Leaving Windows for Mac

[TheCake]

After years of being a PC zealot, spending everyday using them, I'm going to take the plunge and buy my first Mac.

I've been looking over the past few weeks for a new laptop and this reveals problem one, Vista. We use it at work and I hate it with a passion. Every new PC now is coming with it and I've had enough.

Been to the Apple shop again in Oxford Circus to see the new 15" MacBook Pro.

Really love it. Yes its £1,500 for the one I want which is inherently more than I've spent on PC's but not far off it in the past 2-3 years.

Anything I should really be aware of before I make the move?

 

[Graham Gooch]

Yeah you should be aware that it won't crash anymore LOL!

I want a mac, should of got one last time I changed. Will do next time.

 

[Steviant]

ichat!

Oh and u'll never crash or have a virus again!

 

[TheCake]

*Rejoices*

lol.

 

[Tom]

I made the move a while back, being poor i only have a 2ghz MacBook in white.
Awesome machine apart from the odd hang in front row i dont get issues.

i even use it as my tv!

 

[cK]

What problems have you encountered with vista as I was contemplating upgrading to it.

 

[Rich]

Good choice Si.

 

[Griff]

£1500...

Part of me thinks that most of that cost is simply novelty factor. Like the Ipod there's better MP3 players out there but it's "cool", "trendy" and "different".

For that amount of money you could get one hell of a PC based laptop.

 

[Griff]

I made the move a while back, being poor i only have a 2ghz MacBook in white.
Awesome machine apart from the odd hang in front row i dont get issues.

i even use it as my tv!

That looks like some alien ate a load of random bits and bytes and then puked all over the screen.

 

[RichMcc]

I'd rather use linux than mac os... yuk!

 

[GordonD]

Going from Windows to a Mac?

Its sort of like going from a Ford to a Renault.

You feel good that its more exclusive and more stylish, not something everyone else's got, but underneath the technology's exactly the same, so it doesn't do the job any better, in fact Ford's suspensions and Windows PCs chipsets are probably better. And you're less likely to have it broken into, but not because its fundamentally more secure, but because the bad guys will choose the target they know more more about and can do more damage by attacking because there's lots more of them. But when you want to do something to it you find you've got a loss less choice for the same reason, that there's a lot less of them.

And All you Mac snobs, when you are going to give up on this crap about crashes. I haven't seen one on Windows since 1997, and that was only because I was testing a pre-release version of Windows.

 

[sn00p]

Going from Windows to a Mac?
Its sort of like going from a Ford to a Renault.

So you've made the move, given it a couple of months and then gone back to Windows land I presume?

You feel good that its more exclusive and more stylish, not something everyone else's got, but underneath the technology's exactly the same, so it doesn't do the job any better, in fact Ford's suspensions and Windows PCs chipsets are probably better.

Mmmkay. What the hell are you mumbling on about?! :S Please enlighten me.

And you're less likely to have it broken into, but not because its fundamentally more secure, but because the bad guys will choose the target they know more more about and can do more damage by attacking because there's lots more of them.

Except that it is fundamentally more secure by design and it's far better than this "(Fade In), Are you sure you want to do this?, (Fade Out)" want to make me puke crap that vista does.

And All you Mac snobs, when you are going to give up on this crap about crashes. I haven't seen one on Windows since 1997, and that was only because I was testing a pre-release version of Windows.

I've seen more crashes under Windows in the last 5 years than I have Mac OS, infact I've only seen one kernel panic under OS X and that was when I was developing a device driver.

I also lose count of the times I have to kill and restart explorer in windows everytime the shell hangs.

XP was ok, Vista is a horrible mess.

Back on topic...

It'll be the best move you ever make Si.

 

[sn00p]

For that amount of money you could get one hell of a PC based laptop.

But in 5 years time the mac laptop will still be running the latest version of OS X nice and quickly and won't have depreciated that much. I suspect the PC won't be running the latest version of Windows very well and will be virtually worthless.

You pay your money and you take your choice.

 

[Tom]

That looks like some alien ate a load of random bits and bytes and then puked all over the screen.

I just laid it out like that to show what i was running at the time.

Im not knocking windows, i need to use it for work. XP is very stable now but i still get freezes and BSOD's now and then.

