Can I be an OSX convert?

I'm going to be picking up a laptop for college in early August... But I've started doing my research now in the hope that I won't make a 2500.00 mistake.

Anyway, I'm hoping that some of you could give me your impressions on what switching from Windows to OSX is like. I have a little bit of experience with OSX, but nothign beyond using a friends system for a few minutes or stopping in at the Apple store for 10 minutes. Certainly not long enough to form a well rounded view of what using OSX on a day to day basis is like.

In all honesty, I'm quite happy with Vista. I think there are many improvements from XP and I'd be very happy to continue using it. That said, I want to simplify everything as much as possible when I head off to college, and from what little experience I have with OSX I think it might help me out with that. I know I've been told that things tend to just work better in general with less tinkering. As much as I love to tinker, I'm not goign to have the time.

As far as what I do with my system, listening to music is probably one of the biggest uses. I like the optical output on the Macbook Pro, and I'm sure I'll put it to use with a DAC + headphones/speakers at some point if I got one. On anotherp ositive note, I love iTunes, so I'm covered there.

I'm into digital art and photography, and I'm proficient with Photoshop. Other than that, I'll be doing the typical browsing, chatting, and the occasional RTS/RPG game. I'm really not ALL that concerned about gaming... I can always turn to consoles when I have the itch for games. With that in mind, a Macbook might suit me better than the Macbook Pro [mainly due to price]. I WILL be taking a 22" LCD with me, so when I am in the dorm I'll have a decent sized screen to work on.

It all comes down to this though... I'd like to stick with the stheme of simplification and not need to wrry with dual booting. So either I get a Macbook [Pro] and use OSX, or I stay with windows and get a Lenovo T61. So, can I do it, or should I play it safe and stick with windows?

 

Switching to Mac might be more expensive than you think, especially since you will need to get a Mac version of Phothop and other software you might use.

I think that you should stick to Windows if it does not frustrate you. In my case, I couldn't stand the constant registry cleaning, defragging, restarting, BSODs, crashes, slowdowns etc. in Windows, so I switched to OS X, and have never had to worry about those issues since.

 

To be fair, unless he already has CS3, he'd be looking at an upgrade anyway, so it wouldn't really hurt that much to get the OSX version of CS3.

Honestly from what he has described, it seems like he could be fine switching to OS X - it sounds like he meets the criteria I would normally say are important (i.e. having actually used and enjoyed OS X).

 

There's no reason not to switch to a mac. Honestly, there's only one program that I haven't been able to get(exact or equivalent) for OS X that I had in Windows, and that's Half Life 2.

And dual booting, or running parallels is extremely easy. As always Apple makes sure it's working before they allow it out into the public.

 

I've rarely have had a BSOD maybe 2 times in 6 years since using Windows XP and they were memory related. The others have never been an issue with me as well. Windows XP has been quite solid and i'm a gamer so I throw everything I can at the OS and it holds up just fine.

OSX has also been just as solid. I do agree there are some hidden costs the OP should consider but I think for what he's doing with his PC he'd feel quite at home with a MBP.

My suggestion would be to buy a Mini and a 17" monitor.

 

I want to spend as little time in my dorm as possible, so the laptop is def the way I'm going. Like I said I have a 22" WS LCD that I'll be taking with me to keep in the dorm. I'll use that for a console [if I get one], and for with the laptop when I'm in the dorm.

I think the big decision will come down to the hardware more so than the software. I'm hoping that the MBP gets a slight retooling for Santa Rosa before August... If it doesn't, I'll likely end up going with the T61.

 

I made the decision a few months ago because I can always still virtualize Windows XP SP2 easily with Parallels. What I did was buy it at Fry's to try it out, that way I have the 15 day policy to return with no restocking fee.

 

Unfortunately I don't have a Fry's anywhere nearby...

What do you find you use Parallels for?

 

that really works? does it still work?

isn't it a pain in the ass?

 

Just search for an apple retailer near you. Or try to spend more time on your friends mac, and the people at the apple store will definitely help you get to know OS X better.

