Potential Windows Convert...

Zoolook · Sep 26, 2006

I bought my wife a MacBook (1.83 ghz / 1gig RAM) just last week and we're both in love with it. I am using an ageing Windows Laptop and am due for an upgrade probably early next year... a Mac is tempting, especially after seeing how dull looking and unimaginative Vista/Aero is shaping up to be (I know, I have Vista Beta and Office 2007... seriously ugly).

Anyway, there are a few things that would potentially put me off. I am saying these to be convinced, not to start an argument, so I'll just write 'em as i see 'em.

- Home Accounts Package. I have used MS Money since 1998 and although it started out a bit naff, I am now using the 2004 package and it's a very good programme indeed. Quicken on the Mac (and PC) just doesn't float my boat. Are there any alternatives (I don't mean rinky dinky shareware stuff... something serious).

- OS upgrades. Mac users make fun of windows users for having to wait on Longhorn/Vista. BUT... from my point of view I have had a stable OS for 5 years... and, quite honestly, XP has been fine for me. No huge crashes, never had to reinstall either this laptop or my previous desktop (had this machine for 3 years) and I am not sure of the benefit of paying for an upgrade virtually yearly. Also, my wife's previous machine was a G3 700mhz, running OS X 10.2.8 which crashed a lot. I read that 10.2.8 was full of bugs. Also, we could not upgrade to QT7 without at least 10.3.x, which begs the question, how long does Apple support an OS release? Even Ubuntu (Linux) has a 5 year support promise!

- Reliability. WHen the G3 died, we looked on eBay for a replacement (before I suprised her with a new one)... it was FULL of G3s with dead logicboards. I was very suprised... did Apple have a bad couple of years? I'd expect a machine like this to last 5 years, minimum - in fact I'd expect it to be unuseable due to being too slow before breaking.

- iTunes. I love iTunes and I love my iPOD... but I am not sur I want to get tied in to a single proprietry format (AAC) that I am then stuck with forever. How do Apple fans feel about this.

So... it could be a Leopard powered MacBook Pro for me in early '07 - or Vista, a Zune and MS Money for the next 5 years.

sursuciofla · Sep 26, 2006

Zoolook said:
I bought my wife a MacBook (1.83 ghz / 1gig RAM) just last week and we're both in love with it. I am using an ageing Windows Laptop and am due for an upgrade probably early next year... a Mac is tempting, especially after seeing how dull looking and unimaginative Vista/Aero is shaping up to be (I know, I have Vista Beta and Office 2007... seriously ugly).

Anyway, there are a few things that would potentially put me off. I am saying these to be convinced, not to start an argument, so I'll just write 'em as i see 'em.

- Home Accounts Package. I have used MS Money since 1998 and although it started out a bit naff, I am now using the 2004 package and it's a very good programme indeed. Quicken on the Mac (and PC) just doesn't float my boat. Are there any alternatives (I don't mean rinky dinky shareware stuff... something serious).

- OS upgrades. Mac users make fun of windows users for having to wait on Longhorn/Vista. BUT... from my point of view I have had a stable OS for 5 years... and, quite honestly, XP has been fine for me. No huge crashes, never had to reinstall either this laptop or my previous desktop (had this machine for 3 years) and I am not sure of the benefit of paying for an upgrade virtually yearly. Also, my wife's previous machine was a G3 700mhz, running OS X 10.2.8 which crashed a lot. I read that 10.2.8 was full of bugs. Also, we could not upgrade to QT7 without at least 10.3.x, which begs the question, how long does Apple support an OS release? Even Ubuntu (Linux) has a 5 year support promise!

- Reliability. WHen the G3 died, we looked on eBay for a replacement (before I suprised her with a new one)... it was FULL of G3s with dead logicboards. I was very suprised... did Apple have a bad couple of years? I'd expect a machine like this to last 5 years, minimum - in fact I'd expect it to be unuseable due to being too slow before breaking.

- iTunes. I love iTunes and I love my iPOD... but I am not sur I want to get tied in to a single proprietry format (AAC) that I am then stuck with forever. How do Apple fans feel about this.

So... it could be a Leopard powered MacBook Pro for me in early '07 - or Vista, a Zune and MS Money for the next 5 years.

I am a Mac lover and I agree with you on the OS...I really am not a fan of a new OS coming out every year and outdating an OS I buy just months earlier. But I love the OS, it is just for me. I got so sick of the Windows platform because it is not user friendly enough for me. However for work I am stuck using it sometimes so I deal with it.

As far as iTunes I don't use AAC, I use mp3 and if I download from Apple Store I put songs on re-writable as an audio disk and just re-import them as mp3. I have no problems doing that but that's just me.

But anywho, seems like you know what floats your boat so whatever decision you make it will be a good one. Congrats on the MacBook...I am waiting on Leopard, I am pretty excited about that one.

The other two questions I wish I could help but I use Quicken and I love it and I will let you know in 3 years to see if Apple just had off years with the G3. I have had my G4 for about 2 years now.

rman · Sep 26, 2006

Zoolook said:
- iTunes. I love iTunes and I love my iPOD... but I am not sur I want to get tied in to a single proprietry format (AAC) that I am then stuck with forever. How do Apple fans feel about this.

So... it could be a Leopard powered MacBook Pro for me in early '07 - or Vista, a Zune and MS Money for the next 5 years.

What I find funny here is that you don't want to get stuck in one proprietry format, but you mention Microsoft and Zune. Which I believe is another proprietry format. lol

As for the OSs, you don't have to upgrade unless you want too. I have four systems, one running 10.1.5, two at 10.3.9 and one at 10.4.7. All of them are working fine at where they are at. it all depends on what you plan to do with the system if you need to upgrade.

