PC to Mac

[gojiragirl]

PC to Mac Advice

I'm thinking about changing from a PC computer to a Mac, most likely a Macbook Pro. I was wondering if anyone in here has made a similar change and if they have any advice on buying a Mac or how they made the transition.

 

[Crazy_Uncle]

Re: PC to Mac Advice

I made the switch a few years ago when the PC I built finally died. Bought an iMac and have tried not to look back. I just copied all my pictures, documents and music files to a memory stick and uploaded them to the mac. There are easier way's I'm sure but it worked for me given that the PC was barely working at the time.

Since then I've upgraded the operating system once, to Leopard, and the machine works better now that when I got it. I've never used an anti-virus but do recommend getting the Apple Care Protection just in case something happens to it. My friends tell me that the Macbook Pro's are great laptops so you can't go wrong there. I also recommend the iLife suite as well. With the new version that comes out tomorrow you should be able to upgrade for less than $10 but you really can't beat what you can do with it. I've made some really cool home movies and edited video and it couldn't be easier.

Good luck with your purchase and hope you enjoy using it.

Good luck with

 

[John Picard]

Check out this thread I started http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=78810

I love my Mac

 

[Lindley]

I haven't made the switch (grew up on Macs), but I would point out that you can dual-boot with Windows very easily, so you don't have to give all your old habits up at once if you don't want to.

 

[DontFeedPhil]

I made the switch from PC to Mac about 6 months ago. 2 things Ive noticed. First there are programs or applications that you cant get for the Mac that you may have liked on a PC. But other than that the Mac OS is so much nicer and more streamlined. Overall its much less complicated and much less prone to crashes and program conflicts.
I have noticed that there are less things to do on a mac than a pc. But thats a good thing. What I mean by that is that when I had a PC I spent 60-70% of my time fixing conflicts and reformatting and just overall fixing the computer in general. When I switched to a Mac I noticed that I had all this time to do computer stuff. Or in other words you get to do the things a computer is for.
I love my mac. Ill NEVER buy a PC again. But that said I still do have Vista on bootcamp just for those certain programs that arent available on Mac...

 

[Chess Piece Face]

I made the switch 10 years ago. I now have a netbook with windows on it and every day I think about either putting Linux on it or hacking it for Mac OS because windows is AWFUL. There are little interruptions constantly popping up when I am trying to work. For example, why do I need to see a little bubble that says "you just unplugged a usb cable". I unplugged it. I know it. And if it's there to remind you in case one pops out and you don't notice then that's really bad design because that circumstance would happen 1 time to the 500 that you would unplug it yourself.

Or, why do I have to have a little blinking indicator in the corner telling me that so and so brand trackpad is installed and working? It's the fucking trackpad. I touch it and the cursor moves. I don't give a shit who made it, or what driver is installed.

When you get to the mac, you will start using a user interface that makes sense and it will throw you off at first. Then, about 2 weeks later you will think back to the cluttered, backward, non-intuitive, 3 steps too many interface of windows and you will be amazed that you ever put up with that junky OS.

It's time to shut down the computer, let me think....ok, I'll hit the START button, then click a few more times...

 

[Amaris]

I'm a Windows pro. I've been with Windows operating systems since Windows 3.0 hit the market and know them all inside and out. I made the switch to Mac about a month ago. What is so beautiful about the Mac OS is that it just works. I thought that was just a slogan, and then I started using it, and my God it does everything I want and more. I have OS X 10.5, which is called "Leopard". Leopard has so many utilities and applications already onboard, you're ready to go right out the gate.

If you're like me and are a freeware hound, Mac freeware is plentiful and very high quality. Macs are very secure, and I don't use an antivirus or cleanup program on my system, as it takes care of everything without my intervention. When I got Windows Vista about a year and a half ago, it was fast...for a week, and then it was bogged down. OS X has been consistently fast and efficient since I first powered it up.

Here's my system if you're interested.
It's an iMac Intel Core Duo 1.83 Ghz.
It has a DVD superdrive (burns to DVDs & CDs), 2 GB of RAM, 160 GB hard drive (and I have a 500GB external), a built in microphone and iSight camera, and it's just one powerful machine. It handles DVD authoring, CD burning, movie creation, all sorts of great apps, and I wouldn't trade it for a brand new Vista machine if you begged me.

I mean, this system runs everything so efficiently! Just for fun and to prove to my friend what an iMac can do, I started up my iTunes program, playing some Van Halen, and turned on the visualizer. I started up iMovie, iDVD, Firefox, my Virtualbox (with Windows XP), World of Warcraft, Open Office, my video converter, Photo Booth, and Azure (a P2P program). I started processing a video file, converted a gif file in Pixelmator, downloaded a test file on Azure, made a spreadsheet in Open Office, downloaded updates in Virtualbox Windows XP, copied a data DVD, recorded me and my friend looking at the Mac in Photo Booth, and burned it to another disc. All at the same time.

