Not another Mac vs PC thread!

[GreennWhite]

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Honestly, I'm already sold on a Mac - I've got more specific questions.

Okay, so I am preparing for *the switch* from PC to Mac. I have been thinking about this long and hard as I am quite devoted to my Dells. But I need a lighter/smaller computer with the same capabilities for vet school and I just can't find that in a Dell, or any others for that matter. They also give the largest student discount that i've found.

I have a bazillion questions and no apple store within an hour! YUCK!

Hopefully some of you can help out? Especially those that have made the switch as well!?

1. Is the Macbook Pro realllllly worth the extra $200?
2. Is iWorks significantly comparable to Office? I do A LOT of word processing and excel spreadsheets - pretty much every facet of my life is in excel, i'm a major number cruncher.
3. This VMWare Fusion - it says you can bring all your applications over - does this include things like Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver? Office? Do you need anything else to run along with Fusion?

I'm not a huge graphics person, but I do have a website that I maintain and am hoping to start up another one. I'm also a major internet addict and like playing small games (not like WoW or anything, more like Snood, Blossic, etc.)

Any suggestions for a newbie mac owners? I'm sure i'll remember more questions later.

Thanks!

 

[luplodw]

1. The Macbook Pro is NOT worth the extra $200. The "insides" of the computer are the same. You'd only be paying the money to have a silver computer. They used to be different, but now the Macbooks have been upgraded and they are the same now!
2. I would just get Office for Macs. I had iWork and it's not the same. You have to pay for each of them anyway, so just get Office.
3. I'm not so sure what this is. Is this what makes you be able to run Windows on your computer? You don't have to buy anything to make windows run. The program is only so you can run windows and the mac operating system at the same time. You can run windows only without any software! You just have to start up the computer a certain way. Remember that one of the main reasons to get a mac is to not get viruses! If you run windows, you run the risk of getting a virus just like any other pc. Since you play those games, I guess you'd have to run windows.

 

[maconway]

The program that lets your run windows on a mac is called BootCamp and you basically install Windows XP or which ever version you have. But you have to have a anti-virus protection installed since you will be prone to all the Windows viruses. Hope that helps.

 

[vnair2]

1) What luplodw said was correct. The insides of the macbookpro and macbook are essentially the same. That being said, the cometic upgrades you get for $200 are pretty bangin. I would pay $200 for that backlit keyboard alone, but that is just me.

2) Get office, or get the significantly more free openoffice, which is what I use. Some people hate it, I have no problem with it, but I dont use it that much.

3) I havent used VMWare Fusion, but ive heard fine things. I use bootcamp for all my windows running needs and it works great. Install was easy and everything runs smoothly. I always feel a little dirty when windows starts up, but that is a topic for another day.

 

[Tiktaalik]

I'm going to second the recommendation of Office. iWork is good, but it's not as compatible, and everyone else will be using office.

You don't need seperate virtualization software to run Windows apps on your Mac (Boot Camp is free and comes with the computer, as long as you don't mind rebooting to go into Windows mode), but if you want to run both windows and Mac apps at the same time, this guide at Gizmodo (a tech website I like to read) will tell you all about your options (there's even a free one, so don't plonk money down on the paid ones unless you need the features).

It is also important to note that you DO need something along with just the VM software - you're gonna need a windows cd that isn't installed on another machine, because how the software works is that it creates an imaginary second computer inside your real computer, and then you install windows on the imaginary computer.

However, if you want to use Photoshop/Dreamweaver, you might want to look into native (Mac) versions of that software. I know that those products are really expensive, but if you are a version or two behind and might have to upgrade soon anyway, you might as well do it now, becuase those programs' Mac versions are designed with the Mac in mind and are actually considered by many to be a little better put-together than the windows versions. Also, you're gonna get some slowdown with VM software, so it's better to run whatever software you can natively. Will it be bad to run them in VM? No, but native will always be better.

Whatever you chose to do, remember that if you "move" your software from your old computer to your new one, Adobe sometimes checks their licenses and won't be happy to see yours on 2 computers, so be sure to uninstall it from your old computer before installing the software on your new one (unless you have a license that lets you install on multiple computers - I'm just reminding you because I care 🙂 )

Edit: As for office, if you have the full suite already and are going to do the VM thing for something else, I say emulate office and see how it works for you. I really hate Office for Mac - I feel like the program resents being on my computer and tries to crash as often as possible, and they never put out any updates for it.

