MacBook on a PC network ... good or bad idea?

[Dale]

Hopefully there some Apple boffins here who can help me ...

I am considering replacing my old HP laptop with a Macbook pro. I use the HP at home for leisure (music, pics, etc) and at work on a small wireless network. Everything in the office is PC based - all documents, spreadsheets, etc.

For music, pics, etc, the apple seems to be the way to go. The concern I have is with the office network. I don't have the patience for importing/exporting everytime I use a spreadsheet off the network - I want to be able to open it, use it, save it, etc, etc. The geek at the local Apple shop tells me there will be absolutly no problem hooking onto the network and Apple has office that lets you work in excel/Word etc all quite seamlessly. Is he right?

I have also read that there is a system (bootcamp) where you can run PC stuff on a Mac .... while it may be OK for occaisional use (like mapsource), this sounds like a PITA if you have to do it everytime you want to work on an excell file, etc. Anyone got any experience of bootcamp?

What else should I look out for if considering an Apple (other than price)?

TIA
Dale

 

[richie]

Hopefully there some Apple boffins here who can help me ...

I am considering replacing my old HP laptop with a Macbook pro. I use the HP at home for leisure (music, pics, etc) and at work on a small wireless network. Everything in the office is PC based - all documents, spreadsheets, etc.

For music, pics, etc, the apple seems to be the way to go. The concern I have is with the office network. I don't have the patience for importing/exporting everytime I use a spreadsheet off the network - I want to be able to open it, use it, save it, etc, etc. The geek at the local Apple shop tells me there will be absolutly no problem hooking onto the network and Apple has office that lets you work in excel/Word etc all quite seamlessly. Is he right?

I have also read that there is a system (bootcamp) where you can run PC stuff on a Mac .... while it may be OK for occaisional use (like mapsource), this sounds like a PITA if you have to do it everytime you want to work on an excell file, etc. Anyone got any experience of bootcamp?

What else should I look out for if considering an Apple (other than price)?

TIA
Dale

I use both on my home network, no problem. Go for it.

 

[Northants Rob]

Yeah, go for the Macbook - it'll connect to your wireless network at work no probs. Buy Microsoft Office for Mac and you can then create, save, send, receive and open virtually all MS Office documents. You won't need Bootcamp for this.

 

[Mezza]

I agree with the above re Office - get the proper Microsoft version for Mac (home version costs approx £99) - its loads better then the Mac iWork thing which we found a PITA.

Rich

 

[llotse]

Carry my old 12" Mac laptop all over the world, have yet to find a network that it won't connect to as long as I have the permission and password, be it wireless or cable.

 

[judge]

I would only go down the Boot Camp route if you have to run anything Microshite specific on your Mac for work or if you are a Garmin GPS user and believe Bobcat is not feature-rich enough for your needs.

It comes down to what you are using at work and what you need to be able to handle, create, read documents etc. If Work uses Microsoft Office you can buy the same for the Mac or better don't give Bill Gates a penny more and use free to use open source equivalents like Open Office or Neo Office, the latter is better supported and benefits from regular updates akin to a full-blown commercial suite of applications. So long as you aren't use the advanced features of Office apps at work these will stand you fine as they are fully compliant with Microsoft's offerings.

For everything else using your Mac will be just fine and dandy and iLife '08 will take care of all the fun stuff with ease.

My home is a living example of Windows and Mac living in perfect harmony and yeah I now fancy a Mac laptop as I'm bored with the clunkiness of the Windows Dell

 

[cookie]

definitely buy the MBP, it is truly a thing of great beauty and genius, but you might want to look up "strange vertical stripes" on the apple discussion board

networking on latest os-x leopard is also less than perfect, but i still wouldn't go back to windows unless i had to.

 

[Dale]

Thanks for all the replies folks.... this is looking more and more like the way to go.

