Changing to Mac - what can go wrong ?

[ChrisO]

About a year ago I bought a cheapish Samsung Q35 laptop for work, which has been fine - it's nice and small and light, which is good because I carry it around a lot. And it was all I could afford at the time.

But it is slow and painful - I really didn't think I would be using it quite so extensively. So I'm thinking of getting a new one and maybe changing to a Mac.

If I do get a Mac it would the Macbook not the Pro - I still need small and light. Any recommendations on specs ?

And if I do swap what problems am I going to have ?

In particular how do I use all my stuff that has been bought for the PC if it doesn't have a Mac version ? Like my Polar bike computer software and things like MS Project. Do I have to buy Windows and run it on that - any idea of cost ?

Is it all worth the hassle ?

[TimO]

I'm not a Mac person, but I did transfer my father onto a Mac mini.  I did it mainly to avoid virus problems, since his Windows 95 box was getting a bit iffy, and I thought it would be easier to just transfer him onto a platform which was much less like to suffer from attacks.

For him it was easy enough, since he only really uses email, word processing, and a little bit of spreadsheet.  I put the Mac version of Office on there (he was previously using some cut down versions of Office for Windows, I forget the name).  This was reasonably familiar, but costs almost as much as the Mac mini itself.  I <cough> acquired it somewhat cheaper.

The modern Macs can be set up to dual boot using Boot Camp, or you can run some sort of virtual machine software, to emulate an Intel machine under MacOS.  Potentially specific hardware, like the interface to your Polar Bike computer, may have issues with either solution, hardware device drivers tend to be the most problematic with any unusual OS configuration (Windows and Unix types).  It's possible MS Project might exist in a MacOS version, since most Office apps do, but you'd have to check.

I found the Mac to be rather nice to use, but since I primarily use Windows and Unix boxes (Solaris and Linux), running Mac machines at work or home would just make my life more complex.  Luckily with him, the machine just works, and I've never had to do anything significant to it, aside from occasionally make sure the software has been updated, and explain to him how to use some function which he's forgotten how it works (he's 76, if he hasn't used something for 6 months, he's likely to not remember how to do it).

[border-rider]

I am surprised a Q35 is slow.  It's a duo core 1.66 GHz machine isn't it ? The Dell on which I'm typing is that spec, and I do CAD work on this with no problems.

Is it a Vista one with insufficient memory ? Or is there something else going on ?

2 things - try sticking 2 gigs of RAM into it.  That should cost about £25 and may make all the difference

Try installing Linux as a dual boot.  The Mac OS is based on Unix anyway...

Something like Ubuntu may run pretty fast and it comes with all the apps you'd need, plus you get to keep the Win setup for when you need it.

[Jaded]

The MacBook is surprisingly able for a consumer laptop. It comes with a base set of software that is quite accomplished. My lad's best friend has just had to get a MacBook for school. Last year he bought a Windows laptop for over £500. It barfed seriously on converting video for iPod. My lad's 4 year old G4 Powerbook did a video in 2 hours. The friends new machine does it in 40 mins.

It doesn't have a separate video card, but for what you are doing that won't be an issue.

It will be a bit like driving on the wrong side of the road. Your hands will do what they know with Windows, until you relax and let the Apple way take over.

MS Project doesn't exist in OSX world. You'd have to run it in Windows. You can run Windows as follows:

Boot Camp. You have two partitions on the machine and can boot into either: OSX or Windows. This is the 'truest' way of doing it - you get a Windows PC when you boot up. You are limited to the partition size.

Virtualisation (not emulation). You run Windows software inside an application on OSX. It uses the Intel processor, rather than emulating the processor, and so runs pretty fast. About 90% of the speed it would run on in Boot Camp. I use Parallels and this app can share the Boot Camp installation, so you only need one Windows serial number. There is also VMWare, which also gets good reviews. You can have more than one virtual machine too. I've got Win2k, XP, 95 and Ubuntu on my desktop. The virtual machine file grows as you add stuff to it.

WINE. You don't need Windows, with this the apps run in OSX.

I've listed the three ways in order of compatibility from most to least.

I use my Parallels to run Tracklogs, the software that I sell and to check websites in IE.


Given a choice between a machine that runs one major OS and one that runs both, I know what I'd choose!

[ChrisO]

I am surprised a Q35 is slow.  It's a duo core 1.66 GHz machine isn't it ? The Dell on which I'm typing is that spec, and I do CAD work on this with no problems.

Is it a Vista one with insufficient memory ? Or is there something else going on ?

2 things - try sticking 2 gigs of RAM into it.  That should cost about £25 and may make all the difference

Try installing Linux as a dual boot.  The Mac OS is based on Unix anyway...

Something like Ubuntu may run pretty fast and it comes with all the apps you'd need, plus you get to keep the Win setup for when you need it.

