Windows to Mac... worth the switch? [Archive]

mike_echter

2006-01-29, 02:47 AM

well it depends on what you are gonna do with your computer. If you play games then NO! don't switch. If you do video editing or photo editing or anything like that then YES! do it

I haven't played games in about four years on my computer... mostly school work, pictures, and some video.

Have any of you actually done the switch? How hard is it to transfur files and such. Also, how will a mac be in a house with all XP windows computers? (network)

habbywall

2006-01-29, 02:53 AM

the networking stuff should be fine, and i should say you should switch your whole house over to mac, definitly make the switch

mike_echter

2006-01-29, 02:59 AM

what about file types? how does sharing documents and spreadsheets between mac and pc's work out? I send out lots of emails with doc's and spreadsheets... will they work on PC's?

burjzyntski

2006-01-29, 03:12 AM

As said before, if you like to do anything like image manipulation or rendering videos, then it will be a worthwhile switch. Of course, the Macs aren't incapable of word processing, but there isn't really anything special about word processing anyway.

Macs have different types of 'annoying' features.

I use Linux.

[Slackware 10.2, KDE 3.4/Blackbox,2.66GHz,1152MB RAM,nVidia GeForce MX 440 64MB,80GB Maxtor, 20GB Western Digital, DVD/DVD+RW/CDRW, 21" Vienna Pro monitor]

carsonpalooza

2006-01-29, 03:17 AM

burjzyntski

2006-01-29, 04:06 AM

Depending on the filetype of the document, Mac should be able to handle most types (*.txt,*.doc,*.ini,*.rtf,*.pdf,...). You might have some trouble if you normally use WordPerfect/Corel (*.wpd), I don't know what OSX uses for word processing.

habbywall

2006-01-29, 04:08 AM

osx uses apple works, but there is also a microsoft program that has word and excel and stuff that microsoft office has that you can easily go back and forth with a flash drive on

phlegm

2006-01-29, 04:21 AM

Is it worth it to switch from XP Windows to a mac mini? I'm thinking about switching, but im not convinced yet... post your experience on the subject.

...only if you really need a new computer and you don't intend to play lots of games. Transferring your data and file compatibility are hardly an issue.

You really need to consider what applications you plan to use, and if you want to pay for the Mac versions of all of them.

IMO, the main thing you gain from switching from Windows XP to OS X is better security features for a network environment. Otherwise, they both have their own problems.

phlegm

2006-01-29, 04:24 AM

osx uses apple works, but there is also a microsoft program that has word and excel and stuff that microsoft office has that you can easily go back and forth with a flash drive on

It's called "Microsoft Office for OS X." ;)

You can also use Open Office and Abiword on OS X for pretty compatible handling of MS Office files.

TrialsUni

2006-01-29, 04:30 AM

I'm a college student. I've liked the switch so much that I refuse to go back to Windows. I'll admit that since I'm busy with school I don't do a whole lot with computers anyways...so easily it fulfills all of my needs (I have an iBook G4).

Macs are going to get Intel processors soon, too. I think that this'll open up a whole new world of possibilities for Apple, if done right. It'll be cool to see what's going to come out, anyway.

john_childs

2006-01-29, 04:54 AM

one thing that you could do is get the mac mini and keep the windows and get the thing that lets you change between devices (I forget what it's called right now), so you have the two different CPU's and one monitor. Like previously mentioned, it depends on what your doing.
It's called a KVM switch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KVM_switch) and is short for Keybaord, Video, Mouse.

For the Mac Mini you'd need a KVM switch that switches DVI or VGA video along with USB for the keyboard and mouse. That also means you'd need to use a USB keyboard and mouse with the Windows computer. Figure on about $200 for that style of KVM switch.

KVM switches work OK but can get fussy. Sometimes the mouse and/or keyboard can get a little confused when switching. You can also end up with interference on the VGA cable especially if you skimp and don't use a high quality shielded cable between the KVM switch and the two computer boxes. DVI may work better in terms of shielding interference, but I've never used a KVM switch with a DVI monitor so I'm not sure.

