Unbelievable? Believe it, says Gene Munster, an investment analyst with Piper Jaffray Cos. in Minneapolis. " Ultimately, down the road, past the year 2000, NT will be the platform (for non-linear editing)," he says. "That's clear; the shift will be virtually entirely over to that side." Word of mouth among editors and animators, reinforced by the marketing muscle of Microsoft and its strategic partner Intel Corp., will make it happen.

The anticipated migration to NT has already begun. A 1996 market study by Piper Jaffray showed that the NT version of Avid's MCXPress, released barely a year ago, was selling as well as the original Mac version. And last March Intel (www.intel.com) announced a strategic alliance with Avid (www.avid.com) that gives it a 6.75 percent stake in the company.

Greg Chastain, a desktop video specialist with AVI Systems, a video systems integrator in Eden Prairie, say that he sees "a bright future in the NT product," a future that almost certainly includes NT releases of the firm's top-notch Media Composer line. Because NT is so robust, supporting data-intensive applications and advanced hardware such as multiple CPUs, it's a natural for special-effects rendering and 3D animation, Chastain says.

Other non-linear editing and animation systems have been developed specifically for NT, or are available only on that platform: D-Vision Online, In:sync Speed-Razor, FAST Electronic's blue, 3D Studio MAX and Microsoft's Softimage 3D.

Although some lack the refinement of Mac-based systems, the best of these applications rival Mac applications in speed, power, versatility and price. Even die-hard Mac fans recognize that the market seems to be moving toward Bill Gates' corner, that a New Order of digital video will demand adaptations -- becoming familiar with a new interface and meeting the challenge of system setup sans plug-and-play.