Dispel my fear about Apple

I am considering a Macbook.

However, my biggest fear is that I won't be able to run a lot of the programs that I run on Windows. I know with Bootcamp, Windows is possible, but I don't want to run Windows. I want the stability and reliability of OS X.

With Windows, there is a lot of free shareware available on the net. Is this also true with Apple?

Apple accessories seem awful expensive...a mouse for $60?! Are there cheaper third party options?

With Windows, there is a lot of cheap pirated software available on the streets of China (such as Photoshop CS2 and XP Pro, among others). With Apple, all this will disappear. Its probably best for me, but I want access to affordable software. If I can find legitimate Apple freeware online, all the better.

Basically, the software compatibility is my biggest issue, and I don't want to run Windows on XP...so what do you suggest?

 

Well it would help to know specifically which programs you are looking for. In general, whatever is available on Windows is available on Mac, or there is a good replacement. There are many free Mac programs, alot of them actually are part of the OS. For instance, iLife fills many of the needs most people have for photo and video editing. All Adobe products are available on Mac, although they are not Universal Binary, but I do not believe it will be much longer (4-5 months) before they are.

As for thing like mouses, you can use any mouse. Don't buy an Apple mouse or keyboard, they generally suck. That goes for nearly all peripherals, they are not platform dependent. The only area this is kinda gray is printers.

 

Thanks cashmoee.

The programs I would run are mainly photo editing programs such as Photoshop CS2 (the most important), and other small ones such as Noise Ninja, Noiseware, and then basic apps such as Microsoft Word, Frontpage, and Powerpoint. How does the Microsoft Office suite work on Apple?

I am vaguely familiar with iLife, it seems geared towards the average Joe, and I fear it might not address the specifics in which I am interested in. For example, I don't want to publish my site to .mac, but rather to my own domain. How easy is it to publish to your own domain using Apple's iLife?

 

I'm not sure if there's a way to use iWeb (the web-authoring portion of iLife) with another site (I don't use it much), but I wouldn't be surprised. Presumably with iWeb there should be a way to use it to publish to other sites, etc. You might not even want to use it though, your needs might call for something more robust (iWeb is more designed for people who don't know much at all about web authoring and just want some graphical tools to design and publish pages).

In terms of the other stuff you mentioned:

Photoshop CS2 on OS X is pretty much identical to Windows, so you should be comfortable there. One thing to note is that it is not Intel-native, so it does not run at full performance. Adobe will be releasing CS3 next year, but until then you'll be running in the PPC emulation mode. Performance should still be solid, but it's worth keeping in mind.

Noise Ninja is available as a Universal Binary, so you should have no problem running it natively under OS X on an Intel-based Mac.

Noiseware is also available for OS X, so you shouldn't have any problems there either.

You might also be interested in another app Apple has for photographers, called Aperture: http://www.apple.com/aperture/

FrontPage is not available for the Mac. However, other tools such as GoLive CS2 and Dreamweaver 8 are available for the Mac, and would be worth taking a look at.

Microsoft Office 2004 is the current version of Office for the Mac (it is generally comparable to Office 2003 for Windows). There is a new version of Office in development which should bring things in line with Office 2007 for Windows, but not much has been heard about it.

Apple also has a productivity suite called iWork which includes a word processing program called Pages and a presentation program called Keynote. You may or may not like Pages; a trial is included so you can see if it meets your needs or not. Keynote isn't PowerPoint, but it can do some very nice presentations and might be worth considering. You'll probably find you want Office anyway, but they are interesting alternatives.

Personally, I like Office 2004 for OS X quite a bit - in fact, I actually prefer it to Office 2003 for Windows.

As for the rest, there is a very vibrant freeware and shareware community for OS X. I highly recommend a site like VersionTracker.com, which makes it easy to find and keep track of updates for just about every bit of Mac software you can think of (freeware, shareware and commercial).

 

I have to say...I bought my macbook as a impulse buy as I have a 6 month old T43 as my primary notebook. After using the macbook for the past month with Office for Mac and various of the other mac/windows crossover programs or mac equivelants. The t43 is currently for sale and the macbook is now my primary notebook. Even as a A+ Net+ certified pc technician, I can't say enough good things about the macbook or OSx...aside of course from the poor color choice...white notebook? It's constantly dirty from my sweaty palms

 

Just as a follow-up, apparently you can choose to publish a site created in iWeb to another server ( http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iWeb/1.1/en/bld1046.html ) - it sounds like when you do, some of the special functions aren't available though (i.e. blog comments, counter, password protection, etc.). But it sounds like if you were just putting a regular site together with iWeb it isn't a problem at all to set it to publish to any server by putting in the FTP information.