You could try Synergy (http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/) instead of a KVM switch. It's cheaper, but I'd suspect that video performance on the remote computers would suffer since the display would need to go over the network.

john_childs

2006-01-29, 05:03 AM

You can also use Open Office and Abiword on OS X for pretty compatible handling of MS Office files.
But don't count on the conversions keeping your formatting or not messing things up.

If you're doing a collaborative style report with several people at school or at work, and you're using Open Office while they're using Microsoft Office, you're probably going to end up with problems in the sharing of files. If you're doing a collaborative work it is best if everyone uses the same software, whether Microsoft Office, Open Office, or whatever.

If you're doing school work and the teacher or professor wants you to hand in your work in a Microsoft format you're going to have to do extra work to make sure that your Open Office document converts to Microsoft Office OK. To avoid being surprised you'll have to open your document on a lab computer with Microsoft Office and verify that the conversion is all OK. Otherwise you could end up getting dinged.

And for goodness sake, don't edit any documents on a floppy (floppies eat documents). Use a thumb drive.

chucknorrisunicycles

2006-01-29, 05:16 AM

its totally worth it. gooo chuck norrrissss.

mike_echter

2006-01-29, 08:41 PM

What type of programs come on the Mac that are like Microsoft Office? Can I just use those programs and still be able to have the same file types as in Windows? I wouldn't switch between my XP Windows and Mac just for word files, but isn't there a freeware called VirtualWindows or something?

habbywall

2006-01-29, 08:56 PM

yeah, there is a virtualwindows, but im not sure how recent they have made it and they might stop making it or something, sorry i cant be much of a help, but i will try later when i have more time

wobblyjohn

2006-01-29, 09:35 PM

If you enjoy fixing computers, you'd die of boredom! It's so easy to use, it's dissapointing at first.
The only irritating thing at first is the buttons on the windows. They're on the left, rather than the right.
Other than that, the Expose function and the Finder search are about the most useful things ever. Even Microsoft agrees, they've cobbled up some similar functions for Vista.
Not to mention, OSX, released alongside W2K in 2000, has no viruses. Not a single one! Just remember to enter a password when you set it up, and you will be asked for it whenever any software is installed. Voila, no self replicating nasties!

maestro8

2006-01-29, 09:46 PM

Macs are going to get Intel processors soon, too.
If you don't mind waiting until Apple puts out its OS and software for Intel processors, you could build a dual-boot machine that can run Windows AND MacOS.

Fuego

2006-01-29, 11:26 PM

If you don't mind waiting until Apple puts out its OS and software for Intel processors, you could build a dual-boot machine that can run Windows AND MacOS.

possibly.... they're saying it'll take some hacks though.

I say go mac, but I'm one of the devoted faithful, so my opinion doesn't mean much.

for what it looks like you're doing, I don't think you should have any problems. there's microsoft office for mac, though you can open office documents in appleworks, and there should be no trouble with the network. I'm not a network guru though, so I don't knkow absolutely.

mike_echter

2006-01-29, 11:29 PM

for what it looks like you're doing, I don't think you should have any problems. there's microsoft office for mac, though you can open office documents in appleworks, and there should be no trouble with the network. I'm not a network guru though, so I don't knkow absolutely.

Is the microsoft office for mac installed already? or will i need to buy it? (price?) I have office for windows 2003 on all computers, so it will need to be able to be compatable with that.

You also said that "you can open office documents in appleworks, and there should be no trouble with the network"... does that mean that appleworks documents will work on windows?

Fuego

2006-01-29, 11:37 PM

as far as I know office comes on all macs, but I'm not sure of that. appleworks documents may or may not work on word, I'm not sure. I'll check, though.

Fuego

2006-01-29, 11:43 PM

ok, i just did a test. I made a document with all the standard settings in both word and appleworks, then opened each document in the other program. Both worked fine, opened, and were exactly the same on either program.