 

[cava83]

£1500 is a lot of money, specially as it's an OS that is completely new to you ( I think ) I still find it easier to go around XP than on the mac, but that is only due to the fact that 12 hours a day are on the PC.

You do not need to go for the top 15" model, go for the basic one and save yourself a lot of money.

I do not regret buying mine at all and I am very glad that I have it, however, I wish I was able to use it to it's true potential as I only know a little of the OSX.

The best thing is due to it being intel, when at work, I can bring it in, boot up parallels, and log in the the domain to do all the Active directory stuff and things I need from work, when I need to design, I use the OSX as it DOES NOT crash and runs perfectly alongside with parallels on 2gb of ram.

I have had mine since september, therefore the first MBP released, core duo and not core2duo, so if you get the new one, it will be much faster, but everytime new models will be released so not to worry.

New mac designs for 2008 are supposed to be touch screen, now that will be phat.

I say do it, however, if you have more important needs such as paying of debt, don't buy it and carry on using your PC for the time being....................

 

[furry_cup]

I use a PC at work, 7 days a week, dual core 2 gb ram, blah blah, at least twice i week i have to ctrl alt delete with simple apllications like IE!!

I go home.. us my iMac g5.. look at p**n, download torrent files, do design work on it.. not once has it crashed like the PC does. infact.. i cant remember the last time i had to reboot the thing!

I say do it!! get the Mac.. will take a week or 2 to get used to it, depends how much you use it and what for.. but you wont be looking back.. i tell theee. you'll be amazed

 

[tommyboy]

I'm thinking the same when I've got some money for a Mac of some sort..

Quite like the iMac's

http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObj...mm=browse&mco=CFF34D5F&node=home/desktop/imac

Specced to how I want it on that site, the 24" iMac comes to £2,458...:S

 

[mark__b]

I made the change just before xmas, and now only use my PC for testing. I'm afraid I'm another convert, and i can't see myself going back. I went for the 17 inch MacBook Pro. I thought i'd want to use windows on it too, but i never got around to loading it on because i have no need for it anymore, other than to test that websites work on IE / Firefox etc.

DO IT.

 

[Ang]

I don't agree with gabi....I think you should get the 15" as you know you will want it as soon as you have bought the smaller one, you work all day on a Q1, get yourself a decent screen for home use.
I didnt see you post anything about debt bothering you in regard to spending £1500 on a Mac, but I do know that your laptop(s) are driving you insane and to keep one of them working longer you will need to spend a considerable amount of money on it anyway.
Don't through money at something that isn't worth it. Like I said the other day, I know you are perfectly capable of building your own/repairing the ones you have, but sometimes it just makes more sense to start afresh.
It will be good for you to have both mac and pc in your line of work too.

Buy the Mac.....in fact buy two hehe ...kidding

 

[Tom]

He means the difference between processors isnt much.
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukBusiness?type=bizukPRO&qprm=67752&family=MacBookPro


The better buy is the 2.2ghz(£1299), however if it was me id get the 2.4 because its more pimp.(£1599)

The 17-inch isnt worthwhile as it dont have the new screen setup.

 

[Daz]

I bought a cheap Mac Mini off of eBay and used that to start with. Then I realised it worked pretty well them bought my Macbook Pro.

I didn't wanna spend £1600 on a laptop which I couldn't get on with.. spending £300 on a Mini first (and then selling it for about a £10 loss after I'd ordered by MBP) was a much better idea

 

[sneeks]

I made the change to Mac last October and do not regret it at all, wish I'd bought one of these sooner. Far more reliable than my previous Windows PCs and if required it runs XP and Vista with ease.

I wouldn't contemplate returning to a Windows PC now, it is a horrible clunky OS in comparison IMO.

 

[cava83]

Sorry I meant get the cheaper 15" MBP model, which is £1300

sorry I was a bit vague.

I don't agree with gabi....I think you should get the 15" as you know you will want it as soon as you have bought the smaller one, you work all day on a Q1, get yourself a decent screen for home use.
I didnt see you post anything about debt bothering you in regard to spending £1500 on a Mac, but I do know that your laptop(s) are driving you insane and to keep one of them working longer you will need to spend a considerable amount of money on it anyway.
Don't through money at something that isn't worth it. Like I said the other day, I know you are perfectly capable of building your own/repairing the ones you have, but sometimes it just makes more sense to start afresh.
It will be good for you to have both mac and pc in your line of work too.

