[TheDopp]

Running a virtual machine IS emulation, even though it has minor virtualization features to link the hardware. You generally can't run a game that requires DirectX without emulation, for example, without running a windows shell overhead.

Your examples of casual games would work because they don't exactly need DirectX to work, AND they aren't resource intensive. Any intel mac could run them.

And there is nothing you can do on mac that you can't do on PC. That is shitty propaganda spread at mac rumors to trick idiots into quadrupling their computer budget just to buy the same hardware with an apple logo.

This is really just semantics, but Emulation != Virtualization. I'm running XP with custom drivers that let it sit on a hypervisor that passes hardware calls from the VM directly to the macs hardware. An emulator would translate those calls for the needed hardware (e.g. x86 to PowerPC).

And what Macs can do for me that PC's cant is save time. I've got Unix with an easy to use UI. I don't have to worry about driver conflicts for something as stupid as a mouse or have to modify config files to get something to work. For my parents I don't have to worry about fixing their computer that's been loaded down with trojans and spyware, nor having to be there to install something as basic as a printer.

I'm not going to bother getting into the hardware argument because it always ends the same way - somehow an inferior spec'd machine is better than the mac because its cheaper.

But I'll answer my own question from the start of the thread - Apparently I am the only happy mac user because of the pending Valve announcement.