I find that I use Parallels mostly just to impress people. I am a computer science major, so I do c++ programming also, and XP does fine with just 512mb RAM(of 2gb) allocated to it. I use Office for Mac, and everything else runs great in OS X. So XP rarely shows it's face anymore.

 

Well, I would suggest checking out some of the other similar forum posts on this topic, there have been several over the past few weeks.

But it's been great here. I can use the OS X specific software (like Logic) while having the abliity to use stuff on XP in Parallels (works amazingly well). I can also experiment with building servers and stuff in Linux through Parallels. While OS X doesn't support any DX games, you can easily setup bootcamp to run any games.

As far as photoshop is concerned, you will not want to run CS2 in OS X, as it has to be emulated. You would want to get the CS3 uprade package. Considering that you are a student, you will be able to get a HEAVY discount. A friend of mine just bought their $1800 package web dev package for $500. Thats the full blown version, not sure how much upgrades are, but I bet it's pretty cheap with the discount.

 

Given the low price of the academic CS3 bundles, there aren't separate upgrade prices to upgrade from previous academic versions.

 

No, but he can still get a discount on uprades. This maybe cheaper than buying a whole new CS3 package.

A slight legal caveat with academic Adobe packages... You are not allowed to use them (legally) for producing work that will make you money. Not that they would really ever find out or anything. Or probably care.

 

There is no discounted or academic upgrade pricing though, that's my point. You have to buy one of the full academic CS3 packages.

The academic prices are so heavily discounted anyway that there is no real point in upgrade prices anyway.

-Zadillo

 

For your needs, Mac is ok. Honestly, as al ong time PC user (until this year), I never ONCE even had the desire to install windows on my mac. I thought I would need it, but I don't . It has you covered almost everywhere. It really does need less tinkering, too, particularly right out of the box. The fact is has so many built in drivers is nice too. And it crashes, but not nearly as often as XP/Vista do. What sucks though is that nonnative apps like office run slow, even on my 24" iMac w/ 2 GB ram.

unless you dont want to buy photoshop ( I think there is a "crossgrade" price), get the mac.

My experience using hte mac has been good, but buying it has not. I had to return my iMac 5 times. They have serious quality control issues. My friend had to return his macbook 5 times as well. Dead pixels, humming sounds, and other defects just to name a few.

Choose wisely.

 

Well I switched and never looked back. You are a good candidate since there is nothing that you NEED Windows for. The only hesitation would be cost, and I am not talking about hardware, but software. I do find my life is simpler in os x though. There are several things like Quicksilver and GTD programs that really help me get my work done.

 

cashmonee you are like my twin

 

I have tried OSX at my university for a while now and, while generally pleasantly impressed, have some issues with it: first, is there any way of opening links in a new tab in the browser with a mid click like in firefox/ie7 in windows (may seem stupid but I almost never follow links directly, instead opening them in new tabs)? Is there any way of deleting files without having to drag them to the trash bin? Why do I have to press alt (or maybe option, I don't remember well) before clicking to get a context menu instead of just left clicking?
While none of these things can be regarded as a flaw, I still find them greatly annoying.

Also, is there any good (on par with uTorrent, with DHT and protocol encryption support) BT client on the mac? What about media burning? Is toast as good as nero?

 

kaworu: to open a new tab in Firefox just hold the apple key and click. It sounds cumbersome, but the way it's laid out, doing it on the macbook(or MBP) is very easy once you get used to it. You can also right click and choose "open in new tab". Then there's the option of using apple+t to open a new tab, then drag the link to your tab.

If you want to delete without dragging to the trash, then just right click and choose "move to trash". I believe there's a way to set up to move to trash by hitting the delete key, but I'm not sure. One of my friends has it set up that way, but it may be extra software that does it.

You can use a multi-button mouse if you hate the one clickers, and it works like a charm. If you're using a laptop, then it can be set up to have two fingers on the touchpad and clicking equals a right click.

As for the torrent clients I recommend transmission. It's very easy on memory usage, and has a very simple interface. Yes, toast is as good as nero.