It is, though I have only 1 gig of RAM.

I often find it gets stuck and takes several minutes to work through whatever processes it has underway before it will listen to me. When I installed a .dwg viewer it virtually brought the whole thing to a standstill.

Maybe I'll try an upgrade first.

[JT]

In October 2006 I bought an iMac after using Microsoft OS's since MS DOS. It's a doddle to switch and you'll not regret it. My only complaint about OS X is that it cannot unzip stuff without installing another application - which is incredicly easy and free, naturally.

Mrs JT and I both have laptops running XP and I use XP (and a Mac) at work and I find it very easy to flip between them.

[border-rider]

I have only 1 gig of RAM.

if you're running Vista than that's the problem.

It needs (more than) a gig just to be consistently happy; 2 gig is the minimum recommended to run it without too many tears, and more is better

My Dell cam with 1 gig - I was originally going to run it just on Ubuntu so I didn't mind - but I put more in and it made a massive difference to its Vista performance

It irritates me a bit that they sell otherwise pretty good machines with insufficient RAM to even run the OS properly 

[PaulF]

Especially with a Mac I find them far better than Windows - if you leave it asleep and open the lid it's up and running in seconds compared to about a minute for a similarly specced Windows machine to wake up

[JT]

My only complaint about OS X is that it cannot unzip stuff without installing another application ...

That doesn't sound right as zipping and unzipping .zip files is done by the OS. No extra software is required.

To zip: right-click (or ctrl-click) on the file or folder and select Create Archive of "filename".

To unzip: double-click on a .zip file.

I'm pretty sure that when I was first faced with a zip file that the OS didn't know what to do with it so I installed Stuffit.

I'll try removing Stuffit and see what happens.

[Hot Flatus]

Changing to Mac - what can go wrong ?

Ask Jaded.

He had a screen that borked that he keeps very quiet about

 

[artyfaharty]

Typing this on a Macbook in Mac mode. On weekdays it's a PC running XP on bootcamp. Dead easy, the easiest XP install I've had to do.
As for moving files around that's easy (ish)
You'll be able to use most of your existing PC files running Apple OSX if suitable apps exist on the Mac for the purpose.
When running OSX you can see and get files from the XP partition but not the other way around.
As for which Macbook to get, this one is the black 2.16ghz model with 2.5gig of ram and it does just about everything at a good speed on both OSX and XP.
Is it worth the hassle? Thats open to debate, it is for me as I do lots of DTP and photo stuff which is still better an a Mac and I also admin a 120 machine Microsoft based network so it's great to have both.
AF

[Jaded]

When running OSX you can see and get files from the XP partition but not the other way around.

You can if you use MacDrive

[mercury]

Some document file formats, programs and peripherals from the old computer may not work on the Mac.

As it comes out of the box the Intel based Mac can read PDF and text based documents, JPEG, PNG and GIF images. For reading Microsoft Word/Excel/Powerpoint 97-2003 documents, Apple's iWorks application suite is pre-installed but you have to pay for it. The free NeoOffice (NeoOffice Home) reads most but sometimes not perfectly. Microsoft's Office 2004 for Mac is only available separately at extra cost. For Microsoft Works, things are even stickier.

From Re: Opening Microsoft Works File in Word for MAC:

If you still have the old PC with Microsoft Works, re-save the documents in
Word compatible *.doc or *.rtf format. MacOffice Word will then be able to
open them. Likewise Spreadsheets you can save in Excel format BUT database
files from Works Database are a NO-NO. But you can save them as a *.csv file
and then import them into MacOffice Excel BUT you lose any equations etc:.
This is how I did it.

Otherwise, as you have an Intel Mac Bootcamp-Windows- Works and use a dual
boot system or get Vmware Fusion and run Windows concurrently with Leopard.

[Jaded]

Microsoft Office 2008 is available.

[border-rider]

Or, Chris could just spend £20 and put an extra gig or two of RAM in

[ChrisO]

Yes I'm going to try that first.

I read somewhere that added RAM should be "matched" i.e if I already have 1 Gig then that's what should be added, rather than 2 or whatever.

It has a certain symetrical logic to it, like car cylinders, but does it make a difference ?

[TimO]

Looking at the Crucial website, it reckons that the Samsung Q35 only has one memory slot, which can take a maximum of a 1G SODIMM, so I think you're stuffed, if that's what's already installed.

Of course what this really means, is that the machine isn't really suitable for Vista, since it can't take enough memory to be usable.

Not that it's relevant for this, but generally these days, you can just bung in more memory, up to the maximum the slots will allow.  Historically, some machines have required memory to be added in matching pairs, or in certain order, or various other combinations, but the crucial website or similar ones, can tell you what the limitations are (assuming the manufacturers website doesn't have the information on it somewhere).