Mac People

[Sycamore Chins]

Okay, so I am preparing for *the switch* from PC to Mac. I have been thinking about this long and hard as I am quite devoted to my Dells. But I need a lighter/smaller computer with the same capabilities for vet school and I just can't find that in a Dell, or any others for that matter. They also give the largest student discount that i've found.

I have a bazillion questions and no apple store within an hour! YUCK!

Hopefully some of you can help out? Especially those that have made the switch as well!?

1. Is the Macbook Pro realllllly worth the extra $200?
2. Is iWorks significantly comparable to Office? I do A LOT of word processing and excel spreadsheets - pretty much every facet of my life is in excel, i'm a major number cruncher.
3. This VMWare Fusion - it says you can bring all your applications over - does this include things like Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver? Office? Do you need anything else to run along with Fusion?

Any suggestions for a newbie mac owners? I'm sure i'll remember more questions later.

Thanks!

 

[Rebecca]

1. Is the Macbook Pro realllllly worth the extra $200?
2. Is iWorks significantly comparable to Office? I do A LOT of word processing and excel spreadsheets - pretty much every facet of my life is in excel, i'm a major number cruncher.
3. This VMWare Fusion - it says you can bring all your applications over - does this include things like Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver? Office? Do you need anything else to run along with Fusion?

1. In my opinion, yes it is. My advice would be to go to the Apple store (I know it's far away, but worth it for the sizable investment) and test both machines. I'm on a Macbook, but I get the feeling Pro has more longevity.
2. I would suggest buying Word for Macs. The student package is relatively cheap, and in my experience it runs exactly like Word on PCs.
3. No idea. Sorry.

Also, if you can wait until summer, they usually offer deals like buy a computer, get a free iPod.

 

[cmor1031]

I have a MacBook Pro (kinda didnt choose to get it, my black macbook was stolen out of my apartment:waiting: and I had to get a new one FAST since it was a week before finals week) and I decided to get the pro just because I HATE the way the new MacBook looks and feels. But that is just my personal opinion.

Also, I thought iWork was pretty strange so I just got Microsoft Office since I've been using it forever and wanted to be working with an app I was used to.

The only thing I don't like about the Pro (but I think it is the same with all new Mac laptops) is how the trackpad and the clicker are one piece (you might have to go see one in a store or someone elses to see what I mean)

Other than that, I love my Mac )

 

[Becky]

I wouldn't buy software at all. Open office is free and is pretty much exactly the same. I don't like iWorks.

I have a Pro at work and a Macbook at home. I don't notice any difference at all.

I can't answer your other question, because I have always had a Mac. Normally, software doesn't transfer from PC to Mac, although that has gotten better.

 

[Sycamore Chins]

Thanks everyone!

I would wait till the summer but I have to get it before I graduate MSU - if I do need to buy any software (Dreamweaver, photoshop, that type of thing) my MSU student discount is wayyy better than my VA Tech discount. They do have macs in stock at the computer store on campus - maybe I could try them out there. I'll have to look into it.

That's also why i'm realllly trying to figure out what I can transfer over with VMWare fusion - it's only $35 bucks at MSU and if I could use all my PC programs through that it would save LOADS of money!

 

[Sesame]

My boyfriend is in the market to buy a MacBookPro too. There's rumor that they will be releasing an updated processor MacBook/MacBook Pro. There's mixed reviews of the speculated release date and right now all the attention is on the iPad (a waste of money imo). One of the rumored release dates coincides around when the iPad will be released.

I would highly suggest getting the MacBook Pro. You have the opportunity to upgrade your hd (I think it was hd...) amongst other things. The regular MacBook, you don't have this option; Meaning, your regular MacBook will degrade in specs faster as newer laptops come out.

Also, if you happen to run a lot of heavy programs, the regular MacBook will not give you speed of ease you want. It was recommended by the Apple store sales rep, that we just buy either the high end 13" MacBook Pro or the low end 15" MacBook Pro since we wanted the option of possibly upgrading the MacBook Pro in the future, but we don't necessarily use a lot of photo editing/video editing programs.

 

[Stackie]

It looks like most of your questions have been answered..I just wanted to say that I switched from PC to Mac a couple years ago and I would never go back! I got the Macbook Pro and I love it. It is definitely worth the extra money.

 

[3CsMommy]

As a side note: if you have any lower tech portable devices like USB drives, external hard drives, etc. that have been used in a PC first, they might not work in your Mac. Windows systems weren't smart enough at the time to run a Mac-synched drive when I last used one, so unless you've only run Vista or v. 7 of it, you may end up in the market for a new jump drive/external HD unless you can completely reformat your existing ones. I'd ask at the Apple store to be sure.

 

[CerLynn]

I made the switch a little over a year ago, and I honestly don't think I'll ever go back...

