Winows ----> Mac how to

i have windows. by have i mean hate. its one of those love/hate relationships that yer just afraid to get out of.

i dont care about music pictures or internet. i know that those are pretty universal things. but what i am most afraid of is: i use software that i may or may not have paid for. how can i be sure that i can find the right version or whatever that will work on a mac? cuz i dont know if i want to get a mac if i cant get what i have for my current computer.

also what are the equivalents for these

on windows = on mac
*.exe = ?
*.zip = ?
*.rar = ?

i have seen *.dmg and *.sit but i have no idea what they are.

also on a different tangent. i hear all about how macs are virtualy immune to most viruses that windows is affected by. what about if you have the windows OS isntalled on a mac? it seems that that would defeat the purpose of getting a mac in the first place. or would getting a mac and putting windows on it be the answer to all my prayers?

thanks

if you put windows on a mac you can get any virus a normal pc would get

From what I have learnt so far:

.exe=.dmg
.zip=.sit

I'm not sure what you're trying to get at with your first question. Are you wondering if licenses for programs you have for Windows will be transferrable to Macs? Or are you wondering if your Windows programs have Mac equivalents?

I don't believe executable files will install/open on Macs, .dmg (disk image) files are essentially Mac equivalents.

.zip and .rar files are expandable through Stuffit Expander and .sit files are stuffed files, equivalent to .zip files.

Macs, like Windows, do have viruses. The distinct different, however, is that Viruses don't need your permission to install on Windows, whereas you actually have to enter your password to install any software (virus or not) on Macs. If you have both OSes installed on a mac, a virus installed on Windows will have no effect on your Mac installation.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

todd51 said:

From what I have learnt so far:

.exe=.dmg
.zip=.sit

Click to expand...

Actually a .dmg is basically an image format, so it isn't the actual app, it is just a container for that app.

.exe = .app (but the extension is usually hidden), so outlook.exe = mail.app.

Macs, like Windows, do have viruses.

Click to expand...

Actually, whilst you can say that macs are theoretically also susceptible to viruses, there are currently 0 malicious viruses for OS X out there in the wild. This might change at any moment, but currently we're safe

it should stay safe as long as darwin stays open source and we have some good developers.. closes source windows is never a winning task. if you cant involve the public with it then they will try to destroy it lol