Yes, the G5 with a bunch of RAM has enough power for just about anything you could want to do, and will support the apps to do it. It will let you surf, chat (incl. video chat), listen to MP3's without a problem. It's also a spectacular platform for video editing if that's your thing.
As a web developer, I prefer the Mac because....
Well, a lot of reasons that aren't specific to web development, but:
- The machine came installed with Apache, PHP, MySQL, and Perl, and all I had to do to get them working was click a button. This makes it super-easy to test web apps locally. I can also turn the server on and off, or restart it, without rebooting the whole OS.
- Being on a minority platform encourages me to build to standards rather than to what IE manages to render correctly, which results in more elegant, maintainable code.
- BBEdit (the single best app out there for any sort of coding, from HTML to PHP to Java to Objective-C to.... you get the point). Simply an amazing app, and I'm not sure how to describe it in words. (
http://www.barebones.com )
- Color management is easy easy easy.
The only thing to keep in mind is that you'll probably want Virtual PC on your Mac or a token Windows box somewhere handy to test rendering in IE for Windows (most of the Mac browsers support nifty standards-based features like near-complete CSS 2 support and some CSS 3, or partial transparency for .PNG images, that MS has been lagging in, and if you're testing on Mac, occasionally you'll come up with something IE doesn't yet have).
The fact is, web development is pretty similar on either platform. I just prefer the Mac because I find it more efficient and pleasant to work on in general.
More general reasons I prefer Mac:
- The workflow is smoother, for a lot of reasons. For example, I can have a dozen apps open without having to continually sort out which app or window I'm selecting from the taskbar.
- This means I spend more time working and less time fighting the OS.
- Oh, and the
BIG ONE: less time spent rebooting and worrying about viruses, worms, and spyware.
- I could go on and on. Never mind me.
As for the tools on OS X:
- Photoshop is spectacular. Ditto for Illustrator, and Macromedia Freehand and Flash. BTW, if you have a registered copy for Windows, you can write to Adobe, and if you pledge to destroy the Windows disk, they'll send you a Mac disk for the same version of the app for just a shipping and handling fee. Or you can upgrade from an older PS (or Illustrator or whatever) for Windows to the latest Mac version for the same price as the upgrade to a Windows version.
- Dreamweaver MX moves like molasses (granted, my machine is nowhere near the same league as a decked-out G5), but Dreamweaver 2004 is supposed to be better. If a graphical DW-type web development app is important to you, I believe there are a few substitutes out there.
- You probably don't need antivirus, although it generally doesn't hurt.
Anyhow, you're absolutely right, it takes a little bit of getting used to, but for someone like you seem to be who is very comfortable with computers, you'll be able to use it within the first few minutes - you may just spend a few days wondering where X, Y, and Z are (I once heard the advice that the best way to get accustomed to using a Mac after Windows is to "stop trying to figure out how the computer would do it, and ask yourself how
you'd do it").
You might find it worth your while to drop by an Apple Store if there's one in your area and just spend a little while futzing around with the machines. You could also try a CompUSA, but they sometimes take very poor care of their Macs (f'rinstance don't turn them on).
OK, enough rambling. Hope that answered some of your questions.