I was told by my Windows friends that a dual core 1.83Ghz Intel CPU and 2 GB of RAM wouldn't be able to do all of that effectively without system lag. Not only did my system not lag, but as icing on the cake, in the midst of all of this going on, I switched back to my visualizer and put it on full screen, which didn't miss a beat or skip once the whole time. I had a Vista machine with an AMD X2 6400+ processor, 3GB RAM, the whole works, and if you loaded Open Office, Firefox, Nero DVD burning suite (and burned a DVD) and Windows Media Player, the system started to really lag.

I won't be switching back anytime soon.

J.

 

[jgdst]

I made the switch a little over a year ago, and I've got to say, I'm not as enchanted with it as it seems everyone else is.

For doing the stuff I want to do, buying Mac software is prohibitively expensive (not unlike the inital outlay ), and likewise with games. I end up using my MacBook as a convenient portable, for its wireless capabilities, or just a glorified music/MP3 player. I've kept my XP computer to do all my serious work on - including processor intensive stuff, as I've found the MacBook's processor all to easily throws a fit and starts the fans screaming.

I've also had a rather annoying problem where the hard drive will sometimes decide it's unreadable. It'll take forever just to get up the white startup screen, then will eventually show me an icon of a folder with a question mark. Which isn't very helpful at all, and I've found the documentation provided with the laptop is practically useless for troubleshooting. If I didn't already have experience with UNIX systems to run fsck, it's likely I'd still be mashing the keyboard trying to get it to boot up, or at least tell me what the problem is.

It's not been an altogether bad experience for me. Indeed, I like the way all the various software packages are fully compatible and can integrate with one another. Unfortunately, I think it's definitely not been worth the extra money though. Plus, I'd really like the opportunity to upgrade and swap out hardware more easily, rather than being locked into Mac approved configurations (I've heard they're working on this, so I'll wait and see how it goes).

I'm going to give Windows7 a try (after avoiding Vista), but I think my next major OS will probably be a Linux distro - the best of both worlds

 

[Lindley]

Techtool Pro is a pretty good Mac troubleshooting program, and it just came out with version 5. I'd recommend it.

 

[Chess Piece Face]

I made the switch a little over a year ago, and I've got to say, I'm not as enchanted with it as it seems everyone else is.

For doing the stuff I want to do, buying Mac software is prohibitively expensive (not unlike the inital outlay ), and likewise with games. I end up using my MacBook as a convenient portable, for its wireless capabilities, or just a glorified music/MP3 player. I've kept my XP computer to do all my serious work on - including processor intensive stuff, as I've found the MacBook's processor all to easily throws a fit and starts the fans screaming.

I've also had a rather annoying problem where the hard drive will sometimes decide it's unreadable. It'll take forever just to get up the white startup screen, then will eventually show me an icon of a folder with a question mark. Which isn't very helpful at all, and I've found the documentation provided with the laptop is practically useless for troubleshooting. If I didn't already have experience with UNIX systems to run fsck, it's likely I'd still be mashing the keyboard trying to get it to boot up, or at least tell me what the problem is.

It's not been an altogether bad experience for me. Indeed, I like the way all the various software packages are fully compatible and can integrate with one another. Unfortunately, I think it's definitely not been worth the extra money though. Plus, I'd really like the opportunity to upgrade and swap out hardware more easily, rather than being locked into Mac approved configurations (I've heard they're working on this, so I'll wait and see how it goes).

I'm going to give Windows7 a try (after avoiding Vista), but I think my next major OS will probably be a Linux distro - the best of both worlds

1 - It sounds like you are basing this on a machine that is having problems reading the disc - hence the question mark at start up.

2 - Any laptop will send the fans "screaming" when the laptop heats up. My windows laptop, in fact, runs the fans from the second you turn it on - regardless of temperature. I installed a program so I can regulate when they come on based on chip temerapture.

When you say "for what you want to do" and "processor intensive" what do you mean? I know people who use their Macbooks with Final Cut Pro for heavy video editing or CS3 for intensive, large Illustrator and Photoshop work. Their systems are not slowing down or locking up. Are their fans kicking on? Probably, as they would with any warm machine.

3 - You are not "locked in" to any configuration. You can change the hard drive size or RAM any time you want. What else would you like to swap out in a laptop? The screen? And can you do that with an Acer that runs windows?

4 - Software being expensive. Is windows software not expensive too? Personally I have found they are around the same price for similar programs.

All of the things you have said in this post, that lead you not to feel that great about Macs, are not Mac specific problems.

 

[Lindley]

4 - Software being expensive. Is windows software not expensive too? Personally I have found they are around the same price for similar programs.

