Talk me into or out of trashing my PC for a Apple

[KentG]

Been a PC guy for years. Not an IT guy or software guru but I manage. My current Dell machine is over 5 years old running vista64. i7 920@2.67GHz

I cant download updates due to a problem in the registry, cant find a fix and frankly and tired of dicking with it after probably 10 hours of effort. In the past I just have bought a new box or system and moved data.

Without starting a war Im thinking of going the apple route but know very little about them.

I recently installed a Seagate FreeAgent external backup when I told carbonite to pound it up thier ass. I presume all my quicken stuff is backed up on this but would make a seperate back up.

IF I go apple will all my data work and I suppose I would have to buy a new version of quicken. Beyond that I think there is nothing critcal to move.

Are apples as bullit proof as advertised and if I buy one how long can I expect it to last and can it be upgraded to last a long time?

Thanks!

[Graham Smith]

Step 1: Decided what software you want to have.

Step 2: Find out what platform the software you want will run on.

Step 3: Buy a computer with the operating system that will run your software.

[Csiedmond1]

I love my apple, 6 yrs with not one problem!!! Have not had a virus scan on it and no problems!!! Would not ever BUY another pc!!!

[OffshoreMan72]

All the data should be good but the programs will have to be bought again.....I just made the switch and cannot be any happier. I went all out with 2 Mac Book Pros.....2 iPads .....2 iPhone 4s.......2 new iPods....and had to have the apple time capsule and apple tv to put it all together.

One thing i have found with apple is that everything has a way of working together and files are not split up into a million different places.....everything is easy to find and also easy to get rid of......microsoft is a real pain to dump programs and files......

[Captramrod01]

As one of the IT guys at a small(ish) law firm I can say Vista was an embarrassment. Even after SP1 we couldn't do a mass deploy of it. Unless your set on getting something new your current hardware is still top notch. I would just get an OEM copy of Windows 7 and do a fresh install and call it a day.

[meotai]

Do a Win7 clean install. Then get a MacBook Air. Best of both worlds =)

[Chills1994]

I had a windows XP machine. I would try to edit shooting vids with movie maker. It would freeze up on me all the time.

The tower crapped out, so I splurged and got a Mac laptop from their refurb shop.

I have had it for 11 months now.

The only problems i have are the constant updates to MS Word, Excel, and power point.

Well, okay two problems. I was getting my internet via an AT&T aircard. The two USB ports are too close together so when i want to print i have to unplug the aircard and plug in the printer.

Video editing has been flawless and so, SO! without all the headaches of WMM.

[Religious Shooter]

Open shooters tend to use Apples. There is even a higher tendency for Open shooters that use XD's to use Apples.

[splitime]

I am on the prefer to muck around side.

My vote would be this:

Max out machine memory

Swap in bigger/faster HDD (put old into cheap external housing to migrate from)

Install Windows 7

[KentG]

Open shooters tend to use Apples. There is even a higher tendency for Open shooters that use XD's to use Apples.

HA!!

I just swung by best buy and looked at them. Nice. BUT I can buy a copy of Win7 upgrade for about $120. Im leaning to go the software first because Id have to buy a quicken for mac and the office suite plus a better keyboard. That adds $200ish plus the price of the mac. I DO have an account at best buy and can probably get one year intrest free.

Going to have to do something because this machine is pretty glitchy.

[D.Hayden]

Windows 7 - is more stable and faster than Windows Vista

If you like, or want to stay on Windows, you won't be sorry for the upgrade

And.. more memory is you're friend.. you didn't specify how much you had.. but it almost always helps.. 4GB would be a starting point

[KentG]

Windows 7 - is more stable and faster than Windows Vista

If you like, or want to stay on Windows, you won't be sorry for the upgrade

And.. more memory is you're friend.. you didn't specify how much you had.. but it almost always helps.. 4GB would be a starting point

I have 6 gig of memory. I am reading that Quicken on the Mac does not work and play well. Any other reliable personal finance software for Mac thats as good as Quicken? This may be a deal breaker for me.

[Ray S]

Windows 7 - is more stable and faster than Windows Vista

If you like, or want to stay on Windows, you won't be sorry for the upgrade

And.. more memory is you're friend.. you didn't specify how much you had.. but it almost always helps.. 4GB would be a starting point

I have 6 gig of memory. I am reading that Quicken on the Mac does not work and play well. Any other reliable personal finance software for Mac thats as good as Quicken? This may be a deal breaker for me.

I didn't have any problems with quicken on my Mac.

