I'll have to use a few Windows programs - mainly work ones and maybe Office 2007, since i heard that the Windows version is better than the Mac one!?
Whoever told you that was wrong. Office Mac 2008 is a small step backwards from Office Mac 2004 (mainly the ridiculous toolbar you can't turn off and the dropped VB support in Excel, which some number-crunchers need), but either of them is substantially better than Office 2007 Windows. Unless you love the new Ribbon interface, in which case yes, the Mac version is inferior.
Then again, if you love Ribbon you probably shouldn't get a Mac in the first place, since the interface will be far too logical and functional for your taste.
Has anyone successfully run windows 7 Pro 32/64bit under boot camp partition, and then using it as a VM on Parallels. I heard that some people are having no issues and others have an issue with the activation of windows because of the hardware difference that Running the VM creates.
I tried doing this with Fusion, which VMWare claimed was possible in the documentation, but the virtual hardware changes were enough that I was asked to re-authenticate Windows ever time I rebooted in one after using the other. Given the need to call Microsoft and punch in your 30-digit code after a certain number of activations, this is totally unusable (speaking of which, that has got to be the single worst feature in any software, ever).
Personally, Fusion seems to go easier on my system(s) in terms of resources, but the previous version had a bug on my Mini in 10.6 that rendered it unusable, and I'm not willing to pay to upgrade since the previous version of Parallels basically works. Parallels, at least in current versions, is supposed to be slightly faster according to a number of reviews.
Crossover is great when it actually works, but it always seems sort of fragile to me.