Any MAC users???

[tommy p]

I'm just wondering how hard they are to get used to and what cool software they come with. I know they have Garage Band and something called MovieMaker (???). Are they useful/intuitive? Does a MAC read files from Windows Office products with its Pages and Numbers apps?

Da da da, de de de, and whatever the hell else you wanna throw it there...

[mathman]

All macs come with iLife, a suite of programs for creating digital content. iPhoto for photos, garageband for music/podcasts/ iMovie for movie making, iTunes for music storage, iDvd for creating great looking dvds of your movies/pictures.

iWeb for webpages.

iWork is an extra suite of programs that can be bought for a discount with a new mac. About $40 when purchased with the computer. Pages is similiar to word and can open .doc files. Numbers is a spreadsheet similiar to excel and Keynote is for powerpoint. All three have nice features and integrate fully with the iLife software.

Makes it easy to pull photos, movies and music to use in presentations, documents etc.

All the software shares its data with the other programs easily.

You can also buy upgraded versions such as Logic or Logic express for music, Final Cut Express or Final Cut Studio for Movies.

You will probably love it. Go to an apple store and check one out if there is a store near you.

[geoff_hartwell]

Go Mac, Bro.

I had to use PC's in college, and it was a ho-hum kind of experience peppered with times of agonizing frustrations from the limitations and constant struggles.

MACS RULE. I went iBook, and recently MacBook Pro and life is so much easier.

PC's will be cheaper in the short run, will then suck and make your life miserable. The Mac software is designed to be easy and automatic - it recognizes devices immediately when you plug them in, etc.

The iMac is KILLER if you need a desktop, and the MacBook Pro is AMAZING if you need a laptop.

Geoff

[polara]

I use a Windows box at work but Macs at home. Both work but I prefer Macs for most things. Well, everything. Stuff is more often plug-n-play, fewer driver issues, fewer font issues, fewer sound and video card issues. If you just use the iLife stuff it comes with you'll be making multitrack recordings and good home movies pretty fast. I have MS Office on mine too and it works fine. Enjoy!

[BubbaVO]

Once you go MAC, you never go back. : )

I've had Apples going back to an Apple IIe in the 80s. I owned a Macintosh SE, Quadra, Newton, etc. The new MACs are the easiest to use and can do pretty much anything you want.

For ease of compatibility with work, I bought the Mac version of Office. That took care of 99% of my compatibility issues.

And Garageband is a very good start to doing music on the computer.

[specialk]

A couple of video tutorials to help answer your questions:

http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/

http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/

http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/

http://www.apple.com/business/theater/?sr=...s#draggingfiles

There are lots more out there. Let me know if you're interested.

And +1 on the Mac.

[burningyen]

I only use a PC because of my other hobby (poker). Otherwise I'd go back to using Macs in a nanosecond.

[Thundersteel]

I made the switch to Macs several months ago. They aren't cheap, but they also don't give you the problems and headaches PCs have. I'm happy I made the switch.

[G Man]

I use both and highly prefer the Mac. Regardless of whether you get a mac or a pc, you can use open office, free download from openoffice.org, and it is fully compatible with Microsoft Office.

Get a Mac, you will not be disappointed.

[cynic]

I've owned Mac's since 1993, and while I also use PC at home (work laptop), and have windows loaded on my Mac, the Mac OS is fantastic and by far my preference.

For the record, Windows 7 runs much better on my Mac than on any other system I've used it on. And no, I didn't load it cause I needed it, I loaded it cause I could With that said, even if you end up staying a Microsoft OS kinda person, there's still no better hardware to run on than a Mac so it's a win/win.

[alantig]

+1. In the long process of converting to Mac at home (my procrastination, nothing to do with the process itself). Bought a MacBook a couple years back a) to see if I really wanted to make the change; and to help support my parents and their Mac. Currently setting up a Mac to be my main PC, also running XP in a VMWare machine. Switching wasn't as hard as I'd been led to expect, and while there are some things I haven't figured out or gotten as automatic at, I like the Mac better.

Alan

[Caddie]

I used Microsoft products exclusively going all the way back to MS DOS days (that's pre Windows for you youngsters ) . I just bought a Macbook Pro a few weeks ago. I'm using it right now. The only software I needed to add for my purposes was iWork for the spreadsheet(think Excel) & documents(think Word) features. Spreadsheets can be saved as Numbers files or as .xls files. Pages files can be saved as pages, .doc, even .pdf. The mail utility comes std, so does address book. There are some great user forums, one that gave me a very simple way to transfer my MS Outlook contacts over to Mac.

No $$$ for Norton, No $$$ for McAfee. Viruses are rare on the Mac. From what I understand due to the close linking of the hware & op sys, no extra security software is required on the Mac. So on paper, feature-to-feature this Macbook Pro is the equiv of a Dell w/MS Office and Norton/McAfee. Mac products can appear to be more expensive with a casual glance. But when you start adding software products like MS Office & Norton to the cost of a Dell or HP, the final cost of a Macbook is quite competitive.

