for artists, musicians, and filmmakers; and CIO's at big companies are starting to see that the Mac's lower security issues mean less support costs. But you don't have to be a CIO to make the move. Take my home for an example....

My wife, Patti Durr, is a professor at NTID by trade and a filmmaker by avocation, having made several successful short films in the last few years. The Mac is preferable for her filmmaking. In her work life, she manages web sites for her courses that have integrated grading and homework systems. She creates others for the general public on topics like "Deaf Artists" and "The Deaf Experience in World War II" These websites are built using NTID's "Idea Tools" software created by Simon Ting. Idea Tools is designed for Windows Internet Explorer and will not work reliably on the Mac. So Patti needs to use both kinds of operating systems.

I also favor the Macintosh platform for creative tools, but as a professor of game design at RIT, I must be able to play PC-based games. My kids (Zoë, 11, and Noah, 10) can use either operating system to do whatever they need to do, but Zoë's preferred game, "Zoo Tycoon," runs only on the PC. (Well, it runs on our Nintendo DS, too, but the PC version is much better.)

No pain, no gain

Microsoft's ubiquity has made it the security hacker's platform of choice. The impact was brought home during the installation of Windows on the new 20" Intel iMac that I bought to be the center of our home video production studio. While I'm not a CIO (except, perhaps, in my own home), part of the pain became clear to me.

After I unpacked the iMac and turned it on, the computer found the wireless network, did a system check, and informed me that there were nine upgrades, split about evenly between software upgrades and security patches I needed to download and install. This is not surprising on either platform. It's rare that the copy of the software that arrives with your machine is up-to-date. Hardware manufacturers install the most current version they have on a DVD, which is seldom the current one.

Installing the Mac upgrades was a 30-minute process. I then needed to download and run Bootcamp, the Apple software that allows for the installation of Windows XP or Vista on Macs. Bootcamp partitions the hard drive (makes the computer think that its single hard drive is two), and creates special drivers for the Microsoft OS to recognize the Apple-built hardware. This took around 45 minutes and a couple of hardware shutdowns and restarts.

Now I was ready to run the software update check on the Windows operating system. Where Apple had informed me that I needed to install 9 upgrades and security fixes, XP informed me that I needed to install 81 different downloads, the majority being security fixes. One was an installation of Internet Explorer 7, which then needed two security upgrades of its own, on top of the other 81.

The final time check from opening the box of the computer to being able to start it up and choose OSX or Windows XP? Well over 4 hours. Not ideal, but worth it. Now, when starting up the computer, we can hold down the "option" key on the Mac keyboard, get an image of two different hard drives, and select which OS we want to run (or which "computer," if it helps you to think of it that way.)

We've got the best of both worlds on a single machine. We've got all the creative power and ease of use we want from the Mac and, when we need to, Patti can grade her students' work and revise her website, Zoe can manage her Zoos, and I've got all the games I need to teach without having bought two new machines.