switch to Mac?

Andy, no offence meant or taken (I presume) but really that is my experience. And as you may remember I spent a fair few years in the business.

BTW I also spent a few years "supporting" Translators, secretaries etc. And was continually amazed about how little such "professionals" knew about there computers....

Moi? Take offence? Not likely :D

As you can see I intend to overlook that black period and will embrace the new one later this year, bring it on ;)
 
Cross Platform

Never had any problems with cross platform files as long as you are running Office on both systems.

Of course if you want to, and it it makes you feel more secure you can run both mac and PC operating systems on the same intel Mac using Boot Camp (see the Apple site) or within a window on the macOS using 'Parallels' software (http://www.parallels.com/en/landingpage/dskd13/?gclid=CPCWlOW-7Y4CFShWEgodcT7jEg).

I use the Office suite between Mac and PC - PowerPoint, Word, Excel (without any compatability issues......not Access of course, I use Filemaker instead which is hugely superior.

If you are not sure pop into the local Apple store and speak to the experts at the Genius bar. They will give you the facts.
 
I work with Windows and have done since it came out and design software for the Windows platform. At home and for running my business I use a 20" iMac and a 14" iBook, plus a Windows laptop.

I started using Macs about 6 years ago and I do like them, however, they are overrated IMO.

I never had a hard drive fail on any computer until I bought a Mac, plus getting a Mac repaired or upgraded is bloody expensive. I had to get a new iBook battery last month £89 :eek:

I also had to get a Windows laptop so the kids could run their games and apps, mainly because Windows emulation software is crap and slow.

Would I get a Mac again, possibly but I would probably have a damn good look at Sony laptops.
 
I work with Windows and have done since it came out and design software for the Windows platform. At home and for running my business I use a 20" iMac and a 14" iBook, plus a Windows laptop.

I started using Macs about 6 years ago and I do like them, however, they are overrated IMO.

I never had a hard drive fail on any computer until I bought a Mac, plus getting a Mac repaired or upgraded is bloody expensive. I had to get a new iBook battery last month £89 :eek:

I also had to get a Windows laptop so the kids could run their games and apps, mainly because Windows emulation software is crap and slow.

Would I get a Mac again, possibly but I would probably have a damn good look at Sony laptops.
I appreciate your comments apart from one. I have never met anyone happy with a sony...
 
I appreciate your comments apart from one. I have never met anyone happy with a sony...

See I knew we could agree on something before the sun went down - Sony Vaio, eye candy laptops with cheap shite components that do and will fail!!

A company I worked for INSISTED we should equip with vaios as they reflected the 'coolness' of the company - we ordered in over 3 years 20 laptops, of these 16 lasted less than two years, 10 just over the year. Only mine was still going after 3 years. Shready I wouldn't use YOUR money to buy ME one of them - ever! :nono :D
 
See I knew we could agree on something before the sun went down - Sony Vaio, eye candy laptops with cheap shite components that do and will fail!!

A company I worked for INSISTED we should equip with vaios as they reflected the 'coolness' of the company - we ordered in over 3 years 20 laptops, of these 16 lasted less than two years, 10 just over the year. Only mine was still going after 3 years. Shready I wouldn't use YOUR money to buy ME one of them - ever! :nono :D

:aidan, I am sure Andy we could agree on some more stuff too:hug
 
I never had a hard drive fail on any computer until I bought a Mac, plus getting a Mac repaired or upgraded is bloody expensive. I had to get a new iBook battery last month £89 :eek:

A quick look on Dell's website shows that their replacement laptop batteries start at £49 for a 2-cell, going up to £151 for a 12-cell.

I bought a Mac Mini in June and love it - my XP desktop died, so I though I'd give it a go. I still have a Dell Latitude ultraportable, but it feels very clunky using XP on that now, even though I use XP every day at work - I'm just keeping that for if I want to take a laptop away with me.
 
I just put a new seagate 160gb drive into my macbook for about £80 I think.

Took me half an hour to rebuild and restore, easiest computer repair I've ever done. - Right back to having all my files available.

Parts from apple are steep, but consumables like disks are easy to get 3rd party.

I have got a warranty, but it was more trouble to get the disk sorted that way, It's really insurance against the screen going bad.
 
Shready I wouldn't use YOUR money to buy ME one of them - ever! :nono :D

Well that's my lesson of the day:aidan

I must admit to only liking the Sony for the coolness factor :blast

I also use a client's IBM (Lenovo) laptop and I do like that, very small and well built, battery life is also very good.
 
All i know is they work well,they do need a `ram` upgrade usually,they never crash,get a virus,they just simply work well. PM....MVF4 750, known to all as Eddie(toadsbody).
He is an absoulute god when it comes to MAC software and will probebly give you all the downloads you need.
 
+1 on the phrase "It just works".

