Looking to buy MBP for School

I'm looking to buy a MBP to replace my Dell Inspiron 8600 (one of the fans blew up and this thing is 4 years old anyway).
I'm looking to get the 2.2 GHz MBP. I just need to know how it'll handle:

(1) WebCT - All my university classes are linked to this website and this is where all my notes from my classes are posted. The website/interface uses Java extensively.

(2) Facebook/MSN messenger - I know facebook's just a website so I don't imagine any problems. As for MSN messenger, will it work fine?

(3) Winamp - Can I still use winamp or would I be forced to switch over to using iTunes?

(4) Having been a PC user for 10+ years, I'm completely unfamiliar with Mac operating systems and stuff. How easy is it to get learn the various intricacies of Leopard?

(5) Microsoft Word. Powerpoint, Excel - Again, all my university notes are downloaded/provided in this format. Can I run Microsoft Office on a MBP or would "iWork"? be able to open such files?

Any advice/information would be very much appreciated.

 

1) Should be absolutely no problem running through Safari. If not, you can access that page through Firefox (assuming it works fine in Firefox, and it should) on Mac.

2) Facebook is not an issue. There are several IM clients for OS X that support MSN accounts, and Microsoft does have its own IM client for OS X, Microsoft Messenger for Mac, but its not that great, so I'd recommend you use Adium instead.

3) If you really really want Winamp you can dual boot to Windows . But if you switch over to OS X, you will need to go iTunes or another media player on OS X.

4) Its pretty easy to get used to OS X, once you know the basics. Read these two guides to get used to switching:

http://www.apple.com/support/switch101
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101

5) There is Microsoft Office for Mac. This is fully compatible with Office documents created/edited in Office on PCs, so that won't be an issue. The current version of Office for Mac is 2004, the equivalent to Microsoft Office 2003, and the next version of Office will be Office for Mac 2008, being released in early next year (probably January). That will be the Mac equivalent of Office 2007.

 

1) All web stuff works fine, as it's web stuff.

2) Facebook is fine. For messenger stuff use Adium, it connects to all the major im clients(MSN, AIM, Yahoo, Google)

3) Unfortunately it does not work. I dislike iTunes, so I've found a couple of decent players, my favorite so far being Play. Unfortunately it doesn't work with leopard.(Do a search on versiontracker.com to find a better music player)

4)It's easy unless you really don't want to, which seems to not be the case with you

5)iWork can open all of those files. You can also run Office for Mac or Neo Office(open office for mac).

 

Thanks for all the quick replies. One last thing.
I have a Blackberry 8830 which I sync to Microsoft Outlook Calendar using the Blackberry Desktop manager. Basically:

(1) Can I still use my Blackberry Desktop manager software on a MBP w/Leopard?

(2) What calendar/organizational tool does one use with Leopard and will I be able to sync that calendar with my Blackberry?

Again, any answers are much appreciated.

 

WebCT works fine on safari/firefox but in safari you need to disable popups first otherwise some of the interactive stuff doesn't work so well...

 

I hate WEBct...but yes it all works well on my macbook pro. For all the uses you listed, everything works fine.

 

I use WEBct on my Mac, and yes, I hate it too.