buying my 1st mac - mac vs windows help?

DancingRainDrop · 21-04-2007 04:59PM #1

i am buying a new laptop and was thinking of getting an apple with is mac but right now i have windows xp

i have never used a mac before, only ever windows so i was wondering what are the differences?

and if anyone has mac if you could press the print screen button on various things in your mac and post the pictures - it would be a great help

thanks

formatman · 21-04-2007 05:07PM

you can install a licenced copy of XP or Vista on your mac also using Bootcamp to help the transition and choose between them on boot

jpfahy · 21-04-2007 05:16PM

Go into a PC World store, they have Macs on display and they are unlocked, i.e. you can play around with them. thats the only way you'll know whether they suit you or not.

DancingRainDrop · 21-04-2007 05:52PM

thanks for all the great advice
it really helped

DeepBlue · 21-04-2007 05:57PM

Macs are very easy to use.
You could get this book to help with the switch but I think you'd be better just going the whole hog and getting this one.

BrookieD · 21-04-2007 08:26PM

i got the hand of my mac in a week or so after years on a PC. I did get Mac OSX for dummies just in case though. buy a MAC, you will not regret it

K.O.Kiki · 22-04-2007 01:08AM

Just buy a Macbook & learn -- it's not hard & the OS won't try to commit suicide like XP does half the time

jessy · 23-04-2007 09:36AM

DancingRainDrop wrote:

i have never used a mac before, only ever windows so i was wondering what are the differences?

http://www.xvsxp.com/

DancingRainDrop wrote:

and if anyone has mac if you could press the print screen button on various things in your mac and post the pictures - it would be a great help

thanks

if you want to see what the interface is like on the Mac just go on to the apple we site
http://www.apple.com/uk/macosx/newfeatures/

also have a look here http://www.apple.com/uk/getamac/

faceman · 23-04-2007 10:19AM

I made the switch some months ago and i was using OS X like a pro (well almost) in no time!

mikemac · 27-04-2007 10:11PM

Definitly buy a mac OP!

I'd been using a PC all through college and even used to build them and sell them as a small nixer business.

Got a macbook this year and haven't looked back. Without being able to put my finger on it, the operating system just seems to make sense, like how an operating system should be done.

You'll figure out the differences in a few days. The hardest part so far has been Microsoft Office, still not completly happy with that on a mac.

xebec · 27-04-2007 10:46PM

micmclo wrote:

The hardest part so far has been Microsoft Office, still not completly happy with that on a mac.

Agreed, I moved to a mac 8 months ago and it was the most sensible thing I've done. My biggest bug though is Office, just doesn't feel entirely comfortable, although I am finally getting used to Word.

uncle_sam_ie · 28-04-2007 10:47AM

Posting in a Mac forum is only going to get you an Apple biased opinion. Saying that, after switching five years ago I must have spent 10 grand on Apple hardware. It's addictive. Don't do it.:D

ZENER · 28-04-2007 09:51PM

jessy wrote:

http://www.xvsxp.com/

That site is a joke, how in all honesty could windows score 9/10 for video editing compared to Mac 1/10, their excuse is that iMovie and iDVD aren't part of the OS !! But they come preinstalled with every Mac bought just like IE and Media player is with Windows!!! Absolute rubbish.

Most of the things they mention are only obvious to complete techies and not people who just want to accomplish something. They slate the Dock because people have to find the apps before they can drag them to it, try find the .exe file for word in My Computer (if it's on your desktop that is) > C:\programfiles\Microsoft Office\winword.exe before you find MacHD/Applications/Microsoft Office, totally biased IMO.

The whole point of MacOS is to shield the user from the technicalities of the OS and let you get on with doing whatever it is you need to do. I've always explained the MacOS as a hammer to a carpenter, he doesn't need to know how it works, it just does !!

ZEN

unklerosco · 28-04-2007 11:55PM

I've used pcs for years and still do.. Got the GF an iMac for Xmass n have to say its bloody great. Took a week or so to get the hang of it but it works a treat. The iLife software is great. I still use XP every day but I find myself using the mac more n more. Its a breeze to use and is way way way more stable than XP.....

Breezer · 29-04-2007 11:16PM

It depends what you want to use it for. In most cases, I'd say get a Macbook and if you really want to you can install Windows on it, either through Bootcamp, Parallels or VMWare Fusion (although you will have to buy a copy of Windows and in the case of Parallels, pay for the virtualisation software. VMWare Fusion is currently available as a free public beta, as is Bootcamp, which will come preinstalled with the next version os OS X, Leopard, due in October).

If you want to use your laptop for playing games then a Macbook won't cut it because it used integrated graphics; you'll need a Macbook Pro.

Also bear in mind that while you can easily upgrade the hard drive and RAM on an Apple laptop, other components like the processor and graphics card are a different matter. To upgrade them you'll need to buy a new laptop. That said, when the time comes to do so, Macs tend to hold their value much better than PCs.

Mac OS X is very easy to get used to. You don't have to bother with anti-virus in most cases, spyware is a non-issue, there's a ton of great quality freeware apps available and it's very very stable.

I bought a Macbook last year so that I could develop and test web sites for compatabilty with Windows, OS X and Linux browsers all on the one machine. I thought I'd probably install Windows on it and use it as my main OS. I loved OS X and haven't looked back.

jessy · 04-05-2007 11:04AM

ZENER wrote:

Most of the things they mention are only obvious to complete techies and not people who just want to accomplish something. They slate the Dock because people have to find the apps before they can drag them to it, try find the .exe file for word in My Computer (if it's on your desktop that is) > C:\programfiles\Microsoft Office\winword.exe before you find MacHD/Applications/Microsoft Office, totally biased IMO.

ZEN

Totally biased????? Did you even look at the final score? Mac is a clear winner!

http://www.xvsxp.com/finalscore/index.php

ZENER · 04-05-2007 11:24AM

I did see the scores, of course I did. It's just that some of the things they docked the Mac for were silly. As I pointed out, giving Windows a higher score for out of the box video editing is just silly. There were many other examples but I thought this one was the most glaring.

One of the current PC mags has a fightback at the Mac adverts by giving 32 areas where the PC is better than Mac. Interesting reading and points out things that we as Mac users have just accepted as the norm - but if considered carefully and without tinted glasses even we could be forced to agree. For example no eject button on the CD/DVD drive of any Mac ?! For me it's never been an issue because the software eject has always worked but . . . .

ZEN

buying my 1st mac - mac vs windows help?

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