Alright... Going Mac... Thoughts?

[Moto-Brian]

I am pretty much going to convert to Mac. I am going to keep one PC, but will be getting a MacBook Pro and a iMac for the desk stuff....

Now, the big issue is what should I get? I am really just thinking entry level and trying them out and running with them for a while. Grabbing some graphics programs as I am currently running Freehand, Illustrator, Photoshop, etc...

Anyways, want to hear reasons not to or reasons that I should. Pretty much no deals to be had out there on these things. Any suggestions to add or to avoid?

[ohdaho]

apple normally does a student program if youre not in a rush in which they give a free iood touch. be sure to use the student discount/education site...theres no verification process online. slight discount...but its something.

I love my 13in MBP. its perfect for what i need to do...school work and general shit. openoffice is wonderful.

[RSVDon]

Macmall.com

I have a 15" MacBookPro. Aside from batteries, I love it.

[fusion]

I can't think of a single reason to move to a Mac.

[natedogg624]

be prepared for teh mac vs pc war...

it seems as though you are already set in getting mac which is great! i switched from pc to mac and looking back it was probably the best decision, the platform/os is extremely simple to use (difficult at first coming from pc) and everything just works. -- mostly because apple controls everything. no stupid error messages or viruses, its extremely trustworthy. no spyware to slow it down, its running the same performance numbers today as it did when i first unboxed it, without the need for any virus scans etc.

the quality of the machine and the looks are second to none, no plastic or oddities. screen is amazingly clear.

aside from the price its the best piece of tech i have in my house along with other apple periphs.

as for your questions: the program i am running are

iwork -- this is the mac version of office, all file formats are compatible so no worries about sending files to a pc friend. really out of all this i only use keynote mostly because of how seamlessly it works with keynote remote app for iphone/itouch especially since im doing a lot of presentations now with school. the numbers (excel) program is actually pretty sweet, but i dont use it enough.

ilife -- this new version they released (should be included on your mbp) is just awesome. iPhoto is really a great tool now that they added some cool features that you can see on the apple website showcasing the software.

of course microsoft office -- even though its the same as iwork, there may be some instances where it may be necessary to pull something from here out.

plex -- THE BEST movie/media viewing entertainment software you will find bar none. best part is its free

standard vlc movie player for your quick movies when you don't want to dive into the plex experience

final express for serious movie editing, or if you just want simple, iMovie that is included in iLife is really great now as well

any adobe software (photoshop, fireworks, illustrator, etc...) work seamlessly on the mbp.

parallels for when you want to jump over to windows to run that exe file real quick, this allows you to run the windows os as an application within mac os, pretty cool actually.

if you're into torrents:

transmission for torrents

frostwire for quick individual songs

other than that, i just started using bento which has a lot of cool little things that looked good at first, haven't really used it enough to say yay or nay, just putting this out there.

enjoy and hope this helped.

Edited November 19, 2010 by natedogg624

[jblosser]

I am pretty much going to convert to Mac. I am going to keep one PC, but will be getting a MacBook Pro and a iMac for the desk stuff....

Anyways, want to hear reasons not to or reasons that I should.

So, on the one hand you state you're moving to Mac, and have picked out what you're gonna get.

Then you appear to maybe/sorta want someone to talk you into it or out of it...

I would ask what you're wanting to do with your computer(s), and at what level. You state that you use Freehand, Illustrator, and Photoshop. Freehand is discontinued, but the other 2 are available on either Mac or Windows, so availability of software is not an issue.

I'm wondering what "revelation", for lack of a better word, is driving this idea. Is it just an impulse, or...?

Both OS's have their good and bad points; they've been debated here and elsewhere ad nauseum so I won't delve into that.

I guess I need more information before I can render (pun intended) an opinion or offer much useful advice, other than this: If you're still somewhat on the fence (as it appears), get a year old MacBook Pro for < $1,000, try it out for a week or two or a month. If it seems to be the right way to go, then go get a new(er) one, sell the "trial" machine for what you paid for it. If Mac isn't what you thought it would be, sell it for what you paid for it. It's a win/win, again, pun intended.

My underlying tenet: "If it ain't broke, don't break it".

My $0.022 worth.

Edited November 19, 2010 by jblosser
extraneous 'a'

[mhallam85]

I have no idea what people with PC's do to them to screw up but Iv hardly ever have any problems.

