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Switching to Mac... Considerations?
stratslinger
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Well, my wife and I have decided that it's finally come time to put one or more of our PC's to rest. Rather than just line up and get (or build) another PC, we're very strongly considering a MAC. Probably an iMac, but I wouldn't completely rule out a MacBook. This is kind of a big leap for me - I'm a professional Windows/Citrix admin by trade - I know my PC's and Windows inside and out, and know close to nothing about the Mac.
So - what's important to look at? We'll probably be picking up Office 2008 for Mac at her college library, so an office productivity suite really doesn't need to be considered. We've got a digital camera that we primarily use on vacations and when we've got a good home-improvement project going on, so managing those photos and such would be cool. I'm a guitarist and I've had lots of fun multi-tracking over the years, so GarageBand looks like fun to dabble with. No music gadgets to speak of (I know, I know, welcome to the late 20th century already...), so those won't really play into any decisions at this point.
Anyway - for a basic, home productivity and schoolwork type of setup, what should I be looking for? Conventional wisdom in PC's has always been more/bigger is better, since the software gets greedier every year or so - is the same the case with the Mac? Is a 2.4 or 2.8Ghz CPU noticibly better than a 2.0? Will one option be OK now, and leave me grumbling 24 months down the road? Is 1GB of RAM sufficient, or do I really need to spring for 2 or 4?
What kinds of stuff am I likely to find on a Mac that I never even thought of, that's going to make me look back and say "Man, I should have added X when I bought the thing!"
This is one of those fun times where I know that I don't even know what I don't know. So help me out!!!
So - what's important to look at? We'll probably be picking up Office 2008 for Mac at her college library, so an office productivity suite really doesn't need to be considered. We've got a digital camera that we primarily use on vacations and when we've got a good home-improvement project going on, so managing those photos and such would be cool. I'm a guitarist and I've had lots of fun multi-tracking over the years, so GarageBand looks like fun to dabble with. No music gadgets to speak of (I know, I know, welcome to the late 20th century already...), so those won't really play into any decisions at this point.
Anyway - for a basic, home productivity and schoolwork type of setup, what should I be looking for? Conventional wisdom in PC's has always been more/bigger is better, since the software gets greedier every year or so - is the same the case with the Mac? Is a 2.4 or 2.8Ghz CPU noticibly better than a 2.0? Will one option be OK now, and leave me grumbling 24 months down the road? Is 1GB of RAM sufficient, or do I really need to spring for 2 or 4?
What kinds of stuff am I likely to find on a Mac that I never even thought of, that's going to make me look back and say "Man, I should have added X when I bought the thing!"
This is one of those fun times where I know that I don't even know what I don't know. So help me out!!!
stratslinger on
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Same with Wintels, speed is important, but you'll get more ROI on more RAM. Please do not buy extrra from Apple. Get it from a 3rd-party and save yourself $$$. The OEM stuff is fine, just tends to be marked up a lot. So yes, I'd go with at least 2, maybe 3-4 if it's not $texas.
Office and browsing is very similer to Windows, with a few differneces. Nothing you won't be able to work out. The iLife set is really the biggest selling point with iMoive/Photo/DVD, and GarageBand. iPhoto overall is an incredible pic organizer; as an editor...not so much.
So overall, just shop for the best you can at your budget, and you'll be fine. I'm sure you've heard Apple fans bitching about sudden price drops/spec bumps, so be prepared.
Someone else here can maybe add when's the best time to buy Apple?
Are you going to use Backdoor (whatever it's called) to run XP/Vista too?
For a new user, Office 2008 is absolutely the way to go. Less impact (having to figure out how iWork works, at first for a switcher, can be jarring) and you don't have to worry about compatibility and such. Since I know someone will come in and note it, Excel 2008 for Mac lacks VBA support. If this is important, say so and someone will explain the possible solutions.
iPhoto is exactly what you need to organize vacation photos and things from your home improvement project (well, photos at least). I have no experience with GarageBand (I have stupid fingers, to quote the Robot Devil) so someone else will have to weigh in.
In the future when you consider a media player, remember that iPod is the only device that's going to painlessly work right on a Mac. This usually isn't a big deal for people to think about.
