03-09-2007, 10:18 AM

Ok, I have been using PCs for years and my son and I build them, something itself is quite fun. However, I am starting to have problems with M$ and its operating system. the problems are, of course, driver issues and cost ones too.

Vista doesn't look to be quite the equivalent of Leopard, from the Appkle website anyway and yet I would have problems running Vista as there are not enough drivers around. Even then, drivers are flakey and updating is esential every so often. So when my son mentioned the other day that his XBox360 was better than his PC 'because it works' I started to think about Mac.

I don't know how much of my present tasks will run on OSX though I know a couple of things will still need a PC at least pro-tem. I therefore thought of getting a Mac Mini and trying out OSX and seeing if it would work for me. Is this a sensible route?

I have also being looking at Neo office which promises Open Office on the Mac; something I need as I do a lot with databases. has anyone any experiences of this?

Thanks for your help in advance oh, and for allowing me into the forum.

Robert

03-09-2007, 10:42 AM

Sure, a mac mini would be a good start! Like I always say. Make sure you buy from a store with a decent return policy so that for whatever reason it doesn't jive with you you can return it.

What tasks do you do that need to be done on PC?

03-09-2007, 01:39 PM

Thanks for your reply, Jonny. I use Quickbooks for accounts (no mac version available in the UK) and have a number of M$ Access databases. These latter could be worked into MYSQL or NeoOffice Base so would not be a problem.

My only main problem after that is that I don't have a suitable DTP program but I expect could fix that though it would have be a lesser product than Quark's offering!

Oh, games run on the PC so I suppose they could continue to.

Robert

03-09-2007, 01:47 PM

Although personally I am glad to leave all things Windows behind if you bought an Intel Mac you could of course run Windows on it and all your Windows applications by using Parellels. This way you get the best of both worlds.

As for DTP for the Mac, obviously there is Quark but let's face it, it's bloomin expensive but depending on exactly what you want to do you may well find the Pages, part of iWorks, is just what you need.

03-09-2007, 05:21 PM

I love it because I can slowly dive into Macs as much as I want to and still run PC for those applications that I have to. Mac-Mini and Compaq tower with a USB KVM works great.

That being said, I will start to treansition more to the mac side, but with a 4 year old and a wife - they tend to eat up some of my precious switch-over time.

The next leap of faith will be to run either Parallels or Boot Camp as my PC option. Although, I will probably get a refurb VISTA machine at some point (no hurry) just to keep my toe in the M$FT water.

03-10-2007, 05:06 AM

That sounds fine and just what I would like to do. however, have 2 screens so can run both at once without any trouble.

Which Mac Mini did you get, by the way chi2flat?

03-10-2007, 05:45 AM

I have used PCs for many years, but have recently bought a MacBook.

I am using Parallels and VM Fusion to run Windows XP, Vista, 2000 and Ubuntu. Not tried Bootcamp.

My main work as a Tax Consultant means I use Quickbooks and Digita Tax software - all run fine so far. I may swap to MYOB Accounting Plus, as that can run on both PC and Mac.

One of the things I like is being able to clone my OSX system to a Firewire external disk and make it bootable.

The main problem I have at the moment is my getting external DVD burner to work.

03-10-2007, 11:24 AM

I recently completely switched from MS to Mac and started with a mac mini to get myself acclimated with the Mac OS. I love it so much I recently purchased a Macbook Pro and haven't looked back since.

03-11-2007, 08:33 AM

Thats a bummer that you can't get quickbooks in the UK. My aunt just bought a MacBook and I installed quickbooks on it tonight. Running parallels is super easy and should be able to easily handle any of your windows applications.

03-11-2007, 06:10 PM

Originally Posted by wheels5894

My only main problem after that is that I don't have a suitable DTP program but I expect could fix that though it would have be a lesser product than Quark's offering!

I jumped off Quark's rat race with 4.11. (I still run it in my G4's System 9 partition.) But like other companies, Quark might offer platform switchers a discount.

I went to Quark's site to see if there was anything about this but couldn't find anything. I just glanced around, though. However, if you spend some time there but still can't find anything about it, ask. There's a Contact Us button at the bottom of one of the pages — maybe the FAQ page.

03-11-2007, 07:29 PM

I think Quark would be really stupid not to offer you an incentive. They've been losing market share to Adobe for years, and just invested a ton with their latest version to reverse that trend.

Depending on how complex your layout needs are, you might be able to do fine with Pages, which for my layout needs is an adequate page layout tool (although it doesn't seem to handle different layers of objects as well as I'd like; here's hoping iWork '07 has some major updates).

Also it would appear that Microsoft is making some good strides with Office 2008. I've been transitioning away from Word and using Pages as my primary word processor lately, but the screenshots of the new version of Office have me thinking I may sway back.