Older software gets discounted more slowly for Macs, but they start out at the same price in most cases.

 

[jgdst]

1 - It sounds like you are basing this on a machine that is having problems reading the disc - hence the question mark at start up.

2 - Any laptop will send the fans "screaming" when the laptop heats up. My windows laptop, in fact, runs the fans from the second you turn it on - regardless of temperature. I installed a program so I can regulate when they come on based on chip temerapture.

When you say "for what you want to do" and "processor intensive" what do you mean? I know people who use their Macbooks with Final Cut Pro for heavy video editing or CS3 for intensive, large Illustrator and Photoshop work. Their systems are not slowing down or locking up. Are their fans kicking on? Probably, as they would with any warm machine.

3 - You are not "locked in" to any configuration. You can change the hard drive size or RAM any time you want. What else would you like to swap out in a laptop? The screen? And can you do that with an Acer that runs windows?

4 - Software being expensive. Is windows software not expensive too? Personally I have found they are around the same price for similar programs.

All of the things you have said in this post, that lead you not to feel that great about Macs, are not Mac specific problems.

I commented on them as my experience as a Mac user. As a Windows user, I have a tonne of complaints (as does any other Windows user ), but these are the ones that stood out to me as being unique to my experience with a MacBook.

The question mark thing is pretty intermittent, and pretty annoying when it happens, my complaint was that you don't seem to get many onscreen prompts as to the problem. I'm a tech-head, and I like to see proper explanations as to what's going wrong, rather than friendly looking catch-all icons.

I use a Windows laptop at work, running a variety of pretty intensive tasks, as well as one at home but I've never once heard the fans make even a fraction of the noise my MacBook does. The reason I pointed it out is because it's so unexpected in my experience.

Maybe 'locked in' wasn't the best phrase to use, and I wasn't specifically referencing laptops with that, but it is true that I can't get any hardware configuration, get a Mac install disc and expect the OS to run. As I said, I've heard they are working on a more universal version, and I'm looking forward to it coming out so I can give it a try on my main rig.

In my experience, I have found that Mac software is not the same price as its Window counterpart, unless it's cross-platform, and it also doesn't seem to depreciate in value the same as software for Windows, I found this especially true for games - checking out the prices for both platforms on PC World's site or play.com supports this.

The long and short of it is, I am not as enamored with Macs as a lot of people obviously are, I wish I was. And more power to those that are. That was the point of of the OP asking for advice, to get a variety of different opinions. Mine happens to be a minority opinion, I'm aware of this. And I'll be happy to change it if/when I start finding Mac more accessible and suitable for my needs.

 

[Chess Piece Face]

1 - It sounds like you are basing this on a machine that is having problems reading the disc - hence the question mark at start up.

2 - Any laptop will send the fans "screaming" when the laptop heats up. My windows laptop, in fact, runs the fans from the second you turn it on - regardless of temperature. I installed a program so I can regulate when they come on based on chip temerapture.

When you say "for what you want to do" and "processor intensive" what do you mean? I know people who use their Macbooks with Final Cut Pro for heavy video editing or CS3 for intensive, large Illustrator and Photoshop work. Their systems are not slowing down or locking up. Are their fans kicking on? Probably, as they would with any warm machine.

3 - You are not "locked in" to any configuration. You can change the hard drive size or RAM any time you want. What else would you like to swap out in a laptop? The screen? And can you do that with an Acer that runs windows?

4 - Software being expensive. Is windows software not expensive too? Personally I have found they are around the same price for similar programs.

All of the things you have said in this post, that lead you not to feel that great about Macs, are not Mac specific problems.

I commented on them as my experience as a Mac user. As a Windows user, I have a tonne of complaints (as does any other Windows user ), but these are the ones that stood out to me as being unique to my experience with a MacBook.

The question mark thing is pretty intermittent, and pretty annoying when it happens, my complaint was that you don't seem to get many onscreen prompts as to the problem. I'm a tech-head, and I like to see proper explanations as to what's going wrong, rather than friendly looking catch-all icons.

I use a Windows laptop at work, running a variety of pretty intensive tasks, as well as one at home but I've never once heard the fans make even a fraction of the noise my MacBook does. The reason I pointed it out is because it's so unexpected in my experience.

Maybe 'locked in' wasn't the best phrase to use, and I wasn't specifically referencing laptops with that, but it is true that I can't get any hardware configuration, get a Mac install disc and expect the OS to run. As I said, I've heard they are working on a more universal version, and I'm looking forward to it coming out so I can give it a try on my main rig.

In my experience, I have found that Mac software is not the same price as its Window counterpart, unless it's cross-platform, and it also doesn't seem to depreciate in value the same as software for Windows, I found this especially true for games - checking out the prices for both platforms on PC World's site or play.com supports this.

