making the switch

Hi i've decided it was about time to upgrade to a new computer and i was thinking of going with a mac pro the only problem being that all my cg programs (eg. MAYA, CS2, Adobe Premiere 2 etc,) were bought for a PC with windows XP operating system, so my question is will these programs still work on a mac and if not how do i get around this.

any help is much appreciated, thanks.

Welcome to Mac-Forums gibblet!

Nope... Applications made for windows will NOT run via OS X.... BUT You may be able to contact the mfg. and ask them to swap your discs out for the Mac versions.. I have heard of Adobe ding this. You can also run Windows via Parallels or Bootcamp. Also most Windows apps do have a Mac alternative.

Just to add a little more detail to what RIDE mentioned...

Apple switched over to Intel Processors not too long ago. Any of the newer machines with Intel chips (Core Duo aka "CD" or Core 2 Duo aka "C2D") can run windows through a program called boot camp. It's not emulation, it will actually run windows just as it would run on a PC. You can do a search to learn more.

But that being said, if you do decide to make the switch, you'll most likely want to run any applications via OS X...so as RIDE mentioned, if you can trade any of the software for the Mac version, that would definitely be a plus.

As a recent switcher, and coming from using PC's my whole life...I have to say, i'm very impressed with the Apple machines and I don't see myself ever going back to windows. I kept my PC, thinking i'd still use it and it's networked with the Mac, all hooked up and online. I haven't turned the thing on since I got the Mac.

Welcome to the forums.

-Nick