[KentG]

Well I went to BestBuy to only buy a win 7 upgrade and had it in my hand. I stopped by the apple demo area again to look only and try to get more info. They had an open box special on a iMac 21" with the 1Tbyte HD and 2.7 i5 processor for $1272. It had not even had the plastic off the screen and looked like it had been opened and returned. Yes I brought it home. Along with a Logitch solar keboard and Apple trackpad. I may fall off the face of the earth for a few now to get it up and running with email and Iphone etc. Its got a screen that makes this Dell LCD look like an old black and white tv.

Got Office for students at a discount and will order Quicken in just a moment.

I hear FireFox is a better browser but we will see. The magic trackpad seems way cool and need to become more natural with it. Here goes. By by PC.

[dajarrel]

I love my MacBook Pro. The only change I will make in the future is to install Microsoft Office for Mac. Pages and Numbers (Mac's word processor and spreadsheet program) are weak. Word and Excel are much better.

just what I have observed....

dj

[Jollymon32]

I own a 20 year old IT engineering firm. The firm is a Microsoft Gold partner. On my desk is a MacBook connected to a 27" thunderbolt display. When I got push back from my IT guys, I simply mentioned that they need to read the title below my name again. At home, I have two IMacs, a Mac mini, 3 iPhones, 4 itouches, Apple TV, Airport router, and numerous airport access points.

The majority of the programs I run are PC based, VMware fusion does an excellent job of running them and isolating me from the Microsoft operating system nonsense.

I have enough chaos in my life. My apple infrastructure provides me simplicity and the stuff just works!

[wgnoyes]

I love my MacBook Pro. The only change I will make in the future is to install Microsoft Office for Mac. Pages and Numbers (Mac's word processor and spreadsheet program) are weak. Word and Excel are much better.

...

Maybe. MAYBE! But there is no doubt that keynote absolutely blows away powerpoint hands down, no contest!

Kent, go ahead and install firefox. It's not better; I use safari as my default browser, but I need firefox as well for a 2nd platform on which to test website changes. You got the right version of office, that is, the one that doesn't include outlook. You don't need outlook; mac Mail does everything I need it to do. I bounce back and forth between the magic mouse and the trackpad; the latter being used primary for gestures. I would have gotten the apple wired keyboard with the 10key pad built in, were I you, but I use the included wireless bluetooth keyboard with my iMac almost exclusively. One thing I would recommend if you tend to plug in and unplug a lot of usb devices is some short usb extension cables or maybe a high-quality usb hub, so you don't have to keep reaching around the back of the machine.

[wgnoyes]

Windows 7 - is more stable and faster than Windows Vista ..

Windows 7 is what Vista should have been in the first place. I wouldn't even run Vista in vmware fusion on my mac; 7 is way better. And yes, I keep a Windows 7 guest machine available on vmware on the mac for the SOLE purpose of running ezwinscore to score USPSA matches.

[KentG]

having trouble figuring out where things are at the moment. I bought/downloaded quicken essentials and its fubar. Will call them monday. Not sure how to import bookmarks and contacts from my backup drive plus doc and pics. Heading to the apple home page for tutorials and maybe the mac section here. My PC is unpluged but I will probably set it up just as a backup and until I get my quicken issues sorted out. One thing I dont like already is all of the icons on the bottom that I probably not going to need like the facetime. I installed the ms office but it word isnt showing up on the bottom but outlook is but it prompts to pay for upgrade. Like anything there is a learning curve.

[g.willikers]

Slightly off topic, but for those who got suckered into getting a PC with Vista, there's a cheap cure.

Ubuntu Linux.

Not only does it do everything better than Vista, it's free.

And it doesn't need nearly as fancy a computer as Windows.

Plus there's tons of good software for just about every occasion, these days.

And most of them install quickly and easily.

No more geek.

If one is going to go to the trouble of learning a new operating system anyway,

replacing Vista with Ubuntu is lots easier and cheaper than buying a new Mac, or a PC with Windows 7.

[wgnoyes]

having trouble figuring out where things are at the moment. I bought/downloaded quicken essentials and its fubar. Will call them monday. Not sure how to import bookmarks and contacts from my backup drive plus doc and pics. Heading to the apple home page for tutorials and maybe the mac section here. My PC is unpluged but I will probably set it up just as a backup and until I get my quicken issues sorted out. One thing I dont like already is all of the icons on the bottom that I probably not going to need like the facetime. I installed the ms office but it word isnt showing up on the bottom but outlook is but it prompts to pay for upgrade. Like anything there is a learning curve.

If there's a program on the dock (that's your display of icons at the bottom) that you don't like, just drag it off onto the desktop and it will disappear in a puff of smoke. (No, seriously!)