I can't guarantee this on a windows version of office 2003, but it looks like it might work.

mike_echter

2006-01-30, 12:20 AM

Thanks! Do you have macs and windows computers in your house? What type of mac do you have?

johnfoss

2006-01-30, 03:40 AM

PowerBooks and iMacs with Intel processors have been on the market for about two weeks now.

If you don't mind waiting until Apple puts out its OS and software for Intel processors, you could build a dual-boot machine that can run Windows AND MacOS.
According to what I've read from Apple, they don't plan to make any hardware with the capability to run Windows. That will have to wait for third-party companies to come out with, and is more likely to happen on PCs than Macs.

I have Microsoft Office version X on this machine; Word, Excel, Powerpoint. Office is not free, I don't think. You can check what various vendors offer.

A Mac Mini is a low-end Mac, and you might outgrow it pretty fast, especially with video. Make sure of what you know you'll need to do within the next year and ask yourself if you should buy a higher model. Don't buy hardware for stuff you "intend" to do but don't know when. I've made that mistake and paid for stuff that was obsolete before I went to use it.

Expect good software, but less choices of brand. My favorite image-cataloging software, for instance (ThumbsPlus) does not come in a Mac version.

This was written on Firefox in Mac OSX Tiger.

Bottom line: If you prefer spending your time *using* your computer rather than doing maintenance, updates, upgrades, troubleshooting, you definitely want a Mac. That's the main difference between it and my old PCs.

john_childs

2006-01-30, 04:12 AM

I have Microsoft Office version X on this machine; Word, Excel, Powerpoint. Office is not free, I don't think. You can check what various vendors offer.
It's not free, but you can get it at an education price or student price. The education or student version is the regular version, just at a lower price. Various online retailers sell the education versions of various software. Costco carries educational bundles. And if you live by a college bookstore (full university or even a community college) you should be able to get the educational version. You just need to prove your studenty status (ID card and a report card should suffice).

But OpenOffice is free and will likely meet your needs unless you need to share a lot of documents with people who use Microsoft Office and can't grep anything that is not 100% Office.

If you do go for a Mac Mini you'll likely end up getting an external USB HD at some point for extra storage (assuming you like to download videos or even make your own videos).

briguymaine

2006-01-30, 04:32 AM

You won't have an issue with file types macs will open most anything from a Windows box, especially the most popular files.

Getting from a XP box to a mac is easy, go to this page (http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/) on the apple site and that should help you out.

johnfoss

2006-01-30, 05:26 AM

Yes, my external HD uses the FAT32 file system, which the Mac has no trouble reading. The only problem is I can't do full system backups to it, because some of the Mac system files use filenames that are not legal in the FAT32 system.

My next HD setup, which I hope will be a NAS, will probably be Mac-formatted. But transferring files should be a piece of cake.

evil-nick

2006-01-30, 01:50 PM

Unfortunately, there isn't a true OSX version of OpenOffice. This made me sad, because it meant that I couldn't use OSX on my clamsehll iBook. You can run OopenOffice on OSX, but you have to install the X11 stuff, and apparently the fonts are messed up. They have an alpha build for the Macintel systems that doesn't look to need the X11, but I don't know. Despite my saying this... get the Mac ;)

My gf was issued a Mac from the school she teaches at, and the last thing she touched her Windows PC for was to unplug the printer from it. I use her PC more now then she does (only because we use it as a print server). She could print over the network, but this way she doesn't have to turn her PC on.

Her Mac has MS Office on it, but she's had no problems opening her old Office '97 files (which use the same format as Office '03 I believe, MS hasn't added anything recently).

The short of it is that the "safest" OS's to run are the Unix-style OS's, Linux, BSD, etc. Mac OSX happens to be a Unix-style OS. "OSX: Because making Unix user-friendly was easier than debugging Windows".

