Apple :: OS X, Bootcamp/virtual Machines/XP/7 And Engineering

question: Mac or PC?

The only catch is this: in the fall, I'll be entering college as a mechanical engineering freshman, which basically screams "PC, PC!" However, now, with the advent of Bootcamp, Mac has become a plausible option for me.

I've really been looking at the Dell XPS M1330 and the 2.26GHz 13" MacBook Pro. My max budget is $1200, but, if I did my basic math right, I can get both of these around $800-900, which will make my parents happy.

I'm a big fan of OS X. I dig the simplistic and intuitive feel. I also enjoy the rigidity of the new-ish aluminum enclosures, especially when compared to the laptop I'm using now. However, I am familiar with XP after having used it for most of my computing experiences since junior high and onwards. 7 also looks like a very promising operating system.

I hear that Windows on a Mac machine runs pretty smoothly. However, the glitches I've read about do worry me: missing/lacking mouse drivers and lack of power management (also related to overheating ). VMWare and Parallels are also viable options, but I feel like it'd make more sense for me to run engineering applications natively on Windows.....