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Potential Switcher few Q's
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<blockquote data-quote="Geeky1" data-source="post: 490234" data-attributes="member: 34442"><p>A1. IF you use Office on the Mac, it will be compatible, yes. Open Office ought to let you save documents as a Word file. I don't know about iWork.</p><p></p><p>A2. You're getting a notebook; you <strong>need</strong> the extended warranty, imo. It doesn't matter if you get an Apple or a Dell, notebooks are not as reliable as desktops, they have to take more of a beating and it's more likely that something will fail. I'd recommend the extended warranty on any notebook. Just bear in mind that Apple <strong>does not</strong> offer any kind of accidental damage protection. Also remember that you can buy the Apple Care warranty at any point during the 1st year you have the machine-until the factory warranty expires.</p><p></p><p>A3. I've heard good and bad; it seems to be quite variable. I have a friend in Australia with a MBP and it took 2 weeks to fix that (needed a logic board and a hard drive). I have very limited experience with it though.</p><p></p><p>A4. No, you <strong>do NOT</strong> get a full copy of iWork as standard. If you check <a href="http://store.apple.com/133-622/WebObjects/australiastore.woa/wa/RSLID?nnmm=browse&mco=74284FCC&node=home/macbook/macbook_pro" target="_blank">this</a> page, scroll to the bottom on the right hand side where it says "included software" and hit the "applications" tab, you'll see that it says "iWork '08 <strong>30 day trial</strong>. So yes, if you want to use iWork, you will have to cough up the money for it on top of the money for the MBP.</p><p></p><p>A5. Yes, you can. I've only set it up probably twice, and I didn't find it quite as easy as setting up file sharing between two Windows machines. But then, that may be because I've done it on Windows more times than I can count and something like twice on a Mac.</p><p></p><p>A6. You will be able to connect to the router, assuming that the router supports 802.11b, g or n wireless protocols... which it ought to. .11a is old, was very expensive, and never took off in the consumer market. If you have a wireless router there's probably a 99.999% chance it's .11b/g/n.</p><p></p><p>Whether you will be able to connect where you want to connect, I don't know; wireless has a limited range that is affected by a number of environmental factors (distance from the computer to the router, the number of walls between the two, the elevation of the two, etc.). Nobody will be able to tell you for sure... if you have a wireless-enabled computer now, and you can connect in the rooms you'll be using the MBP in, chances are very good that you'll be able to connect with the MBP as well.</p><p></p><p>A7. Whether it's worth it or not really depends on what you want. What are you expecting of the machine, exactly? The MBP is very nice, though it has a couple of glaring engineering flaws and a decent list of smaller issues (see here for a list: <a href="http://appledefects.com/wiki/index.php?title=MacBook_Pro" target="_blank">http://appledefects.com/wiki/index.php?title=MacBook_Pro</a> ). But, on the other hand, ANY notebook you buy-be it an Apple, a Dell, a Toshiba (ugh), a Sony, an IBM (err, Lenovo... excuse me) or something else-will likely have its own flaws and idiosyncrasies. I have yet to encounter a laptop that I consider "perfect". </p><p></p><p>The MBP is expensive for what you get, and you can certainly get a PC laptop that is quite significantly faster than the MBP. You can also get PC laptops with more internal storage and with other toys that the MBP is simply not available with (built in TV tuners, for example). The tradeoff is that, with the MBP, you get one of the thinnest and lightest notebooks in its class, and you get good battery life; any PC notebook that's going to have enough 'horsepower' to smoke the MBP is going to be a great deal thicker and heavier, and won't be able to match it for battery life-though some similarly-spec'd PCs would probably about equal it, I'd expect.</p><p></p><p>I would expect a current MBP to have a useable life of 4-5 years before it gets "too slow" to be really useable any more. Your mileage may vary on this though, depending on your standards and how much you can tolerate. There are a lot of people that still run G4s that are the better part of 7 or 8 years old and are perfectly happy with them. There are a lot of other people that upgrade every year or two. As far as how long the computer will actually last before something fails... It's hard to say. Get the extended warranty and you'll be covered for 3 years.