Getting windows on a mac

I'm thinking about making the switch from PC to Mac. What is the best way to get a dual OS running? I'd like to get Vista Business so that I can have easy connectivity with my school's network. What difficulties can I expect to have? What do I need to know about running a dual OS?

I'm sure there are many books and other references out there for the Windows user to orient them to the Mac, but I haven't seen any. I've used Windows for years and had a heck of a tme learning the Mac paradigm. Part of it is simple muscle memory -- you have to get used to the "open apple" key even though there is a perfectly good ctrl key right there... After a couple of months I now feel very proficient, so hang in there and you will too.
I am a Parallels user. I started with 2.0 and am now using 3.0. I thought 2.0 was more stable... IMHO there is no reason not to leave Parallels running all the time. I have a laptop and my suspicion (can't prove it) is that Parallels doesn't recover from sleep mode very well. One thing that 3.0 has that (I don't think) 2.0 had was the ability to have a file association in OS X that actually launches the file in Parallels/Windows.
I find that the Mac Word is very buggy and I don't think any of the Office software interfaces were implemented well on the Mac. So my preference is to open Word docs in Windows. By having the file association in the Mac, I can be on the Mac side, double click on mydoc.doc and it opens within Windows. Use the Coherence mode and it's almost like you were still on your native Mac except for those darn ctrl key combinations.
I think there is a way to alter the behavior of the ctrl, alt, and open apple keys but I haven't had the patience to figure it out. I've looked all over and can't find a reference.
Apple is moving more and more every day to coexist with the Windows world. IMHO, they would make a lot of money (more money that is) by making it much easier to switch. Two things they could do would be making it easy to switch how the ctrl and open apple keys work and the other thing would be to make the Home, End, and Page Up/Down keys work exactly the same. Again, it's a matter of muscle memory. Why force someone to change when there is zero functional (only historical) reasons for the way the keys work. I'm not saying that they should totally switch and screw long-time Apple users, I'm just saying it should be a choice.
Mike

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