Well, as with everything, it depends! If you don't plan on doing any powerful stuff such as heavy gaming, DVD archiving (such as with HandBrake) or heavy Photoshopping, I think a MacBook would work fine for you. This is not to say that a MacBook can't handle DVD archiving, Photoshopping or the lot. It just means it's going to run a bit more poorly due to the lack of a dedicated graphics card and a slower processor. Are you comfortable with a laptop as your primary machine? I have a desktop for my power apps and an Air for internet browsing, note taking and paper writing. For processor power, the jump for 2.0 to 2.8 is noticeable, but you should look at the price for the jump from 2.0 to 2.4. Are they asking $225 for that upgrade? I'd pass, personally. Spring for 2GB of RAM. Do any of the Macs even let you get just 1GB now? I'm not sure. Stick with whatever the default is on whatever machine you end up with If you want to do more RAM, buy it from a 3rd party such as Crucial or Newegg. You'll save a couple hundred bucks and it's dead-simple to install (RAM is the one hardware item that is easily extensible on Macs).
It's hard to remember. When I bought my iMac last year, I bought damn near everything at the same time. Office 2004, Parallels (to virtualize Windows within OS X), an iPod, AppleCare... I was pretty well set. Like I said when I started out, don't overthink things. If it seems like there is no way to do something, an indie software developer probably makes a program for you. Just ask over in the Mac thread and someone will be sure to help.
Good luck!
That is, unless we become hardcore Mac zealots, which I can't completely rule out.
Any significant differences (other than the bare-assed obvious) between the iMac and any of the MacBook models?
MacRumors runs a Buyer's Guide for all Apple products that might help you determine your time frame but remember, Apple has been all over the place this year. It's harder to predict upgrades now.
Anyway, if you're adjustable to new metaphors, and not real picky about how your file system works, it would probably be fine. I haven't seen anyone find any good cheap fast alternatives.
I switched to Mac about 1.5 years ago, and I put windows on my macbook just in case. I never boot into Windows. OS X can do everything.
Macbooks are excellent machines if you don't need to run games. They are superbly fast, even for programming which I use mine for and I have databases running on it.
B.net: Kusanku
iPhoto 08 doesn't even show you the folders, it just shows one nice file. You can right/ctrl click and select "show package contents" if you need to.
However, I've never understood this obsession with having to see things in the hierarchal folder. The reason I like iTunes and iPhoto is that you don't have to do that. If you want a copy of a photo, just find it in iPhoto, and either drag it to the desktop or use one of the many export options. After getting used to this you will wonder why you ever put up with mucking about in the folder structure.
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I have to agree there. Often people cry out: "OMG IT IS REORGANIZING MY FILEZ!!1". Well, you can turn this behavior off, if you want to (at least in iTunes) - but its nice not to have to care anymore. I know where my files are and that I can change/export/save/manage the information in other ways if I really want to.
Yesterday I found a new function for my iPod touch - storing maps. I just created an album in iPhoto in order to store maps. Of course they are not transfered in high resolution, but its nice to have a "where do I have to go next" info in my pocket. (especially in Paris)
I have to agree there. At least they can't "upsell" the amount of vRAM in the low end models, because each of them includes the horrible Intel GMA. (except iMacs, but this line isn't a low end anymore) - Oh, I forgot the Apple TV nobody wants includes a dedicated graphic chip for some reason.
Graphics is the biggest one, in my opinion. Other than that, the Hard Drive in the iMac is upgradable, and is faster, IIRC than the Macbook. The screen resolution on the MacBook is a bit too small for me (my wife has one).
Like others said, definitely put more RAM in it. My MacBook Pro has 2GB and I still have huge swap files lying around.
Apple's Time Capsule router is a great investment, IMO. OS X automatically backs up your stuff to a drive, and a time capsule is an 802.11n router with a HD built in that your Mac will find as soon as it joins the network and gets to backing up.
Also, be sure and buy a multibutton mouse if you aren't planning on using the one that was connected to your PC. I very much don't like the Mighty Mouse (although some people like it just fine).
Garageband is way fun, and the iMac has digital audio in, but the MacBook does not, if that matters to you at all. OS X has built in MIDI drivers as well if you have a MIDI controller.
Honestly, whichever one you wind up with, odds are you'll buy the other in time
Just another note : there is some amazing Mac software out there. There's a thread here dedicated to it, I think.
I went with 2gb on my macbook just for web browsing, telnetting and the occasional small coding project as 512mb was not cutting it. Since graduating I really only use mine for traveling and others have given some really good advice so I'll not pile on with anything more than yummy, yummy ram.
Ok, so more reading makes OSX seem like the most bloated RAM hog on the planet. In my experience it's on par with a default XP install as far as speed and use of system resources go, so I don't know if it's the intel/motorola changeover code, but programs themselves seem to eat more than on Windows. 2gb seems plenty though and it's super cheap at this point so it's not quite as big of a deal as the repeated warnings may make it sound.
