Posted on 10/21/2007 1:00:06 PM PDT by 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.
You are living my dream...we have been a PC household and my middle son got the MacBook for college and then my youngest got the MacBook Pro when he went to college and they use them as their primary computer....
I can hardly wait to get a MacBook and get rid of my IBM laptop...I would suggest taking the classes they offer @ the store...
the best thing is they come out of the box ready to go...you do not have to spend the day updating the darn thing....good luck and you will not regret it....
After decades of mid range pc’s I finally succumbed to a Mac G-5. Couldn’t resist the look and space savings of the all in one format. Got Office for Mac and went on my merry way. That said, make sure you get Apple Care. In all these years of pc’s I never once fried a hard drive or a power supply. Both went in the first year of my Mac.
I am back to a cheap gateway laptop, my kids use the mac. I’m not against the Mac, but, platforms for currency trading are friendlier to the pc.
Good luck.
MS office related documents are compatable across platforms. I have MS office for my imac and transfer files to my office pc with ease.
Regarding the printer, go the the company website and see if they have a mac driver. Many, if not most, printers have drivers for both.
I’m a mac user since the 128K era.
Bookmark as planning same.
When my son got his MAC he got a free printer with it so that might help you out......
But sometimes ya just have to bite the bullet and jump into it. I just upgraded from an eight-track player to cassette in my car.
:)
Thanks!
Everything depends on what you want to do with your computer.
Each and every non-OS software package has to be evaluated to see if it can cross over. If not, you need an alternative. And along with that, to figure out how it works, and if your data files are also transferable. Many of the smaller utilities have no alternatives.
Peripherals may be a lot easier than in the past, but there still might be some incompatibility.
That link is a great resource, also just peruse the apple.com website.
I’ve been on a Mac for 15 months now...it’s been fantastic!
Wait until after Leopard comes out next week and get the best one you can get...iMac 24”!! or a nice MacBookPro laptop!
As a long-time Mac user, you shouldn’t have any problems switching. Check out Apple’s Get A Mac page at
There is also a page that explains options for moving from a PC:
http://www.apple.com/getamac/movetomac/
If you can live without MS Office until January, there will be a new version out then. No sense in paying Bill twice.
If you absolutely cannot live without a favorite Windows-only application, check out Parallels or VMWare Fusion. You’ll need to buy a retail version of Windows in order to run it though. Do not buy Virtual PC because MS discontinued development of that application about a year ago.
Enjoy!
Ping! Guy in aisle 3 needs help—LOL!
If you buy MS Office Mac now, I’m pretty sure you get a free (less minor shipping & handling charge) upgrade.
In IE, go to the 'File' menu and pick 'Import/ Export'. Follow the instructions in the wizard and it will export all your favorites to a single HTM file. I would assume the Safari browser that will come with your Mac has a feature to import this file.
It is a much superior product.
VMware's Fusion is the emulator said to impose the least overhead.
CNET Labs reviewed the two products recently. Their Photoshop benchmark ran in 120 seconds under OS X on an eight-core Mac Pro. Under native Windows Vista (Boot Camp, zero emulation overhead), the benchmark took 201 seconds. VMware Fusion took 271 seconds, and Parallels needed 516 seconds.
It's interesting how much slower the benchmark is under native Windows than under native OS X. Either Adobe did a much better job of coding the Mac edition of Photoshop or Vista is marbled with overhead!
These little remote stations are checked once in the morning, when the technician will (when there are any) make network updates and synchronizations. He leaves, and the computer does the broadcast all day long. Then the technician will check it once in the evening. Then it runs all night by itself.
We produce a 30 minute program for that network using MP3 96 bps (probably will go to WML soon), and the computer airs the program in a sequence with others. Most listeners don’t know it’s fully automated.
The technicians say Mac is the way to go with these. Of course Linux users may disagree. But would these technicians have to write their own software applications for automated radio braodcasting if they use Linux? I don’t know anything about software applications for Linux.
Years ago, I helped sell a railroad automated switch monitoring system in Russia that used all Linux, but the company that produced that system had a team of their own programmers that wrote custom applications for each customer. They produced automated monitoring, alarm and reporting systems for railroads, pipelines, communications systems, etc., and each customer required custom-written application software.
So can you use stock automated broadcasting software with Linux, or would it have to be written special?
But for hardware, the technicians in the Philippines definitely want Mac.
I use OpenOffice on MacOSX when I want to read word documents.
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