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Apple MacBook Pro MC118E/A 15.4 | iPhone 4S | iPod many
Hello everybody, my name is Daniel and I'm from Argentina where I live, but I have to confess that I'm thinking on moving away.

Firstly I would like to apologize if my English skills are not good enough, but, believe me, I'll doing my best. I know you will understand and, probably, you will help me.

Secondly, let me tell you that I found this forum yesterday and, I want to congratulate all the members and the moderators because, I think, that this place is really interesting.

In addition to the above lines, I would like to tell you that I'm just a user and not a specialist in computers. My working field is engineering and my hobbies are sports, and, lately photography.

Furthermore, these days I'm buying a new notebook for replace my 6 years old Toshiba A75. I have to confess that I started to think to change to Apple a couple of years after buying mi iPod, which is fabulous.

The one I'm close to buy is:

Apple MacBook Pro MC118LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop
2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 4GB (2x2GB) RAM 250GB 5400rpm Hard Drive SuperDrive nVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256MB Graphics 15.4" Glossy Widescreen LED Backlit Display iSight Webcam, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR 802.11n AirPort Extreme Mac OS X Leopard 5.5 lb

The cost is 2.000 bucks (local price).

I'm sure you know really well the notebook, but, to be honest, I started to ask about this matter with some co-workers, who work into the IT department, and the opinions are quiet divided: "MAC good!" "No MAC Bad, Windows good!"

As I don't wanna get involved in that class of chats, I started to look for Mac users and ask which the risk of switching to the Mac OS is. That's the reason for which I found this forum.

Thank you and cheers
 
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2016 Macbook Pro 512g.15" 16g.ram Ipad2Air 64gb wifi+4g Iphone 6s 64gig
There is no risk. Only joy. I have an almost duplicate of what you are looking into. I have nothing but great things to say about mac since switching last August.
 
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That is an awesome machine you're looking at.
A couple of tips... if you only need a simple notebook for web browsing and e-mail, you could save some money and go with a White Macbook. However, you would have a 13" screen so you might not like that if you prefer the 15".
Also, check the refurbished section of the Apple Store. Click on "Store" on the main page, then go to the bottom and on the left is a link to Refurbished Macs. Good as new and lots cheaper.

Either way you won't be disappointed. Wonderful machines and you'll wish you switched sooner! :)
 
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Welcome aboard, Daniel. I've had a couple of friends from Argentina when I was a child, I still keep in touch with one of them. :) They had moved to the states, and we played a lot as kids. :)

I've been a MacHead my whole life, and I can't tell you how glad I am. I see Windows users every day who are frustrated that their machines aren't working very well, or the way they want them to. Granted, switching OSes won't solve all problems, but many common ones can be avoided. "My computer got a virus." Heh, get a Mac!

Your IT guys who are saying Macs suck probably haven't tried them, or have and were intimidated because they didn't know the OS as well as the Windows OS they had spent their whole lives studying. Most IT guys are afraid of OS X.

Anyway, welcome to the club. That machine is a beast. :)
 
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Before you make the switch I would advice you do one thing first.

Make of list of the software that you use at the current time.

Now go verify that it is available for the Mac and check the price of it.

When you switch from a windows to mac the one big expense that is often overlooked is the price of software.

You may also find that some software you used is not available for Macs.
 
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Mr. Daniel,

I have been a Windows owner all my life and have switched over about a year ago to Mac.

I don't find anything about Windows that I miss whatsoever. I am a full time student and the things that I do are:

1. Write papers
2. Store, edit, and manage photos (photoshop, lightroom, etc.)
3. Sync calendars, contacts, email with my iPhone
4. Keep in contact with family
5. Store, edit, and manage music (iTunes)
6. Store, edit, and manage movies (iTunes)

It has provided me with stress-free laptop. In the first several months of usage, I've not turned the laptop off at all and it has always remained in sleep mode when I didn't use it. At first I was annoyed by the CD initialization after waking up from sleep. But it wasn't long until Apple issued a firmware fix for this. Now it wakes up silently as if it wasn't even asleep to begin with. This is something I could not do with my Dell without having to reboot it a day or two later. It would cause several driver conflicts and eventually it would give me a blue screen of death(BSOD).

I have not experience any major issues with my laptop at all. I have not had to deal with updating drivers or accessing my devices like I do on my Dell. If it did have issues, a simple reboot would return the laptop to a working condition.

I had one small defect on the screen from manufacturing problems that was addressed immediately when I took it up to the Apple store. The screen was replaced within a week and all was well.

Software was very easy to install as the majority of them are self-contained. Meaning that I could just drag the actual program in the trash and it would delete it off my computer. This was something that drove me insane with my PC. I would use the uninstall method on PCs to find out later that there are remaining files left over. On programs that were not self-contained however, there is a utility that I use for my Mac (Appcleaner) that finds all the related files and allows you to move it to the recycling bin to delete. From there it was just a matter of emptying the trash bin to remove it.

From browsing the internet I used Firefox. I have two add-ons that I use to block unwanted spam and pop-ups. I have not encountered many any malicious software or pop-ups. Those that slipped through the crack always popped up with a warning telling me that it is not a trusted website.