I took up a career a few years ago that meant I had to use Macs - at first i was a bit edgy but bit by bit I found cool features that made me go "Wow, how simple, why don't windows have this......" :nenau:nenau

I now love working and playing on them. And as people have pointed out already you can load XP or Vista on if you think you'll need it.:roll

My Mum was convinced by me to replace her dying Dell with a Mac a while ago. She liked the look of them and had heard good things but was still a little wary. As a precaution I loaded XP onto it as well so she could jump back if needed should compatability or useability become an issue. She's had to use XP on her Mac........never. She has gone from a computer hater (would put off sending an email because she couldn't get on with Outlook, or it would crash) to enjoying sending out photos of the grandchidren, listening to music on iTunes and doing some work ALL AT THE SAME TIME, with a smile on her face.

Whilst i'm talking about my Mum - she just turned 60 and decided to learn to ride a Motorbike :bow :bow

I'd do it, but wait a few weeks until Leopard is released (You'll like Tiger but will want Leopard if it's as good as they're saying)
 
..er...


as someone who has worked professionally with both platforms since, well ..er.. I remember the Mac Classic as a Business computer (my phone now has a better spec)

I have always had Macs from preference and PCs out of neccessity (it's what the rest of the world uses)

When my 7yr old PC laptop finally died I bought a MacBook Pro and run both OSX and WinXP in Parallels. So one piece of hardware and both operating systems. Best of both worlds.

I'm sure Parallels must have some limitation somewhere, but I'm yet to find it...

You no longer have to choose one or the other, and what's more you can share files between both operating systems.

Working well for me...
 
OK,

now the apple site reckons that iwork08 can read and is compatable with office 07 files, both ways, anyone care to comment?

how does 'mail' comapre to outlook?
 
how does 'mail' comapre to outlook?

Mail is a a mail client, Outlook is a PIM (email/calendar/notes/tasks/contacts).

Mail is as good an email client as you'll wish for - support for multiple accounts fine, compare it to Outlook Express is a direct comparison.

If you use all of Outlook's features then its Microsoft Entourage for you (part of the Microsoft Office family) as the equivalent on Mac, let the others tell you the alternatives, I used it on my Mac and other than some issues with my iPaq requiring something other than Activsynch I noticed no difference.
 
And another one (the wife insists I ask)
can she play the java style games on a mac? bejewled2, zune etc from popcap games
Bit random I realise, but hey if i keep her happy, the 24 in imac will be mine!!
 
My concern would be about compatibility issues if I were to make the switch.

Having used PC’s for 15 years all my data, company accounts, VAT records, letters, medical notes and photographs have been saved using PC software.

I realise that .bmp files and .jpg will open just as easily on a MAC, but what about all the .doc files, excel files, the templates which I have spent years getting just how I want them.

My partner uses MAC’s (macbook pro) when we exchange documents 30% of the time they fail to open, often they will open but loose all formatting information.

Before anyone shouts “you can easily overcome that” she works as a professional proof reader and gets sent files form many sources (PC’s and MAC). She spends hours trying to open incompatible files has has never found a suitable solution except loading Microsoft software on the MAC, which she is reluctant to do (for some reason).

That really frustrates me, and I suppose is what stops me making the switch myself. The only acceptable option seems to be to have a PC and a MAC.

I bought my iMac 5 yrs ago as a job hunting tool when my company IBM laptop went back.

Typed up my CV, started emailing it to people, formatting all to shit. Couldnt solve it.

Bought the student edition of Office for Windows from the Apple website for less than £100. Problem solved:thumb

No issues sending word or excel docs to any other computer. Entourage is really nice to, much nicer than Outlook.

As said before ..............they just work.

Bought a latop to to roam wirelessly around the house but couldn't quite afford an Apple, ended up with a Dell, The iMAc is almost redundant now:(
 
OK,

now the apple site reckons that iwork08 can read and is compatable with office 07 files, both ways, anyone care to comment?

Hi,
Got a MacBook for my wife a few weeks ago. Bottom line - works great, esp for my wife who only wants it (at the mo :mmmm) for photos, email and web. It seems less complicated to her somehow than Windows (XP or Vista) - I suppose cos it all seems more integrated and you don't automatically get a zillion ways you can do anything (which always confuses her, errr and me ).

Re the Office stuff. For our experiences, sure iWork 08 does open Word and Excel, Powerpoint files, but always seems to come up with a message box saying that it found some incompatibilities - usually formatting. The files always seem to have everything in them except for a few colours/ fonts type things.
If compatibility is more important I reckon you'd be better off get Office for Mac. If you've got any kids you can get it for about £100 IRRC.

Rich
 
Well, have just DL andd tried safari for windoze beta, seeems quite good, aa little quicker than my usual browser (FF)

now if someone will just buy that damned dell ill be well in!!
 
Update, sold the dell to a lad at work, just ordered my first foray to th darkside, a 13.3 in macbook, the lowest spec one, but its for the wife.

quick question to all you mac gods out there, how would a 2.4ghz mac with 1gb ram compare to my current P4 3.2ghz with 2gb ram??
 
2.4 = 4.8 as it's a dual core.

If your old one is Hyperthreaded, it's worth about 1.15 real cpus. So it should be about 50% faster in basic cpu terms.

It's also probably got a faster memory bus, and better video card, and will knock spots off it in real application use.

1GB is o.k. for OS X but I'm sorely tempted to stick another 2GB in both my machines now the prices are down to about £20/gb. (www.macsales.com)

:)
 


Back
Top Bottom