Mac experts help please

This is my first post, so I apologise if this has been asked a million times before.

A few 'simple' questions for the mac experts out there.

I am going to change my pc for a mac in the next few weeks but I have a few more questions.

What is the mac equivalent of the 'blue screen of death'? Do you see it as often?

I have heard that macs don't get viruses. ARE YOU SERIOUS? Is this the same for spyware?

I went into a mac shop for the first time yesterday and was amazed at how quiet it was. The screens still had pictures on but I wasn't sure if the computers were on. Are macs really that quiet? If they are then its like the difference between vinyl records and cd's.

Can the sound card output be sent to a bluetooth headset? I will be using the speach option alot due to me being partially sighted and it would be better for me to use bluetooth rather than wired headphones due to me having coordinations difficulties due to other disabilities. I don't want the mac to end up in a million pieces before I have learned how good it is.

Also, can I import outlooks .pst files into any email readers out there? I am sick of Microsoft and would prefer to move to a none microsoft office platform. Can anyone recommend one?

Thanks for any answers you can provide.

No viruses (atm) on mac, and no spyware either.
Whats a blue screen of death
My iMac is rather quiet i must say, but don't know what this is like with macbooks or mac pro's.
My wireless headphones work with the bluetooth
Apple mail is brilliant imo

Mac equivalent of BSOD would probably be the gray screen of death...or known as a kernel panic. if you do a search on here i'm sure you can find a couple of instances of where that has happened but it should be pretty rare.

there maybe a virus or two out there for Macs...but i've been using a Mac (12" PB) since it first came out till now and i have yet to buy any antivirus or spyware stuff. so yeah, you can rest easy on that part.

for the most part Macs are really quiet, you get the few occasional ones that have some sorta hardware glitch causing the fans to go at full blast constantly/no apparent reason...send it back to Apple and they'll fix or replace it as necessary.

no idea about the bluetooth question...sorry.

umm, i dunno if Entourage (mail client that ships with Mac Office '08) will read the Outlook files. other office-type clients are Pages (part of the iWork bundle), Open Office, Neo Office, Google docs.

Apple's kernel panic explained. Unless your system or some low level code has an issue, you likely will not be seeing it.

I just found this; Hawk Wings is dedicated to Apple Mail and the plug-ins and add-ons page has a couple of entries regarding .pst files.

Malware (viruses, trojans, spyware) has been mostly a non-issue. There is at least one trojan that if you go to some porn site(s) the page will ask you to download and install a new codec so that you can see the content. Do NOT say 'yes' when asked to let it run. Most Mac users do not run anti-malware type software because it hasn't been a problem since the release of OS X in 2001.

xstep said:

I just found this; Hawk Wings is dedicated to Apple Mail and the plug-ins and add-ons page has a couple of entries regarding .pst files.

Click to expand...

There is some good stuff there. MiniMail is pretty cool, i just might buy it.

At least at this moment, the Hawk Wings web page doesn't respond. Too bad, it sounds interesting.

i have a macbook and its extremely quiet, by far the greatest laptop i have ever owned. I really dont ever hear the fan or anything and it is staying at a very cool temperature which pretty much blows my mind.

I have had this laptop freeze once and I run many intensive programs at the same time ie, photoshop cs3, flash cs3, itunes, and others at the same time.
The freezing was pretty much my fault as well I am pretty sure I was doing lots of ridiculous things.

Not many viruses exist, I know of none, but even as with a windows machine just dont be an idiot, and especially with an apple you will be fine. From the nature of the apple and everything I dont know about any spyware available.

The battery life of my macbook is absolutely epic as well, i really dont bother bringing my charger most places cause there is no need. Probably one of the first laptops Ive done that this often with.

Leopard is absolutely brilliant as well.