Why I Will Probably Never Switch To A Mac

I originally posted this article to my column on newsvine. It got over 50 comments; click the previous link to read them.
So, newsvine has had a lot of mac stuff lately, mac stuff that serves only to remind me how much I hate, loathe, and despise Windows® with every fiber of my being. Unfortunately, for me at least, Windows® is the ultimate Hotel California: “You can check out any time you like, but you can *NEVER* leave!”
The reason I, for one, will probably never drop windows® is that I can’t afford the risk; I think this would hold true for a lot of people. Sure, you can walk into a store and have a quick look at an OS…but that doesn’t tell me much about if it will serve my needs. What if I blow my funds on a mac next time round, and then in three weeks discover the system just absolutely cannot do something I must have done? These sorts of questions are things no apple store salescreature can answer. I’ll give you some examples: 
1. voice chat: I regularly voice chat with various Windows® people for various reasons; can mac be made to run my voice chat application of choice, or something related? 
2. Notes: I have over 6 years of notes stored in a particular application (no longer developed or supported, but I have so much invested in it that I’m pretty much trapped); how can I move all these over to the mac? Formatting and layout absolutely must be preserved at all costs.
3. I have over 8 years of writing stored in Microsoft .doc format; it would suck to lose this.
4. I’m completely blind, and use a screen reader; the mac has one built in, and no 3rd party screen reader at all. Can the built in screen reader support my webbrowser of choice? What about a mac office application? Spreadsheets and slideshows? How flexible is it in allowing me to create templates to support random 3rd party software of my choice?
All of the above questions, as far as I can tell, cannot be answered without owning a mac. But I’m not ready to own a mac until I have answers to all of the above questions. Rather circular, you know? While I’m sure I’m somewhat of an extreme example of this, it probably holds true for every other Windows® user to some extent. See, I’m at the age where I grew up with Windows®. My first computer was Windows® 95®, and my second was Windows® 98®. I upgraded to Windows® 98SE®, and took the plunge to Windows® ME®. When 2000 came out, I was there; then I got XP®. Now I own a server, and it’s Windows® 2003®. Yes I’ve got a pocket PC, and of course it’s windows® SE®. My life is invested in this platform, and I hate it. What can be done? When someone has this much in one particular platform, how on earth can they uproot and move on to something better? “They stabbed it® with their steely knives, but they just *can’t* kill the beast!”