[Moto-Brian]

So, on the one hand you state you're moving to Mac, and have picked out what you're gonna get.

Then you appear to maybe/sorta want someone to talk you into it or out of it...

I would ask what you're wanting to do with your computer(s), and at what level. You state that you use Freehand, Illustrator, and Photoshop. Freehand is discontinued, but the other 2 are available on either Mac or Windows, so availability of software is not an issue.

I'm wondering what "revelation", for lack of a better word, is driving this idea. Is it just an impulse, or...?

Both OS's have their good and bad points; they've been debated here and elsewhere ad nauseum so I won't delve into that.

I guess I need more information before I can render (pun intended) an opinion or offer much useful advice, other than this: If you're still somewhat on the fence (as it appears), get a year old MacBook Pro for < $1,000, try it out for a week or two or a month. If it seems to be the right way to go, then go get a new(er) one, sell the "trial" machine for what you paid for it. If Mac isn't what you thought it would be, sell it for what you paid for it. It's a win/win, again, pun intended.

My underlying tenet: "If it ain't broke, don't break it".

My $0.022 worth.

Well, we need a laptop and it got me thinking. I have a laptop for work and one that I used before, but we need a new one... So, it got me thinking it was time to consider an Apple...

Then, both PCs that I had built and rebuilt are at the same stage they were a year ago. Trojans, viruses, etc. It's a pain in the ass and if anyone knows me well enough, they know I am impatient. I'm tired of every year having to take the thing, drop it off to a guy and be w/o for weeks...

I also used Macs when I was doing graphic design stuff (Hence the outdated Freehand) and really seemed to not hav much issue other than memory space.

Did have some crash issues when running a lot of heavy programs at once, but I cannot think that will be the case at home. Essentially, I will do light design stuff for myself and friends, but nothing industrial, if you will... Pretty much just at home and using on a daily level. I do a lot of Excel, Word, PDF stuff, etc. It'll primarily be for my work and my wife's work.

That being said, I don't want to be sitting there in a year wishing I had more memory and more speed... I was looking at the entry level 21.5" iMac and the 13" entry level Mac Book Pro.

I guess what I was asking in this thread was:

1) Are these good for heavy office based stuff.

2) Are these entry level versions sound enough and going to be quick enough, have enough memory, etc... I mean, I have a 32GB iPhone and it is maxed... I don't want what I have with the iPhone here with the iMac... Know what I mean?

3) Yes, it sounds like I am sold on Mac, but if someone has a credible response to make me think otherwise, I am open to listening. I'm not interested in the PC vs Mac solely because it is what you're used to and you are afraid of change. I get enough of that when people talk iPhone...

Anyways, clear as mud, right?

[Moto-Brian]

I have no idea what people with PC's do to them to screw up but Iv hardly ever have any problems.

Well, it is a big issue, but I think a lot has to do with a lot of internet use and these BS attachments that come with anything you download or install... Maybe i am wrong and it is really based on my 11 year old playing games online... I go to maybe 6 sites a days multiple times... Nothing else...

Whatever it is that is the cause, I have friends with the same scenerios with PCs. I also have friends with the same "environement" with Macs and have zero issues...

[flounder]

For the average person Macs a great because you dont have to worry as much about all the BS on the net however that landscape is changing as well.

They are great devices however I dont think their cost matches their product.

You are basically buying into the Apple cult no different then the Harley products.

[Dubguy85]

My wife and I bought a Macbook pro about 6 months ago and love it.. Usually when we cant figure out how to do something, we google it and find the answer... Its hilarious to see how we have been trained to do something on a PC that seems normal but WAY over complicated. Such as start programs documents bla bla bla... It just doesn't have to be that hard... Macs are sweet, and have had zero problems... We love it..

[fusion]

I have no idea what people with PC's do to them to screw up but Iv hardly ever have any problems.

+1

Everyone in my home has a Windows box including my 9 and 14 year old. Their PC's never have problems, my wife never has problems and I never have problems with mine. I have more issues with my Ubuntu boxes than my Windows boxes.

When I did support back in the day we saw at least as many issues with Macs if not more. These days I only handle stuff on our NIPR side and in 8 years we haven't had a single issue with a Windows desktop or server that wasn't hardware related.