Buy the Mac.....in fact buy two hehe ...kidding

 

[cava83]

If you are talking about me, that's exactly what I meant.

He means the difference between processors isnt much.
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukBusiness?type=bizukPRO&qprm=67752&family=MacBookPro


The better buy is the 2.2ghz(£1299), however if it was me id get the 2.4 because its more pimp.(£1599)

The 17-inch isnt worthwhile as it dont have the new screen setup.

 

[James.]

I'd love to make the change but cant really afford it atm.

Are programs as readily available for macs as they are for Windows?

 

[Tom]

Yup.

 

[Daz]

I'd love to make the change but cant really afford it atm.

Are programs as readily available for macs as they are for Windows?

Yep, and if they're not, you can run them in Parallels Coherence mode (www.parallels.com)

Microsoft Visio for example is fantastic, so why bother looking for a substandard alternative instead of using Visio

 

[Tom]

Daz you sure you dont work for parallels?

Or own stock or something?

 

[Daz]

Daz you sure you dont work for parallels?

Or own stock or something?

Hah. No.. it's just a good, well thought out, useful application

 

[sn00p]

I'd love to make the change but cant really afford it atm.

Are programs as readily available for macs as they are for Windows?

Yep, and if they're not, you can run them in Parallels Coherence mode (www.parallels.com)

Microsoft Visio for example is fantastic, so why bother looking for a substandard alternative instead of using Visio

Have you used omni-graffle on the mac? It's bloody brilliant, I used it to make rather spiffing looking flow charts for the user documentation for a piece of windows software.

 

[Ang]

Ok...well in that case just get the best of what is available....don't buy a cheap one for the sake of a few hundred pound...its not worth it in the long run.

Sorry I meant get the cheaper 15" MBP model, which is £1300

sorry I was a bit vague.

I don't agree with gabi....I think you should get the 15" as you know you will want it as soon as you have bought the smaller one, you work all day on a Q1, get yourself a decent screen for home use.
I didnt see you post anything about debt bothering you in regard to spending £1500 on a Mac, but I do know that your laptop(s) are driving you insane and to keep one of them working longer you will need to spend a considerable amount of money on it anyway.
Don't through money at something that isn't worth it. Like I said the other day, I know you are perfectly capable of building your own/repairing the ones you have, but sometimes it just makes more sense to start afresh.
It will be good for you to have both mac and pc in your line of work too.

Buy the Mac.....in fact buy two hehe ...kidding

 

[cava83]

for the sake of a hundred pound you will never stop adding and going over the budget........

2.2ghz or 2.4ghz a normal person will not notice the difference in performance. however the £300 will make difference, that could be the iphone to match with the laptop.

 

[Ang]

If you want the iphone then yeah great...if you dont...then i'd suggest the higher spec is the better option....especially for what the laptop will be used for.

 

[Tom]

Ok, high spec it is then!

Sheeesh!

 

[Griff]

That looks like some alien ate a load of random bits and bytes and then puked all over the screen.

I just laid it out like that to show what i was running at the time.

Im not knocking windows, i need to use it for work. XP is very stable now but i still get freezes and BSOD's now and then.

I know mate.. I guessed you were only showing the various apps running together but it did look messy.

 

[Karen]

ichat!

Oh and u'll never crash or have a virus again!

What have you been doing on ichat? I need to set that up.

 

[Darren S]

Must admit, that G5 we recently bought, did look the part. I'd had no idea what I'd use it for, mind!

The only thing I would have to change with any Mac if I bought one - would be to get a 2-button USB mouse. The whole 1-button Mac thing is just...........wrong.

D.

 

[Karen]

Must admit, that G5 we recently bought, did look the part. I'd had no idea what I'd use it for, mind!

The only thing I would have to change with any Mac if I bought one - would be to get a 2-button USB mouse. The whole 1-button Mac thing is just...........wrong.

D.

I don't mind it but I always squeeze my mouse at work as I'm so used to doing it at home on the Mac

 

[furry_cup]

i have a microsoft 5 button mouse on my imac..

 

[Ollie_Man]

The mac mouse does have two buttons, you have to set it up in the system preferences. You can't see them but they are there.


I've got a 15 button Shuttle Pro :rasp: