My thoughts on switching so far

Thought id share my thoughts on moving over to osx in February, having been a windows user since 1993.

Ok well start with the good

1. Had no bloatware, malware or viruses, (despite using one or two more mature sites, cough cough) huge huge plus for this

2. Ive found a mac equivalent to almost every program i used on a PC, mainly free, and i gotta say ilife is brill

3. The os seems much more fluid than win7(although gotta say win7 is good). Particularly i never hardly hear disk rattling anymore, and the o/s is very very easy to get used to

4. I just love this 27" screen (probably worth best part of a grand on its own)

5. system handles multitasking better than win7, i can run parallels, and various programs, on 8GB easily.

6. Since i use this for work and value my data, i think Time machine is absolutely superb

and there are probably lots of other small things that make using this a pleasure.

One or two minor complaints however

1. Have had one or two annoying issues with safari, but now sorted

2. No BLURAY, Derr just cannot for the life of me understand this one.

3. The one program that makes me use parallels is office, the mac equivalent is pants im afraid, also tried iwork and open office but they just cant cut it, cant do without excel and outlook. Hoping the new mac release at the backend is better

Well there we are, overall more than happy with my move

Glad to hear it's been a (mostly) enjoyable experience switching to Mac OS.
Out of curiosity what issues were you having with Safari?
Apple is a little conservative when it comes to implementing certain technology in their products. Just look at how long it took for i5 and i7 processors to make it to the iMac and MacBook Pro. ...but they're also ahead of the curve in many ways too.

MYmacROX said:

Glad to hear it's been a (mostly) enjoyable experience switching to Mac OS.
Out of curiosity what issues were you having with Safari?
Apple is a little conservative when it comes to implementing certain technology in their products. Just look at how long it took for i5 and i7 processors to make it to the iMac and MacBook Pro. ...but they're also ahead of the curve in many ways too.

Click to expand...

Safari was crashing on certain sites after the update to 10.6.3, which included safari 5, 10.6.4 fixed it.

I'll never understand the fascination people have with Bluray on a computer. If it's an stand alone entertainment center, I can see why it would be popular, but on a general computer ?

Besides, all anybody has to do is get an external Bluray drive and they're set. In fact, I always prefer to have my dvd drives be external so there are less moving parts to break down and it's easier to replace or upgrade. It's also likely cheaper that way.

Doug

There's only so much of a difference between OpenOffice on a Mac and on a Windows computer. Same with Microsoft Office.

Compatibility wise, well, I for sure won't tear open that scab.

Doug b said:

I'll never understand the fascination people have with Bluray on a computer. If it's an stand alone entertainment center, I can see why it would be popular, but on a general computer ?

Besides, all anybody has to do is get an external Bluray drive and they're set. In fact, I always prefer to have my dvd drives be external so there are less moving parts to break down and it's easier to replace or upgrade. It's also likely cheaper that way.

Doug

Click to expand...

Come on its not as if where asking for the earth, ive got loads of bluray discs it like to play but cant, it would be nice just to have the choice, and you would only be set with an external if you were willing to run bootcamp, also external drives are more expensive, an internal bluray drive only costs about £40. We all know the reason why its not implemented and its purely down to itunes rentals

bazanders said:

3. The one program that makes me use parallels is office, the mac equivalent is pants im afraid, also tried iwork and open office but they just cant cut it, cant do without excel and outlook.

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My *understanding* is that the upcoming Office 11 release will replace Entourage with Outlook and other features. I can't comment on Excel -- I use it as little as possible, but the last time I had to use it for Mac & PC I could barely tell the difference (but I'm rather a basic user when it comes to spreadsheets).

chas_m said:

My *understanding* is that the upcoming Office 11 release will replace Entourage with Outlook and other features. I can't comment on Excel -- I use it as little as possible, but the last time I had to use it for Mac & PC I could barely tell the difference (but I'm rather a basic user when it comes to spreadsheets).

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Ditto here on both points. I have also heard the next Office for OSX will include Outlook and do away with Entourage.

I have Office for Mac (not sure as I always get the numbers mixed up but either 2003 or 2004) and Excel works back and forth with the Windows version just fine. I also don't do CRAZY sheets but everything I have done works either place and in fact they all work in iWork 09 (Numbers) also.

bazanders said:

Come on its not as if where asking for the earth, ive got loads of bluray discs it like to play but cant, it would be nice just to have the choice, and you would only be set with an external if you were willing to run bootcamp, also external drives are more expensive, an internal bluray drive only costs about £40. We all know the reason why its not implemented and its purely down to itunes rentals

Click to expand...

