[McG]

Hi everyone; looking for well given thoughts on changing my entire home environment from a Microsoft to an Apple environment. No haters please; I already have a healthy dose of hate for both sides of this discussion. On the one hand, I dislike the monopolistic tendencies shown by both, but I appreciate the ease of use when either of them can control the software and hardware of any specific device. It is the up and downside on both. I should add here that I have been up to now almost exclusively an M$ guy; it just seemed the most that my brain could handle! Here is where I am at; everything M$ that I have works very, very well. The providers of gear that use M$ products without M$ oversight is what is killing me. The last straw was my HP Windows Home Server; It isn't even 2 years old and it died; no support available from HP and they won't even touch it. Server...designed to last and protect the environment including backups...just died. So yes...not M$'s fault at all since the software was great and it worked very well for me, but the amount of effort that i have to put in to keep that server running and now to have to save my data...well it is the last straw. I used to build high end M$ gaming machines for fun...and the one that I built for me in the late 90s is still chugging... Until M$ makes their own hardware exclusively, I just can't stay on their platform. Which makes me mad because you can imagine that I have had the last 22 years from MS-DOS right through to Win 7. i should add that we do have apple in the house; we have a macbook pro and itouch so it isn't a completely blank slate. Enough ranting. This stuff is all ancient history now and I need to understand if i can transition my current home over completely to an Apple environment.

Here is my ask of my fellow CPers; if you can please direct me to trusted sites with Apple info; i can google just like everyone else but i would like to know if there are sites in the Apple world that an Apple newbie can learn from and trust and not spend time with the isheep and ihaters of the world. Also, if you know enough about apple, please recommend replacement products if you know of them. i will do all of the research from there! looks like i will be spending time and money on apple.

my M$ world

Xbox 360 (obviously not replaceable) but it does have to connect with an apple server
Linksys 610 dual band simultaneous router - does it survive or do i need an airport?
HP Windows Home Server - is there an equivalent in the Apple world? backups, syncing media and acting as a media hub for the 360 and laptops; is there an equivalent to this in the apple world? Does it stream video? (its a dumb question but i have to ask)
Home Computers - will my laptop and Desktop function in the new apple environment until i replace them?
DLNA and wireless for TVs - does the apple environment support DLNA?
USB devices - i have a few; do they work in the apple environment or is that an "it depends". What is the deal with apple and usb?

i see that my rant is waaay longer than my list; and that's an edited, cut down rant.

in a perfect world, M$ would be allowed to make one of each hardware product and operate like apple; guaranteeing that the hardware and software works. instead, we have to rely upon 3rd parties manufacturing devices, throwing in their own hardware and software, and screwing everything up. i seriously believe that this is the problem with the M$ world.

as homer says, please help push the old knowledge out of my head so that i can learn new!

please help me obi-wan!