Rachel, don’t bother to get a mac. I recently tried one out and have now sold it, after using windows for many years.
Why have I gone back to windows? Macs are lovely to look at and use and do seem to be more stable. However, there is nothing a mac can do that a pc can’t but plenty the other way around.
Everything which Mac people rave on about to me just seem like gimics and not useful features. That is how macs came across to me; as primarily very gimicky computers rather than useful tools.
You are quite right in thinking there is a lack of software for the mac. Aside from the ‘big ones’ like microsoft and macromedia, for all the other little things we do, without exception, I found the windows programs far superior to the mac ones.
Very annoyingly, if you are plugging any external drives into macs and windows, the mac leaves lots of little files and folders lying around which you cannot delete unless you never ever ever plug it into a mac again! Very annoying.
And besides, now Mac are going to intel, I wouldn’t bother buying a mac for another 5 years; 2 to let them change over and another 3 to get the teething problems over.
So, stay in the windows world. You are much better off. 🙂