</p><p></p><p>------</p><p></p><p>In short, the MBP is a good machine; it is NOT perfect any more than any other computer is. If you want a notebook that can deal with almost everything that one can ask of it while staying portable and retaining a usable battery runtime, the MBP is a good choice.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Geeky1, post: 490234, member: 34442"] A1. IF you use Office on the Mac, it will be compatible, yes. Open Office ought to let you save documents as a Word file. I don't know about iWork. A2. You're getting a notebook; you [b]need[/b] the extended warranty, imo. It doesn't matter if you get an Apple or a Dell, notebooks are not as reliable as desktops, they have to take more of a beating and it's more likely that something will fail. I'd recommend the extended warranty on any notebook. Just bear in mind that Apple [b]does not[/b] offer any kind of accidental damage protection. Also remember that you can buy the Apple Care warranty at any point during the 1st year you have the machine-until the factory warranty expires. A3. I've heard good and bad; it seems to be quite variable. I have a friend in Australia with a MBP and it took 2 weeks to fix that (needed a logic board and a hard drive). I have very limited experience with it though. A4. No, you [b]do NOT[/b] get a full copy of iWork as standard. If you check [URL="http://store.apple.com/133-622/WebObjects/australiastore.woa/wa/RSLID?nnmm=browse&mco=74284FCC&node=home/macbook/macbook_pro"]this[/URL] page, scroll to the bottom on the right hand side where it says "included software" and hit the "applications" tab, you'll see that it says "iWork '08 [b]30 day trial[/b]. So yes, if you want to use iWork, you will have to cough up the money for it on top of the money for the MBP. A5. Yes, you can. I've only set it up probably twice, and I didn't find it quite as easy as setting up file sharing between two Windows machines. But then, that may be because I've done it on Windows more times than I can count and something like twice on a Mac. A6. You will be able to connect to the router, assuming that the router supports 802.11b, g or n wireless protocols... which it ought to. .11a is old, was very expensive, and never took off in the consumer market. If you have a wireless router there's probably a 99.999% chance it's .11b/g/n. Whether you will be able to connect where you want to connect, I don't know; wireless has a limited range that is affected by a number of environmental factors (distance from the computer to the router, the number of walls between the two, the elevation of the two, etc.). Nobody will be able to tell you for sure... if you have a wireless-enabled computer now, and you can connect in the rooms you'll be using the MBP in, chances are very good that you'll be able to connect with the MBP as well. A7. Whether it's worth it or not really depends on what you want. What are you expecting of the machine, exactly? The MBP is very nice, though it has a couple of glaring engineering flaws and a decent list of smaller issues (see here for a list: [url]http://appledefects.com/wiki/index.php?title=MacBook_Pro[/url] ). But, on the other hand, ANY notebook you buy-be it an Apple, a Dell, a Toshiba (ugh), a Sony, an IBM (err, Lenovo... excuse me) or something else-will likely have its own flaws and idiosyncrasies. I have yet to encounter a laptop that I consider "perfect". The MBP is expensive for what you get, and you can certainly get a PC laptop that is quite significantly faster than the MBP. You can also get PC laptops with more internal storage and with other toys that the MBP is simply not available with (built in TV tuners, for example). The tradeoff is that, with the MBP, you get one of the thinnest and lightest notebooks in its class, and you get good battery life; any PC notebook that's going to have enough 'horsepower' to smoke the MBP is going to be a great deal thicker and heavier, and won't be able to match it for battery life-though some similarly-spec'd PCs would probably about equal it, I'd expect. I would expect a current MBP to have a useable life of 4-5 years before it gets "too slow" to be really useable any more. Your mileage may vary on this though, depending on your standards and how much you can tolerate. There are a lot of people that still run G4s that are the better part of 7 or 8 years old and are perfectly happy with them. There are a lot of other people that upgrade every year or two. As far as how long the computer will actually last before something fails... It's hard to say. Get the extended warranty and you'll be covered for 3 years. ------ In short, the MBP is a good machine; it is NOT perfect any more than any other computer is. If you want a notebook that can deal with almost everything that one can ask of it while staying portable and retaining a usable battery runtime, the MBP is a good choice. [/QUOTE]
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