Wanting to switch

Sorry if this question has been asked before if this question has already been asked, as I'm new to this forum.
I need to get a new Windows machine and would like to also be able to run Mac OS. I'm an audio software engineer and need to do "power user" kinds of things.
I'd love to have a single Mac that would serve as a perfectly good Windows machine. However, I'm concerned about postings I've seen that say that neither Microsoft nor Apple will support Windows on Mac hardware. Is this true?
Are there any down-sides to a Mac (I'm particularly interested in the MacBook Pro) as a Windows machine?
Note: I am aware of the postive attributes of the Mac OS, which is why I'm interested in getting a Mac. My question is not to compare the two, but to know whether I can use this as a serious Windows machine, or whether it's a "Mac that does a so-so job with Windows".

When we say "neither Microsoft nor Apple will support Windows on Mac hardware," I guess it part it depends on what we mean by "support." Apple has come out with XPsp2 drivers for its Intel hardware so that XP can be run natively via Boot Camp. So from that point of view, and with Boot Camp itself they are providing support (and do update Boot Camp).
Right now the biggest downside via Boot Camp is probably that you are limited to a single supported version of Windows (XP sp2). However, there are other alternatives, such as Parallels which allows you to run Windows in a virtual machine side-by-side with the Mac OS. You can actually have your Mac set up for both, so whereas Boot Camp can provide you with the native-level speed and full drivers for things such as hardware video acceleration, etc., Parallels will allow you to have Windows running at the same time as other OS X programs so you can share data, cut-and-paste from an OS X app to a Windows app, etc.
As an audio software engineer, you'd probably want to check with the manufacturers (or here on these forums) of any specialized hardware you'd be interested in to see if there are any issues with running them in Windows on a Mac Intel box rather than on a PC. You probably would run into issues with the virtualization solutions, as for instance Parallels is still working out USB support for various devices (and is currently limited to USB 1.x, although 2.0 is coming).
Sorry to have rambled. To me the bottom line is a definite "yes" that you can use the new Mac Intel platforms as a serious Windows box as well as a Mac OS box, but if there are any specialized apps you'd want to do a bit more homework first. Between OS X, Boot Camp and virtualization software like Parallels, you can really get the best of all three worlds (OS X, Windows all on its own and Windows side-by-side with OS X).
-- Bob
Intel Mini 1.66 GHz, Mac Pro 2.66 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8)
Vista RC2 and XP sp2 running under Parallels

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