I have a MacBook Pro, and have a virtual machine running Windows XP 
via VMWare Fusion, version 7, so I have the best of both worlds.  as 
for ham software, don't know what's available.  But the Mac is a good 
option, as it gives you some flexibility.--Matt, N1IBB.

At 10:47 AM 4/3/2015, Tom Behler wrote:
>Congratulations, Phil!
>
>Like you, I have been considering migrating over to a Mac for a couple years
>now.  I actually came very close to taking the plunge last Summer, when my
>office computer had to be replaced, and I was offered the Mac option.  I
>declined, and took a windows machine, though, because I didn't think I'd
>have the time to make the transition fully before the Fall semester and
>teaching year began.
>
>Now, my plan is to make the switch to a MAC here at home, so I can learn
>everything gradually on my own time.
>
>An I phone is on my list for this summer.
>
>Tom Behler: KB8TYJ
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>On Behalf Of Phil Scovell
>Sent: Friday, April 03, 2015 1:09 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Mac Attack
>
>Well, on the surface, this doesn't appear to have anything to do with ham
>radio but it does.  I've been sitting around, off and on, for weeks, maybe
>even months, trying to figure out what I was going to do about a computer.
>This one is 13 years old, has parts scrounged from other computers, served 4
>power supplies, runs 4 gigs of mismatched RAM, burned up I don't know how
>many fans, uses a pair of 500 GB drives, the second one for backup, and if
>it wasn't for a computer geek friend I've had for 20 years, it wouldn't even
>be running at all.  My wife and I have been using talking cell phones for
>years and jumped to the iPhones when the I4 came out.  I never thought I'd
>like a touch screen but I took to it, at my advanced age, like duck to
>water.  We've each upgraded as each iPhone came out and frankly, I was one
>step away from going strictly iPhone access if my windows computer died.
>Plus, my wife and I are both retired, living on social security, and buying
>upgrades for jaws just has finally come to an end.  Plus, I'm still using XP
>and have been complaining I'd have to start learning windows all over again
>to upgrade to a new windows machine.  My wife jumped in with both feet a
>year ago and we bought her the Mac Ayr.  Within weeks, she has learned
>enough to turn off her windows machine, which is on its last leg anyhow, and
>she strictly uses the Mac Ayr and pays all our bills, orders our groceries
>from WalMart, does all her emails, and synchronizes her Mac Ayr with her
>iPad and iPhone.  Today I discovered the book from National Braille Press
>called Everything You Wanted To Know About Macs or something like that.
>Reading through the table of contents gave me hope I would have a reference
>to walk me through changing to a Mac computer.  So, I logged on to Best Buy,
>it's only a mile away, and logged on to Apple.com for more information about
>the MacMini and when I saw I could get 4 Gigs of RAM, what I'm running now,
>and a 500 Gig hard drive for 480 dollars, I started thinking twice.  Next
>week, I'm going over an between now and then, I'll decide on the 500 GB
>model or the 8 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage, plus a wireless keyboard.
>Before then, I'll start reading the book from NBP I mentioned and pumping my
>wife for what she knows since she taught me most of what I know about my
>iPhone in the first place.  I've already considered a couple of ham programs
>that may not be available for Macs and also Gold Wave for my sound editor
>but I'm sure that won't be too difficult to replace.  I've gotten rather
>addicted to using apps of all kinds so having all those plus, my iTune
>music, and everything else sinc with the MacMini will be very nice.  Then
>there is iCloud for auto backup which I already use for my iPhone.
>Additionally, I have gotten hooked on listening to Alex for a voice
>synthesizer and the other voices, including Eloquence and the human quality
>voices, just aren't cutting it with me and my hearing loss these days.  Alex
>works great and of course there are no more jaws upgrades for a couple of
>hundred bucks a pop since Mac upgrades are free.  So, if any of you Mac hams
>out there have any suggestions, I'd like to hear it relating to ham software
>or whatever is appropriate.  Oh, one more thing.  Dragon Dictate for 150
>dollars really turns me on so I'm planning on getting it, too.  My office
>desk sure is going to like all that extra space with that tiny little box
>they call a MacMini.
>
>Phil.
>K0NX