>let's say i get an ibook. is there a way to network mac and >pc? i know that's pretty outrageous but i'm curious...

Is there anyway? yes of course connect the iBook directly to the PC with network cable (patch) give his IP address and they are connected. That's the way I do it. You don't need any extra programs, and OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) has even better support (I have OS X 10.1).

You are able even to plug a Firewire external Hard drive formatted with FAT32 into the iBook and it will read and write on it as it would be his own formatted hard disc. No problem at all. Do you want to plug the ibook in a MS Domain Network? No problem, plug it and you are on the network. My iBook is problably one of the best buys I've ever made. I recomend it to anyone. It work perfectly with the empeg using jemplode. There are really no excuses not to use OS X. Do you want to install an application? no problem just drag and drop the files on the hard disc and the application is installed! no registry, no DLL's! just work. Do you want to uninstall it? no problem just delete the folder, does it! gone! no registry keys problems or old dll's making problems. Do you want to boot from a CD or external hard disk or an iPod! no problem copy the boot files to them and it will boot from them. Guys all your excuses against using a Mac are absolute ridiculous. OS X is just a superior well thought and user friendly OS years light ahead of Windows. There are so many features that I still don't understand why do we have to convince you that OS X is better than windows but it should be the opposite.