The basic learning curve on the Macbook Pro was negligible. Including unpacking & plugging in I was hooked up to my ISP & using email in less than 15m. However after 20+ yrs of using MS the nuances & arcane keystrokes & left/right mouse clicks of MS products have been deeply burned into my brain so they are hard to break. Its a bit frustrating at times. Simple, almost reflex things like grabbing text & photos off a website & bringing it over to another app are reflexive for me on MS, not yet on the Mac.

I can see that handling photos downloaded from my dig camera (family photos, guitar gear photos, the neighbors' teenage daughters sunbathing photos, whoops) will be easier to manage. As far as I was concerned, getting AdobePhoto downloaded to your MS machine was as bad as a virus. "Where in the hell did Adobe put my photos? I just wanna send them to Photobucket, wtf!" Mac eclipses MS for managing photos from your camera with almost zero learning curve.

I need to better understand things such as when you are on an MS machine and have multiple instances of Internet Explr up you can see the tabs at the bottom of the screen. So you can see an IE tab where you are looking at porn movies, another where you are watching Tiger Woods apologize to the solar system from YouTube, another watching eBay auctions and yet another one tuned to the HFC Crucible. I know that kind of utility is out there somewhere on Mac I just haven't found it yet.

The heavily tattooed and pierced young lady at The Apple Store told me that if I want to I can run a Mac version of MS Office on a Macbook. Babe, that's why I'm here. I want to jump off the Gates & Ballmer railroad. That young lady was a great salesperson. She really knew her stuff, she knew the weak spots in MS systems, she anticipated the issues I was gonna toss at her and how to demonstrate how Mac did it so much simpler. She was smart & quick on her feet. All the salespeople I met at that store were like that. Somebody did a great job of training them.

Tats & piercings...... so long Starbucks job, hellooooo Apple.

I also have tested the toughness of the Macbook Pro. Mr DumbAss (that would be me) failed to zip up the

sidepocket of the case where he had conveniently stuffed his slender little, 1 week old, virgin Macbook. Yup...dumped it right on the asphalt at McDonalds (free wi-fi ya know). F,F,F,F,F. It landed on its corner and dented up the corner very nice, right next to the power cord plug. Hit it so hard it kinked the network conn. F. Got home, plugged it into the power and the net, no problem. Turned it on, no problem. Put a disk in the cd/dvd, no problem. That solid aluminum chassis did its job. I don't know but I don't think a Dell would survive that 5ft drop test.

I don't spend hours & hours sitting at the keyboard so my learning curve will take longer than other people. But I can see daily progress in my efficiency with it. The light at the end of the tunnel is NOT the train coming toward me. I'll give you another update in a few weeks as I continue to climb the learning curve. I don't think I'm gonna regret the change. My 15yo says "Dad yer gonna luv it. All my friends luv it and so do their dads."

In summary my suggestion is go Mac. Why?

- like me you must be looking at the Mac in part due to some dissatisfaction with MS. Me too. With every day the performance of that MS system became more and more glacial. Spyware, adware, viruses, whatever...it sucked.

- transferring things between machines as we "upgraded" was a P.I.T.A. No more .pst files puh leezzz.

- that freaking Adobe thing, stealing my photos as I downloaded them and burying them 8 or 10 levels deep in some folder.

- get familiar with your local Apple Store.

F! I just glanced at it. That dented corner still burns my ass. What a dumbass am I.

caddie

[Uncle Thor's Hamer]

I worked at IBM for 5 years in the mid 80's. I wrote a lot of software in our lab under DOS, then early Windows when it was a DOS app. I've been a computer geek since before that, and have a degree in electrical engineering. For many many years I was a fan of the Intel based PC platform. Windows never really thrilled me, DOS was better if you want to program. Windows finally got fairly useful and the machines got sufficiently powerful to run at a reasonable speed.

But, I was tired of all the glitches and hassles. Windows updates that crashed the system, or adding new hardware which set off a cascade of conflicts. Plus the ever slowing boot up and general deterioration due to registry corruption and other problems.

So we went MAC about 18 months ago, getting a desktop for the house and a laptop for my college student. I'm never going back to PC!

There are a few differences that take a couple of weeks to get used to, but they are minor look/feel kinds of things.

MAC, you turn it on and it works. Add a device such as a printer, plug it in and it works. Need a home wireless network? Turn it on and it works.

It was a bit odd at first not having to get into the guts of the drivers or tweaking control panels to get things to work. But then you realize that it all works and you don't have to get in there.

Go MAC, you'll never be sorry.

