To any Mac owners...

[PeeJ]

I have always wanted to treat myself to a Macbook Pro but have always held off due to price and compatibility problems.

 

I was wondering how any former PC users got on with a Mac. Was the transition easy? Does most of your Windows software run on a Mac?

 

Any impressions would be helpful.

[KKOB]

NO windows software runs a mac, unless you use bootcamp/VMware etc to run windows in some way. You need mac software.

 

For almost every program you use there's a mac version of a mac equivalent. Microsoft Office 2007 is Microsoft Office Mac 2008 etc etc so you'd need to rebuy those programs if you wanted to use them.

 

Apple now have some great videos for switchers, so i suggest checking them out too. http://www.apple.com/uk/findouthow/mac/

 

Expect a 2 week learning curve where you're not always sure where things are, but a quick google will help you figure everything out, or a quick question to some of the mac users on here.

 

Eventually everything just clicks, and Macs start making a lot more sense than windows computers ever could.

 

In terms of files, the apple store offer a service wher eyou can migrate all your files accross from your old PC to your new Mac, or you can do it yourself.

 

When buying a new mac i recommend the Apple Care, which is a three years extended warrenty.

 

I moved from PC to Mac in 2007 and I have never looked back. The only caveats are, if you have a piece of software that only runs in windows, or are a big PC gamer, then you'll have to install windows onto the mac and go back to all the issues with antiviruses, disk defragmentation and trojan funtimes that normal windows computers have to deal with.

 

As long as you're not a big PC gamer, I can't see how a mac can be wrong for you. Things on a mac are just simplier, more good looking, and just plain better imo.

[McPhee]

You could always buy the MBP and a copy of Windows and run Windows on it. Even without OS X it's one of the best laptops on the market and it'd give you a chance to decide which OS you prefer.

[Wesley]

I made the "switch" to a Mac a couple of years ago and got rid of it after a year. Not a bad piece of kit, actually very nice design wise, but I did find the OS slowed my work rate down quite a bit. That, along with program compatibility (no, I don't just mean games), meant I was booting up in Windows more often than OSX.

 

So I then "switched" back to a Windows based PC. I think it was OSX that annoyed me the most, it was just... annoying. But I actually have a new Mac now, a Mini; which I'm typing on (in Windows)! So obviously I did think it was a good enough product to re-buy. I just don't rely on it. I have it connected to my TV and use it as a media center; which it is great for. I also take it with me places instead of trucking around my bigger PC (like now).

 

So... er... they're alright.

[PeeJ]

Thanks for the comments.

 

I am currently at uni studying Technological Teaching so require quite a few programs to do work on like Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk Inventor and Autocad, to name a few. Due to my field becoming a lot more computer orientated, should that hinder my decision to migrate to Mac?

 

What would any of you say is the main benefits of OSX over Windows? I am also not a heavy PC gamer just the odd game from time to time but do enjoy the occasional blast at WoW or Sims...are these compatible? I know the Sims says it is on the box but can't find out if WoW is.

[KKOB]

Sims 3 is, WoW is too. If you look on the WoW box it says PC/Macintosh.

 

Bennefits include but are not limited to, no viruses, no disk defragmentation, iLife 09 is awesome and free with every mac, you can STILL run windows, or any OS if you really have to, they're great pieces of hardware, OS features like expose-spaces-spotlight-finder make multi tasking a LOT easier.

 

Best thing to do is play on a mac running Leopard or Snow Leopard and try things out. I also think you can get a refund within 14 days, no questions asked, if you buy one new and don't like it. Which kinda shows you how confident Apple are that you'll love the mac.

 

Apple stores are the best place to go if you can, the employees can show you what the OS can do, that windows dreams of doing etc etc, also you can have as much hands on time as you want and ask all your questions there. I've never found them to be pushy people, they just love macs, they don't really care too much if you buy one or not.

[Ten10]

Was going to leave my reply for later, but I guess I'll do it now.

 

I've had more time with a PC than a mac, and to tell the truth, for me the mac looked pretty and not much else. As much as that would annoy mac die hards, in no way does a mac increase productivity. I don't spend hours running antivirus software, I'm not constantly having my computer crash either.

 

But despite these things I would say go PC purely for the reason that you don't know what is ahead for your course and if you end up needing a piece of software that isn't easily found on a mac you could be in some trouble. You can get photoshop on a mac. I don't think you can get autocad would work bootcamp only. Its a large program and re engineering it to work on the mac wouldn't be much fun. And additionally you would need to source a copy of windows on top of the cost of the mac.

 

Anyway what KKOB said, go to a store try one out. Ask questions, but don't make up your mind until you've slept on it.

[PeeJ]

KKOB, by any chance do you work for apple as you have done a fine job of selling a Mac to me

 

It is a MacBook I am interested in but which one would you recommend the most? I would say due to the price I am wanting it to last a good number of years.

 

Was watching the videos you posted and I do admit it does seem daunting but thats mainly due to me being a Windows user for life, only used Mac the odd time at school.

