Switching from PC to Mac (suggestions & tips welcome)

[American Infidel]

This forum has been a great resource for information, not just for political and media related topics, but for a wide range of other topics as well. This is a testament to the diverse skill sets and expertise possessed by the members of Free Republic. I am hoping to leverage this expertise by asking for some advice in the technical area. I am looking to make the switch from a PC to a MAC. I am hoping that some of you may be able to provide some information or even links to information about some of the pros/cons of making the switch as well as some suggestions on things such as migrating about 5 years worth of Internet Explorer Favorites (mostly links to FR threads) to the MAC platform. I also would like to continue to use MS Office (need to purchase in MAC compatible format) - or can I use a Windows parallel environment(?). I currently have a Dell desktop and printer/copier/scanner. My guess is that a Mac would not be compatible with my Dell printer (?). Any information from those who have made the switch would be greatly appreciated. I was unable to find any previous threads on FR regarding this topic. A lot of the stuff I have googled on the topic has been less than comprehensive. Thanks to all in advance for your advice.

[Jet Jaguar]

ping

[American Infidel]

My apologies that this was posted to the News/Activism area, I thought I had categorized it as vanity.

[dennisw]

I’m switching to a PC from a Mac. Advice and bomb threats requested

[MrLee]

You’ve made a smart and wise choice. Enjoy!!

[LibWhacker]

Emulation software?:

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/virtualpc/virtualpc.aspx?pid=virtualpc

Slows things down though.

[Caesar Soze]

You can stop capitalizing all three letters Mac. It’s not an initialism. Not your usage, anyway. Other than that, I can’t really help. I run Linux on commodity hardware, which I guess makes me a PC user, or maybe I have escaped the PC/Mac dichotomy (if it even exists, or ever did).

[FreedomPoster]

Everything I hear says that VMWare Fusion is a better answer than Parallels.

[Bobalu]

Maybe you could try dual-booting your present PC with Windows and Linux?

I recommend PClinuxOS...

You would have Firefox in linux and you can migrate your bookmarks to it...or perhaps even run a version of IE using the free Wine package for Linux.

And you could always boot to windows if you have to run a windows program that Wine can not handle.

[genxer]

ping

[Cobra64]

I’m out of breath trying to read your post.

[Liberty Valance]

[Cobra64]

Everything I hear says that VMWare Fusion is a better answer than Parallels.

I prefer simple:

[big'ol_freeper]

If you need to emulate, don't use Microsoft emulation. It does slow things down. Use Parallels:

Parallels Desktop

It is a much superior product.

[Pablo64]

Invest in two books: "Switching to the Mac; The Missing Manual",and "Mac OS X; The Missing Manual", or whatever one is the one for the operating system you get (we have the OS X Tiger). They are referred to as "The book that should have been in the box" and they are really very helpful and easy to understand.

David Pogue wrote the one for OS X, and co-wrote the Switching to the Mac book with Adam Golstein.

[Tanniker Smith]

I'd never switch. I have too much money invested in my computer system, so I don't care if others might be better. (or might not be).

I'm sticking with my Commodore 64 -- it got me through college and beyond. I was thinking of upgrading to the 128, but they don't sell it anymore. Wonder why.

[mysterio]

I’ve considered switching to Mac. I just don’t like them that much. But Bill Gates’ tattleware is making me tired.

[KirbDog]

I have both PC’s and Mac’s. As far as an Office suite goes if you are using MS Office you can always just get the Mac version. Truth is I like it better than the Windows version. Not sure what to tell you about getting things out of IE best bet might be to get Firefox and import as much as you can from IE to Firefox and then have Firefox on the Mac. Good luck

Kirby

[Spktyr]

There is a native version of Microsoft Office for Mac OS X. Even Microsoft thinks the Mac is worth supporting in that manner.

A new version is about to come out; Office 2008 for Mac.

[Cicero]

You can check your Dell provided software to see if the installation CD is for PC only, or for PC and Mac. If your printer is more than a few years old, you may want to get a new one anyway.

Personally, I think Macs are too expensive for what you get, and are unable to run as many kinds of software and games as Macs. But there are certain things they do well. Graphic artists seem to like them. Otherwise, it seems to be more of a political or cultural than a technical choice.