Common programs used by ecologists like ArcGIS, SAS, and Program MARK, only run on PCs, so Mac users have to use either a) the Snow Leopard operating system's Boot Camp program to run Windows on a separate partition of their hard drive or b) use a emulation program like Fusion or Parallels.
I've had luck running Parallels, but I get it for cheap as a student. There's apparently a free emulation software, VirtualBox, that works well and has many features found in commercial programs.
When I started running Parallels I was confused by the jargon associated with emulation/virtualization software and couldn't understand how Boot Camp fit into everything. I've just realized that while Parallels creates a "virtual machine" that runs within your Mac operating system, Boot Camp carves off part of your hard drive and run Windows -- and just Windows -- on it. The only requirement is that you reboot your computer in order to access the PC features.. This is made possible because of the Intel chip that current Macs run on; apparently, the CPU can run either operating system, and Boot Camp allows you to bypass the normal Mac operations when the machine starts up and run it essentially as a PC.
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