 

btw what is iLife 09? is it the equivalent to Office?

 

Ten10, you have a valid point and due to the software restrictions it does make me lean towards sticking with PC...do you think one day we will have all software compatible with both OS?

Edited September 8, 2009 by PeeJ

[peterl0]

I work with a Mac [and have a PC at home] and I find that you do get used to to the differences relatively easily as long as you are not too hung up on the way things should be.

 

I would love to have one for home use but they are just too expensive. I suppose you will be getting the educational discount to soften that blow a bit eh?

 

[PeeJ]

I work with a Mac [and have a PC at home] and I find that you do get used to to the differences relatively easily as long as you are not too hung up on the way things should be.

 

I would love to have one for home use but they are just too expensive. I suppose you will be getting the educational discount to soften that blow a bit eh?

 

 

your correct need to pop into uni and hop onto one of there computers on campus to see how big a discount I can get.

 

That is one of the main reasons I am considering it now before I finish uni and possibly miss out.

[Ten10]

Ten10, you have a valid point and due to the software restrictions it does make me lean towards sticking with PC...do you think one day we will have all software compatible with both OS?

 

Well the Autocad people apparently sent out an apple 2009 survey to its users. But the official word from them is to still boot camp. The problem with Autocad is that the program has been fully pc since the 80's so Learning to get it to run right on another platform could be a daunting task. Apparently there were three previous releases of it for the Mac but it was pulled as the audience for it was too small.

 

Some boring sources on the subject:

http://www.blog.cadnauseam.com/2009/05/29/why-autocad-for-mac-is-a-bad-idea/

 

http://www.macrumors.com/2009/04/08/autocad-returning-to-mac/

 

Also I would check if your uni is part of the Microsoft software alliance programme, could help you net a free copy of windows.

Edited September 8, 2009 by Ten10

[Wesley]

Thanks for the comments.

 

I am currently at uni studying Technological Teaching so require quite a few programs to do work on like Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk Inventor and Autocad, to name a few. Due to my field becoming a lot more computer orientated, should that hinder my decision to migrate to Mac?

 

That was actually one of the reasons why I got a PC; starting uni. A lot of the programs I use for my uni course are Windows only.

[Platty]

I've always used PC's but recently been using a mini mac at work for a few things. Pretty easy to get used to to be honest.

 

But after the initial wow look how pretty it is and all the cool apple things I was a bit like meh. My pc at work now has windows 7 anyway which I love. I think the mac has a lot of plus points but for me for the price you'll be willing to pay for a mac you may aswell get a top spec PC and as your a student I assume money is a bit tight.

[PeeJ]

yeh money is a bit tight so forking out to get a mac would take something...and so far I am leaning towards a windows laptop as I don't think the risk is worth it in case all the software I require is not available for mac.

 

Platty, how you finding Windows 7? Better than Vista? Better than XP?

 

Thanks Ten10 for the articles, AutoCad is one of my main programs so it does put a negative on the Buy a Mac column.

[Raining_again]

You can justify with all this no antivirus etc, but then if it doesn't run all the programs you need, then you have to dual boot, doesn't that really defeat that argument anyway? what's the point of having a mac and a mac o.s when you just end up running windows anyway? o_O

 

Paying for two OS's seems really unnecessary. And added onto the top of the cost of the machine itself. Seems like its just wasting money for the hell of it... Just blows my mind why someone would do that.

 

If you are definitely windows-inclined with whatever your life/hobbies/study requires, I'd stick with a pc.

[Platty]

yeh money is a bit tight so forking out to get a mac would take something...and so far I am leaning towards a windows laptop as I don't think the risk is worth it in case all the software I require is not available for mac.

 

Platty, how you finding Windows 7? Better than Vista? Better than XP?

 

Thanks Ten10 for the articles, AutoCad is one of my main programs so it does put a negative on the Buy a Mac column.

 

Windows 7 is much better than Vista. A lot quicker and fucntionality just seems better. But i've only had 2 days or so to play about with it so far.

 

I'm still a fan of XP, I still have that at home (using now) but Windows 7 is a different class it truely is.

 

You'll prob have to wait for a bit to get a windows 7 laptop but you can probably pick up a cheap Vista laptop right now with some good specs that will sort you out for a couple of years.

[Ten10]

I agree with Platty. Perhaps hold out for the new HP DV8 series which is set to release quite soon if you can afford it. But otherwise I would recommend anything from their DV-7 range as they will easily get the job done for you. And I think they look just as stylish as a mac can.

 

Review of the HP Pavillion DV-7

 

I'd say with any laptop build quality goes towards your experience, and for that reason stay away from Acer & Dell.

[Emasher]

Don't buy one yet. There are tons of rumors about a major refresh coming in the fall right now. If I were you I'd wait a while, especially if you're buying a 17" as the rumor is, its getting a quad core processor.

