Thinking of switching, thoughts?

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Hello, I'm thinking about switching to mac, I've heard alot of hype about it and how it is superior to windows for "life stuff".
I'm 15 years old and heading to college in september, I have been using windows for about..3, 4 years now, and i feel at home with it.
But recently my anti virus software keeps picking up cookies from websites and basically "scraping my face off" thinking its a virus. I'm talking 20-40 messages per morning. I've tried to put in personal preferances to tell it that i know they arn't viruses,etc. but it just isn't working.
I play counter strike:source on my windows, I'm not sure if mac runs it, but this isn't a concern(i can just switch to windows for gaming, I've heard mac aren't the best for gaming). But since i scanned my computer, let my computer auto-cleanup my computer, its made my computer worse, it aparantly free'd about 50% more space, but now my computer runs very slow, and annoying(realised I've gone totally off topic).
The course I'm doing is digital media, but the college I'm going to doesn't use macs. Should i make the change, and keep my windows for things i need it for, and get an ibook?or should i stay with windows and put up with the skits anti virus, slow internet time, horible download limitations, and viruses?
Or should i throw out my old computer, and switch totally to mac?
I'm working on a budget of roughly £1,000 (Yes, I'm british, not sure if there are many british people on the forum that can give me advice) give or take.

Also a few questions:
1: can macs support mozilla firefox and plugins?
2:what kind of gaming is it limited to, such as counter strike source, client games,etc.
3:does it have its own download managers that help downloads come along,etc

I've looked at many posts about switching but still feel it would be better to get an opinion in my current situation.

I've already decided on matte vs glossy(matte won) but i haven't decided on what model. any sugestions or setups that i can upgrade would be helpful.
also, if leopard(forgot the exact name, sorry if I'm wrong) comes out, i guess i could upgrade since it was labelled around $129 which should be fine.

thanks for reading and please suggest =) thank you

howdet50
 
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hi howdet 50,

welcome to the forums,

i cant really answer your questions on gaming. Yes osx does support Firefox as i use this as my browser.

i have a 3 year old iBook, and it works perfectly. no virus's, isnt getting slow.
if it is a laptop you are looking for, then have a look at the macbook. especially if you have £1000.
my girlfriend just bought one from apple uk and she got student dicount aswell, so total came to about £850, really good machine.

As for the virus's, i dont use an anti virus software as it isnt needed at the moment.

Also if you want you can install windows (via boot camp/parallels) if you need to run any windows programs that arent available on mac.

hope this helps a little.

chrisgrieve
 
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thanks, it really helped, I'm still going to get some other views from people, but good to know =).
i have a feeling I'm going to be on this forum for a good few weeks till i finally buy one, i may wait till september for my student card, maybe i could shave a few £ off.
also, it will most likely be a laptop, and I'm glad it can run mozilla(I <3 mozilla :D)
i assume it runs plugins,etc yes?
Thanks
howdet50
ps:I've just noticed that i just gave up on spelling and grammar lol, but i'll try keep it readable,etc
 
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Hi howdet50, welcome to the forums. Let's look at your decision to switch.

1. Macs run Firefox and plugins.
2. The limitation in games on the mac is as follows: Games on a Mac need to be a dedicated Mac version, and there are quite a lot out there, you can see a fairly complete list here.

Also, be aware that you can run Windows on a Mac using Boot Camp, which is Beta software now but will be an integral part of Leopard. You can then use all your Windows games just as you're used to.

3. As for Download managers, I'm not completely sure what you're looking for, but Speed Download 4 comes to my mind. Otherwise, Firefox and Safari both have standard download "managers".
 
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ok, I'm aware of some non-mainstream games that have been edited for macs, so I'm fine there, also, when leopard comes out, will bootcamp change the os?or will the windows os run through bootcamp, and you load it up through there.
and thanks, as long as it has a download manager I'm happy.
 
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Bootcamp is simply an App. that creates a partition on the HD, and allows you to install Windows on that partition, and run Windows natively. With bootcamp installed you have the option (in fact you hold the Option key during start-up) to choose between booting into OS X or into Windows. Bootcamp will come installed as a stable version in Leopard (it is currently a fairly stable Beta now).
 
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The only concern i have for you is gaming on a macbook. If your going to be into gaming your better off with the macbook pro which form the uk apple website starts at 1299 pounds with vat. Macbook will handle minor games but will struggle with the more up todate graphics intensive ones.
 
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well i'm assuming once i am officially a student in september, i shave a few £ off, so i could maybe get the macbook pro, since i guess i have about £1,200. just means I'm going to have an awful boring holiday budget ^_^.
I'm still considering whether i should switch, but at least i know what i'll be getting.
also, a really stupid question, are there specific parts made for the mac and pc?or can an up to date graphics/video card work on a mac to upgrade it, because i think i'll need to buy a custom or higher end one, for counter strike.
 
