Complications if I get a Mac?

[jh2550a]

I am seriously considering purchasing a MacBook to start graduate school in the fall. My only hesitation is that I am concerned there will be issues down the road with compatibility. For example, my undergraduate institution had software that you could download for free (Microsoft Office, etc.) but was only compatible for PCs. And if my school does have some kind of license for SPSS- is it likely that they also have the Mac version? I can't get a straight answer from my advisor. Any personal experiences from Mac users would be very helpful. I am concerned about spending a large amount of money on a computer and then having nothing but complications.

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[Ollie123]

If you definitely want a macbook, you can install windows on it as well and just boot into that when necessary.

 

[Sobe203]

IMO, installing Bootcamp & Windows defeats the purpose of having a Mac. Mac OS X is really clean - no bugs, pop-ups, crashes, viruses. Windows is a mess.

I don't know how you feel about free file-sharing networks, but MacSerialJunkie.com offers free software for Macs, including SPSS and Endnote X1. You sign up, making 5-10 posts in the off-topic forum, and once you get those number of posts, other forums with free software opens up. They have just about anything you could want.

 

[deleted106747]

Most software will run on my Mac - the only issue I had was with NVivo. So I did the boot camp thing and use the Windows partition for only NVivo. I disagree that it defeats the purpose of the Mac; most of the time I use the stable, wonderful OS X with the fabulous Time Machine and have no issues. I keep the Windows bit to a minimum, although I find that it runs quite well on my Mac possibly due to the fact that it's a clean copy with none of the add ons that computer companies put on them.

I think you can get the student license for SPSS directly from the SPSS web site.

 

[Ollie123]

IMO, installing Bootcamp & Windows defeats the purpose of having a Mac. Mac OS X is really clean - no bugs, pop-ups, crashes, viruses. Windows is a mess.

I always love these statements.

Am I the only one on the planet that doesn't have any problems with windows?

Seriously, its perfectly stable, I never get viruses, etc.

 

[deleted176373]

I always love these statements.

Am I the only one on the planet that doesn't have any problems with windows?

Seriously, its perfectly stable, I never get viruses, etc.

Windows can be fairly stable, but still it can't hang with most Unix based OS's. My uptime on my windows box is usually measured in weeks (which is fairly decent for windows) but that pales in comparison to my Linux systems that were measured in YEARS. (Seriously!) I had a system in my house (yes, that was used heavily) that had an uptime in excess of two years , and only had to be powered off because I was physically moving it and upgrading the memory. This was despite being connected to a high speed connection with a real IP, it was not behind a firewall and was attacked constantly, just kept humming along. Windows won't do that.

Mark

PS - I had work systems running linux with an excess of 4 years uptime!

 

[Ollie123]

Windows can be fairly stable, but still it can't hang with most Unix based OS's. My uptime on my windows box is usually measured in weeks (which is fairly decent for windows) but that pales in comparison to my Linux systems that were measured in YEARS. (Seriously!) I had a system in my house (yes, that was used heavily) that had an uptime in excess of two years , and only had to be powered off because I was physically moving it and upgrading the memory. This was despite being connected to a high speed connection with a real IP, it was not behind a firewall and was attacked constantly, just kept humming along. Windows won't do that.

Mark

PS - I had work systems running linux with an excess of 4 years uptime!

I can't figure out what my uptime would be here. Stupid florida thunderstorms cause the power to flicker so much my computer gets shut off whether I want it to or not

My point was mostly just that I hear alot of people talk like Windows can't go 5 minutes without the mother board frying, the hard drive eating itself, and the whole thing going up in flames. I have no problem with Macs, but if I have to do a 2 minute reboot every 3 months instead of every year that just seems too minor to even factor into a decision (well, I suppose I should specify on a non-server - it might make a difference if I used mine as a server). Is that what people mean or do people really have that much troubles with their systems?

I just don't understand what I do differently with my windows machines from the general population, but I don't think I've had a virus since I was 11 years old and downloading those AOL hacks and have gone through maybe 3 computers in that time. All mid-line retail comps so its not like I custom-built something that could survive a war ( though I am doing so now - thank you tax refunds and stimulus package ). The only program crash I ever really get is IE, and I can usually trace that to being the fault of the website rather than my PC since most of the time I get an error when I use a different browser too.

Am I just really lucky?

