Oracle has a PC Emu for free called VirtualBox, if cost is the issue. Runs Windows 7 on my Mac pretty well.
VirtualBox
There IS a cost issue, but that's not it.
I loaded Parallels on the Mac I bought for my cousin, and as I recall, I can install it on more than one machine, so that's not the issue.
The issue is twofold: first, that I'd still have to buy a copy of Windows to run (@ $120), second, that I'd have to pay a subscription cost for digital content, which I won't do except for business purposes.
I've been pro-computer since I got my first Apple IIe, and my law practice is virtually paperless. The problem is that as time advances, your ability to access data changes, both on the hardware and software side, and I've lost the ability to access data both ways.
I had dozens of gaming files on my old Apple. There was no way to get that data from those 5" floppies to my first Mac except via hard copy transcription. Things are easier now- I could go from 3.5" floppies to HDs to optical data discs and zip drives, but even so, I'm going to lose electronic data. Once, a motherboard failed just as I was saving a document, replacing all instances of the letter "j" with a nonsense symbol. I had to go through the 25 page document
letter by letter to correct this (for the record, the only issue I had with that machine). When my Zips stopped working, I lost client files.
An unsupervised child managed to download a Mac-specific virus onto one of my machines, again damaging client files. That data cost me thousands to retrieve. The recreational files on that machine were lost- I didn't have the $$$ to recover them.
I had a campaign for HERO in which I had all of the NPCs statted up in a Microsoft spreadsheet. When Microsoft decided it was no longer supporting that spreadsheet in favor of the newer program, Excel, there was no conversion possible of the files...and when the OS was upgraded, the old spreadsheet simply didn't work. All of those NPCs are now accessible in hard copy form only- the printouts I made for game nights.
Similarly, I have digital art pieces that current art programs won't open.
I used to use compression programs, but not since the one I used was made non-functional by another OS upgrade...and Stuffit wouldn't open any of those compressed files from that other program.
I've lost photos that couldn't be transferred from cellphone to cellphone on Verizon...possibly even on my most recent upgrade, which happened just a month ago.
I'm currently using my Palm as a repository of hundreds of PCs and NPCs for several RPG systems, 3 campaign guidelines (including all relevant HRs), a book of chords for an alternative tuning for the guitar, and so forth. Because the Palm is dying, I'm upgrading to an iTouch. If the iTouch doesn't recognize the format the Palm used, I'm going to have to re-enter all that data.
And its not just me. My father's medical practice computers has been upgraded several times since 1982 (Macs and a PC minicomputer using Dells as terminals since 1991). Every few years, he has to spend many thousands of dollars just to be able to continue to read his own (PC generated, proprietary format) files.
Simply put, since 1984, the march of technology (hardware & software) has caused me to lose thousands of pages of purely electronic data I personally generated, and/or spend thousands in order to retain the ability to access it. I see no reason why continued advances won't result in similar losses.
In contrast, my AD&D books from 1977 (and every other RPG book I own) are still on my shelf, fully usable as long as I don't lose the ability to read English.
So if its something I'm planning on using for the next 2+decades, I want physical copies. While the data in a digital file may be more stable overall, the ability to access it may disappear within 5 years.
