| Author | Message | ||
     Davegess |
The family has voted to buy an IMAC in stead of going on vacation. I know there are some MAC heads here, what do I need to know? Last MAC I owned was a Plus that I sued to make the old RR and RS owneres manuals  Is the Iwork software any good, worth the 50 bucks? We need something to replace MS OFFICE. How about Aperature 2 ($200) or Final Cut Express 4 ($200). How aboutt he $169 for 3 year extended warrenty? I also use Microsoft Money, what can I get to replave that? I don't much like it anyway but is was included with the Dell. | ||
| B00stzx3 |
Admittley I don't know much about Mac, but as far as Office Suites go, check out Openoffice. Its open-source (free and updated constantly by the open source community). I havent used MS Office in a couple of years with OpenOffice. http://www.openoffice.org/ also try looking around here for some Mac info http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/ | ||
| Dbird29 |
Dave There are new models of iMac just released so there are smoking deals on the old models. Or buy the new models for the slightly more powerful processor and for certain better display. Go to www.openoffice.org for an open source MS Office work alike suite. Final Cut Express is a good value at $197. Buy the extended warranty. | ||
| Indybuell |
Dave, If you leave near a Best Buy, go and take one for a test drive. Also, I would suggest that you get the Geek Squad protection plan over the Apple Care. AppleCare is great, but it doesn't cover damage caused by accidents, abuse, etc. Geeksquad coverage does, and it isn't much more expensive. I am an MCSE, and have used windows for about 15 years. Three years ago, I bought a Dell XPS. Supposedly one of the better Windows based gaming laptops you could get at the time. After putting up with a year of crashes, random driver issues, etc, I made the switch to a Macbook Pro. I have never looked back. I can still do all of the Microsoftish Network Admin stuff that I had to do before without any issues. I run 100% native Mac OSX apps. My Macbook Pro hasn't crashed in the two years I have had it. I would however recommend that you put as much RAM into the system as you can afford. I would also pick up a copy of VMware Fusion so that you can still use Windows XP when you need it. iWork is a great set of tools, especially for the low price. It is interoperable with MOST office documents, etc. If you need 100% interoperability, I would suggest picking up MS Office 2008 for Mac. Openoffice is great, but when you are in a pinch, and need to call for professional support, where do you go? | ||
| Slowride |
To borrow a pic from Froggy and a view from all of us non mac heads.....  | ||
| Spacecapsule1 |
......you forgot to add "cancel or allow" to that picture..... | ||
| Dbird29 |
Pssst..... (Dave is older so maybe the Mac is better)  | ||
| Spacecapsule1 |
I can see this getting ugly fast. My vote: Mac. Why? It works. when i want it to. not after multiple reboots and service packs. | ||
| Zenfrogmaster |
If you go the Mac route, be sure to ask about the discount for students (K through college). It changes, but will always save you money. You can also get Mac Office for next to nothing. | ||
| Sleez |
my IMAC has been trouble free! faster than any off the rack PC i've ever owned. the MAC has a few quirks...but you learn to work with them. i run office for MAC, works fine, i have Word, Excel and PowerPoint. if you're not opposed to some pirating...limewire is where you can get apps, i got full photoshop, office and a few media apps there, no problems yet! | ||
| Froggy |
I got more mac vs pc pics, but because its Daves thread I wasn't gonna crap it up. Oh well now its Slowrides fault:      Ok I am done. If you have your heart set on a Mac, thats fine, I am not going to try and steer you otherwise.  | ||
| Greenlantern |
iMac? Yes. iWork? $50.00 for apple software is always a good deal. But Microsoft Office student teacher edition ( $120.00 street) will give you a little more bang for the buck and a little more backward compatibility with your Windows files. Aperture? heard it is good, no personal experience. Apple warranty? yes, has saved me twice in last 19 years. Money? I don't have any.  Also remember you can Run windows when you must either using Boot camp (included) or a virtual environment like Vmware (which I use) or parallels which both allow you to run windows side by side with the mac environment with a minimal speed hit. Sounds more complicated than it is which is what makes the mac so appealing, It just works. | ||
| Methed |
FWIW, and I'm surprised nobody has mentioned it, but the Intel-based Macs are some of the most stable PCs. Yes, Windows PCs. If you have proper licensing, you can run Windows natively on a Mac and FME it is wicked stable. I bought a MacBook for notthed a few years back and using BootCamp (free, standard, included software) installed Windows so she could ease into using a different OS (and so I could run Adobe Creative Suite on it--blasting fast). Within a week, she gave up the XP environment for OSX. Yes, there is OpenOffice for both, but MSOffice (2005 I think?) for Mac functions extremely well. Your results may differ. | ||