I've got a possible problem though, and it may be a deal-breaker. The wife was talking to her boss (who's actually the guy who put the Mac idea into her head in the first place). His son just did a big PowerPoint presentation for school. They saved it, from Office 2008 for Mac, as an Office 2000 or Office 2003 doc (whichever was required for the kid's class - the guy's at least savvy enough to understand Office version compatibility). The kid brought the presentation to class and was entirely unable to get it to work from the PC at his school. From the sounds of it, the presentation was fairly complex - lots of pictures and (probably more importantly) sound. I honestly don't have a full picture of what he embedded into this presentation, only that it didn't work on the PC at school.
This Mac is likely to be my wife's primary workspace for her college coursework. Presentation, Spreadsheets, and the ubiquitous Word Doc are all required at one time or another. This still being a mostly Windows world, if her work on the Mac can't easily be turned in to or presented to her professors and classmates, the Mac itself would be useless as a tool.
So - how big a concern should this be? Are incompatibility issues like her boss' son ran into common? Did he just overdo the "special effects" in his presentation, or are there real issues with porting Office documents from Mac to Windows? (If it matters, she'd be copying the presentation onto a USB thumb drive)
Now, I know that all this could be 100% avoided by using Parallels and just running Office from a Windows session - but I think that's going to complicate the use of the computer for my wife, which will lead to her not using it and me grumbling about it.
No, this is not common, not at all. In fact, I'd want to know more about the Powerpoint file, because that just doesn't sound right. Powerpoint should still be able to open the damn thing. In 2.5 years I've never had a single compatibility issue with a windows file, either to the Mac or from the Mac.
Your only compatibility issue is going to be Excel spreadsheets that use Macros. If you need Macros on the mac, you should get the older version of Office (2004). it will run in Rosetta (read: the Power PC emulation layer), and will be a little slower than a native app, but it will work fine. Office 2008 for mac doesn't support Visual Basic Macros... (and by all accounts, it seems Office 2008 is slower native than 2004 was in Rosetta!)
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I create presentations for my masters classes and I work on a mac, but the classes are invariably using a windows computer for the projector hookup. So as a backup I just print it as a PDF. It's not as sexy, but make it fullscreen and it's perfect as a backup replacement.
However, if your wife uses .mov for video and .wav for audio, she won't have any problems. She should use Windows fonts, like Arial and Times, instead of the abundance of fonts available on a Mac, but that's true for *anything*, not just OSs.
She can do all of her work on a Mac, just set up a shared folder called "PC Dropbox" or something on your existing PC. OS X will automatically detect the PC (as long as you tell it what the Workgroup is called) and mount the drive once she clicks on it in Finder.
Then she can just drag the file over and open it in Windows to make sure no weird issues occured. This isn't so much an OS X thing as a software thing in general, because if she's going to be making Powerpoint presentations in Office 2008 and exporting to Office 2003, there's always a possibility of some weird issue popping up, from formatting to images to whatever.
If your existing PC is a desktop, then going for a MacBook would be my suggestion. Seriously, sexiest damn laptops on the market, you'll want to take it everywhere with you. So comfortable to just surf the 'net with the two-fingered scrolling on the trackpad. I swear, with that feature and the keyboard shortcuts, I only ever use a mouse for gaming.
One last thing, do not under any circumstances buy an Apple Mighty Mouse. I love Apple products, but that thing is a retarded abortion of overdesign and underperformance. Seriously, it is not possible to use the left and right buttons at the same time, the entire body needs to be depressed to work the main buttons, and the nipple wheel clogs up with crap and becomes unusable. Only Apple product I ever regret buying.
Wha... huh? Are you trolling here or what?
Still though, the point is that it does exist and it's a $1000+ computer that cannot burn DVDs, which is a bit silly at this point.
- Get to know and love iLife. And download and play with iWork - it does thing s very differently to Office but in many respects is better. The only real problem is compatibility (I export everything as PDF to get round this)
- As many people have said, get used to iPhoto an iTunes (hell, alot of Mac apps) handling where to store files and let them. Once you get used to it it really is like using a computer somebody has actually bothered thinking about, and you'll wonder how or why you ever bothered dicking about with clever folder trees.
- The Mighty Mouse is pure shit. Luckily just about every mouse ever works in OS X without installing the Lolitech / whoever shiteware (do not install this shit)
- If you get stuck, stop trying to do it the Windows way and think abut it logically. Tha answer is probably the one that makes the most sense.