Checkernuts

2006-01-30, 04:18 PM

I did the mac thing last fall and got an ibook g4, I am actually using it right now and my PC doesnt really see all that much use now. There are a few things that annoy me about having a mac its mostly just settings issues that I just havent figured out how to tweak to my liking.

I have yet to have any problems at all with spyware, virus, or anything for that matter. I couldnt be happier with my decision. It seems alot of people are making the switch to macs these days.

As far as a good image cataloging program Adobe Bridge (both mac and pc) is an awesome program and I would say check it out if you can john. It comes with the photoshop cs bundles these days. I would say its better than apature apples professional image orginiser thing. And I wont even mention iphoto because it blows that out of the water.

Mike

evil-nick

2006-01-30, 04:25 PM

You could try Synergy (http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/) instead of a KVM switch. It's cheaper, but I'd suspect that video performance on the remote computers would suffer since the display would need to go over the network.

Synergy is not actually a KVM, it's a KM (Keyboard/Mouse) only. This is if you have 2 computers that each have their own display. In my case, I have my laptop (TinyGod) on an iCurve laptop stand, and my desktop (Calvin). I use Calvin's keyboard and mouse with both Calvin and TinyGod. What happens is I move the mouse pointer (the pointy-clicky-thingy) off the right hand edge of Calvin's screen, and lo and behold, it appears on the left hand edge of TinyGod's screen!

The only performance issue I've had is while moving files between the two computers, it's a wireless-B network so transferring files to TinyGod makes the mouse pointer stutter, but only on TinyGod. Moving files from TinyGod to Calvin doesn't have this issue.

johnfoss

2006-01-30, 08:10 PM

As far as a good image cataloging program Adobe Bridge (both mac and pc) is an awesome program and I would say check it out if you can john. It comes with the photoshop cs bundles these days. I would say its better than apature apples professional image orginiser thing. And I wont even mention iphoto because it blows that out of the water.
Thanks for the tip. But Bridge isn't a "cataloging" program, it's a "browser." The difference being that a browser program doesn't save any data about the files it tracks, such as virtual albums. But as a browser, Bridge is excellent. I have Photoshop CS2.

Aperture is an extremely cool program, but its purpose is different from either of those. It is mainly for enhanced workflow with RAW images. It is of most use to pro photographers that have to process hundreds of images a day. I have enough problems with my hundreds every once in a while, and not enough system resources for Aperture to be an option for me. Also I don't know if I'll be shooting that much RAW, now that I have a camera that can.

iPhoto, unlike Bridge, *is* a cataloging program. Until the new version came out (earlier this month), I had too many pictures for it to work for me. They upped the limitation to something like 250,000 files, which should take me a while to catch up to. But I don't like the way iPhoto takes control over all the files, and versions of said files, without really letting you control that part. Actually it's more of a database front-end than cataloging software. It's iTunes for your photos.

What do I use? iView Media Pro.

john_childs

2006-01-30, 09:20 PM

Synergy is not actually a KVM, it's a KM (Keyboard/Mouse) only. This is if you have 2 computers that each have their own display. In my case, I have my laptop (TinyGod) on an iCurve laptop stand, and my desktop (Calvin). I use Calvin's keyboard and mouse with both Calvin and TinyGod. What happens is I move the mouse pointer (the pointy-clicky-thingy) off the right hand edge of Calvin's screen, and lo and behold, it appears on the left hand edge of TinyGod's screen!
You mentioned Synergy before. I thought it was a cool idea and bookmarked it.

I did a quick read through the Synergy site and didn't catch that it had to use separate monitors for each computer. I thought it might have an option to work as a remote desktop, but it doesn't. That would have been really cool.

mike_echter

2006-01-30, 09:29 PM

Synergy might be a good solution if I was in need for those windows office docs. What about some way that I could use one monitor but 'switch' between the two systems... is there such switch?