| Davegess |
thsi is driven by the Dell being totally maxed out on drive space and very slow for the stuff my daughter does, it is 3 years old and was not the latest, greatest at the time. I have actually owned and worked on both. Back in the day the MAC usually could do thing PCs could not and were very much better withi graphics. They were not real compatable with PCs at all. Of course the MAC Plus would run multiple apps without crashing at a time when a PC could barely keep Windows running and there were no WYSIWYG publishing packages on a PC, I still have Quark 2.0 on the Plus at home. Now adays the PCs can do pretty much what MACS do and are cheaper BUT they do always seem to require you to be very computer literate to keep them running well. (I am pretty good- actually have written some simple apps for work and can bumble my way around a PC network-but the MAC still seems to be an easier solution. I am not real interested in configuring the bios to my taste and will swap out a drive if I have to but don't really want to go under the hood so the fact that I could build a PC to do whatever I want is not something I care about. Keep the tips coming | ||
| Slowride |
I too am a MCSE and have sold out long ago on the PC. I am currently running Windows 7 Beta on my HP DV9225 dual core and it freakin screams. But, In the garage, I have a Intel 2.4ghz running Ubuntu and VMware with Windows 7 Beta on it. It is a friggin Rocket compared to my Laptop on process and IO's through put. I have also not had to reboot it in the last 2 months as opposed to my Laptop which has rebooted on it's own at least 2 -3 times a week due to some thing that windows has lost communication or the service stopped. Dave it is your ride brotha, go with what is comfortable. | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Dave, It was nice to meet you at homecoming and thank you for your great book, and for signing it. You are going to love your iMac. You don't really need the very latest one, all of the Intel powered ones are fine, and there are some good deals on refurbed models that are guaranteed and eligible for Applecare, which I recommend. For any kind of upgrades, OWC, is THE mac accessory house and sells guaranteed high quality ram and hard drives for a small fraction, a very small fraction, of what Apple charges for these items which are very easy to install using the OWC installation videos. Max out on ram. All of the Apple software is excellent and integrate very well with their other programs. MS Office for Mac is very good, will seem familiar, and works well with sending files to and from PC's. I haven't used iWork. I recommend Adobe's Lightroom over Aperture: Adobe is the gold standard of image editing. Final Cut is great. Actually the Apple iLife suite, $79 has iPhoto, iWeb, iTunes, iMovie and Garage band, so you don't really need either Final Cut or Lightroom unless you want to do professional or semi pro work with it. The extended warranty is a good deal. You do know that once you have your iMac, you can expect the whole family to want their own iPhone, right? You are going to love it. No kidding. www.photomorse.com | ||
| Hammer71 |
ilife included on new imac. | ||
| Bcordb3 |
I like my IMac and Mac book. I have used the Genius service offered the Apple store, it fantastic. You'll want to download Flip for Mac to view some videos (a freebie) | ||
| Cityxslicker |
I will fault test any winbox you put in front of me. It will crash with in a month, it will fatal with in a year. DAMHIK | ||
| Seanp |
It's quite entertaining to see all the Windows people hate on Macs - mostly it's due to either a deep insecurity in their choice, or a complete lack of experience actually using both operating systems. It used to be that Mac users made fun of Windows users, but over time it's turned full circle. That being said, iWork is a great suite of programs. I used it for a little while, and it works well. Keynote (the iWork version of PowerPoint) is wonderful. The only problem is that sometimes trying to export a Keynote presentation to PowerPoint, you lose some of the nuances and beautiful things that made it such a great presentation to begin with. Lately I've been using Office for Mac because I am going to be rejoining the Windows world for my job, and want to refamiliarize myself with Office. It's decent, but a little buggy compared to iWork. The biggest annoyance I have is that I use spaces,and sometimes the Word window will end up in the wrong space when I switch back and forth. Nothing huge, just an annoyance. I have no experience with OpenOffice, but have heard good things about it. I don't use Aperture - I got a great educational discount on Adobe CS and use that for my photo stuff. I do, however, use Final Cut Express and it's an awesome program. Being able to manipulate videos, making picture-in-picture and flying videos and all sorts of cool stuff is just a load of fun. I think it's definitely worth the money. I have bought the Apple Protection Plan for all but the first two Macs I owned. It's been worth it - I have only had issues with one or two, but when I call I get