One more question if I may.
What is the story with Mac and antivirus software? Apple website makes it sound like you never need anti-virus stuff because apples are immune to virus attacks. not being a computer type, this sounds like marketing spin to me. presumabely if some joker can write a virus for windows, he can write a virus for the Mac ... same for spyware, key-loggers, worms, etc, etc.

So, what do Mac users use to protect themselves?

Dale

 

[judge]

presumabely if some joker can write a virus for windows, he can write a virus for the Mac ... same for spyware, key-loggers, worms, etc, etc.

They could for the Mac or for any of the Unix/Linux variants but they don't...... yet

So, what do Mac users use to protect themselves?

A sharp eye on future trends and the Mac/security community at large. Believe me when it turns and it inevitably will at some stage the Anti-Virus companies the world over will be vying for your cash and making it their business to inform you of the very real threat they perceive.

And an aversion to getting to up close and personal with Windows users and their dirty files, i.e. if I receive something from an untrusted source I don't trust it simple and it goes to a Windows box first for checking.

 

[Trevtuck]

Home network

Have run macs on home network for the last 3 years with no problem.
Mac book pro works fine and use it home and overseas with no hitches whatsoever. Auto network config normally works first time
Have even made connection with the xbox to share out Itunes.

 

[cookie]

Have run macs on home network for the last 3 years with no problem.

Tiger?

Leopard has a well documented habit of only randomly seeing network shares in the finder sidebar. there are ways round it (cmd+K), but it's not what it should be.

 

[Dale]

Thanks .... now entourage / outlook equivalent

Thanks again for all the replies.

Now a question about e-mail on the Mac .... I use Outlook a fair bit (mail, calender, task list, etc) but when looking on the Apple website I don't see an Apple equivalent. The macs do have a calender and mail program (called mail) but it all looks a bit lightweight compared to Outlook.

MS do Entourage, but a bit of searching the the archives and I found this comment by Judge late last year "I am a devout Outlook user, alas NOTHING I have encountered yet comes close to this on the Mac, Entourage is a disaster and is best left well alone lest the devil gets inside your head or worse your computers!"

Judge: do you still feel this way? why is it a disaster? Bloke at Apple shop tells me "it's the same as the Outlook on your PC, just written for Mac".

Does anyone else have any thoughts or possible solutions?

TIA
Dale

 

[judge]

Thanks again for all the replies.

Now a question about e-mail on the Mac .... I use Outlook a fair bit (mail, calender, task list, etc) but when looking on the Apple website I don't see an Apple equivalent. The macs do have a calender and mail program (called mail) but it all looks a bit lightweight compared to Outlook.

MS do Entourage, but a bit of searching the the archives and I found this comment by Judge late last year "I am a devout Outlook user, alas NOTHING I have encountered yet comes close to this on the Mac, Entourage is a disaster and is best left well alone lest the devil gets inside your head or worse your computers!"

Judge: do you still feel this way? why is it a disaster? Bloke at Apple shop tells me "it's the same as the Outlook on your PC, just written for Mac".

Does anyone else have any thoughts or possible solutions?

TIA
Dale

Firstly good research

Secondly, let's call it growing pains

Starting out from scratch and Entourage is just fine and dandy, but if you want your existing data from Outlook exported out of it and imported into your Mac you have the worst job imaginable to do in spite of all the little utilities that claim it makes it a synch to do.

But did it I did, but do you know what? Its been a realisation to me that I don't actually need Outlook (or Entourage) on my Mac, Mail, iCal and Address Book all live quite happily interfacing with each other Mail will pull in addresses, iCal allows of diary invitations to be sent and received. Notes & To-Do's live in Mail and I find the mail interface on the Mac is a far more pleasant user experience (a bit like a Mac full stop really) and with a little utility all of that syncs with my Crapberry (via cable only alas no Bluetooth), however I am counting the days until an iphone makes the phone experience as good as the computer one.

