Possible IBM Convert!

I will attempt to answer all of your questions and concerns as well as I can.

Lets go over your background section you have listed. First, ANY Apple computer is designed with power users in mind. The OS is already 64 bit, something that windows users are just now getting caught up on. Your memory will determine how many programs you can have open at once, that is true on all computers, Windows or Mac. You will find however that OS X handles memory better than Windows does. My Mac side of my MacBook is screeming fast with 2Gigs of RAM, but my XP side is much slower. I have read many times that above 1 gig of memory, XP doesnt gain any additional speed, and in fact is probably slower.

I would imagine a Mac Laptop would be good for your field, but since I am not an Accountant, I cannot be sure of this. It will run any programs that a Windows computer will run. In fact, if you really want, you can load windows onto your mac and run both! I have this setup, but I use windows less and less the more I use the Mac side. The Mac OS is SOOOO much better than Windows its hard to believe Microsoft is leading the market. OS X is far from the Operating System you may have used in school before. It is phenominally better than previous versions of Mac OS. I doubt you will have any issues whatsoever transitioning, other than having programs that wont be compatible with the Mac side. Load XP with Bootcamp and you can use ALL of your programs, including Office for Windows. Macs are well built, and despite what you may see here, are some of the best computers around. Apple has consistantly had a higher rating of consumer satisfaction than most other manufacturers and that is a FACT. In your case I would probably lean towards a PRO. You get the upgraded screen, graphics options...but thats about it. The rest is the same. Procs, memory, hard drives, disc drives, airport, bluetooth...oh wait, the backlit keyboard...which is pretty cool, but I dont do much work in the dark.

Ideal configuration is to get it stock. Apple charges an arm, a leg, and an ear for upgrades. Buy the RAM somewhere else and install it yourself. It is easy and the users guide of your new mac will have instructions on how to replace the memory. Good memory makers include: Crucial, Micron, Patriot, OWC...etc. I have 2Gigs of Patriot in my MacBook and it works flawlessly. They have GREAT reviews, and are CHEAP. I got my 2 sticks for $149...Apple charges $600 for 2 gigs of RAM. Ouch! Bigger hard drive?...same thing...Just get the biggest one you can and install yourself. Really easy, just slide old one out, and new one in, install discs and youre all set. Obviously you want the best graphics card you can get, unless you get the MacBook and not the Pro, and you are stuck with integrated graphics, which isnt bad, but gaming is not so good. Office is available for Macs...Although I would probably just run XP with bootcamp and install Office on the windows side. I dont like any Microsoft stuff molesting my nice OS X softwares.

Thats all I have...seems like everything I think. Wow, my hands hurt now.

GET THE MAC. YOULL LOVE IT. AND SOON YOU WILL BE ONE OF US!

I switched to macs for the first time since law school (1992) when I bought this macbook, so I can address that part of your concerns. Although I love my mac now, I did not find it so intuitive to set up as long-time mac users will tell you, and was fairly frustrated with it for the first two weeks. The hardest part was thinking like a mac, learning to figure out where things would go. I use parallels and set up my windows desktop as usual, but I told myself I would go cold turkey for 2 weeks before I was allowed to quit OS X and use XP, and it worked. By the end of the 2 weeks I didn't want to go back, and now, after 6 weeks, I go to the windows side of my computer only when I need a program without a mac equivalent. Two months ago, I wouldn't have believed this would be possible!

As far as Office for Mac, I use it constantly, all day every day, and the only problem I have is getting G-Mail to work in Entourage. I still haven't worked that out. Otherwise, it works just as fast and just as well and in much (but not exactly) the same way as in Windows. I have 1 gig RAM, as I knew I wanted to install parallels, but if I were doing it again I'd buy 2. Not because of the OS X side, which is superfast even with 4 desktops running (VirtueDesktops) with multiple apps open, but because parallels is sluggish and a little jerky on my current system.

This computer is absolutely incredible. Until now, I always had small VAIOS, and I loved them dearly. But when you ask how long this computer will last before its replacement comes out -- well, I hope I have this one 5 years from now. It's beautiful to look at, physically and on the screen, it does everything I can envision wanting a computer to do (except transfer files from the windows to the mac side, which I hope is coming eventually), and it does it quickly and with great style.

If you can afford the Pro and you don't mind the extra size (the macbook size and weight was already over my usual limit), then I would get that, but really, either way, I can't imagine why you would be unhappy with the switch.

3) How long do the Mac Notebooks last before I am out buying its replacement?