 

[Lissarae06]

I switched from PC to an iMac this past summer and I love love love my Mac. I also love playing games on the internet and I have never had compatibility issues since the switch. Office for Mac took me a little while to get the hang of. It's not identical to the windows version. Excel has been particularly difficult for me but I'm figuring it out.

 

[Tiktaalik]

Oh, Green, just a question based on your name and undergrad, are you in at MSU? Because they are giving incoming students the ability to roll their new laptop into their financial aid. Granted, this just means that you can use your loans to pay for it, but it could be helpful if you would rather not drop a whole g at once.

 

[luplodw]

Edit: As for office, if you have the full suite already and are going to do the VM thing for something else, I say emulate office and see how it works for you. I really hate Office for Mac - I feel like the program resents being on my computer and tries to crash as often as possible, and they never put out any updates for it.

They just came out with a new office in 2009. It only cost me $60.

I've also heard that VM slows down your computer and that bootcamp is the best way to go (and free!)

 

[ImaJerseyGirl]

.

 

[variegata]

Unless you're a graphics designer, you probably don't need a MacBook pro. I've got the normal 13" one and I absolutely love it (I also switched from Dell).

While I actually like the iWork programs better since I find them more intuitive, I got MS Office for Mac instead because that's what everyone uses. I wanted to be able to download powerpoints and word documents for classes and such because it's such a pain to try to convert files (like .exe files--I HATE them).

I got the student edition of photoshop for a fraction of the normal retail price, so I don't know anything about transferring programs over, but it was well worth it because I only had PS elements on my Dell, which had the basics but not so much of the fun/crazy stuff that CS4 has.

 

[Tiktaalik]

They just came out with a new office in 2009. It only cost me $60.

I've also heard that VM slows down your computer and that bootcamp is the best way to go (and free!)

I mean like bugfix downloadable updates.

And yeah, VM does slow things down.

 

[turnbackhelly]

While I actually like the iWork programs better since I find them more intuitive, I got MS Office for Mac instead because that's what everyone uses. I wanted to be able to download powerpoints and word documents for classes and such because it's such a pain to try to convert files (like .exe files--I HATE them).

I have iWork on my macbook and I've never had any problems opening word, powerpoint, or excel documents with the iWork programs. there is also a very easy way to save iWork files as .doc, .ppt, and .exe, so stuff you generate with iWork will open on mac or PC based office programs with no problem at all.

that being said, i recently downloaded the free trial of office for mac and am considering purchasing it, only because i like it better and i like the notebook function in word. i've had iWork only for almost a year now and it has suited my needs perfectly well.

 

[Tiktaalik]

I have iWork on my macbook and I've never had any problems opening word, powerpoint, or excel documents with the iWork programs. there is also a very easy way to save iWork files as .doc, .ppt, and .exe, so stuff you generate with iWork will open on mac or PC based office programs with no problem at all.

that being said, i recently downloaded the free trial of office for mac and am considering purchasing it, only because i like it better and i like the notebook function in word. i've had iWork only for almost a year now and it has suited my needs perfectly well.

I use both, and iWork usually works just fine, but sometimes goofs up power point slides, which could be problematic for viewing professors' notes.

 

[PrimalMU]

1. The 13" Macbook and Macbook Pro are essentially the same machine. However, there are indeed more differences when you go up to the larger Macbook Pros. The larger ones are more than $200 extra, though.

2. I don't like iWorks. It's pretty, and the word processor is good, but the spreadsheet program sucks. Stick with Office 2008 for Mac or Openoffice (which I use).

3. VMWare Fusion is great, but keep in mind you will need a licensed copy of Windows to use it. However, you'd need a licensed copy of Windows to use Bootcamp as well. What I like about VMWare Fusion (and Parallels might do this, too) is that it can boot your Bootcamp partition, so you can actually boot to your Bootcamp Windows partition from within OS X. I personally use the free VirtualBox. It works just as well as VMWare Fusion in my experience, and the price can't be beat!

If you aren't completely sold on the Mac just yet, check out Lenovo. They give some pretty nice student discounts, too.

