Hello,

I quit my job as a full time programmer over 5 years ago to become a full time artist. I don't do much programming any more, except to develop web sites for artists and to use foxpro to manage my art inventory and sales. It's a powerful language which I know well and is easy for me to use...I don't use or need fancy screens, but the menus and dialogs make it easy to handle complex tasks like generating gallery lists, documenting sales, archiving images, etc.

All of this is on a PC (Windows XP), and I have just bought an iBook in order to try out the new Mac OS X because I am so tired of the virus problems and enjoy having a nicely programmed and fast operating system. Also, the best image indexing software I know, iPhoto, is available only on Mac; I use Photoshop on both. However, I really can't decide what to do about the database software. I am too old and too busy to invest a lot of time in learning a new database programming language. I bought a cheap copy of Filemaker 6 which works on OS X, wondering if that would meet my current needs, but the scripting feature is so clumsy it's like going back to the dark ages. I understand there's an old version of VFP out there that works on a Mac, but this would also be expensive and how well would it run on Mac OS X?

I keep going back and forth in my decision to stick with the Mac...here are the pros and cons


Pros

1. Mac has a more stable OS and little need for virus protection.
2. Mac is "supposed" to work better for image processing.
3. Mac has iPhoto, which works better than Photoshop Album and about a number of other Windows based image cataloging systems I have tried.
4. Mac is instantly off and on with Sleep function (fractional seconds), no waiting ten minutes for the system to reconfigure itself, update and so forth as you do in Windows.

Cons

1. Mac screen produces poor color and image quality (iBook) and can't be trusted for sophisticated image editing or even printing. Could invest substantial money in upgrading to a Mac desktop, but the my old PC works just fine.
2. Mac would require database migration--to what?
3. The icon view in the Finder is very slow at producing images; the Windows XP is much faster.

I would appreciate any wisdom out there that would help me make a good decision before I start investing money in hundreds (or thousands) of dollars in new software and equipment.

Linda