Macs are usable for years. I bought three G4 450's from an ebay seller earlier in the year for our office staff. I was determined to get them over to osx but the boss didnt want to spend much. These machines must be around 5 years old or more but they run just fine with tiger.

Before i got these g4s in the boss and sales rep were using macs that were around 8 years old or more.

I know none of these are are notebooks but you only have to look at sites like macagain.co.uk to see that older macs are still going strong.

Well you can use boot camp and run windows natively. So you should have no problems, but believe me when you see OSX you will not want to go too Windows. I am a recent convert myself, I thought I'd just format OSX and install Windows on this machine, but I started too play around with OSX and fell in love.

Now as for your concerns with the Macbook, I would say wait another month, Apple should be updating the Macbook and fixing the few bugs which are left more. According to macintough 90 percent of the machines are in good shape, but 10 percent are not. It doesn’t hurt to wait for a few weeks. I also believe that the Macbook will get a processor upgrade, either a faster Intel Core Duo processor, or an Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

I use word for mac and routinely switch flash drives with PC word/excel users without any problem opening/seeing/correcting documents at all. Remember, too, that the macbook has a windows side...

This is the best book I can recommend for switchers:

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/switchmacmm2/

Pogue's books are easy, funny, fun, informative and full of tips and tricks. They let you go as fast as you like, as advanced or basic as you like. This is a good Bible for any switcher and something you can get and read before deciding to take the plunge.

I highly recommend you to do the transition. If you're very dependent of MS Excel (since you work in accounting) then just install MSOffice, it's a bit slow on Intel processors since it was made for PowerPC, but it should run just fine... it does on mine, but I really prefere iWork. There are several statistical packages for Mac, and also OpenOffice is out there, and I believe there's a version for Intel Macs.

Any notebook will work great with several applications running at the same time, just make sure you upgrade its memory as much as you can. HD images look great on any of them, but if you think you'll need intensive graphic processing you should consider getting a MacBook Pro, since MacBook is a bit slow on 3D graphics (rendering, not playback).

A great configuration for you would be:

-For a MacBook, you should get the white 2GHz one, since the black one has only 20 more GB of hard drive, and is about $200 more expensive. Just get an external drive for 100!!! Make sure you add as much memory as you can.

-A MacBook Pro will work great out of the box, but if you can buy more memory it'd be great.

There's not really much to upgrade, unless you buy a desktop computer.

I had a PowerBook G3 lombard (2000) and I just replaced it about 4 months ago, so that should give you an idea of how long a Mac will last. These new ones should last even more, I guess.

I don't think you'll have any trouble with your transition, it took me about a month to work fluidly on my PowerBook G3 when I left Windows behind, the OS is very friendly and easy to use, most of your questions meet their answers with a "cmd + ?" on any apple application. I think you'll just need some time to learn all the keyboard acces combinations, which really let you work at full speed.

The biggest transition is that it's a different way of doing things. Windows don't maximize / minimize because the controls for the app are at the top of the screen not each window. There are literally dozens of ways to move your work around - from exposé to virtual desktops (which will be Spaces in Leopard).

You'll also have to break the habit of assuming the OS is broken and needs to be reinstalled. Most problems are solved by throwing out the preference file - which is often a .plist or is actually in the application itself (control click on the icon and you may see it's a unix package you can look inside). The OS itself is generally rock solid.

The standard windows way is to try the wizards and find the accesible control panels and then reinstall and if necessary dig up the dll that was deleted or corrupted by some other program. On the mac, you have some assistants to help but problems may actually require you to think a bit because you have more access to the system than to the Registry. On windows, if it works great but if not you're life *****. On the mac, if it works great but you can dig around to find out why. (And like on any system, you may find it's some stupid little thing in some place you never thought of.)

You have to get used to basic differences, like the trash not being recycling but a real trash can. Like uninstalling by trashing the icon.

Wait, I don't know if the Core 2 Duo will be installed in the macbook, but it doesn't hurt to wait a month. I suspect if it isn’t, we will get either a logic board upgrade or a Clock speed upgrade.

And Leopard will run fine.

Just wait a while. If you do you will avoid this school rush that seems to be delaying the deliveries of so many MacBooks. Even if you aren't ordering online, if you wait long enough you may get a discount on Leopard when it comes out.

Hi Jessep28!

I am a part-qualified accountant and I've had my MacBook for 1 month...