It's not the Windows box causing the problem it's usually the stupid user.

I run Adobe CS5 Production Premium on one of my (Win7 64-bit) workstations with zero performance issues.

[RSVDon]

Who doesn't like Macs?

http://macenstein.com/default/archives/mac-chick-of-the-month/

[curby]

best thing you can do. I've had macs since they were still Apples. lol since 1996

Sounds like your buying new. but if you go for an older G5 or something just make sure it's a Intel. All mine are PowerPC's and i cannot update past 10.5.8...

[obesityrules]

I am pretty much going to convert to Mac. I am going to keep one PC, but will be getting a MacBook Pro and a iMac for the desk stuff....

Now, the big issue is what should I get? I am really just thinking entry level and trying them out and running with them for a while. Grabbing some graphics programs as I am currently running Freehand, Illustrator, Photoshop, etc...

Anyways, want to hear reasons not to or reasons that I should. Pretty much no deals to be had out there on these things. Any suggestions to add or to avoid?

I am in the processes of doing the same conversion. I am currently using an ipad to read scientific journal articles in pdf format (papers for ipad app.) and will be purchasing a macbook pro to sync the app with. The plan is to keep my desktop pc for all my pc based applications/games and then buy a docking station so i can also use my macbook pro with a larger monitor, regular keyboard and mouse. ( link to docking station: http://hengedocks.com/ ). the thing i like about the macbook is you can use mac only applications and also run windows bases applications through an emulator or parallels.

btw i would wait until q1 2011 to purchase a mbp as they are due for a refresh.

Edited November 19, 2010 by obesityrules

[curby]

why not run windows as secondary OS? you can dual boot windows and OSX

[Tpoppa]

PC > Mac

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZGIn9bpALo

[natedogg624]

you will have no problem with these new mbp running what you need to with office software or adobe products. maybe not all at the same time on teh laptop, but you'll know if its too intense before it ever comes close to crashing.

if you need more memory, all laptops, pc or mac, have expandable ram slots these days. easy to buy bigger ones off the web or at the store and slot in new ones.

or if by memory you mean hard drive space, same deal, both pc and mac have easy to upgrade hard drives. matter of fact, i had a 1Tb internal from my old pc laptop that i installed into my new mac laptop no problem (other than reformatting).

[John]

[fusion]

She also has mentioned that if it weren't for the thousands of dollars invested in design software' date=' her next box would be a PC. The upgrades are cheaper than buying new windows software, I guess.

[/quote']

What software does she have that doesn't have a W7 equivalent?

[fusion]

Adobe Creative Suite Premium

I know it's out for Windows' date=' but she'd have to buy a whole new suite (~$1500), instead of just upgrading for a couple hundy.[/quote']

Not true. They will let you change platforms. I asked when I was running Creative Suite and they said no problem. I've since switched to Production Premium since all our web/web application development we do in other tools since we do a bit more beyond your basic web development.

[RSVDon]

I have a Mac. I have a large penis. This thread is retarded.

[Moto-Brian]

I agree, but if rendered useless after a year due to spyware, trojans, viruses, etc., I have to have the damn thing fixed and pay a guy to do it, probably have to upgrade sooner rather than later and overall, I end up spending the same... Buddy has had Macs and the only reason he buys a new one every once and again is to step up to newer technology. But, he doesn't a whole lot due to he uses them for home based stuff...

No issues... I'm not going to argue price. At this stage, I don't care of the price. It has to work, work well and do the same thing...

According to this grid above, they both do the same thing and the same results. May cost more, but to prevent me from pulling it out of the wall due to freezing up, etc., and throwing it into the windshield of my neighbor's car, it's worth the extra cash...

[alienpi]

I have a mac and pc, and I go through stages where i'll just use the pc for a few weeks and then the mac for a few weeks. There both pretty fast, and both have Antivirus programs. I use Sophos free edition for the mac and Eset Smart Security for the pc.

[Moto-Brian]

Ok, Mac guys... What do I need to look for on these iMacs? I see different GHz and obviously different memory, etc...

Best choice for mild graphics stuff and basic business (excel, word, etc)?

I was looking at 21.5", but for $300 and the same processors, memory, etc I can get 27"

As for the Macbook Pro, I really am not sure on a small 13.3" screen... But, the price jumps big to the 15.4"...