Every time I needed to install something downloaded from the internet, my MacBook would ask me for my password. I love this feature as it is a constant reminder that the computer is working in the background to protect you from unwanted issues.

Overall, my experience has been top notch. I would rate it at 9.5/10 with the .5 being some incompatibility issues that I worked around using parallels and a copy of Windows 7.

I hope that helps. Good Luck
 
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Mr. Daniel
Joined
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Apple MacBook Pro MC118E/A 15.4 | iPhone 4S | iPod many
Thank you for your responses and kindness. I suspected that you will be capable to encourage me to switch to Mac.

Firesidedog and Len0475, thank you for your message. It is really useful your experience for me.

That is an awesome machine you're looking at.
A couple of tips... if you only need a simple notebook for web browsing and e-mail, you could save some money and go with a White Macbook. However, you would have a 13" screen so you might not like that if you prefer the 15".
Also, check the refurbished section of the Apple Store. Click on "Store" on the main page, then go to the bottom and on the left is a link to Refurbished Macs. Good as new and lots cheaper.

Either way you won't be disappointed. Wonderful machines and you'll wish you switched sooner! :)

MYmacROX, thank you for your suggestions and let me tell you that there is not availability of refurbished units where i live (Argentina). In addition, the white MacBook is great but I found a 13" display small for me.

Welcome aboard, Daniel. I've had a couple of friends from Argentina when I was a child, I still keep in touch with one of them. :) They had moved to the states, and we played a lot as kids. :)

I've been a MacHead my whole life, and I can't tell you how glad I am. I see Windows users every day who are frustrated that their machines aren't working very well, or the way they want them to. Granted, switching OSes won't solve all problems, but many common ones can be avoided. "My computer got a virus." Heh, get a Mac!

Your IT guys who are saying Macs suck probably haven't tried them, or have and were intimidated because they didn't know the OS as well as the Windows OS they had spent their whole lives studying. Most IT guys are afraid of OS X.

Anyway, welcome to the club. That machine is a beast. :)

Darkest Ritual, thank you for your message. Is right, US was and is the target of many Argentineans since the 60s, due to our political and economic problems. I’ve been in San Diego, L.A. and NYC in a tourist travel and I loved those places, especially San Diego. But, in my case, I'm seriously thinking in move to New Zealand. I don't have an answer for the "why to NZ?", as my friends and family, ask me all the time…

Finally, I agree with you, spite it is not my field, I think the IT guys speak like that due to their lack of cognizance in Mac OS.

Before you make the switch I would advice you do one thing first.

Make of list of the software that you use at the current time.

Now go verify that it is available for the Mac and check the price of it.

When you switch from a windows to mac the one big expense that is often overlooked is the price of software.

You may also find that some software you used is not available for Macs.

Thomas, thank you too. The list of the soft is easy: Internet, E-mail, MS Office ($ 150), Illustrator and Photoshop (I already have them) and Auto Cad.

This last one is the only one that I don't know if it is possible to use with the Mac. Does anyone know the factibility of using Auto Cad with Mac OS?

Thank you agian and cheers,
 
Joined
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MacBook Pro | iMac | iPhone 4
This last one is the only one that I don't know if it is possible to use with the Mac. Does anyone know the factibility of using Auto Cad with Mac OS?

Thank you agian and cheers,

Sorry if this was mentioned, but you said you're an engineer and depending on what kind (I assume mechanical if your using auto cad) but as an engineering student I can't get by without windows... But i run all my programs (Quartus, PSpice, Pro e etc.) via bootcamp which works perfectly (better then a windows machine in my opinion, although I am fairly mac biased). Also autocad will not run on mac, but once again you can use bootcamp (or parallels/vmware fusion) and it will run very smoothly because in most cases you wont have much running on your windows because all of your personal items will be on the mac, so the windows will be fast...
Apple - Support - Boot Camp
 
OP
Mr. Daniel
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Sorry if this was mentioned, but you said you're an engineer and depending on what kind (I assume mechanical if your using auto cad) but as an engineering student I can't get by without windows... But i run all my programs (Quartus, PSpice, Pro e etc.) via bootcamp which works perfectly (better then a windows machine in my opinion, although I am fairly mac biased). Also autocad will not run on mac, but once again you can use bootcamp (or parallels/vmware fusion) and it will run very smoothly because in most cases you wont have much running on your windows because all of your personal items will be on the mac, so the windows will be fast...
Apple - Support - Boot Camp

Thank you for your message

Yes, you are right, I'm mechanic engineer. I'm going to read about bootcamp on the net.

Maybe, in the near future, I'll consult you again on this matter if it doesn't bother you, of course.

Cheers,
 
Joined
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MacBook Pro | iMac | iPhone 4
Thank you for your message

Yes, you are right, I'm mechanic engineer. I'm going to read about bootcamp on the net.

Maybe, in the near future, I'll consult you again on this matter if it doesn't bother you, of course.

Cheers,
No problem. I have used bootcamp for many memory hogging programs. Let me know
 
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Mr. Daniel
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Apple MacBook Pro MC118E/A 15.4 | iPhone 4S | iPod many
Hello guys,

I want to tell you that, fianlly, I bought my first Mac. I really want to thank you for your kind advice.

I just opened the box and played for a few minutes with it... I will write back to give you my first impressions and experiences.

Cheers
 

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