Switching from Windows to Mac

Hey guys - I've been thinking of making the jump from Windows to OS X for a little while now, but obviously I have a few questions first (Given that Macs aren't exactly cheap).

I'm thinking of getting the 13 inch MacBook Pro with the 2.66Ghz processor.

I sent a friend of mine who has a Mac an email with some questions - but given that he's typically very busy I don't know when he'll be able to get back to me. I figure I'll post some of the questions that I asked him here and see what you guys here have to say.

1- Can I upgrade the Hard Drive & RAM? The model I've got my eye on the model that ships with 4GB of RAM, which normally would be fine for me, but given that I'm going to be doing some HD video editing on it I'm wondering if it's worth going for 8GB instead. Apple provide this option when you order but it costs like an extra £300. Can I upgrade the RAM myself? And if so, is it cheaper to do so?

2- Is there any office software (word processing, etc) I can use on the Mac that preferably isn't Microsoft Office? I guess I could use Google Docs, but a desktop application is always nice [Note that I currently use OpenOffice].

3- Is there anything in particular I should look out for when migrating from Windows?

4- Referring back to video editing, is there any software in particular you'd recommend? I'm currently looking in to Adobe Premier Elements - but it runs like a piece of excrement on my machine so it's hard to really gauge how good/bad it is, though I guess I could always try the trial version out when/if I get the Mac. If you've got any other recommendations that'd be awesome.

5- Are PDF files still the spawn of Satan himself on a Mac? [I've had a lot of issues with PDF Readers being unresponsive, and printing PDF files over my wireless network in particular has been problematic]

6- What's the best way of transferring my iTunes stuff over? Just put everything on my iPod and sync it all up on the Mac?

7- How's PC gaming on the Mac? I'm not a particularly hardcore PC gamer (In fact my gaming is almost exclusively done on my Xbox 360) but there are a few Valve games I've picked up on some of their sales. Anyone here know how the likes of Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 handle on Macs?

Those are all of my questions for now - I might have some more in the future, but these are the ones that immediately pop in to my head. Thanks for the advice guys.

1. Upgrading the RAM is easy to do on a Mac and will be much cheaper if you do it yourself. Upgrading the HD can be done but I think that doing it yourself would void the warranty. I have the pre-unibody MBP which was pretty easy to open up and upgrade myself, so maybe a unibody owner can help answer this part.

2. If you don't want to use office, OpenOffice exists for Mac and I've heard a lot of people use Neo Office. Both are free Word alternatives.

3. Not sure what you mean by "watch out". You can just put everything on an external HD and copy the files over to your Mac. It's pretty straightforward.

4. Final Cut Studio is an amazing editing suite that I use all the time. I love it so much, I got an Apple certification for it. If the cost puts you off, you can try Final Cut Express.

5. I've never had any problems with PDF's on my Mac, so not sure what you mean. Maybe this is a concern from earlier versions of Mac OS. Preview will open any PDF and documents can easily be saved in PDF form, though the option for that is not as obvious as it could be... instead of saving as PDF from the File menu, you do it from the Print menu.

6. I believe there is a way to transfer all your music and playlists, but you can't do it through your iPod. I've only ever copied over my music files directly to my Mac from a Firewire drive, I've never done the playlist bit.

7. I don't game myself, but from what I hear, a Mac can handle casual gaming just fine.

vein weenats

Oneironaut said:

3. Not sure what you mean by "watch out". You can just put everything on an external HD and copy the files over to your Mac. It's pretty straightforward.

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Sorry, it was a bit of a vague question. I mean any general differences between Windows and OS X - like keyboard shortcuts and the like. Isn't the trackpad on the MacBook multi-touch?

I've used a Mac running OS X Tiger (I think) before, so maybe the experience will be somewhat similar on Snow Leopard?

Oneironaut said:

4. Final Cut Studio is an amazing editing suite that I use all the time. I love it so much, I got an Apple certification for it. If the cost puts you off, you can try Final Cut Express.

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Is there a trial version that I could use to try it out?

Oneironaut said:

5. I've never had any problems with PDF's on my Mac, so not sure what you mean. Maybe this is a concern from earlier versions of Mac OS. Preview will open any PDF and documents can easily be saved in PDF form, though the option for that is not as obvious as it could be... instead of saving as PDF from the File menu, you do it from the Print menu.

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Not so much a concern from previous versions of OS X, but more with my bad experience with PDF files on Windows. I constantly have issues with PDF files taking forever to open, and the actual PDF Readers can become unresponsive, which can be a pain. Are these issues that translate over to OSX?

Again, thanks for the help, and the quick response. =)

I've just made the switch myself too -nowhere near as traumatic as you might think! PDF's are easily handled within the OS, no drama at all. I'm running NeoOffice here and thus far (a little over a week in) it's been great!

1. The hard drive upgrade is listed in the owner's manual as user upgradeable. I don't believe changing it out has voided the warranty on any of yhe notebook Macs since the first generation of the MBP - discontinued by mid '07.

6. Assuming you'll have the Mac set up on the same network as your exiting machine, the easiest way to transfer your iTunes over is to turn on the Homesharing feature in iTunes on both machines. You can use drag and drop to move items between them or you can set it up to have iTunes automatically import anything added to one machine to the other. I download most stuff on my Mac. But, I use a Win 7 machine as an HTPC which is connected both to my HDTV and to my surround receiver. Anything I download on the Mac is auto synced to my HTPC and sitting there waiting for me when I use it.

