PC to Mac software question

I'm looking to pickup a MBP 13" as I need a small laptop to go with my Dell XPS 17" but I need some help with software moving OS's.

First off, I love OSX, I'm also OSX 10.6 Certified, and I think the user experience in OSX is far ahead of Windows. And this is coming from a A+ Cert PC user of 17+ years.
IMH, Apple seems to really think things through with the design of their computers, stuff like the magsafe, unibody case, and being a PC user I scratch my head why no other laptop manufacture has followed suit.

I love my Dell XPS 17", BUT it's bloody MASSIVE! I'm sick of luggging it around places @ 10lbs, so I've decided to grab a 13" lappy something I can really use, and just have the Dell for PC gaming.
With that said, I really want to finally! make the switch to Apple but I have software reservations...
Any OS can be gold, but if the applications arn't there, it's pretty much useless... and this is where I want to switch but I'm having some problems finding simple software I use everyday.

First off, Bootcamp & Parallels I refuse to run... otherwise, why am I switching?
Besides everyone's everyday use of a PC, web, email, etc... one of the many programs I use a lot on the Windows Platform is called "Convert X to DVD". Small program, very awesome, I take my divx movies and dump them in the window, choose my menu options, video rendering options, and 15 minutes latter my grandpa has his Western DVD. I have been unable to find a similar program for OSX. Well that converts Divx to DVD and is just as simple, as in I don't want to use multiple programs in OSX. I want to take my Divx movies and convert them to DVD. I've looked everywhere, I've even talked to the guys at the Mac Store.
When I'm at work I use 70% my Thinkpad laptop and 30% an iMac with SL. There's a big site I watch movies on, works flawless in Google's Chrome on the PC, can't make it work in Google Chrome on the Mac. Divx web player installed on both, everything the same, just Mac give's me a white window.

There are a few more that I can't find solutions for, it seems the applications for Windows VS Mac are always in favour of the Windows platform. But Apple has the better OS, IMO

Any help, thanks in advance.

 

there's definitely a program solution for the problem:

"arbitrary semi-obscure encoded video -> DVD"

I think what you want to do is install perian, which adds native support for a variety of codecs to quicktime, and then use any encoded video-> DVD program based on quicktime, such as Toast 11.

 

While I understand your viewpoint, there's other ways to look at it. Bootcamp is annoying due to having to actually restart your machine, but Parallels/Wineskin/Crossover/etc. have the benefit of running Windows applications fairly seamlessly in OS X. For example, Coherence mode in Parallels allows you to run Windows applications without appearing to be within a Virtual Machine environment. Windows that behave almost like they are Mac OS X standalone applications.

Absolute worst case, you could resort to using one of the options described above. They really have come a long way.

 

I also need to run PC software every day and have had very few issues or slowdowns using them with Fusion on many different Mac's.

I run Windows software that provides Serial Port support even and it works fine on the Mac.
Funny thing is that Windows rarely hangs or crashes on a Mac? Go Figure?

I have several clients running Windows Quicken for example on a Mac and they have no issues either.

The other nice Mac feature is the free trial of almost every program so at least try before judging the worth of this type of software,you may be as surprised as when trying Mac OS the first time.

Ed

 

Even if it works decently, it's extremely memory and processor intensive, just to get compatibility. I totally get his point.

 

if you can get it to work in Wineskin or Crossover... its not memory or processor intensive at all.

 

then its the hassle.

 

I have yet to see that. Unless I'm running a DirectX game in Parallels, my the memory and processor usage on my MBP 13 isn't very high at all. RAM is so cheap nowadays that it shouldn't be an issue at all to get at least 8GB of RAM and even a Core 2 Duo should have little to no problems with running Windows applications through Parallels in conjunction with OS X programs. I do this on a regular basis.