Looking to buy first Mac an MBP 15

After researching laptops for a long time I'm now leaning towards buying an MBP. I'm a long time PC user looking and I've used an Imac in the past about 3 years ago at a previous employer so I'm not a complete noob to Macs.
I currently own a Velocity Micro Edge Z30 (Win 7 Pro x64), a Dell Dimension 8300 (XP Pro), and my youngest son has an Acer One (XP home).

I've got a couple of questions. Where's the best place to buy an MBP??? As of right now I planning to buy it directly from Apple.
Also I have no plans to buy Office but I was planning of buying I-Work. Any thoughts on I-Works. I have Office in my 2 desktops.

Also I'm used to making an system image of my HD every-week in case of HD failure. Is there a way to do something similar with a Mac and will I need to buy separate software??? I use True Image for XP and the Win 7 Pro utility.

Also how do seperate log-in accounts work on a Mac, do they work similar to XP, Win 7???

 

Its funny I just upgraded from a dell dimension 8300 to a 15 MBP, As for iWork, I have been a long time office user and I dont mind using iWork. It goes by preference, you have to try it to know if you like it .

 

For $49 it can't hurt to try it.

 

I would stick with Office for the MAC - at least you know you wont have any compatibility issues etc if you move between the MBP and the PCs.

In regards to the image - I use 'SuperDuper'. Its a free program that creates an image of the internal drive, to an external HDD. If you have any issues you can boot off of the image, and either get straight back to work, or restore the image back onto your drive.
Best of all, its free!

 

that depends where you live...

iWork is extremely nice for normal home use type "Office" work. You could also look at getting OpenOffice (or NeoOffice) as free downloads as well.

if you get an external backup drive, you can use Time Machine (comes with your Mac) to keep constant backups.. or just plug it in once a week and let it back up. You can use this to easily pull data back off, or restore your system.

similar... user name and passwords... not sure what all your needing to know about them though.

 

Not true! Remember that the Mac version does not have all the same capabilities of the Windows version. Depending on what functions are used a file from Windows may not be fully compatible with Office on Mac. Personally I'm happy to put up with occasional issues between iWork and Office because of how much more I like using the iWork programs.

 

1) I would say buy it somewhere tax free. Amazon is usually a few bucks cheaper than Apple, and also tax free. There are other resellers who sometimes offer rebates or throw-ins (macmall, etc.).

2) iWork is fine, I'm sure you'll like it.

3) Time Machine is the easiest way - just plug in an external and it will back up your entire system. Other than that there's Super Duper, which is free and works very well.

4) You can create extra accounts very easily - under system preferences -> users. It works similarly to Windows 7, you can select the account you want to sign in with at start up.

Good luck.

 

You could buy refurb too. Save like $100-$200?

 

Possibly even more. It's a 15% discount pretty much across the board.

 

Thanks I'm still thinking about this decision. I was really not looking to spend close to 2k on a laptop. And while I'm not gaming, right now, what scares me if if I start to game the MBP's will not satisfy my needs,

If I was rich I wouldn't have this or any other financial issues.
Thanks again.

 

For Word, Excel, & PowerPoint, it pretty much is true. The only exception I can think of is Visual Basic. Even then, the Mac version will open those files, and preserve the VB content. It just won't run it.

VB was standard in the Mac version of Office until Office 2008. And Microsoft has already announced it will return in the next version, which will probably be called Office 2011.

For people who regularly need to trade Office files, I think Office is a good solution. Otherwise, I recommend iWork.

 

I have Office 2008 with Word, Excel, Powerpoint and from what I can tell it is exactly like the Windows version in terms of use.

Even CTRL+C+V works like it does on a PC.

 

I am considering buying the macbook from apple store directly as well, but buying a MBP direct from the store since you have to pay tax, unless you really wanna have the felling from buying the store.
I suggest you to look up from other reatailers of mac like macmall or amazon(?) Or even macbook refurbished, save a few bucks from tax and you really can't tell the difference between a brand new macbook and refurbished besides the fancy box.

 

I wouldn't suggest buying from the store unless:

1. You are dying for the Apple Store experience.
2. You are a college student looking for the discount + free iPod/printer

 

^ the free ipod and college discount is nice.

Best Buy is a good option if you're in the US and are a silver premier member. 45 days return policy no restocking fee, plus reward points lol. This was very useful when my gf bought the older whitebooks and 40 days later the unibody whitebooks were released. Did a return at 42 days, waited a week for the unibody to come in stock and purchased. No loss in restocking =)

 

I just got my first macbook as well, the 15" i5.
I've had it for about a week now, purchased through the apple online store.
Freakin love it so far!