All your apps are in the Applications folder. If you're missing something you want, open the applications folder in finder (click on the apps folder and it will fly open into large app icons, then click on the circle icon that says "open in finder"). Now just drag the desired app onto the dock and it will stay there, while still being in the applications folder.

One thing I highly recommend with microsoft office is to, as described above, open the applications folder in finder, then drag the black and rainbow colored Microsoft Office 2011 folder onto the doc to the right of dotted line. Now when you click on that, a fan display will open up showing all the office apps in one convenient place. If you go to an apple store to look at machines there, they're all set up that way. After doing that, I then get rid of all the individual office icons off the dock.

Also go here http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#switcher for lots of useful apple videos, including one on mac for windows users. Then goto http://macmost.com/ for more video information about apple than you could ever want.

Edited April 14, 2012 by wgnoyes

[ctay]

having trouble figuring out where things are at the moment. I bought/downloaded quicken essentials and its fubar. Will call them monday. Not sure how to import bookmarks and contacts from my backup drive plus doc and pics. Heading to the apple home page for tutorials and maybe the mac section here. My PC is unpluged but I will probably set it up just as a backup and until I get my quicken issues sorted out. One thing I dont like already is all of the icons on the bottom that I probably not going to need like the facetime. I installed the ms office but it word isnt showing up on the bottom but outlook is but it prompts to pay for upgrade. Like anything there is a learning curve.

Mac is just a different animal. I like to say that a Mac is so easy to use that you can't even use it. It will take some time to figure out where everything is and to forget all your PC experience. This is in many ways the same as learning to use a computer all over again.

Vista was an abortion of a operating system but Windows 7 is very very nice. Many of the optical advantages to the Mac platform were adopted into Windows 7. You really should give yourself a chance to try it and see if you like it.

Mac software options are another continuing problem. The fact is that Microsoft is such a dominate force in the computer market that most software is geared toward PC first and Mac as an afterthought. Kind of the opposite of the phone market with iPhone and Android.

Macs can be very nice depending on your situation. For me the price and trade offs made new PC's the better choice.

[KentG]

Well this has come full circle. I played with the mac most of the night on Fri till 4 am and most of yesterday since it rained all day. Its with regret I have to say Im not a mac guy. I REALLY tried to like it but just dont. I took it back to bestbuy for a refund. Was going to upgrade my current machine to 7 but said the hell with it and just ordered a new Dell Insperon.

The mac is a fine machine but just not for me. I am sure you diehards will tell me I didnt give it enough time but I dont see it ever happening. PLUS the quicken did download but I could not import my data. I can see where people like the mac and the display was great. Thats what made me just go ahead and get the new Dell and spring for the new 24" monitor.

I am stuck with the copy of Office for Mac I bought because it was opened but they will slam the machine so its never been registered.

Not the right forum maybe but I paid $100 for it. IF anyone wants to buy it from me for $75 OBO PM me.

BTW I did like the track pad and the new ligitech solar keyboard are nice. Got one for the new dell as an upgrade.

Got my original machine running kind of and will make due for a week till the new dell shows up. BTW I played with the touchscreen desktops at the store and dont see the draw. I use AB, Mitsubishi, and ProFace touchscreens at work but dont see the point on a PC unless they really develop the software for it more.

[PistoleroJesse]

Slightly off topic, but for those who got suckered into getting a PC with Vista, there's a cheap cure.

Ubuntu Linux.

Not only does it do everything better than Vista, it's free.

And it doesn't need nearly as fancy a computer as Windows.

Plus there's tons of good software for just about every occasion, these days.

And most of them install quickly and easily.

No more geek.

If one is going to go to the trouble of learning a new operating system anyway,

replacing Vista with Ubuntu is lots easier and cheaper than buying a new Mac, or a PC with Windows 7.

+1

[wgnoyes]

... BTW I played with the touchscreen desktops at the store and dont see the draw. I use AB, Mitsubishi, and ProFace touchscreens at work but dont see the point on a PC unless they really develop the software for it more.

Sorry the mac didn't work out.

The problem that I perceive with touchscreen pc's is that you naturally want to have your hands over a keyboard that's sitting right there on the desktop. That unfortunately is also where a touch screen really wants to be in order to be most convenient to use. Take a monitor and make a touch screen panel out of it, and you have to lift your arm up and reach across the keyboard to fiddle with it. Sure it works and you'll use it that way... for awhile. But soon you start wanting to look for ways to accomplish what you want without having to reach up and across and eventually you're just not using the feature at all. That's why I'm guessing the tile-based touchscreen-intended windows 8 is going to be such a disaster.