The long and short of it is, I am not as enamored with Macs as a lot of people obviously are, I wish I was. And more power to those that are. That was the point of of the OP asking for advice, to get a variety of different opinions. Mine happens to be a minority opinion, I'm aware of this. And I'll be happy to change it if/when I start finding Mac more accessible and suitable for my needs.

Clearly you have thought this out and you know what you are doing, it appears. It just seemed that some of your complaints may stem from the fact that your macbook is in need of repair. When I read a person on the internet that I know nothing about complaining about the question mark at start up - that is like someone complaining because their engine light comes on in their car, you know what I am saying?

About software prices - I'll admit I do may gaming on consoles, and I have only researched purchases of things like CS3 type programs. It was just my understanding that they were around the same - however I see that games are cheaper on Windows now.

Finally - I respectfully still do not get your issue with hardware. While it is true that you cannot assemble any old mish mash of pieces from newegg.com and expect a mac OS disc to run on it (actually you can, it's called a hackintosh and is not technically supported) - you CAN get any configuration of hard drive, RAM, etc in a Mac.

They are basically the same PC parts as in a windows machine. Perhaps you have say, less options for video cards and maybe you are stuck with the tower design of the Mac Pro (you aren't really) but I don't see the issue here.



Finally, a 2 second google of mac flashing question mark on start up brings a ton of hits.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440

 

[jgdst]

Clearly you have thought this out and you know what you are doing, it appears. It just seemed that some of your complaints may stem from the fact that your macbook is in need of repair. When I read a person on the internet that I know nothing about complaining about the question mark at start up - that is like someone complaining because their engine light comes on in their car, you know what I am saying?

Totally. I probably didn't articulate myself very well in the first place I was trying to fire off a quick post before I had to get back to work.

Finally - I respectfully still do not get your issue with hardware. While it is true that you cannot assemble any old mish mash of pieces from newegg.com and expect a mac OS disc to run on it (actually you can, it's called a hackintosh and is not technically supported) - you CAN get any configuration of hard drive, RAM, etc in a Mac.

They are basically the same PC parts as in a windows machine. Perhaps you have say, less options for video cards and maybe you are stuck with the tower design of the Mac Pro (you aren't really) but I don't see the issue here.



Finally, a 2 second google of mac flashing question mark on start up brings a ton of hits.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440

I have to admit I wasn't aware of hackintosh, but I'll definitely give it a look (thanks for the pointer ). It sounds it could be just what I was looking for.

As for the intermittent hard drive problem, it's probably as you suggest and just a simple repair issue, like a dodgy disk or some really obvious, easily fixable problem I haven't found yet.

The online help for Mac is generally quite helpful, but I'm a Dark Age kinda guy at the moment, and don't have an internet connection at home. I had to rely on my cunning and guile to get into the Unix shell Just a little pointer from some of the documentation or an onscreen prompt similar to the shortcut keys to the BIOS on PCs would've helped.

When all is said and done, I would've much preferred a higher powered MacBook Pro, or desktop equivalent and I'd probably get much more out of the experience, but I never quite manage to have the funds available

 

[Bacl]

As a former PC user I must swear that Mac is where it is at.

And I left before all this Vista crap I keep hearing about.

 

[John Picard]

As a former PC user I must swear that Mac is where it is at.

X2.

And I left before all this Vista crap I keep hearing about.

I never even went Vista and refused to do so.

 

[TheGodBen]

Here's an idea, I will not call Macs crap after only using them a few times if Mac users will stop calling Vista crap after admitting to not using it. Deal?

 

[Gepard]

Here's an idea, I will not call Macs crap after only using them a few times if Mac users will stop calling Vista crap after admitting to not using it. Deal?

How about us Mac owners who use Vista every day at work and find it "meh?"

 

[TheGodBen]

How about us Mac owners who use Vista every day at work and find it "meh?"

If you have used it then you are fully entitled to your opinion of it. I personally do not like Macs, I'm a Windows and Linux guy, and I think that Vista is slightly better than XP and better for my needs than a Mac is. Some people like Macs and I have no problem with that, but I don't like people bad-mouthing what I like when they have not even used it.

 

[Chess Piece Face]

Here's an idea, I will not call Macs crap after only using them a few times if Mac users will stop calling Vista crap after admitting to not using it. Deal?

I'll GLADLY make that deal with you. I think you'll find, as I have, the majority of the people who talk about this subject on the internet fall into one of two categories:

Mac users who have used windows, or who are are forced to use windows at work and are so dismayed and fed up by how bad it is compared to OS X and the fact that seemingly, NOBODY else can see this, so they must tell everyone all the time.

and

Windows users who have either never touched a mac, used a mac for a day, or used it years ago and call it a toy for "fags", even though they mostly use their machines to play videogames and torrents.

Seriously. This is the majority.