[Ten10]

Yeah that is the DV8 its apparently having a quad core i7 but I was thinking how much cash do students have to splash on laptops these days. But it would be totally kick ass to have and would easily handle any photoshopping and CAD work hands down. Would be nice if the throw in Win 7 64 bit to fully take advantage of the hardware.

 

...Heading the pack will be the 18.4-inch dv8, set to feature a quad-core Core i7 720QM CPU, 640GB of storage and 4GB of memory. The processor formerly known as Clarksfield has 6MB of onboard cache and can be Turbo Boosted to 2.8GHz, which should do justice to the gargantuan screen size and included Blu-ray drive

 

Via Engadget

 

The only thing I would want to know is what GPU will be partnered up with it.

Edited September 8, 2009 by Ten10

[McPhee]

Seems like its just wasting money for the hell of it... Just blows my mind why someone would do that.

 

He's a student, he gets the Macbook at educational prices (thus undercutting competing laptops) and he can get a free (or at least very cheap) copy of Windows 7 through the MSDNAA. If he wasn't a student it'd be insane, but under the circumstances it works out very good value against something similarly priced (like a Dell Studio XPS 13) and a lot cheaper than Lenovo's T400 (which is the machine the MBP 13" is usually compared against).

Edited September 9, 2009 by McPhee

[Raining_again]

He's a student, he gets the Macbook at educational prices (thus undercutting competing laptops) and he can get a free (or at least very cheap) copy of Windows 7 through the MSDNAA. If he wasn't a student it'd be insane, but under the circumstances it works out very good value against something similarly priced (like a Dell Studio XPS 13) and a lot cheaper than Lenovo's T400 (which is the machine the MBP 13" is usually compared against).

 

Damn students!

 

[KKOB]

KKOB, by any chance do you work for apple as you have done a fine job of selling a Mac to me

 

Haha no i don't work for Apple. 3 years ago i hated Apple and refused to buy an iPod ect etc. Now i would'nt buy anything but a mac.

 

The best thing is to have a poke around the Apple site. iLife is not Office, it's more of a way of making content. iPhoto for editing and managing photos, GarageBand for making music etc http://www.apple.com/ilife/

 

More info: here

 

Uni discounts are usually in the region of 15% off, and about £200 off the AppleCare for the mac. So a hefty saving.

 

I wouldn't recommend a white macbook, Get the 13" MacBook Pro.

 

Like i said earlier, if you HAVE to use a specific program which doesnt run on OS X then you may as well stay on Windows.

 

Mac's are great high end consumer, and business computers, especially for design and science. They don't crash as often as windows computers, they don't have random borked error messages, the OS/software and hardware are all made by one company, so if there are any problems they're easily solveable in one phone call.

 

Try one. You can stick to the same old if you want, and follow the windows updates, or you can leap over to try something different.

 

A lot of people i know have bought their first macs due to me, and not a single one has regretted it or gone back to windows. Life is just simplier and less hassle on a mac. A number of the people have said it feels like their macs are working for them rather than against them, which is how they felt about windows PCs.

 

It's all about preference. If you like upgrading your hardware, high end gaming etc and are happy dealing with the windows annoyances of viruses etc, disk defrag, firewalls, adware etc then you'll be happy with a windows pc. And windows 7 does look like a decent update of XP after the abortion known as vista. But if you're bored of waiting for your computer to scan for things, and want it to just work for you, then it'll be more than worth trying out a mac. It IS different, but once you get over the initial alien feeling it's great and more than worth the extra money in my opinion, and from what i've been told the opinion of more than ten other people who i've influenced into buying a mac.

 

I don't get anything out of there being more mac users, i just think it's a genuinely better way of living your digital life is all.

[Ramar]

Most active Apple topic at the minute so allow me to hijack temporarily (sorry ), anyone know if the rumoured iPod keynote is happening today and if so at what time?

[KKOB]

Most active Apple topic at the minute so allow me to hijack temporarily (sorry ), anyone know if the rumoured iPod keynote is happening today and if so at what time?

 

6pm our time i believe, check gizmodo et al for live blogging goodness.

 

My betting is, they HAVE to do something beatles related :/ why the fuck else would they have it on 9/9/09 when normally their PCs are on a Tuesday?!

 

New ipods, cheaper touch, iTunes 9 and maybe some app store changes i think. nothing earth shattering but i hope iTunes 9 will be pushed out tonight.

[PeeJ]

I must say KKOB and Ten10 are starting to sound like my conscience haha theres that one side telling me to leap over and reap in the rewards where as the other says stick with the same old and (fingers crossed) it eventually improves.

 

So far I know I want a small laptop, preferably 13" so it is ideal to carry about to uni etc. I am also wanting the laptop to last me a good few years until I qualify so would be good to have an extended warranty just incase. Ten10, know of any top notch 13" laptops?

 

On a side note my iPod nano is starting to play up and I have really liked the current ones...heres hoping for another new one to be announced and I can steal a 16gb current gen nano for under £100