 

[purplesaurus]

So I switched to Mac from PC (Dells, in fact) a little over three years ago, and let me say, I love my Mac! I mean, I looove it! I find the user experience to be rather intuitive and effortless. There was a little bit of learning for me, but it was more unlearning my Windows habit. I find that it usually just does what I want it to do. And this comes from a girl who was, for years, a very anti-Mac, PC chauvinist.

Now for your questions:
1) Three years ago, I started with a regular macbook, which I loved. Then two years ago I upgraded to a 17" macbook pro (don't ask, it was an impulse). I love it mostly even more because: my hardware is better and faster*, AND I got the sexy high-res screen, which makes watching movies on my computer pretty awesome (my home TV is only 20", so maybe the macbook is not as nice as those fancy giant flat screens...).

However... I kinda wish I had stayed with my 13" macbook because the 17" book is heavy (when it comes to lugging it around on my shoulders all day) and too big for my backpack or other bags. Really defeats the purpose of a laptop sometimes (I view it more as a highly mobile desktop...).

(I am writing to Birthday Santa for a netbook.)

2) I started with Office for Mac, and it worked pretty well. I asked for (and received) iWorks '09 for Christmas because I was having issues with Word, though. Small things, but they drove me bonkers; e.g., if I double clicked a Word doc, it would open Word but not the actual document itself (I was able to open the document from Word through the menu). I still have not figured out what is going on there.

So far, I am enjoying iWorks. It is not identical to Word, so I haven't yet figured out how to make it do everything I want, but I'm getting there. I have more experience with Pages than Numbers or Keynote, so I can't talk about them much. You can save your iWorks files in Office formats, too.

A word about Open Office. I used it on Windows and thought it was great. However, I tried it on my macbook, and I hated it. I found it clunky and difficult to use. I can't remember my specific problems, but my mac did not like running it, and I had a lot of problems with formatting my documents. This was two or three years ago, though, so maybe there have been changes with more recent upgrades.

3) Sorry, no experience with VMWare Fusion. And I like to start fresh with new computers, so I didn't move any applications.

I did get a cheap copy (sometimes yay for being a student) of Windows Vista, which I run with BootCamp, so I could play some of my games. I would have preferred XP, but buying a full copy would have been around $200 (!!?!). I don't use Vista much, but it runs fairly well. I have noticed it takes longer to boot up and shut down than Mac OS x, and my battery doesn't seem to last as long.

I have found BootCamp to be really easy to use, and it's free! And I think it comes standard with OS X (it did for me).


*A tip for you, don't get the max RAM when getting your laptop. It is way cheaper and super easy to buy the RAM separately and upgrade yourself. I would have been, I think, over $500 to upgrade from 2GB to 4GB when I bought my MB pro from Apple, but I was able to upgrade on my own for about $60.

 

[Whyevernot55]

Come to the dark side, we have shiny laptops.

1. Don't bother with the Pro. I loooooove my MacBook, and I have no idea what the advantage would be to the Pro. Other than I'd be poorer.

2. I agree with what everyone else has said - get Office for Mac. I also use a whole lot of Excel and Word, and I'd go insane without them. My boyfriend got the program to run Windows on his Mac, but never uses it, so personally I think that's a waste.

3. Not a clue.

I switched to Mac after a lifetime of PCs (mostly Dell) last year. I am definitely never going back!

 

[PrimalMU]

A word about Open Office. I used it on Windows and thought it was great. However, I tried it on my macbook, and I hated it. I found it clunky and difficult to use. I can't remember my specific problems, but my mac did not like running it, and I had a lot of problems with formatting my documents. This was two or three years ago, though, so maybe there have been changes with more recent upgrades.

Back when I got my first generation Macbook, I installed NeoOffice (the Mac port of OpenOffice, because then there was not an Intel OSX version of OpenOffice), and it was horrid. However, OpenOffice now has an Intel OSX version and it runs just as well (maybe better) on OSX as it does in Windows or Linux.

 

[nyanko]

A word about Open Office. I used it on Windows and thought it was great. However, I tried it on my macbook, and I hated it. I found it clunky and difficult to use. I can't remember my specific problems, but my mac did not like running it, and I had a lot of problems with formatting my documents. This was two or three years ago, though, so maybe there have been changes with more recent upgrades.

