i wasn't aware that Apple had fiddled with the PCI bus voltage regulation on the G5. Not that relying on a bus volatge being stable and clean is a good piece of hardware design particularly on a card handling analogue audio.

Regardless of that I haven't seen Apple mentioning that in their advertising. So firstly the 3rd party audio developers had to jump through hoops to get their drivers to work with OSX and now they are facing challanges getting the hardware to run on the G5. I wonder how many bought a G5 before realising their favourite audio cards wouldn't run in it.

At least in the PC world you can always swap out the mobo with one from any of a dozen manufacturers.

I have to wonder how many strikes Apple deserve before they get out.

I own both a PC and a MAC and don't have FCP, I have a old G4 that I use just for DVD authoring with DVD Studio Pro. I did just "borrow" a copy of Final Cut Express from someone, at first look I really don't like it, I'd rather stick with Vegas.

I'll admit FCP4 looks pretty capable but the UI looks very intimidating.
I think one of the problems with VV is it looks too simple, definately needs to look harder to use so it can be judged 'professional'.

The whole Apple thing has always bothered me from the beginning, as if you are joining a cult or groupie thing once you get youraelf a Mac. It adds to the weirdness of Apple in general.

Some of my best friends are Mac users. I started out as a mac user in '85. I worked for Apple resellers as a technician for the 6+ years it took me to get my degree in graphics and media. When I decided I belonged in show biz I bought a G3 B&W ($3000) and FCP 1 ($999; ouch, it still hurts) to edit movies.

As I started to get editing jobs I learned two crucial things; I wouldn't be able to add or upgrade the internal hard drive because the ROMs on my G3 weren't programmed for it and FCP wouldn't accept any video that wasn't in a "professional format" and there was no way to import and "fix" the video.

I looked on Apple's web site and user boards and found that Apple wasn't going to issue an update for the ROM HD problem (they released a new G3 model instead) and FCP was a professional product and only supported professional formats, whatever that meant. I was fed up.

A friend used Vegas 2 on a PIII that cost 1/3 as much as my mac and he could import practically any video and vegas wouldn't complain. Thats when I sold the 350mhz G3 and bought a 500mhz PIII, Vegas 2 and Acid Pro 2.

I never looked back but I do miss the cult though. Sorry for the long post.