Advice for a convert

So my MBP is due to be delivered today. It's my first apple so I'll need to play around and figure out OS/X. What else should I do first?

Also, what's the best way to get my itunes, etc. transferred from my Windows notebook to my MBP? Network? Cable? Aside from burning CDs or using a flash drive, I'm not sure how to do this effectively.

I've got a ton of windows software and I realize it's not all going to be compatible. I will look more into Parallel & Bootcamp and then decide if I need to run windows at all.

I've read the stickies and will explore those further. This is a huge learning curve for me. Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks!

 

If you're computer savy there's not a big learning curve. I used PC's and Windows for the last ten years. I made the switch to a MacBook Pro three months ago, and now it's my one and only computer and OS.

OSX is pretty straight forward. Things are placed where you think they'd be for the most part. As far as getting your iTunes stuff over. I think you can do it a few ways. When you first power up the Mac it'll ask you a lot of stuff about transfering files from other computers. You can try that, or I think you can always burn a back up disc on your PC and then pop it into the Mac.

I thought about Boot Camp and running Windows too, but after a few days on the Mac I didn't see the need. I bought Microsoft Office for Mac and a few other apps that I needed and I said goodbye to Windows for good.

 

Thanks for the feedback, Chris - I consider myself more computer savvy than most consumers (though not as much as some people on this forum!!) and in the apple store I was able to find my way around the OS...

Hopefully aside from my PC at work I'll be kissing windows goodbye as well.

Thanks again.

 

You will be fine. The first thing is just to use it, you will learn most everything you need that way. For transferring iTunes, do you have a DVD burner? If you do burn your whole iTunes folder. I think you can then just drag that onto your MBP and point iTunes to it. The reason I say burn it is because you really should have a backup and now is a good time. I don't know how much music you have so it may not very easy. If you have a lot the best way is to just drag the itunes folder to MBP over a network.

 

Good idea - I do have a DVD burner - that should work fine.

 

Spotlight is your friend. If you ever need something in OS X, just do Command+Space, and type it in. F9 is also your friend.

 

imovie home movies take up a whole lot of memory. I've been streaming about 20 minutes and it's taking up about 4GBs. Hopefully it'll take up less memory on a dvd.

 

Just got through burning my library to DVD

 

Pfft. 4GB for 20 minutes is nothing... at least compared to the capture/edit rig I'm using at work. I've got a 90 minute program sitting here that weighs in at 140GB.

Don't worry, your movie will take up a lot less space on DVD. Sounds like iMovie is storing everything in DV format... iDVD will transcode your movie to MPEG2 before burning it to DVD. This will probably take several hours, depending on program length.

 

I'd use (and I did) the network, much less hassle, but a backup is always a good idea of course. Indeed unless you have a serious attachment to some particular Windows feature that OS X lacks you'll feel no pain at all in the transition. Things that most people ask sooner or later is how to install apps (they usually come with a disk image, just mount it and drag the app to the Applications folder) where the heck is the "start" menu (there isn't one, if you need quick access to the applications you can place a shortcut to the folder in the dock - but try using spotlight) and how do you right-click (enable two finger "right-click" in the preferences panel, or simply use a mouse, or use option+click). See the Mac User Guide here and poke around the forum.

 

I found that probably the easiest way to transfer files is just to hook your computers together with an ethernet cable. Alternatively, if you've got your machines on a wireless network, you can transfer that way too. My experience was that my Mac found my windows machine easily, but it was a bit more complicated the other way around, so I would suggest initiating the transfer from the mac end (i.e. go to finder, network, find your windows machine, mount the drive (double click) then access that mounted drive (double click on the icon that just showed up on your desktop) and copy away).