[mathman]

a hint for you pc switchers. In system prefs you can type a windows term and it will show the comparable mac preference settings.

there is a section on apple's website for switching.

http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#switcher

[tommy p]

Thanks to all!!! Too many "quotes" to do individual thank yous, but all of my concerns (and more) were addressed. Learning curve, ease of the iLife software, compatibility with Office, lack of virus vulnerability (which I knew about already since it's such a major selling point), speed, plus the availability and confidence you all have in the tutorials and support. I'm sold.

[specialk]

Congrats, tommy. Best thing would be to get yourself down to an Apple store or retailer and see how one feels for you. I'm glad I made the switch.

Props to Caddie for the best post of the year so far. Great stuff!

[mathman]

Safari has tabbed windows that go along the top of safari window. It's not the same but somewhat similiar. My favorite method is the press command-~ and you rotate through the safari or firefox windows. hold command down and keep it down. then press the ~ key (above tab) and each press goes to another open browser window.

another one is command-tab to rotate through open applications. works the same way.

[Hackubus]

I made the switch last April. A first everything was bass-akwards, but I got used to it. Best computing decision I've made yet. I like it so much, I made my domicile a Windows Free Zone. I bought a mini mac for the missus & made a convert out of her too.

[kenjones]

My favorite method is the press command-~ and you rotate through the safari or firefox windows. hold command down and keep it down. then press the ~ key (above tab) and each press goes to another open browser window.

Cool. I knew there had to be some way to do this. Thanks!

I have been a Mac user since... uhm... forever. In 1987 I was using a Xerox computer at work and my girlfriend (now wife) had an Apple IIe. She then got an LC. Later we got an 8100, then a G3, then a G5, iBook. I use Macs for my work (video production) and currently we have a Mac Pro (8 core), MacBook Pro, and a MacBook. I have never owned a Windows computer. I can make one work, but I find it frustrating and overly complicated.

I must say I find it kind of amusing to read these threads that are 100% positive toward the Mac. I remember on this board a few years ago that about 2/3 of the computer posts about Macs were negative.

[SteveB]

Apple just seems to "get it right" most of the time, with both hardware design and software usability. And while you do pay a premium for mac hardware, its not as much as most people think when you really compare "like to like". For example, when I went to buy a new large display I thought that the Cinema displays were seemingly overpriced. Then I figured out that they use a display technology that is "artist" friendly in that the color rendition stays much more consistent when you look at the screen from different angles. When I compared other monitors using that same technology, the price was completely competitive.

The only place the Mac has trouble IMO is in interoperation with Windows boxes. Sharing networked devices from Windows machines is more of a pain than it should be.

I will say also that Windows 7 is way better than Vista, its not even close. For once there are some features in Windows 7 I wish the Mac had.

[Caddie]

- My MacBook came with Safari. Are there good reasons to switch to Firefox? Or other browsers?

- Will downloading Adobe Flash Player cause problems for my Mac?

caddie

[alantig]

Caddie - beyond the tabs on Safari, you can also use Expose to show multiple Safari windows. Personally, I love the tabs. The one thing I haven't found with that is how to automatically open a link that would open a new window in a new tab instead (it's a simple setting in Firefox).

Alan

[specialk]

The one thing I haven't found with that is how to automatically open a link that would open a new window in a new tab instead (it's a simple setting in Firefox).

Alan

Hold down the Command key when clicking on the link and it will open in a tab instead of a window. To make the new tab the default active window, go to Safari>Preferences>Tabs, and check the box that says "When a new tab or window opens, make it active".

[mathman]

- My MacBook came with Safari. Are there good reasons to switch to Firefox? Or other browsers?

- Will downloading Adobe Flash Player cause problems for my Mac?

caddie

Some sites work better with Firefox, mainly sites with editing tools like for example sites that use Moodle. Some pc centric sites work better with firefox. I prefer Safari myself. I do have both for those few times when Safari has a problem. Some people I know are really liking Google's new browser named Chrome. Say it's fast. I haven't tried it yet.

[hamersandstrats]

I becam a Mac convert in 2004 and I've never looked back. I bought one of the first mac minis that I still use as a media servr in the bedroom. I quickly bought an iBook, then work has been giving me MacBooks for the past 3 years. I have the iPhone and 2 older iPods as well.

Macs are just simple to use-I love garage band and how well the iLife programs integrate with each other.

[alantig]

The one thing I haven't found with that is how to automatically open a link that would open a new window in a new tab instead (it's a simple setting in Firefox).

Alan

Hold down the Command key when clicking on the link and it will open in a tab instead of a window. To make the new tab the default active window, go to Safari>Preferences>Tabs, and check the box that says "When a new tab or window opens, make it active".

That one I know - Firefox can be set so that any link that would open in a new window opens in a new tab instead. There's a way to do it in Safari (I found this out a day or two after the post above), but you have to enter the command in Terminal. Not horribly difficult, but not the easiest thing in the world to discover.

Alan