Okay, seriously I am about as pro-open source as a person can get without delving into obsessive proselytizing territory, but open office is a pile of junk. Java is not intended to handle those types of applications and it shows in the incessant resource-hogging and general slowness and ineptitude of the program as a whole.

I write formal documents in LaTeX, use R to make graphs and figures and format tables and use MS Office for quick things. I have zero experience with Macs (generally been a Linux user, though I have Windows 7 on my current laptop and am surprisingly and mildly impressed), so I don't know what else is available for them really aside from Office but in my personal opinion I'd rather use a typewriter and white-out than open office.

 

[PrimalMU]

Ya know, I would agree with you back in the 2.x days. However, with OpenOffice 3.x I feel they've REALLY improved responsiveness. While I do think MS Office is by far the best word processor out there, I gotta say that I have no qualms using OpenOffice. If I had a less powerful computer it might be more of an issue, though.

 

[purplesaurus]

Ya know, I would agree with you back in the 2.x days. However, with OpenOffice 3.x I feel they've REALLY improved responsiveness. While I do think MS Office is by far the best word processor out there, I gotta say that I have no qualms using OpenOffice. If I had a less powerful computer it might be more of an issue, though.

Well, that's encouraging. I really did like it on Windows, and I was sad it sucked so much on Mac.

 

[dyachei]

1. Is the Macbook Pro realllllly worth the extra $200?

2. Is iWorks significantly comparable to Office? I do A LOT of word processing and excel spreadsheets - pretty much every facet of my life is in excel, i'm a major number cruncher.
3. This VMWare Fusion - it says you can bring all your applications over - does this include things like Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver? Office? Do you need anything else to run along with Fusion?


Thanks!

1. no, its not unless you want a back-lit keyboard and the aluminum case. It's entirely up to you.

2. I haven't ever had the issues that others have with Word for my Macs. I personally think its better than iWorks but that's mostly based on my familiarity with it.

3. VMWare Fusion is awesome. It is far and away better than Parallels. It doesn't significantly slow my Mac partition to have my Windows partition open. Having the ability to drag and drop files from my Mac directly into Windows is pretty nice, too. I didn't have nearly as many driver errors with VMWare as I did with Parallels. If you have any specific questions about VMWare, I'd be happy to answer them, I just can't think of much else offhand.

 

[jos05]

Just wanted to add, I have a regular macbook, not pro, and it has the aluminum unibody 😀 is that not the norm or something??

 

[dyachei]

Just wanted to add, I have a regular macbook, not pro, and it has the aluminum unibody 😀 is that not the norm or something??

When I looked recently - about a week ago - the macbooks just have the white unibody. The macbook pros have the aluminum body with a black keyboard.

 

[jos05]

Weird. I bought mine last May so maybe the newer models don't have the aluminum body for the non-pro's anymore.

 

[PrimalMU]

I believe they sold Macbooks with the unibody cases for a short period, but switched back to the classic white (probably to keep the distinction between the Macbook and Macbook Pro lines).

 

[turnbackhelly]

Just wanted to add, I have a regular macbook, not pro, and it has the aluminum unibody 😀 is that not the norm or something??

same here, and i bought mine in early june of last year. there was a short period of time when the macbook came in either white or the aluminum body (whereas now it's just white, and i believe that's how it always was going back to the days of the iBook). since i'm a sucker for aesthetics (and because my white iBook G4 got dirty as hell, which bothered my obsessively clean, neurotic self to no end) i paid more for the aluminum body. then, i kid you not, a week later, they moved the aluminum macbook (13") over into the macbook pro line, so now the pro comes in 13", 15", or 17" (whereas i believe it used to just be 15" or 17"). as far as i know the now 13" macbook pro is basically the same machine as the one we have... although they may have given it a backlit keyboard, i'm not sure. and i do covet the backlit keyboard... oh well.

 

[Tiktaalik]

Caveat about the white plastic version - I have the 2007 white plastic macbook, and a design flaw causes two strips to crack off the handrest after a few months of use. It's happened to every white macbook I've ever seen (mine and my friends'), and I even had my plate replaced (for free, since I have applecare) and the darn thing just broke again a month later. The lady at the apple store said it's just inevitable, and they can't guarantee it won't happen no matter how many times they replace it, so I just gave up. I don't know if this is a problem on the new white ones, but just be wary.