1. I'd definitely recommend the MacBook Pro, if only for the aluminum casing. I have two friends with the white MacBooks and both had problems with the casing around the keyboard cracking - a known issue. I have an aluminum 13" MacBook and love it, but unfortunately it's not available anymore.

2. I'd go with MS Office, especially if you need to ensure compatibility with PCs.

3. VMware (or any virtual machine) basically runs Windows as a program "within" your Mac, so you can run Windows programs there. If you have the applications you want to use on your Mac in Windows already, you'll need to make sure you still have and can reuse the registration key. One thing to be aware of is that programs may run slower in a VM (not sure about VMware, I tried a couple other free demos) - I wanted it to use the Windows-only program we use to capture and process images with our microscope in lab (a very resource-intensive program), and found it really just couldn't function in a VM. If you're in the market to buy particular programs anyway, make sure they don't have a Mac version (there is a Mac version of Photoshop/Adobe suite).

Also, yes it is true that some USB/storage devices are formatted to be Windows-only or Mac-only (and some have more "universal" file systems, like FAT/FAT32), but as long as you have somewhere else to temporarily store what's on the drive, you can reformat it to an appropriate file system.

Good luck and enjoy!!

 

[Spoof]

1. Is the Macbook Pro realllllly worth the extra $200?
For me it is. I live for the backlit keyboard. I use mine for work, eg Photoshop, Dreamweaver, random programming (textwrangler is good and free) and WoW. I went from the original 15"MBP that was 4 years old to a new 13.3" this year. The difference in price was almost $1,000 cheaper though I'm not a fan of the new plastic keys, but I'm loving the 7 hour battery!

2. Is iWorks significantly comparable to Office?
Open office all the way. Completely compatible with all formats and backwards compatible with versions of Word that even Word won't open now. And it's FREE! (www.openoffice.org)

3. This VMWare Fusion - it says you can bring all your applications over - does this include things like Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver? Office?
It's not really "bringing it over", you run it, feed it a Windows DVD it installs Windows for you, then you load stuff on it. It's like having a windows box in your mac. I have it running XP, Server 2003 and Windows 7 on my Mac Pro.

Do you need anything else to run along with Fusion?
Your flavor of Windows, or whatever OS you pick. I want to try Google Chrome when I get time.

I recommend buying the mac version of Adobe Web suite, Mac is it's native platform.

I did the same thing you're doing four years ago with my first MBP. I had Windows on it with bootcamp (free) and went through all the hooplah of installing it and never used it. I never found anything I couldn't do. Eventually got rid of my desktop PC and got a Mac Pro because it could run all of my servers and stuff right there. I also love the longevity of them, it is now 3 years old and I just dropped 8gig ram in it for a total of 14 and it screams. I can go up to 32 gigs if I really wanted to spend the quid. 14 is enough to dedicate 2-4gigs of ram to each VMware program.

 

[Spoof]

Wanted to say that if you have a PC version of the Adobe products and you can upgrade they will allow you to upgrade to a different platform, just call them.

 

[Sycamore Chins]

Wanted to say that if you have a PC version of the Adobe products and you can upgrade they will allow you to upgrade to a different platform, just call them.

AWESOME! I will definitely be doing this - I have Photoshop 7.0 and then Adobe Web Standard CS3 - so both would be up for upgrading!


Thank you everyone for your help!

Another q:

1. How is the keyboard 'set-up' i guess you could say. Are they all little individual keys with space inbetween and underneath? I have a bad habit of shuffling papers on my Dell keyboard and popping off keys - sometimes breaking the keys.

 

[Melissa]

Another q:

1. How is the keyboard 'set-up' i guess you could say. Are they all little individual keys with space inbetween and underneath? I have a bad habit of shuffling papers on my Dell keyboard and popping off keys - sometimes breaking the keys.

They make plastic covers for the keyboard for laptops and PC keyboards so Im sure they will make one for a Mac to help make it a continuous surface to avoid keys from popping off/breaking and dirt from getting in.

 

[Spoof]

You would have to work very, very hard to get the new (or old) mac keys off. The new ones are not poppable short of a pair of needle nose and some serious prying.

 

[mapache315]

The keys are separate, but like Spoof said you'd have to try to get them off. They aren't like normal keys.

If you are used to using Word etc, then stick with it. iWorks is great, but it is different.

 

[Snoepgoed123]

if you are going back and forth between a pc and mac I would suggest you stick with word. I love Iworks... but I cannot transfer what I did on my Mac to my pc. For example if I started writing a paper for class, and wanted to print it on the school computer, it wouldn't be possible because pc's don't support Iworks.

 

[Sycamore Chins]

Thanks guys! We bought my MacBook Pro today - I actually got the upper level 13" because mom insisted I would need the increased memory and processor, etc. She was paying (although i have to pay her back) so i went along with it - not like she had to twist my arm :lol:

I also did buy office - 65 bucks wasn't too bad. Waiting on the photoshop/dreamweaver stuff as I will still have my other laptop around for a bit.