 

[myelin]

I can't figure out what my uptime would be here. Stupid florida thunderstorms cause the power to flicker so much my computer gets shut off whether I want it to or not

My point was mostly just that I hear alot of people talk like Windows can't go 5 minutes without the mother board frying, the hard drive eating itself, and the whole thing going up in flames. I have no problem with Macs, but if I have to do a 2 minute reboot every 3 months instead of every year that just seems too minor to even factor into a decision (well, I suppose I should specify on a non-server - it might make a difference if I used mine as a server). Is that what people mean or do people really have that much troubles with their systems?

I just don't understand what I do differently with my windows machines from the general population, but I don't think I've had a virus since I was 11 years old and downloading those AOL hacks and have gone through maybe 3 computers in that time. All mid-line retail comps so its not like I custom-built something that could survive a war ( though I am doing so now - thank you tax refunds and stimulus package ). The only program crash I ever really get is IE, and I can usually trace that to being the fault of the website rather than my PC since most of the time I get an error when I use a different browser too.

Am I just really lucky?

No, I'm right beside you Ollie. If anything, the PEBKAC.

To the OP, if you're worried about compatibility issues, why do you want a Mac?

 

[myelin]

Mac OS X is really clean - no bugs, pop-ups, crashes, viruses. Windows is a mess.

What exactly are you referring to?

 

[Cosmo75]

I'm on an all Mac platform (laptop and a mini). For the most part, you can get the software you need. I haven't had to use NVivo in a while, but I suppose I'd put it on my husband's PC if I needed it.

A strange observation about Mac and PC and SPSS 16....

This *could* be user error, but I'm well versed in SPSS and the stats I used for my dissertation. SPSS had to tweak it's processing "engine" to run on Intel based Macs, which is why previous versions wouldn't exactly work. You could install it, but the results would be inaccurate. SPSS made sure to emphasize this to people with older versions. Basically sure install it but you'll get crap later.

Anyway, I had to run some MANOVA and hierarchical regressions for my dissertation. I originally did them at home on SPSS 11 (student version) on my old powerbook (which then died). Then I re-ran most of my stats when I got SPSS 16 for my mini (intel based). There were very minor differences in the numbers. The significance levels were the same, but some of the regression values were slightly different (.34 vs. .36 for example). I thought, well that's odd. Maybe I screwed up somewhere. Then, because I didn't have the advanced models to do the MANOVAs over, I went to school and re-ran those on SPSS 16 for the PC. Again, slight differences in values with the same p values. So just for sh*ts and giggles, I re-ran everything. The basic stats came out the same, but the more complex stats were just ever so different. In this case, slightly improved so that helped my variance values go up a percent or 2.

But....that made me very concerned about these slight differences between SPSS on the PC and SPSS on the Mac. I plan on using the PC version going forward to run stats, partially because that's what most people use and if I did have to hand over data there may be discrepancies if I used my Mac.

That's rather long winded, but I thought I'd share. I think SPSS for intel based Mac's still has some gremlins. Anyone else notice this???

 

[deleted176373]

I can't figure out what my uptime would be here. Stupid florida thunderstorms cause the power to flicker so much my computer gets shut off whether I want it to or not

Am I just really lucky?

Nope, you are not really lucky, it actually works well enough most of the times.

Since I owned an Internet service (I used to be an ISP in a past life) uptime was critical. So not having 30 servers that needed bi-monthly reboots significantly simplified my life, you can imagine having a different server fail every 2 days in an unpredictable manner would have been at the very least annoying. There is a difference, but for the average grad student, I think that Windows is not a bad choice.

I would be more concerned about other more pressing issues like, if I save the money from buying Mac, what would I use it for? In my case, I used it to go with 2 HP w2207 monitors and a graphics card to run dual DVI monitors. It makes me far more productive than any other computer purchase I have made. If you are not using a dual monitor setup for reading PDF's and writing papers... look into it. I have attached a picture of the setup I use below... It helps ALOT!

 

[psychanon]

I just got my first Macbook a couple months ago. I haven't had any problems with compatibility-- my school gives out free Office for Mac as well as Office for Windows, and gives the Mac version of SPSS at the same heavily discounted price as the Windows version. Other software that my university offers for free (e.g., Endnote) also come in Mac versions. The only limitation I've encountered so far is that there's no Mac version of AMOS. Because I use AMOS sometimes, I installed Fusion, which is a program that allows you to run Windows on your Mac in a separate Window within Leopard (as opposed to Bootcamp, where you have to reboot in order to use Windows-- in Fusion, you can switch back and forth from a Mac window to a Windows window. Parallels does the same thing). But other than that I haven't encountered any problems.