I mean, it's not a big deal, but it's ugly.

 

[Mistoffeles]

Okay, seriously I am about as pro-open source as a person can get without delving into obsessive proselytizing territory, but open office is a pile of junk. Java is not intended to handle those types of applications and it shows in the incessant resource-hogging and general slowness and ineptitude of the program as a whole.

I write formal documents in LaTeX, use R to make graphs and figures and format tables and use MS Office for quick things. I have zero experience with Macs (generally been a Linux user, though I have Windows 7 on my current laptop and am surprisingly and mildly impressed), so I don't know what else is available for them really aside from Office but in my personal opinion I'd rather use a typewriter and white-out than open office.

what she said. and when i was first in school, i still *did* use a typewriter and whiteout! 😛 i was seriously happy when i found open office, downloaded it, gamely tried it for a year, and uninstalled it.

and the only reason i use ms office more than otherwise right now is because i have a tablet pc, and haven't found too much open-source that leverages the full functionality. to be fair, i haven't had too much time to look.

 

[luplodw]

Caveat about the white plastic version - I have the 2007 white plastic macbook, and a design flaw causes two strips to crack off the handrest after a few months of use. It's happened to every white macbook I've ever seen (mine and my friends'), and I even had my plate replaced (for free, since I have applecare) and the darn thing just broke again a month later. The lady at the apple store said it's just inevitable, and they can't guarantee it won't happen no matter how many times they replace it, so I just gave up. I don't know if this is a problem on the new white ones, but just be wary.

I mean, it's not a big deal, but it's ugly.

I had the old version and just got the new macbook about a week ago. They fixed the cracking problem around the edges! There aren't the two little things at the top that caused the cracks, and there isn't a strip around the outside of the computer.

 

[luvgoldens482]

Also, I don't know if this has changed in the past year with all of Apple's changes, but the Macbook Pro has a video card that enables you to run various programs that you cannot run on Macbook. Just keep that in mind (check to see if this has changed first though).

 

[Tiktaalik]

I had the old version and just got the new macbook about a week ago. They fixed the cracking problem around the edges! There aren't the two little things at the top that caused the cracks, and there isn't a strip around the outside of the computer.

Yay! I'll probably upgrade between coursework and clinicals, since this lappy is almost 3 yrs old now (the other day, I called tech suport and they asked me for a number printed on the back... and all the type has worn off! It's completely blank!), so that's good to know for when I upgrade.

Edit: If you're worried about the video card, even my 3 year old regular Macbook has enough video power to run World of Warcraft and Myst V, so you shouldn't worry unless you want to play high end games or do cg modeling/video editing.

 

[amom427]

I didn't read all the posts so forgive me if I am repeating things. Apple Customer Support is SUPER nice. Call them, they will answer your questions--I believe honestly. I have always spoken with someone I can understand and that really helped with my switch to Mac.

I have Office for Mac and iWork. I use Office pretty much exclusively just because it is what I am used to. I tried to use Pages the other day and it was missing a function I wanted--rotating an image--something fairly silly!

If there is not an Apple store nearby try to find an AUTHORIZED dealer or a service provider. My optical drive went out last week in my iMac. At first they tried to tell me I would have to go to my nearest Apple store 5 hours away to get it repaired under warranty! After speaking with a supervisor, we found an authorized service provider 5 miles away! I would think they would also be very helpful in your purchase as well. And my be vital to you later on!

To be perfectly honest, I wish I would have gone to a store to purchase/speak with someone knowledgeable about Apples--not Best Buy or somewhere similar. I don't know how far away your nearest one is, but if it is not too far past an hour I would go check it out!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Mac!!!

 

[Highlsnds3]

Just a little hijack here! How important is it to be able to type at a decent rate for note taking during vet school? With any luck I'll be at UTK in the fall, and am hoping that this skill is not one I'll need to build before now and then. Thanks!

 

[dyachei]

Just a little hijack here! How important is it to be able to type at a decent rate for note taking during vet school? With any luck I'll be at UTK in the fall, and am hoping that this skill is not one I'll need to build before now and then. Thanks!

At UTK, most classes have copious amounts of notes, though there are some exceptions. And most classes have powerpoints that you can use to take notes on. There are very few classes where it is hard to keep up.