Still, iWeb may or may not be robust enough for what you do, in which case I'd look into DreamWeaver or GoLive.

More on the iWeb component of iLife at: http://www.apple.com/ilife/iweb/

 

iWork for Mac I find really excellent. I used to use Microsoft Word and NeoOffice (free), but when I started using pages I was hooked. It just does things that I want it to...it's kind of like what I'd imagine a word processor should be like. But that's just my opinion. If you need to, the Office suite for OS X works fine, but I would recommend you at least try iWork. Also, iWork 07 is supposed to include a spreadsheet application (that's what I've heard).

And about your question about freeware and stuff, Mac has PLENTY. Check sites such as www.versiontracker.com, www.macupdate.com, or just search online. You will find plenty!!

Also, a final word of advice, try quicksilver! quicksilver.blacktree.com
You might not like it but I found it amazing. It's the most important program I have now.

 

I love the Thinkpads...so why exactly has the MacBook won you over?

 

Another thing that bothers me about the MacBook...its lack of a dedicated graphics card. I thought it would be important for running programs such as Photoshop. How will CS2 perform on a MacBook as opposed to a T60 with a 128 MB Radeon X1400? (assuming both have equal RAM)

 

CS2 doesn't use the really GPU on Windows or OS X, so performance should be pretty similar.

Although really, if you are going to be doing a lot of photo editing, etc. you might really want to consider the MacBook Pro 15 or 17" models, because the extra screen real estate will help. It's certainly possible to use a regular MacBook, but you really might benefit from having more screen real estate to work with.

-Zadillo

 

Thanks for the suggestion but, I can't afford an MBP. Besides, I have pretty much settled on 13-14" for convenience and portability. It will be enough. I have a few worries about the 13", but I could get by with it.

Also, how good is Apple's iPhoto editing program? I watched the movie on the website, and it looked decent. Can it handle RAW image conversion and advanced editing such as HDR images made from bracketed exposures?

 

I see, sorry. I wasn't sure what your budget was - the pricing of the ThinkPad with an X1400 in it seemed to be significantly higher than the MBP.

Not sure, iPhoto is really a consumer level photo editing app. I don't think iPhoto is going to handle advanced editing functions, etc. like that. It's really designed more for managing photo libraries and doing basic types of editing that your typical consumer would do (i.e. remove red eye, resize and crop photos, etc.).

You might want to take a look at one of the pro-apps like Aperture though (especially since it actually lets you work with RAW without conversion, etc.): http://www.apple.com/aperture/ or Adobe Lightroom (which I think is still in beta): http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/

 

Aperture is way beyond my budget and not really an editing program, its more of an organizing program. CS2 is ultimately what I need.

Anyways, the Thinkpad T60 came at a price of only $1579. And that's with 1.83 dual core processor, 512MB RAM, 100GB Hard drive, 1400x1050 resolution, Bluetooth, AND a 128MB Radeon X1400 graphics card! Not only that, but the sales rep knocked it down to $1450...hard to beat.

I could get a Macbook for the same price, but with a smaller hard drive and NO graphics card, BUT a 2.0 GHz processor, which I don't think would make much difference anways...

 

The extra processor speed would probably help but you may or may not notice depending on how picky you are. In this case, what you're really deciding between is OS X and windows. If you want windows, then get the thinkpad since you can get those features for a good price. With the macbook, the biggest draw in is really OS X. Managing your photos and sending them where you want i find easier on OS X (especially with quicksilver or transmit both of which are free). It's up to you

 

I don't understand why the MacBook would cost you $1450 though (unless you're looking at the black one). I mean, why not just the 1.83GHz white MacBook for $1049 (and then spend the extra on more RAM and maybe an HD replacement).

Again, based on your needs, the graphics card won't make a difference (CS2 doesn't use the GPU).

I think it's going to come down to which laptop you prefer. Most of the software it sounds like you're using is available for Windows and OS X, and it sounds like you are more interested in the ThinkPad anyway (you've posted a number of times I think in a way that makes it sound the ThinkPad is what you want), so I would just get that. It also sounds like the ThinkPad would be better for you since you said something about wanting to easily buy cheap pirated software, which as you said will be easier to find for Windows.