Here's just one link about Homesharing.

bobtomay said:

6. Assuming you'll have the Mac set up on the same network as your exiting machine, the easiest way to transfer your iTunes over is to turn on the Homesharing feature in iTunes on both machines. You can use drag and drop to move items between them or you can set it up to have iTunes automatically import anything added to one machine to the other. I download most stuff on my Mac. But, I use a Win 7 machine as an HTPC which is connected both to my HDTV and to my surround receiver. Anything I download on the Mac is auto synced to my HTPC and sitting there waiting for me when I use it.

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Seems easy enough. I probably won't be selling my existing machine until my Mac arrives anyway.

Welcome and enjoy!

Hard drive upgrade won't void your warranty.
Try OpenOffice or Neo Office for Mac. I personally use OO and like it a lot. If for some reason you want a more polished office suite, maybe iWork would be a good solution. Pages, Numbers, and Keynote = Word, Excel, and Power Point. Plus it's cheaper than MS Office for Mac.
If you copy any files (including your iTunes folder) to an external drive, you can plug that drive into your new Mac and just drag those files onto the Mac. As long as the external is formatted as NTFS, the Windows Machine can write to it and the Mac can read it and you can transfer the files TO the Mac. The Mac won't be able to write to it.
Your transition to the Mac way of doing things depends on your open-mindedness. The biggest mistake some switchers make is they try to make their Mac look and act like their Windows machine. It's different so, use it the way it's meant to be used - more efficiently/logically.
Definitely give these pages on Apple.com a look. Switch 101 and Mac 101. Keyboard shortcuts. Keyboard symbols.

Hey Pokehface,

Shortcut keys generally work the same except that instead of the Control key, the main modifier key is the Command key. So instead of Control-C for Copy, it will be Command-C. The main differences you may notice have to do with the way the Maximize, Zoom and Minimize buttons work on a Mac, the way the Finder displays folder and files, etc, but many of these things can be changed to make them work a little more like what you're used to. In fact, one of the first things I recommend you do when you get your Mac is open up System Preferences and start customizing. Also, nearly ever program has a Preferences option in the application menu, where you can further customize the interface and options to your liking.

As for Final Cut, I don't think there is a trial version anywhere, but there are some great tutorials on Lynda.com where you can learn a bit about the general workings of Final Cut Studio.

Final Cut Studio Training, Final Cut Pro Video Tutorials – lynda.com Online Training Library

Oneironaut said:

As for Final Cut, I don't think there is a trial version anywhere, but there are some great tutorials on Lynda.com where you can learn a bit about the general workings of Final Cut Studio.

Final Cut Studio Training, Final Cut Pro Video Tutorials – lynda.com Online Training Library

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At £800+ I think I'll be giving Final Cut a miss. I only need something that's fairly simple. ;P

I've got one more question: Should I install some kind of anti-malware software on a Mac? I know that they say that you don't have to, but obviously I don't want to take any chances.

PokehFace said:

At £800+ I think I'll be giving Final Cut a miss. I only need something that's fairly simple. ;P

I've got one more question: Should I install some kind of anti-malware software on a Mac? I know that they say that you don't have to, but obviously I don't want to take any chances.

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I direct you here. Please read the stickies.

PokehFace said:

1- Can I upgrade the Hard Drive & RAM?

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Yes.

2- Is there any office software (word processing, etc) I can use on the Mac that preferably isn't Microsoft Office?

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Tons. Apple makes iWork, and that's my preferred solution: others like OpenOffice/NeoOffice. Google Docs works too. Lots and lots of options in this area.

3- Is there anything in particular I should look out for when migrating from Windows?

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This essay may have some thoughts on that topic.

4- Referring back to video editing, is there any software in particular you'd recommend? I'm currently looking in to Adobe Premier Elements - but it runs like a piece of excrement on my machine so it's hard to really gauge how good/bad it is, though I guess I could always try the trial version out when/if I get the Mac. If you've got any other recommendations that'd be awesome.

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Macs come with iMovie. It's got its limitations, but is actually quite impressive in many ways. Adobe offers Premiere Pro for Mac, I think they are about to offer an "Elements Bundle" of both Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements for like $150.

Beyond that, there's Final Cut Express ($299) and then on to the pro level.

5- Are PDF files still the spawn of Satan himself on a Mac?

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Not an issue. Built-in PDF reader (Preview, which also handles graphic files). Standard print engine ensures that all files print equally well. The full Adobe Acrobat Pro is available if you need it, there's also some third-party pro-PDF tools available for less money.

6- What's the best way of transferring my iTunes stuff over? Just put everything on my iPod and sync it all up on the Mac?

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iTunes doesn't allow "reverse sync" but there are third-party tools for that. I recommend you just put the entire iTunes library on an external HD, then copy it onto the Mac and point iTunes at it. Or the Homesharing option Bob mentioned (smacks head for not thinking of that first).

How's PC gaming on the Mac?

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Much MUCH better than it was. We still wait a long time (usually months) for the top PC sellers to come to a native Mac version, but porting software has gotten to the point where Steam works well on the Mac, and native versions come around a little quicker, and of course we can run Windows so there's that option.

Bottom line: if you want to run a game on a Mac, there's a way -- and the performance will be on par with all but the custom gamer rigs of the PC world. From a game perspective, all modern Macs are intel PCs.

PokehFace said:

Should I install some kind of anti-malware software on a Mac?

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No. Not needed.