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I`m new to the mac world but I can say this....I love it, getting used to it more and more each day. I hate my pc more everytime I have to use it. My biggest concern though is your 15 and heading to college? HA! Cannot imagine keggers being to exciting.....
 
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also, a really stupid question, are there specific parts made for the mac and pc?or can an up to date graphics/video card work on a mac to upgrade it, because i think i'll need to buy a custom or higher end one, for counter strike.

You can not upgrade the video capabilities in any of Apples Laptops.
 
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my unfortunate birth date is in the summer, so i turn 16 >: ) legal age for leaving school here is 16, so i was technically able to leave before christmas, so im' off to do a digital media course.
and ok, i can deal with not upgrading.
 
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Not to scare you away for a Mac, but there is something else to keep in mind and a lot of folks on the Windows side don't think about this. I'll mention it here because you have said you are a gamer and might consider using a Mac, running Windows, for games, specifically "Counter Strike".

You know those little "Made for Vista" or "Made for XP" stickers you see on pretty much every PC? You won't see one on a Mac. Intel Macs run Windows, and by all accounts they do so very well, but that is not their primary purpose or intent. Just keep in mind that a Mac is NOT designed with the intent of running Windows, it is sort of a cool afterthought. They are not tested with or against Windows by Apple. While most things will run fine, not everything will.

Just something to keep in mind.
 
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so while on bootcamp-windows i cant log onto the internet?or it wont function as well as a normal computer would.
also i'll be keeping my pc here, just the bootcamp would come in handy if i'm on the move with the mac
 
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From everything I have read, 99% of what an average computer user would do would work fine. I have no personal experience with Windows on a Mac though. I have read posts, on many different forums, from people who swear at Bootcamp but I have read just as many, more in fact, by people who swear by bootcamp. One of the more recent ones I read, on another forum, was a person who was complaining that the Mac keyboard simply didn't cut it on Windows. What exactly he meant was not clear however.

Again, I'm not trying to put you off on a Mac, I simply want you to be aware that there could be issues when running Windows on it.
 
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ok, personally i dont mind if bootcamp doesn't run everything on a windows as if it was a pc, i have a good pc here, just i dont want to deal with it as my main source of internet surfing,etc. because of the viruses,cookies,etc
also is msn available on mac?
 
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If you run Windows on a Mac, either through Bootcamp or Parallels, you will face the same issues with viruses and Spyware as you would on a regular Windows PC.

I think MSN has a Mac version, but I have no idea how well it works.
 
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but if i got a virus on windows running through a mac, would it effect the mac?seeing as the mac is a totally different os? or would it only effect the windows system(also, if it did only effect the windows system, what if i reinstalled the windows and formatted the windows part beforehand, erasing the virus?)
 
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Windows viruses are just Windows programs. Mac can't run Windows programs. So if the virus gets into the Mac partition (which is nearly impossible in its own right) then it will open itself on the Mac and BOOM. Nothing will happen.

Yeah. MSN is on the Mac. But DO NOT get Microsoft's client. It SUCKS so bad. Get aMSN or Adium. aMSN lets you do video and stuff, but I think Adium just looks better and is easier to use.

Your choice.

As for Firefox plugins, most of them will work. Some (like IETab, Microsoft Virtual 3D etc) won't work, because they depend on Windows technologies, but most of them work in my experience. I currently use Adblock Plus, Greasemonkey, DownThemAll, Fasterfox, StumbleUpon and dragdropupload with no problems.

Now, a healthy solution to viruses, I find, is to simply not enter any personal details on Windows (credit card number for example), try to minimize doing that on Windows. If you never enter those on Windows, a virus, or spyware, will never be able to find them. Ever.

Of course they can still compromise the system. But hey, it's just Windows, haha.

Reinstalling Windows would kill the virus. They can't 'hide out' in your Mac partition and then sneak back afterwards or anything.
 
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ok thanks. the only thing I'm very interested in would be the ease of reinstalling windows, would it be a pain?i imagine it wouldn't take long, but thats me.
as we speak i'm getting lots of pop ups saying "zomg unused icons on your desktop, go to this website to find out why!"
or "midget asian virgin porn, click in or miss out!"
due to me eventually giving up on checking my msn mails for spam, also, is mac msn still compatible with windows msn,(e.g can i talk to someone thats using a windows msn from my mac msn?)
 
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Mac MSN?? There's no such thing. Adium or aMSN, that I mentioned, connect to whatever MSN account you're using right now, and get the same contacts, talk to them, whatever.

Have you ever installed Windows before? On a Mac, you'll have to delete the Windows hard drive partition (Easy as a couple of clicks) which will effectively destroy everything you had on your Windows partition, then partition it again and reinstall Windows normally.
 

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