-Zadillo

 

I didn't really like iWork and I don't plan on buying it. I downloaded NeoOffice and it does everything I need it to, and is much more like MS Office, which is what I'm used to. I had a hard time editing documents in Pages, because I'm not used to how it auto-formats and I didn't want to take a lot of time to learn how to use programs I already know how to operate. I didn't mind learning the Mac OS, but I don't want to relearn all the classes of software I use.

I have found lots of cool widgets and lots of Mac freeware available. I love my MBPro and never plan on going back to the WinPC.

 

I think that 2 main things won me over to the macbook vs the T-series thinkpad aside from the dual core processor, build quality and the OSx. The thinkpad is without a doubt the best notebook on the market especially with the reinforced backing on the lcd, however, the macbook has a more solid overall feel in construction with almost no flex in the body at all (although the lcd backing leaves something to be desired). The second thing was the OSx...while it does tend to take a little longer to get the same things done in osx than it does in windows as far as the number of hoops to jump through, it feels that the operations proceed at a much faster pace than in windows. And as was stated later in this thread...the dedicated gpu in the T-series is fine and dandy if you actually use it. I for one don't see the need for it even in gaming and instead bought my macbook upgraded with the 80gb hdd and 1gb of ram installed.

I will never switch the majority of my apps to mac but for my personal needs in a notebook the macbook more than fits the bill. If you are looking for something purely windows oriented and maybe the macbook isn't for you?! Then the Thinkpad T-series is the only other choise IMO.

 

Wait!

You think it takes longer to get things done in OS X than Windows?! You must be going hyperspeed on that windows to even keep up with OS X. I've done a lot of the same things on both machines and heres what I found.

Windows Video Editing: 2:24
OS X Video Editing: 00:45

Windows photo editing: 00:17
OS X photo editing 00:03

Now, for the Windows. 1. Installing the applications. 2. Installing the devices such as camcorder and camara. 3. Troubleshooting. 3. dealing with the numerous buttons for settings and whatnot. 4. Crashes. 5. save/exporting.

OS X. 1. Plug in the device. 2. Install the applications (if needed such as CS2, but OS X Color utility and iPhoto can do many consumer settings) 3. Do changes you need. 4. Save/export

So technically for majority of end users theres 2 less steps.

As you said, you don't really want to switch to many of the Mac applications, maybe you should give it a more serious try. you're missing out.

Also I've been on computers since 1991 (PCs mostly) and I know it doesn't have anything to do with my abilities on computers for the long time it took.

 

To be fair, it's hard to say without knowing what specific tasks, etc. he finds to take more time, etc.

I would be sort of curious - perhaps some of the people here might be able to offer suggestions of a faster way to do things, etc. though that could help.

 

I could make it more simple.

AppleScript or Automator. Right now for example you can find TONS of automator scripts already done at Apples website. This can streamline your productivity a LOT. Microsoft still doesn't have anything of the sort, and if you want something like it you need to rely on the third party software offering it. As of now, I can only think of one software that has such a similar function and thats the Adobe Suite.

 

I'm nearly to get one, however, I am still wondering about the fonts support. Im Vietnamese, so I need to work more on this. I dont know Apple supports font for our language and dont know which our Vn soft has already support for this.
Another, I m currently using a PC, I got a lot of Photos and documents on this( of course PC's format) so does it mean that I have to change everything to apple's format? Is it too rubbished? And my friends are still using PC so when I sharing whatever, everthing need to be converted? I dont think it's good. Anyone give me advice? Thanks in advance!

 

You'll be fine with Vietnamese on OS X:

http://www.griessersoftware.com/help/macfonts.htm

As far as specific Vietnamese fonts, as long as they are in a modern font format you should be able to use them.

Most documents and photos are in standard formats (i.e. MS Word documents for documents, JPEG, TIFF, GIF, etc. for photos) and you will have no problem sharing them normally between Macs and PC's; they won't need to be specially converted.

 

As you may notice, in the 2 points I made that seem to be drawing so much attention.

