Mike, I think when you reach a certain age, comfort level and familiarity play a big role in our buying decisions, especially when said purchase involves a potentially large and tedious learning curve. I have about 5-6 active computers in my home at present. All are PC's running XP, Vista 32, and Vista 64. ALL have minor problems and require constant maintenance and upgrades. Still, I have not purchased a Mac. In fact, having spent an entire career in the computer industry, including mainframes, minis, large networks which included both PC's and Macs, etc., etc., I have never owned, used, or learned, a Mac. No real reason other than just being a creature of habit. I'm sorry that I didn't.

I have not had any 'Vista' problems specifically related to the 64 bit version. On the other hand, I have different applications on the different versions. All my music apps are on XP or Vista 32. None on Vista 64. Most of the apps I have loaded onto Vista 64, even those without the V64 approval, have run without problems. Most of the the problems I have experienced with all versions of Windows have more to do with 'infections' of one sort or another (malware, spyware, viruses, etc.) rather than any intrinsic defect in the OS (although being vulnerable to viruses, etc. could be construed as a defect). In my gut, I suspect that Mac has the better OS, but then again, it depends on how you define 'better'.

My advice; work more gigs and buy both. Hope that helps .

chas