PC to Mac?

[andysayshi]

^ LOL! Now that's customer loyalty!!

The old 8600's were GREAT machines. I'm a motion graphics designer for TV, and started work at a place 8 years ago that was still using 8600s - they were old even then! I convinced them to upgrade to G4s when I designed a 30 second TV commercial that would take the 8600 10 days to render. On the G4 it took 10 hours! (On my current MacPro it'd probably take about 10 minutes.)

 

[3nipples]

Why didn't I like the Mac?

Mostly I just didn't like the look and feel of the os interface. Interestingly and contrary to the myth, the thing actually blocked up on me a several timestimes. Yes, I had to re-boot.

The speed didn't particularly impress me and when I bought a new PC for my other home and pitted them up against eachother, new to new, I decided to replace it with another PC.

On the positive side the Mini is a great idea when you have two homes and works better than any laptop provided you don't have to lug the screen and keyboard around. It also runs absolutely silently... it just isn't for me.

 

[SuperQueer]

i've always had a mac as my home computer. the biggest drawbacks i have always seen is the cost of a macs themselves and the reduced choices in software applications that are compatible. for example; i love my tivo but the networking software for tivo desktop is only made for pc computers.

in addition, i've grown so mac oriented over the years that i feel stupid when i try to do the simplest things on a pc. some pc users will think of you as computer illiterate if you don't try to stay "in the know" with the basics of an ms system software. which can be an understandable frustration to someone ... having to "walk you thru" pc land on a regular basis.

if you can accept these issues without too much discomfort, i think you would be very happy switching to a mac.

on the bright side, there is a line that is starting to blur between macs and pcs, i.e.; dual intel processors in all new macs - and the steady increase on macs in home computer market share. the mac way is starting to look more interesting to pc users for a total switch or even an additional home computer (a multi-os household).

i believe that if you are proficient on a pc that switching to a mac would be a piece of cake; however, i know i'd have a lot of trouble going from mac to pc.

 

[3nipples]

Point 1: Probably true; the heavy GUI processor requirements are higher because of the graphics.

Point 2: Something's wrong; I would have tried to troubleshoot it. Most probably incompletely compatible software somewhere; the single biggest offenders seem to be all-in-one printers...

I never installed anything except the os updates they suggested.

 

[sheep]

Marky Mark
If you haven't bought the external drive yet, assuming your PC has firewire, try to get a firewire drive that the Mac will re-boot from. It is handy if something screws up on the laptop to be able to boot from the external.

Memory: On Macs the more the merrier. Apple does charge an arm and a leg for memory but there are places with good quality memory that shouldn't give you trouble. Most of the laptops now ship with 1 gig and if you want 2 gigs you end up throwing out the memory that came with it.

Transferring files: You can pay $99. at the Apple store for a one year assistance package which includes transferring your files.

If you have the bucks, go for the pro model. It's tougher, has mic in and generally is a better machine. Also easier to take apart to install a different drive etc. I think you can get an option of a 7200 RPM drive. They kick ass.

Good luck and PM me if you need any more info.

 

[sheep]

I'll be damned. My MacBook Pro just froze up on me. The screen started getting dimmer from the top, and went all the way to the bottom, sort of like a curtain closing. Then it gave me this message in several different languages telling me to press the restart button or hold the power button down!

What the hell!

I was just looking at a picture online!

Methinks you had a kernel panic. You may never see that happen again.

 

[lonestar]

I was just looking at a picture online!

loool, yeah, I can imagine what picture that was

 

[sheep]

LOL - it was just a really big airplane picture! I swear!

Thats OK. I have a really big collection of, err, umm airplane pics. Some have huge landing gear equipment.

 

[sheep]

Oh then yeah - you must have pictures of the same fleet of airplanes that I was looking at!

Probably. Some are single engine, some are 4 engine. There is even one with 3 engines, all on the same *tarmac*

 

[enderwiggen]

I really want to switch to mac. But, unfortunately I am not in the financial position to switch. As a music major in college, I have WAY more expensive things that go on my list of things to buy that unfortunately rate higher than getting a new computer.

I mostly want a mac because the program Finale [amazing music notation software] works much better on mac, and I use that program frequently. And, macs in general work better with my sort of 'field' if you will. The entire music department faculty here got new macs last year [desktops, AND laptops, plus the ENTIRE computer lab was switched to new mac desktops]. One of my friends who knows PC and Mac says it is somewhat like driving in england.... everything is on the other side of the road. [no slur intended, just a joke ]

 

[sheep]

Parallels v3.0 will help with the switch. See
http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/