Parallels

Parallels is a pretty sweet piece of software. It allows you to run Windows XP while concurrently running OS X. I'm working on a new iMac with the 1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 1.25 GB of memory. Parallels boots up XP quickly and I can run it in a window or maximize the screen - switching between operating systems is a keystroke, with a typical Apple snazzy visual transition. Working in it has been very smooth thus far, although I'm basically just using ACT on there. Generally if I have FireFox and Entourage running in OS X at the same time, there's no slowdown; if I start opening up other apps it tends to lag a bit. Parallels is certainly a memory hog, but it's a fairly elegant program.

Of course, one might ask, why would you want to run Windows software if you own a Mac? Good question.