PC to Mac switch

[Adrian]

I need to upgrade my PC as it's getting a bit long in the tooth now however I thought i'd save the money and just get a laptop. I'm going to do a fair bit of traveling in the near future so a desktop is not suitable. I was thinking of getting a Mac Powerbook in six months time when I return to Japan in the summer. I mainly use my PC for chilling out to and general purpose things. I used to be big into PC gaming but that was two years ago, the Mac has Quake 3 and Starcraft which is all I need. If the Mac guys on here could recommend applications to cover these uses I would be very grateful.

-Basic text editor; metapad - ?
-IRC client; mIRC - ?
-Web browser; IE - Safari [?]
-Audio player; Winamp - iTunes [?]
-Image editor; Photoshop - Photoshop
-File sharing; Kazaa Lite - ?
-Instant Messaging; Trillian - Trillian {once ver.1.0 is out in PC they will do it apparently}
-Media player; Sasami2k - ? {this is very important}
-Emulation; MAME - MAME
-Ftp client; LeapFtp - ?
-Firewall; Zonealarm - ?
-Email client; Outlook - ?
-Work applications; MS office - Apple Works [?]
-mp3 ripping; EAC + LAME - ?
-DVD playing; Power DVD - ?
-Anti-virus; Norton - ?
-Password lock; Access Lock - ? {I press a key combination and the computer is locked until the password is keyed in}

I get the impression that Macs are easy to use, relaxed, reliable, stylish and fast so i'm interested Ellen Feiss was the clincher though ;P

Thanks in advance.

[andyrose]

Have you ever tried using a Mac? It doesn't sound like you have. Try before you buy, definitely.

[Adrian]

It's been a while since i've used one. I will of course head down to one of showrooms first before making a decision

[Diff-chan]

Ill try to help you with what I know:

For DVD playing, you get iMovie, a far superior app to anything on the PC.

For filesharing, Limewire.

Mp3 ripping, iTunes, once again far superior to anything on the PC. You can also use this for mp3 playing. Its a great app, very slick and well-done.

As far as I know, there are many apps that do basic stuff like FTP and the like. This is because MacOsX is based on Unix.

You can get MS Office for Apple if you so desire.

Ultimately nowadays the switch is very smooth, and Macs are great boxes and the MacOSX is leaps and bounds ahead of Windows. I see side-by-side XP and MacOSX in my computer lab and really the XP is just garbage.

If I had the money Id buy a Mac without hesitation. If you have the cash and can do it I say go for it.

[Schlep]

Originally posted by Sidez
I need to upgrade my PC as it's getting a bit long in the tooth now however I thought i'd save the money and just get a laptop. I'm going to do a fair bit of traveling in the near future so a desktop is not suitable. I was thinking of getting a Mac Powerbook in six months time when I return to Japan in the summer. I mainly use my PC for chilling out to and general purpose things. I used to be big into PC gaming but that was two years ago, the Mac has Quake 3 and Starcraft which is all I need. If the Mac guys on here could recommend applications to cover these uses I would be very grateful.

-Basic text editor; metapad - TextEdit
-IRC client; mIRC - BitchX, Ircle or Snak
-Web browser; IE - Safari [yup]
-Audio player; Winamp - iTunes [yup]
-Image editor; Photoshop - Photoshop
-File sharing; Kazaa Lite - None (Carracho exists, but it's a pain for anything outside of software. There's also Limewire, but it's bloated and loaded with spyware)
-Instant Messaging; Trillian - No on Trillian. Fire and/or iChat is what you want. Fire does all 3, but iChat is nice to look at.
-Media player; Sasami2k - I'm not sure what Sasami is, but Quicktime is the Mac video player. Also VideoLAN and Mplayer are ok.
-Emulation; MAME - MAME
-Ftp client; LeapFtp - RBrowserLite
-Firewall; Zonealarm - BrickHouse or Norton Personal Firewall
-Email client; Outlook - Entourage
-Work applications; MS office - Apple Works [no...MS Office v.X]
-mp3 ripping; EAC + LAME - iTunes
-DVD playing; Power DVD - DVD Player
-Anti-virus; Norton - Why? Norton or McAfee I guess
-Password lock; Access Lock - Screensaver...you just move the cursor to the hot corner

I get the impression that Macs are easy to use, relaxed, reliable, stylish and fast so i'm interested Ellen Feiss was the clincher though ;P

Thanks in advance.

Hopefully I helped out. I listed my personal preferences on applications, so others may refer you to other progs. I could also give you a list of OS tweaks that I like and general purpose info if you wanna hang around #videogames on EFNet when you get it.

The Mac really is a fun computer. I switched over in February of 99 to a tangerine iMac and use my PC (I run both a G4/400 768mb, and a Pentium 4 1.6, 256mb) for tasks like Pocket PC, MS Money and Kazaa..that's about it right now. Overall, I just love the Finder and the UI in general much more than Windows, and it's a bit easier to make it more personalized, imo. The only drawback I can think of for Mac right now is the absense of a FastTrack (Kazaa) client, but I'm sure there'll be one along before too long.

For the apps that you listed, you may want to look seriously at the iBook as opposed to the PowerBook to save a little extra cash. If you're going to be using Photoshop alot, that's one thing, but if only occasionally, I'd go with the iBook. In fact, I *am* going with the iBook in August or so. It's a savings of about $500 (retail) over the PowerBook, and if you get the AppleCare warranty, tack on another $100. So possibly $600 cheaper. $600 could buy you a nifty 5GB iPod and 3 megapixel digital camera to go with your new toy.

Whichever one you end up getting, make sure to max out the RAM...all the way to 640 for iBook and 12" PB. The more RAM with OS X, the better...it'll run like buttah.

Also, you may want to check out Macintoshian Achaia on ArsTechnica. It's a really good forum. The desktop and rig threads are both pretty interesting, hehe.

Anyway, good luck with your new computer.

For DVD playing, you get iMovie, a far superior app to anything on the PC.

Actually, iMovie is a video editing application. Apple DVD Player is the standard DVD player, and it's a decent app, but Power DVD is a bit more smooth.

[Rumpy]

I've been really pleased with NvDVD (for windows) for my new PC, it does all sorts of cool shit and looks good too. I've always been under the impression that Mac laptops are really expensive. General tip: get as much RAM as you can afford.

[Adrian]

Thanks boys.

[kedawa]

Yeah, get lots of RAM, just don't buy it from Apple or one of there dealers since their RAM prices are absurd.

[Rumpy]

Originally posted by kedawa
Yeah, get lots of RAM, just don't buy it from Apple or one of there dealers since their RAM prices are absurd.

very, very good point. www.crucial.com for all your ram needs.

[FuryFox]

Okay, since the recent acquisition of an apple TiBook, this thread has become a bit more pertinent to me.

Now, the OSX seems pretty slick, if not a bit inefficient (but, that may just be because I'm so used to Win98/XP). Someone was mentioning OS tweaks, and personalized setups?

Here's the software I'll be running:

Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Go Live
Adobe Premiere (but maybe I'll switch to Final Cut Pro now)
Macromedia Director MX
Macromedia Flash MX
Macromedia DreamWeaver
Maya 4.5 Unlimited (or whatever's on mac now)
Safari/IE
Address Book
iCal
WarCraft III

Now, I tried Limewire, and it's iffy (certainly no Kazaa Lite). A friend mentioned "Acquisition" as a better Peer-to-peer program, as someone here mentioned Carracho? Any opinions on these?