For what it's worth, I was a Windows user until this April, and I never understood how Mac people claimed that Mac was easier to use, because I always thought that Windows was perfectly easy. Sure, it crashed occasionally, but i just accepted that as a fact of life. But Mac does have a bunch of features that I never even knew I needed, but now I feel like I can't live without. It's just totally intuitive. And not crashing is certainly better than crashing.

 

[Sobe203]

"Mac OS X is really clean - no bugs, pop-ups, crashes, viruses. Windows is a mess."

What exactly are you referring to?

I'm referring to the fact Windows is really buggy and poorly-designed.

You really don't appreciate the difference until you've owned both. Macs are a lot smoother, run a lot faster, have a neater/cleaner user interface, and the operating system is always a few steps ahead in technology and offers a lot of features you don't appreciate until you've used them for a while.

I'm not trying to knock PCs, and I'm glad there are people here who are happy with theirs and haven't had many problems, but if you're trying to decide between a Mac and a PC, definitely invest in the Mac.

 

[Ollie123]

But Mac does have a bunch of features that I never even knew I needed, but now I feel like I can't live without.

Example?

OP - Sorry for totally derailing this thread, hope you got the answer you were looking for. For the most part, I think the answer is yes, you may encounter some software you can't run on a mac, but there is usually a workaround.

You all have got me curious now - if the linux base the mac OS's runs off has many of the same features I might install both Windows and Linux once I finish this beast off to my right and see if its all you folks claim it to be I think its actually possible to force the Mac OS onto a PC if you do it right, but it probably causes more finangling and some hardware compatability issues I'd prefer not to deal with. So hopefully its linux base will have some of the same features.

 

[deleted176373]

Example?

OP - Sorry for totally derailing this thread, hope you got the answer you were looking for. For the most part, I think the answer is yes, you may encounter some software you can't run on a mac, but there is usually a workaround.

You all have got me curious now - if the linux base the mac OS's runs off has many of the same features I might install both Windows and Linux once I finish this beast off to my right and see if its all you folks claim it to be I think its actually possible to force the Mac OS onto a PC if you do it right, but it probably causes more finangling and some hardware compatability issues I'd prefer not to deal with. So hopefully its linux base will have some of the same features.

Actually IIRC, MacOS is a BSD based Unix and not Linux based. For most people this differentiation is of little importance.

Mark

 

[psychanon]

Example?

For starters....
-Having a great search feature at the top of your screen. I hear that Vista has finally gotten around to improving the awful Windows search engine, so maybe that's good too, but Spotlight is generally just great. You can even get math calculations or dictionary definitions from it. And likewise, the search functions are great in all the Apple programs-- iTunes, Mail, iCal, iPhoto, etc.-- you can pretty much always find what you're looking for instantaneously.
-Time Machine-- a program that not only automatically backs up everything (so you don't have to remember to), it backs up old versions of everything by saving incremental changes. So, say you are writing a paper and you realize that you accidentally deleted a paragraph the day before. With TM, you can just go to yesterday's version of the paper. Or, say Endnote messes up all your references all of a sudden and you can't undo (something that has burnt me in the past). Just go to the version of the paper you saved an hour ago.
-Spaces-- multiple desktops, which are easy to navigate between. Linux has had this feature for a while, but who knows when Windows will get around to adding it.
-Integration between programs-- All the software works really well together. For example, I can highlight a date & time in Mail or Safari and have it automatically generate an iCal event.
-Dashboard-- I really like having all the widgets available to me at a click of a button.
-Labels- you can label files with different colors to denote status, etc.
-Smart folders-- Just like you can make smart playlists in iTunes, you can make smart folders-- folders that automatically update their contents based on your specifications. For example, you could have all your files with a certain label saved within the last week, etc.
-Aesthetics-- It's certainly not the most important thing in the world, but Apples sure are a lot pretty, both on the outside and on the screens. It is nice having everything look nice.

Ultimately, there are a lot of little things that add up to big things. And I'm still just learning about all the features and trying to figure out how to best utilize them, so a veteran Mac user could probably give you even more examples.

 

[Boston2k]

Nice setup Markp. I'd never considered using a widescreen monitor like that, it's a great idea, kudos. Eventually maybe I make a 3 panel "workstation" with one PDF reader, one regular comp, and one with scheduler that I can sync with phone! But then I need to set one of those up both at school and home

 

[jh2550a]

Thanks for everyone who responded. I basically just wanted to make sure there weren't any aspects of owning a Mac I had over-looked. Your input was very helpful.