I can't advise you, but I can tell you what I didn't like about it: you open up Excel, no toolbar, you have to bring them up (and they are a bit different) and when you close Excel, the toolbars stay open at the top of the screen, if you close them one by one, next time when you open Excel, you won't have there....I don't know, maybe I just don't know how to use it, since I've used Windows all my life...

also, it seems that it takes ages for spreadsheets to open without having any other program open and considering that the computer from work has lower specs than this, so I would expect my spreadsheets to open faster when using my MacBook.....

other annoying thing is you won't have F2 to show formulae, etc..so what I do in the end, I use Windows because I get so frustrated...also, very annoying, there is no delete button.....I don't understand why...

imagine you are in front of a big spreadsheet.....and you want to page down and up, you have to press 3 buttons at the same time to be able to do so while using the MacBook.

The most dissapointing thing for me was that my husband bought me this nice, beautiful white MacBook beg. of Aug. and 2 weeks later started to SHUT DOWN for no reason...

We've exchanged it for a new one at the store we bought it from and I've had this now for 2 weeks. Last Sunday it started to SHUT DOWN......once on Sunday, 3 times on Monday, etc.....

I am afraid to turn it on...I don't even do my work on the MacBook anymore...it is dangerous, imagine you work on a spreadsheet and it shuts down on you!!!!

I am contemplating the following choices:

- return it to the store and get a SONY
- contact Apple and get some help

I am inclined to get a SONY to be honest, I am so tired of these problems. Imagine when I switched computers I lost all my info and then I had to re-input everything again.

This was supposed to be a very pleasant experience, at least that's what I've heard from Apple owners....I guess for me it iwasn't....

Ahh...forgot to add that the company I work for didn't want to give me access to dial into work from home from the Apple, I have a Compaq for that....same happened to 2 other friends of mine, (that work for 2 different companies) so that is something to consider as well, looks like companies are not very friendly towards Apples when it comes to dialing in from home....no idea why.....

I hope this helps you. Don't get me wrong, I love it, it looks great, it's great for all other things, but I don't find it suitable for accountants...I find it suitable for fun only.....



MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.7) 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo

A few comments/suggestions:

I can't advise you, but I can tell you what I didn't
like about it: you open up Excel, no toolbar, you
have to bring them up (and they are a bit different)
and when you close Excel, the toolbars stay open at
the top of the screen, if you close them one by one,
next time when you open Excel, you won't have
there....I don't know, maybe I just don't know how to
use it, since I've used Windows all my life...

Yes, Excel and the other MS Office apps have a different user interface. I actually prefer it. (My background is engineering and long use of both Windows and Mac.)

From what I understand, the next version of Excel on Windows is going to be much more different from the current Windows version than Mac Excel currently is. Good luck. 🙂

also, it seems that it takes ages for spreadsheets to
open without having any other program open and
considering that the computer from work has lower
specs than this, so I would expect my spreadsheets to
open faster when using my MacBook.....

MS Office apps are currently not built to run natively on Intel Macs; they automatically launch under the emulation layer called Rosetta. That means they are much slower than they will be once Microsoft releases what's called a universal binary. They're working on it.

imagine you are in front of a big spreadsheet.....and
you want to page down and up, you have to press 3
buttons at the same time to be able to do so while
using the MacBook.

The Windows-ish equivalent of doing this on the Mac is hold the "fn" button while pressing the Page Up and Page Down buttons. But the far nicer way, to my mind, is to use the trackpad scrolling feature: when you put two fingers on the trackpad, you can scroll up and down, left and right. You enable this in the Keyboard and Mouse system preferences, Trackpad Gestures.

The most dissapointing thing for me was that my
husband bought me this nice, beautiful white MacBook
beg. of Aug. and 2 weeks later started to SHUT DOWN
for no reason...

This is a serious hardware defect for some unknown fraction of MacBooks. Apple allegedly now knows what to do to fix it.

Ahh...forgot to add that the company I work for
didn't want to give me access to dial into work from
home from the Apple, I have a Compaq for that....same
happened to 2 other friends of mine, (that work for 2
different companies) so that is something to consider
as well, looks like companies are not very friendly
towards Apples when it comes to dialing in from
home....no idea why.....

This is a good point. Many companies' IT departments believe that they save support costs by standardization, and that overrides all other considerations. If they have extremely Windows-specific security in place, your only option with a MacBook may be to run Windows via Parallels or Boot Camp.

Hi Plecostomus,

Thank you for your advise and tips.

I am running Windows, but still my IT dept. didn't want to hear about the Mac.

Actually, this makes me realise the fact that it shuts down only when I go into Windows.....hmm......guess Apple doesn't like Windows..hehe...not funny though, I can't even check my bank account unless I log into Windows...can't access online banking using Safari.....