- Similarly, if you want to start getting quicker, do whatever you think wil work quicker. Chances are it will work (for example, opening a file - just drag it onto an application. Or saving an image from Safari - just drag the image onto your desktop)
-Again, as many have said, use OS X features like Spotlight, Time Machine and Expose. Expose in particular (if you bind it to a spare mouse button especially) you will wonder how you ever lived without, and will be trying to use it within Windows I guarantee you.
- And please post any questions in the Mac Thread. We really lovely lovely people, and never mind answering questions.
Your argument is weak: you're saying students buy what they need, and they get a free iPod too. But for some reason, they should also have some feature that they never use in that laptop too. O_o
I can count on one hand the number of DVDs I've burnt in my life. 3 of those were purely data.
Buying the base anything is silly. But buying what you need is fine, and if it works for people to have the base model, so be it. If we want to complain about upselling, let's talk about the price difference between the Macbook and the Macbook Pro for the people that just need any graphics chip whatsoever.
http://www.opensourcemac.org/
Make sure the first thing you turn on is Hot Corners though. So many times now I have had to help someone new with their Mac (user error, not hardware) and I feel lost without being able to flick the pointer into the corner to expose all the running application windows. Still can't believe it is never turned on in shop display models, as the first thing I show any potential Mac owner is a combination of Spaces and Expose with lots of apps open. It just blows their mind to see how easily I can flick around to find the things that I want. Pure eye candy, but so incredibly functional too.
You know you can set that in the spaces panel of the system preferences, right? You can also set it so you can switch directly to particular spaces with control + space#, or however else you want to do it. I use that all the time and it's great.
Bight up
Bright down
Expose
Dashboard
F5
F6
Rewind
Play/Pause
Fast Forward
Mute
Volume Down
Volume Up
Eject
May as well use F5 or F6 to fire a spaces command, and put a nice logo on it.
On the Air, it goes like this:
Brightness Up
Brightness Down
Expose
Dashboard
Keyboard Brightness Down
Keyboard Brightness Up
Rewind
Play / Pause
Fast Forward
Mute
Volume Down
Volume Up
Eject (not an F-key)
I don't actually use F5/6, so I could map one there. Just would be nice if Apple decided Spaces was important enough to have its own key, like Expose and Dashboard.
I was just saying that the $1100 Macbook does, in fact, exist and is a viable machine for some people. Saying, "Oh, no one should buy that one or even acknowledge that it exists," does not dismiss the issue. Instead, it validates that you think that the product is not worth buying without the features in the upsell. DVD burning is basically an expected feature even in laptops that cost well below $1000 now, which is where typhoon's complaint originates from. Not everyone needs DVD burning and that's fine, but I don't think his comment was really that unreasonable. Anyway, I think we have both made our points, so I am going to drop this now because I don't want to de-rail any further.
And yes, I would love to see a Macbook with a dedicated GPU in it. Or maybe a 13" Pro. I like the form factor of 13" laptops, but I also like to have dedicated GPUs in them.
Sorry, I didn't realize we were being so pedantic over here. I expect shit like this from D&D, but not here. So, to clarify:
For the subset of Mac users that I know and have personally conversed with, I have not come across one that has complained about 1) the lack of DVD burning on the lowest end Mac laptop and/or 2) owns the lowest end Mac laptop. This subset of users should not be considered representative of the entire population of the internet nor popular (or any) opinion on Apple products.
Christ I hate the internet sometimes. People love shoving words down your throat. I feel like I should have a damn disclaimer in my sig.
I don't have Leopard yet so I don't know how spaces interact with them, but after getting used to Hot corners, I don't see how anyone can use the keyboard to invoke Dashboard or Expose, even on a desktop....Seriously,, they are the best thing since slice bread.
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Darn, is this true? I was thinking of upgrading my copy of excel just because the lag is so annoying (having to wait half a second for clicks to register is not very efficient). I might have to consider running it on my xp virtual machine and see if it works better.
More on topic: as one who has switched over to os x, I can say the transition has gone quite well. I still use windows, but only for the few programs that I need that aren't available in OS X. In general I like the way they've implemented some features (expose and quick look come to mind). They might look flashy, but they're real time savers. Expose works so well, I no longer care that I have less desktop space than I used to (even a single monitor is comfortable for me), and I haven't even bothered trying out spaces yet either.
Also, I have to add another vote for getting more RAM, it really helps the performance. But don't get it from Apple- they charge something like $400 for an extra 2G on the MBP, but if buy your memory from crucial instead (which is probably not the cheapest place to begin with), you can get the whole 4G for $100. Apple doesn't really have an excuse here- even if you're afraid of screwing up, you can afford to screw up 8 times and still come out ahead (because you can sell your old RAM).