I use a G4 800 in 5 days at work and G3 400 at home 4 days. The unic difference is the computer velocity.
G3 is the same as PIII 800Mh +-. The G4 (can be compared as the new iMac, but equiped with 700 Mb memory) is very, very spectacular. I'm tested running Photoshop and Indesign (the most hard apps. for design), and this works on Classic mode (the Mac Os 9.2 that runs in the normal Mac Mode) without problems (the adobe's web-page says there's some bugs in Photoshop running in Classic mode). Also, you can use your Mac in Normal 9.2 system, without problems.
One problem: there's no freeware photo-retouching apps. for OSX. Only Gimp, and needs to run using XWindows systems, that runs in Unix mode (very different as Aqua Interface. But is useable. A beneffit: in Mac Os 9 or X there's a lot of apps like Paintshop Pro, with lower price and High Quality, as Corel Products and others.
The xperiencies using Mac Os 9 after 7 years: the system is very ease to configure, and use a very consistent interface. Sometimes crashes; when this occurs, you can determine the reason, and delete the extension, or never use the precuder can crash the system. Adding more memory at your system increases stability. A part of this, works very well. This system non integrates very well with Windows files.
The xperiencies using Mac OSX, as i'm a novice user: this system never crasehd, with lots of apps oppened at same time, using lots of Mb in swapping Photoshop files (more than 2 Gb space on disk). There's a lot of free apps. for internet xperiencies. The dock is very incredible and useful. The disk navigation is intuintive; note, is a Unix system, with /user /bin folders, but there's no problem, the Mac Interface is very implemented is system navigation. Aqua interface is very clean, intuintive, useful, never crashed, not as Windows; it is a seamless betwen traditional Mac-Windows- Unix X-systems.
I used Mac and Windows after a lot of time, and i prefer Mac, due to less problems using computers. If you need a Computer and a Os more beautiful, useful, with easy of use, the APple's computers are tehe best (you need more money, it's true). If you need more Windows compatibility, use Mac OSX, is a really incredible OS, trully.
If you have less money, use Intel-Windows. But think: if you purchase a Intel computer with non problematic components (graphic card, HD, CDRW, and others), and you purchase a WindowsXP license (not a upgrade), a Mac computer is lower cost.
If you think in a iMac, personally i don't like the TFT monitors, and you can never use more than 1024 screen res.
