I want to second your first piece of advice though. When contemplating a new device/platform select that which does your primary tasks well and the buy the heaviest iron you can afford. I have a going on 7 year old, no name PC built to my specs, running Win2k with a 3.2 Ghtz Intel processor that can handle huge spreadsheets and monster word documents without breaking a sweat. Graphics stuff, not so much, but I hardly ever do that stuff anyway. I expect another two years at least especially since I am switching to Open Office anyway.

BTW, BC started in 1962 for me.

As far as ease of administration goes, most folks don’t want to do it and given the low frequency of demand it is hard to recall what you need to do. With the UNIX based systems, including Apple’s OS(s) and Linux, you can teach anyone with a better than room temperature IQ to install new software and integrate a system into a network with appropriate permissions in a couple of hours and they will likely remember months later. It gets pretty hard to really trash the system accidentally. Windows? Not so much, to the third power.

But I have an interest in all things creatively technological. The sheer graphic horsepower of modern games has permanently altered the world of entertainment forever. Entertainment, the money to be spent and had there is just so huge, that it drives visual and interactive tech forward relentlessly. The powerful graphics cards that Designers depend are largely driven by the needs of the Gaming Industry. Processor chips, 3D design, video codecs, graphics engines, development software are all pushed by the tremendous money flying around the entertainment industry as much as any other sector.

All of which has tremendous relevance and “trickle down” for content creators. Web & Graphic Designers like myself, and also 3D Designers, Architects, Video Editors and Producers, Music Producers and Performers all reap the digital benefits as the power of our tools ever grows.

Everybody winds, even if some of us get pwned.