1) Where i stated that it seems to take longer to do anything on the OSx...i was referring to what "appear" to be more hoops/hurdles/obstacles or just plain extra steps that are needed to get a task accomplished. By that i refer to the example of burning a disc...while xp allows a simple drag and drop...OSx requires the step of creating a burn folder THEN insert the blank media (as it appears in my experience to not identify when blank media is already in the drive). It may not take physically longer but with the added steps in some applications...it at least appears to. I must also point out that I am still new to this and am only just learning apps such as automator etc...

2) As to my point of not moving all of my apps to the OSx from windows...I DO use mac based applications for what I use my macbook for...aside from office for mac 2004 and Adobe CS2...I am also using Aperture and Final Cut Pro along with such beta's as Lightroom. So while I still mainly do such things as game, bookkeeping as well as video editing. That machine is too new and too powerful (see signature) to even consider making a serious move to any OSx desktop.

Needless, to say, I love my macbook and have found that both it and OSx are performing beyond any expectations I could have had and am more than happy with both the hardware and the software.

 

is there a way to "print screen" like windows?

 

Yeah, you hit shift, Apple key and than 3.

It will take a screenshot and put it on your desktop, or use 4 instead of three to use your mouse to drag a box over the area you want taken.

 

thats even better.. hope i learn these stuff quick.. it would be great if there was like little messages for tips and so.

 

You can buy a guide, it's called like Tiger: The hidden guide or something... Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I heard it was excellent.

If you don't want to spend the money on it, searching online will reveal a wealth of information geared towards switchers. You'll get used to it!

 

Mac OS X Tiger Edition; The Missing Manual. By David Pogue.

I have this book and it is indeed excellent.

 

Right, what he said

 

That's odd actually. OS X actually does support the same kind of one-off "drag and drop" burning you mentioned. When you insert blank media in a drive, OS X should pop up a dialogue asking what you want to do with it. You have the option to make a default action (perhaps somehow the default action was changed to something other than mounting the writable media on the desktop for burning)?

Normally though, it should actually show up on your desktop, allowing you to copy files and folders to it, and then choose "Burn Disc" from the File menu.

It sounds to me like for some reason the "default action" when you insert a blank disc has been set to something else (or perhaps even set to "do nothing"). If that is the case, you can change this in the CDs & DVD's panel in the System Preferences (there are options for both "When you insert a blank CD" and "When you insert a blank DVD"). "Ask what to do" or "Open Finder" should do the trick (unless you want to set it to open a third party burning app like Toast instead).

About burnable folders; that's interesting actually, because the Burnable Folders functionality in OS X was actually designed more as a timesaver than anything. Burnable Folders was more designed for cases where you would be making multiple copies of things, or might need to make a DVD out of a disparate group of files multiple times.

Just as an example, say that you were a photographer and kept an updated folder containing your latest photos, etc. You might burn an archive CD or DVD every week with your latest stuff.

The idea with Burnable Folders essentially is that you can just set up a Burnable Folder with the files and folders you want, and it will be constantly updated with any new files, etc. that are added to the folders you put in your Burnable Folder for it.

So, the end result would be that you would just burn that "Burnable Folder" each week instead of having to find and copy the folders manually each time. More just a timesaver.

I can definitely see why you would see Burnable Folders as an inefficient way to do things, since it really isn't designed for one-off burning - it's designed really for the kinds of things like backing up files and folders that change regularly.

 

what can't a mac do? .. exactly

 

Play games hardcore, fly through the air unlike its PC counterpart after a fight with its owner,etc.

 

If you don't game, a Mac is a great option. If you do game, a Mac isn't - simple and keep your money for something else like me

 

Granted, although if you're like me, and want both a Mac and also some gaming ability, I think that the MBP and iMac both seem to provide some fairly respectable gaming performance. As I've argued on the Gaming forums here, a Mac certainly does not make sense to buy if your primary use is gaming, but it is clearly quite possible to handle some modern games decently with the MBP and iMac (and I'd guess that the Mac Pros should have some solid gaming capabilities as well).

 

True, but emphasis on some games, or rather you won't need anything more than your digits to count them

In an ideal world I'd get a black Macbook just for office then a sep gaming laptop

 

Right, I more meant gaming by installing Windows on an MBP or an iMac (where people have had no trouble running stuff like FEAR, Oblivion, HL2, etc.).

I wasn't so much talking about Mac-only gaming; although one perk I also see to owning a Mac is some of the great Mac-only shareware games from Ambrosia and Freeverse.

-Zadillo