HU? Who said you need Windows to play a Bluray disc on OS X ? Because... ya don't. Go buy an BR drive and be happy, because it's not going to appear on any future iterations of any Mac. Also, go ahead and buy yourself an internal BR drive and buy the housing for it. That's what I was suggesting in the first place.

Doug

By sheer coincidence, this came over the wire today:

Logitec offers Blu-ray upgrade drive for Mac Pros | MacNN

This is relevant to our interests.

chas_m said:

By sheer coincidence, this came over the wire today:

Logitec offers Blu-ray upgrade drive for Mac Pros | MacNN

This is relevant to our interests.

Click to expand...

Well I'll be a monkey's uncle... would ye looki't that. And of course I forgot to say that, sure, iTunes won't cooperate, but iTunes isn't the only media player out there. Steer clear of iTunes and just use VLC or another brand of software. Should be fine. I know... not the same media rich experience but still.. I wonder though, will Front Row cooperate as such ?

Doug

ITunes. Tunes to me is Music. I was waiting for Doug to say iTunes reeks! He did not let me down either!!!

Good news on the Blu-Ray drive upgrade.

chas_m said:

By sheer coincidence, this came over the wire today:

Logitec offers Blu-ray upgrade drive for Mac Pros | MacNN

This is relevant to our interests.

Click to expand...

That covers the drive aspect, but the next problem is player software - aside from MakeMKV which playback functionality works but isn't great (no menus AFAIK) I don't know of other software available to playback a bluray via OSX without having to try to rip it first. (I'd love it if there were software so if someone knows of some... )

Wonder if Toast will come to the rescue for Mac?

bazanders said:

One or two minor complaints however

1. Have had one or two annoying issues with safari, but now sorted

2. No BLURAY, Derr just cannot for the life of me understand this one.

3. The one program that makes me use parallels is office, the mac equivalent is pants im afraid, also tried iwork and open office but they just cant cut it, cant do without excel and outlook. Hoping the new mac release at the backend is better

Well there we are, overall more than happy with my move

Click to expand...

1. Use Chrome?

2. Bluray is licensed through Sony. Since Apple and Sony are at work in the mobile gaming space, don't expect to see them license bluray to Apple. Beyond that, who cares? You can download 1080p content That's the main reason why it's a moot point. In 2 years when physical media is dead and it's completely shifted to digital, you won't give two hoots about bluray.

3. Office 2011 is much better, though for real... ditch outlook and use Mail. Far superior.

The one thing that will keep physical media around a lot longer is due to the fact not enough people have high speed internet and the pricing for those speeds are out of their budget and then they want to cap them or overcharge you if you exceed said limit. When
those things are rectified then it might be the coffin nail.

Doug b said:

HU? Who said you need Windows to play a Bluray disc on OS X ? Because... ya don't. Go buy an BR drive and be happy, because it's not going to appear on any future iterations of any Mac. Also, go ahead and buy yourself an internal BR drive and buy the housing for it. That's what I was suggesting in the first place.

Doug

Click to expand...

As far as im aware although id be more than happy to be proved wrong, there is no support for bluray playback in osx(without the messing about ripping first), therefore you do need windows.
Anyway even without bluray, im more than happy with the system

I too have just switched over from PC to MAC.

Got my first Mac yesterday, and am already in love with it. I was an avid PC user since 95. My MAC has throughly impressed me with its battery life and processing power, its so much more efficient in relation to multi tasking.

And the best part I feel is the screen, it is utter bliss staring at this 15' screen now. Pictures and videos are extremely sharp and clear.

Still have a lot to learn on how to use and navigate this device, will post up my thoughts after a week or so has gone by.

Enjoy.!

bazanders said:

5. system handles multitasking better than win7, i can run parallels, and various programs, on 8GB easily.

Click to expand...

I think that's just because Mac doesn't have all kinds of backwards-compatibility code for 32 bit gumming up the works. I've been consistently impressed that everything works with a 64-bit OS from the get-go. Even on Linux I have issues running 32-bit software on the 64-bit version.

On Mac, I can't even tell if I'm running a 32-bit program.

(It's entirely possible I'm full of crap)

You can open Activity Monitor from the Applications/Utilities menu and look at the running processes and see if they are running in 32 or 64 Bits.