great service, and it's nice to know that you're taken care of if you bring it to a Genius Bar. As far as a Money replacement, there's a program called Cha-Ching that I have a copy of, but have not used in a while. It seemed pretty powerful when I got it; I just never got into managing my money. You'll love a Mac. The whole thing about "it just works" is so true. I have four Macs and an AppleTV running in the house right now, and they replaced a network with seven Windows machines. I have a 12" Powerbook that's been through a 15-month tour in Iraq, and a 17" Powerbook that suffered through 12 months in Kuwait. I have a Mac Pro that runs for weeks at a time without a reboot, flawlessly, and a MacBook Air that is exactly what I needed for school to take notes and write papers and my dissertation. | ||
| Indybuell |
+1 You'll love a Mac. | ||
| Ryanhook |
I just picked up the new iWork and its a must get for office apps, plus you can save as excel and word if you needed to open files on a pc. | ||
| Patrickmitchell |
+1 on everything Gentleman John said. Apple care is a cheap insurance policy and their help is excellent. You will get someone in the US on the phone, should you need assistance. We switched our whole business to iMacs and iBooks. We had one hardware failure on an iMac (Apple care/the extended warrantee took care of it). Other than this one glitch, we have never been happier. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Not to talk you out of a Mac... far from it. I'm a Unix / PC guy, but think the other 95% of the planet ought to be using Mac's, and that Microsoft just shows how bad an OS can be while still being useful. But if you do want to solve your drive problem on the Dell, Acronis makes a great migration tool, worth it's weight in gold. It used to be called "easy migrate", not sure if they changed the name since then. So for $39 worth of software, and $70 worth of new hard drive, you can put some life back into the Dell. Maybe update it and make it the "backup machine". You could also rebuild it with Ubuntu Linux... finally a consumable Unix for the masses. A little bit limited in some ways (your youtube videos will be choppy), but a remarkable OS nonetheless. | ||
| 03worc9r |
MAC vs. PC is like talking about religion or politics at the dinner table. +1 MAC | ||
| Ironhead1977 |
If you use excel for business stay with windows. MSoffice for mac is not the same when it comes to excel. I have tried to use it on a new macbook. As far as everything else I needed, the mac was far superior and the internet is loaded with open source programs for mac for just about any need. | ||
| Indy_bueller |
LINUX FTW!  | ||
| Microchop |
Mac at home. Nearly perfect, wish I would've bought the bigger hard disk though...I do video now. PC at work. I hate my PC. | ||
| Corporatemonkey |
Seanp posted most of what I was going to say, I have only a few things to add. Here is the nitty gritty. If you are going to get an iMac get the basic 24in version with the largest hard drive, but skip the extra ram. 4gb will get you by for a while, then when the 8gb sets come down in price (~4-6 months or so) head over to Crucial and order a set. You will need to get an external drive of equal or larger size to your main drive for use with "Time Machine" (quite possibly the best software ever made) I personally avoid applecare. I have had it one a couple of systems but with the last 10 macs, I have never used it. The only issues I have ever had have been failed hard drives (this was during the powerbook g4 era), I would usually replace them with larger version before I could get it into apple. Mac Office sucks, there is no way around it. I use it everyday, and it can be infuriating. It is slow, entourage (their outlook) is hoggish, and it still doesn't fully run natively. Parts of it still rely on Rosetta (sort of an emulation system). Open office is great. The next version of the OS "Snow Leopard" will have native exchange support, so I will be ditching MS office at that point. I do not use any other video/photo software other than ilife's imovie/iphoto. WIth the 09 update I haven't really found the need for anything else. But I do not depend on it for my $. | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
And there's more................. Yes there is help on the way for you PC stalwarts, who would rather die of shame that have your gaming buddies see an iMac on your desk. Perfectly understandable. No problem. Simply head over to Hackint0sh.com. From there it's just a hop skip and a jump to their forums where you can get the instructions you need to build a PC that will run Mac OS X, cost you less than $600. After building your PC, (no one actually buys them built anymore, do they?), you install Mac OS X, then Install Parallels, a sweet little program that not only allows you to install Windows and Mac OS on the same computer, but also run them simultaneously. Now when any of your gaming geek buds or your accountant drop by, bing, you are on your PC, running H.A.W.K. on Windows, the minute they leave, you're on your Mac, laying down some sweet tracks on Garage Band. Life is good. Am I right, oh my brothers?  |
