> That was the era where I remember every radio and audio production studio would start moving systems over to Windows

This is a myth. I seriously doubt any nationally marketed record was ever tracked and mixed using Pro Tools on Windows, at least, I am unaware of any. When big artists showed interest in Microsoft products, it was not for Windows with Pro Tools, it was for Internet technologies.

Throughout the 90's up to 2000 (500Mhz G4 "era") nearly all pro audio was still Mac, but Windows was an alternative in audio by 2001 and it got talked about. Certainly some had built Windows rigs, but they were independent and home-based operations. Few, if any, professional studio enterprises used Windows for tracking and mixing. By 2004, Windows and PCs still did offer a slightly cheaper alternative (Digi equipment cost what it cost on either platform), but only new operations and some higher education communication programs had invested in audio on Windows platforms. No one was replacing and tossing Mac DAWs, ever, because Pro Tools and other audio hw was expensive and still sounded good, no matter how old it was it sounded the same as it did when new.

By 2004, Windows still barely had its foot in the door in pro audio, and most pro audio operations were still Mac central.[1] By 2011, any competition Windows ever gave Mac in the studio was over, but for some reason the myth that Windows took over audio production from Mac at some point still existed.[2] But it was always false.

Certainly, there were Windows PC fanatics that have ever insisted Mac was overpriced and better rigs could be built on PC, and some of them were engineers and opened their own studios, but in general these were much smaller operations compared to full size, full service recording studios. You'd have some little studio that had a tracking room and a control room built into their basement or their garage or shed. Any large studio with a full-sized control room and multiple tracking rooms, a couple smaller control rooms ("Studio B, Studio C") and, you know, a lobby, an artists' lounge, a business office, storage rooms, what you'd consider a "real" professional studio, was always Mac, even if they were still running OS9 and older Digi equipment as late as 2009 and beyond, these systems stayed in place because they kept working and new ADCs and Pro Tools software licensing was and still is expensive.

It is 2022, and I guarantee you there are full sized pro studios still using OS9 on G4 with Pro Tools and Digi racks that will only upgrade to 10yo hw when those things stop working or they can't find replacement ATA hard drives, because Mac Pros are crazy expensive and it is hard for them to get their head around USB3 and Thunderbolt2 and not needing PCI anymore, but mostly reluctance comes from having to reinvest maybe tens of thousands of dollars into Intel-based plugins they already have on PPC and new multi-channel digital rack ADC systems. If it was only the Pro Tools licensing, they might have stayed current, but even with bundled plugins and lower cost hardware, it's hard to abandon things that are already paid for 20ya and still working, unless, of course, you're Skywalker Sound.

[1] https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=99826

[2] https://gearspace.com/board/music-computers/609183-most-prof...