So in spite of Entourage being on my Mac it is redundant and I'm happy with all that comes out of the box from Apple

Last piece of advice: Never, ever listen to anything told to you by an Apple Store salesman, they talk from a view of Appledom that scarcely exists outside of their own little world, you need real world users to give you real world experiences which is why most of the advice you'll hear from here comes from a very strong non-Appledom perspective and will stand you in greater stead in your user experience. Get stuck into some of the Mac user forums (better than the sycophantic published media) and they'll help keep you on a progressive path.

I'm gonna get barred if I spend too much time in an Apple store cos I can't help myself when I hear these drones talking utter, utter boll0x

 

[Dale]

Cool, thanks.

sounds like the best solution is .... give the regular Apple stuff a go first, and if it doesn't work for me I can always buy Entourage.

As an aside ...
Was looking through the software catalogue just now and see that iWorks (which seems to be Apple's Office equivalent) is one fifth of the price of MS Office for Apple!! So, either iWorks is rubbish, or they are priced for market penetration. either way, looks like I will have to go with MS Office or Open source as I need full compatibility with Excel/Word.

Dale

 

[judge]

Cool, thanks.

sounds like the best solution is .... give the regular Apple stuff a go first, and if it doesn't work for me I can always buy Entourage.

As an aside ...
Was looking through the software catalogue just now and see that iWorks (which seems to be Apple's Office equivalent) is one fifth of the price of MS Office for Apple!! So, either iWorks is rubbish, or they are priced for market penetration. either way, looks like I will have to go with MS Office or Open source as I need full compatibility with Excel/Word.

Dale

You're going to have to be using some pretty advanced features in Word/Excel to find Neo Office lacking, all you have to do is remember to save anything you do as a .doc(x)/.xls(x) format when you're done, you'll be able to open theirs just by double-clicking on them.

iWorks is not too shabby at all but you don't need it, and as for Office you seem to have overlooked the home & student edition at £80, never mind the bloated commercial prices, same software, you just have to overlook the ever so small issue of you not being able to use it commercially - prove it Mr Gates

 

[cookie]

Y you seem to have overlooked the home & student edition at £80

and that's 3 licenses too



although if you install it once, it copies across to any number of other macs without trauma.

allegedly


actually, it does it as a matter of course. if i plug a new macbook into my network, and i've done this a few times unfortunately, it will ask should it transfer data from my iMac. includes Office and any other progs too.

 

[judge]

and that's 3 licenses too



although if you install it once, it copies across to any number of other macs without trauma.

allegedly

You heard that too huh?

actually, it does it as a matter of course. if i plug a new macbook into my network, and i've done this a few times unfortunately, it will ask should it transfer data from my iMac. includes Office and any other progs too.

You're kidding right? How very civilised of them. I really must give that a go some time

 

[everywherevirtually]

Tool for importing Outlook to Mac Mail

There is no question Mac Mail is simpler than Outlook but I have come to love it. I love all the simplicity of the Mac product. Pages is a great program. You can create some truly stunning documents with that. (it's in the iWork folder)

you might want this handy utility http://www.littlemachines.com/
it converts your old outlook mail to a mac friendly version ready for import. It can be clunky but it does the job ultimately.

I love my MBP and have wowed the windows users by running ubuntu / winXP / and MacOSX simultaneously by using an open source emulator.

If anything the Mac just sees the network and connects. No faffing around, no configuring, it just works.

As for antivirus software. I don't have any. I haven't needed it. Yet.

 

[Trevtuck]

apple MOBILEME

It could be worth going the whole hog and getting a @mac.com account.(It does cost yearly.)
You get 20 Gig of space and a pushme service to your other devices.

Only came live yesterday day so still checking it out..

 

[judge]

you might want this handy utility http://www.littlemachines.com/
it converts your old outlook mail to a mac friendly version ready for import. It can be clunky but it does the job ultimately.

That's the one utility I finally settled on and paid good money for - Sir underplays I feel the 'clunkiness' of it, if like me you keep thousands of emails in folders and sub-folders expect to lose many hours re-doing all that effort as the littlemachine solution deals in chunks not morsels.

But yes it does all get there eventually.