PowerBookG4 · Sep 26, 2006

I upgrade because I like the new stuff, this does not mean that you have to upgrade when something new comes out. My brother does not upgrade his computer when a new os comes out and everything works how he want it too. Apple does not force you to upgrade then just like to keep coming out with new stuff to keep the customers happy. That is one thing I like about Apple, I don't have to wait that long for something new, I have windows xp and I will admit that even though I am using it now because I am at school and I don't bring my 17inch mpb with me to school, I do not like it as much as osx, It has been the same thing for as long as I can remember and microsoft really needs to completely change the os. I think that when leapord comes out you will have everything you need to run a computer, a backup program (time maching), Amazing search ability, new finder (rumored), new core service (core animation) and a few other things. That will probably be the last thing that I would see needed, but then again, apple might suprise us with something even more amazing at 10.6

Zoolook · Sep 26, 2006

rman said:
What I find funny here is that you don't want to get stuck in one proprietry format, but you mention Microsoft and Zune. Which I believe is another proprietry format. lol

As for the OSs, you don't have to upgrade unless you want too. I have four systems, one running 10.1.5, two at 10.3.9 and one at 10.4.7. All of them are working fine at where they are at. it all depends on what you plan to do with the system if you need to upgrade.

OK, on Zune, there are many players that can play WM - with Apple's iTunes, only the iPOD can play the music and iPOD is not compatible with any other online music seller. That's what I meant. Having said that, I have not had any reason to think I'd want to move away from iTunes/iPOD.

On the upgrades - there are many applications that already don't support 10.2.x or before, so I don't agree with your suggestion that you do not need to upgrade. Clearly it depends on what you use the machine for as you say. Still, considering OS X is about 1/3 of the price of Vista... I guess you could argue you get 3 OSs for the price of one.

Logan · Sep 26, 2006

Zoolook said:
OK, on Zune, there are many players that can play WM - with Apple's iTunes, only the iPOD can play the music and iPOD is not compatible with any other online music seller. That's what I meant. Having said that, I have not had any reason to think I'd want to move away from iTunes/iPOD.

On the upgrades - there are many applications that already don't support 10.2.x or before, so I don't agree with your suggestion that you do not need to upgrade. Clearly it depends on what you use the machine for as you say. Still, considering OS X is about 1/3 of the price of Vista... I guess you could argue you get 3 OSs for the price of one.

Most apps just require OS X that I see.

Personally i'd rather have a OGG player, but ACC, MP3, WM whatever it all can be converted back and forth with the right software. So I wouldn't even pay attention to what the file is. You don't have to have iTunes to put music on your iPod. It's just the most (l)user-friendly

Look at the history of windows. Look at the history of Apple. So long as OS X doesn't decide to rewrite their kernel to something they made on their own (BSD <3) I will be happy with OS X. I just call it user friendly X11/Unix.

I had a guy try to argue with me that OS X wasn't a unix-like OS before... That was an amusing debate.

One feature I'm kind of interested in with Vista is the powershell, granted it'll use the .NET framework it looks to be an interesting shell in comparison to most.

If people started realizing software gets written on what is the most popular they may realize it's better to take the chance and stick to what you believe is the best because if everyone follows, the software follows.

lifeafter2am · Sep 26, 2006

Zoolook said:
OK, on Zune, there are many players that can play WM - with Apple's iTunes, only the iPOD can play the music and iPOD is not compatible with any other online music seller. That's what I meant. Having said that, I have not had any reason to think I'd want to move away from iTunes/iPOD.

Not True!!!! I dont use iTunes at all. I am a producer and DJ, I download tracks from djdownload.com, beatport.com, emusic.com, all compatible with my iPod. The music on iTunes can I guess only be played on an iPod, but I don't buy anything with DRM.

--lifeafter2am

technologist · Sep 27, 2006

Zoolook said:
OK, on Zune, there are many players that can play WM - with Apple's iTunes, only the iPOD can play the music and iPOD is not compatible with any other online music seller. That's what I meant. Having said that, I have not had any reason to think I'd want to move away from iTunes/iPOD.

Not exactly. There are many players that play WMA. There are fewer players that play WMA "PlaysForSure" music from WMA online services.

And so far, there are zero players that are compatible with the Zune media service.

Zune itself is not compatible with PlaysForSure services, and PlaysForSure players are not compatible with Zune services. In other words, Microsoft has already abandoned its existing PlaysForSure customers.

Oddly enough, Zune will support the AAC format used in iTunes (but, of course, not the FairPlay media sold on the iTunes Store.)

Rambaud · Sep 27, 2006

I have just ordered Parallels (£35.99 from Amazon) to run Quickbooks on my new MacBook. I have MS Money and Quicken, although I no longer use them.

I don't use MP3 any more - although I still have several thousand mp3 tracks. I use the APE format with JRiver Media Centre, as it's lossless. So I may need to convert to ALAC or see if MC runs under Parallels.

Zoolook · Oct 16, 2006

Well I converted...

Specs in Sig. I love it. When my mobile phone sync'ed with iCal and my address book 1st time, I ran around the room laughing like a silly child.

xstep · Oct 16, 2006

Zoolook said:
When my mobile phone sync'ed with iCal and my address book 1st time, I ran around the room laughing like a silly child.

I did the same thing when I upgraded from 10.2 to 10.4. Sometimes Apple simply amazes me to an extreme.

Potential Windows Convert...

Zoolook

sursuciofla

Guest

rman

PowerBookG4

Zoolook

Logan

Guest

lifeafter2am

technologist

Rambaud

Zoolook

xstep

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