Also, is there a PROGRAM that can do this instead? Hit a key and *wham* it's the other computer! Hit it again and your back.

john_childs

2006-01-30, 10:18 PM

Synergy might be a good solution if I was in need for those windows office docs. What about some way that I could use one monitor but 'switch' between the two systems... is there such switch?
Yes, that's the KVM switch that was mentioned. But it won't make much sense unless you plan on sharing an expensive monitor. A KVM switch that would work with the Mac Mini would be about $200ish which is more than a low end monitor.

mike_echter

2006-01-30, 11:04 PM

i'm trying out a 'mac-ish' setup on my windows xp... did the background of a mac, layout of a mac, size and windows like a mac... jst its not a mac or a mac toolbar... I like how it looks, but it doesnt really tell me anything about a mac :p Hopefully I can get to the apple store soon to explore on a mini or iMac...

habbywall

2006-01-30, 11:06 PM

good idea, bring any gadgets and gizmo's you will need to try out for compatiblity, but dont go to the genius bar,
they will definitly help you, just find someone that works there and ask him all the questions you need

Checkernuts

2006-01-31, 01:01 AM

Thanks for the tip. But Bridge isn't a "cataloging" program, it's a "browser." The difference being that a browser program doesn't save any data about the files it tracks, such as virtual albums. But as a browser, Bridge is excellent. I have Photoshop CS2.

Im not quite sure what you mean by cataloging, but to me it sounds alot like the collections that you can do within bridge. In bridge you can do alot more things within batch editing that I like more than other programs, also it has a super easy workflow that I like.

But back to the mac topic, I would try if you can to get the current version of the imac if I was going for an computer that I didnt plan to bring with me, thats what I would get. The extra money for a mac is worth it when you think about the headach you save yourself when you realize that your computer runs at the speed it should all the time and not just when its new.

new_coker

2006-01-31, 04:08 PM

I switched from a a pc to Mac about 10 months ago and will never go back. I was using a tablet pc( I need a ultra potable computer) and switched to a 12 inch Ibook and it has been great. I don't have the crashing or having to run a antivirus program everynight.

Now that I have had the Ibook for a while I am thinking about selling it and getting a powerbook. The good thing about selling a used mac is that they hold value very well. A new 12 inch Ibook is $999 and used ones sell on ebay for $700 to $850, try reselling a pc and see what you get.

habbywall

2006-01-31, 05:27 PM

johnfoss

2006-01-31, 07:00 PM

dont get a powerbook get a macbook, i believe they have built in isights dont they?
I think Macbook may be the replacement for the PowerBook. It's the same shell, but very different on the inside:
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/
My G4 PowerBook got a lot older when those came out a few weeks ago. :(
I have the 17" version, which is less portable but can serve as my one-and-only computer (especially with an external monitor). Currently the new Macbook may be available only in the 15" version, but I did not look in detail.

At home on my desk, my PowerBook sits in a "laptop holder" that raises the screen up to an ergonomic height (and is also a USB hub). Then I plug in my external monitor, another USB hub, and speakers. I use an external keyboard and mouse when it's on my desk. I don't like using the trackpad.

Recently, I had to bring home a PC for work, and tie it into my current mess of wires and parts. The PC is set up for an analog monitor, while the PowerBook is digital (DVI). This worked in my favor, as my monitor (Samsung 204T) can use both. So both are plugged into it, and a button on the monitor switches from one input to the other. Then I use the PCs keyboard to keep life simple.

LegoBoy

2006-02-03, 12:25 AM

If you are doing homework, photos, and video, then yes! A mac is definitely the correct choice. There are also allot of other reasons to switch. Security is significantly better, not perfect, but much better. No os will be perfect, the closest I know would be beOS. But that died because not enough people used it. You'll be able to open all of your MS formats fine. All of my profs use .doc, .xls, etc... files, and Apple Works, which comes with all macs, opens these fine. If you want it to look better (apple works isn't the greatest when it comes to importing MS files) iWork rocks. (continues to ramble on about hundreds of things people might complain are reasons not to switch and say how they really aren't a problem and shouldn't stop ya)