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There's Mac applications and then there's [Parallels Desktop for Mac][1] which is in a category of its own. Parallels is a virtual machine that lets you run the Windows OS and Windows based apps on your Intel Mac. Actually you can install just about any OS you want using Parallels, but so far my testing has been limited to Windows.
[Recent betas][2] (I'm using build 3120 which is listed as Release Candidate) from Parallels feature something called "Coherence Mode" which enables you to run Windows applications outside the emulation window. Combine that with a Mac OS X flavored theme for Windows and it can be hard to tell the difference between emulated Windows programs and native application running in Mac OS X.
Coherence Mode is in a word, amazing, but also, as several people I've demonstrated it to have remarked, somehow wrong.
I had a little trouble installing Windows though I can't say for sure that Parallels was at fault. For some reason the first time I tried the installation cd got hung up while trying to "install devices," but a second attempt came off without a hitch.
As you might expect, Parallels is a RAM hungry app, not only does Parallels need RAM, but obviously so does Windows itself. With a lot of applications open in both the VM and Mac OS X, Parallels slows down my Macbook (Core 2 Duo with 1 gig or RAM) to a virtual considerably.
So long as I limit myself to working in either OS, and not switch between them too often it's usable and no doubt increasing my RAM would vastly improve performance. Putting Windows in full screen model and ignoring Mac OS X gives me performance speeds that are on par with mid-level PCs.
Perhaps the best thing about Parallels, once you get past the wow factor, is the ability to seamlessly drag and drop files from Windows to Mac and back. Other useful features include Auto-Adjusting Screen Resolution, Transporter RC to migrate an existing Windows installation to a Parallels VM, and improved USB device support.
If you're a PC user who's thought of switching to Mac, but you don't want to give up your favorite applications, there's no need to worry -- you can have the best of both worlds.
To be honest I would be surprised if Apple didn't snatch up Parallels at some point since it provides a much better interface for Windows than Basecamp. And I should point out that if you have Windows installed via Basecamp and you'd like to use that partition via Parallels, the latest beta makes that possible.
The previous betas had some problems with Window's licenses that made it difficult to switch back and forth between Parallels and Basecamp, but beta 3 only requires you to re-activate Windows once.
[1]: http://www.parallels.com/en/products/workstation/mac/ "Parallels Desktop for Mac"
[2]: http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/beta_testing/ "Parallels Desktop for Mac Release Candidate"
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