We are looking to switch from PC to an Apple this time around. My wife is concearned about losing here windows and other familiar apps. Any help would be great! 
August 8, 2012 at 12:18 pm
#1278466
Going from PC to Apple tips…?
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August 8, 2012 at 12:21 pm #1090616
Don’t do it. And don’t say I didn’t tell ya.
Apple is over priced, over hyped, and fan-boy driven. It’s that simple.
You cannot buy an Apple product (except perhaps used) and NOT get riped off.August 8, 2012 at 12:51 pm #1090625Quote:
Don’t do it. And don’t say I didn’t tell ya.
Apple is over priced, over hyped, and fan-boy driven. It’s that simple.
You cannot buy an Apple product (except perhaps used) and NOT get riped off.
X2 Don’t do it!
August 8, 2012 at 12:54 pm #1090627Apple stock is 620 a share. Dell is 12. Somebody is doing something right
Signed,
FanboyAugust 8, 2012 at 12:54 pm #1090628Windows can be set up on apple. We switched a number of years ago and are very pleased. Speak with an apple rep say at best buy. They will guide you through the transition and concerns about the window apps. Apple customer service is great, when you need assistance. I think you are making a good decision.
August 8, 2012 at 1:08 pm #1090629I’ve always been a pc guy. What I will give Apple a lot of credit for is the software you get with the machines.
You get quality photo/video edditing software stock on apple machines. There are less viruses for Apple than PC. The Apples seem pretty reliable and for the most part seem to last a long time.
Again, I’m a PC/Android guy because of the Apple proprietary issues, but I will give credit where it is due. In the business world, most companies that deal in graphics/video use Apples. Casual users and regular day to day office folks, not as much.
To me the choice comes down to this.
1. What are you going to do on it? If you’re surfing the web and emailing some pics, the Apple seems to be a lot of money for those simple tasks. If you’re looking to edit video, digitally enhance a lot of photos, then maybe the Apple is the way to go.
2.Can you justify spending the cost of two new budget laptops on one Apple laptop? Are you convinced the Apple will perform and last twice as long?
3. What kind of aftermarket software are you going to be using? Make sure they’re compatible (most are, but you want to be sure).
August 8, 2012 at 1:21 pm #1090631Quote:
Apple stock is 620 a share. Dell is 12. Somebody is doing something right
Signed,
Fanboy
Definitely base your decision off marketing and stock, not price, support, hardware and what best fits your needs.
On a side note about support, I had a Mac running Windows as a development machine. The MacPros they put out in 2010 or so were defective. I had gone through many restarts a day, the black screen of death. It took replacing the logic board.
Thank God we used 3rd party support and not the Apple Store “geniuses”. I did research and they were very stubborn about fixing the issue with other people. They had to “see it happen” in store before they would do anything. Or they would run the system diagnostics and when nothing was found, they would say it was fine.
To show my objectivity, I had a Dell back in the day and the support was great. I had an issue with a CD drive (you get an idea how long ago by that) and they set up a time when a local contractor could come to my house and replace it with a better CD drive for free. Now I hear their customer service svcks.
August 8, 2012 at 1:25 pm #1090632As an Art Director – I use Mac. But I also use VMware Fusion. You can instantly jump back an forth from a Mac to a PC platform – and share files/data cross platform. Drag and drop baby!
August 8, 2012 at 1:30 pm #1090634Quote:
As an Art Director – I use Mac. But I also use VMware Fusion. You can instantly jump back an forth from a Mac to a PC platform – and share files/data cross platform. Drag and drop baby!
I ran parallels. Working for a marketing company, they only wanted Mac software. It was kind of a pain going back and forth from windows for dev and the mac for creative. I probably could have set up the file sharing better, but it was a pain. I would have been very happy with the hardware has I been able to just use and boot into windows without running the Mac OS.
August 8, 2012 at 1:56 pm #1090638Quote:
Apple stock is 620 a share. Dell is 12. Somebody is doing something right
Signed,
Fanboy
That’s not comparing Apples to…. well even Oranges…. what does DELL have to do with operating systems ??? or IPhones or IPads …. you get it….
August 8, 2012 at 2:37 pm #1090657Totally agree with the others saying don’t do it. Apple is driven by fanboys and fashion victims who shout down anyone who brings up the disadvantages.
At work we are allowed to choose. I made the mistake of buying into the hype 2 years ago. Here are my experiences:
– The legendary Mac “ease of use” has completely disappeared IMO. There are now things scrolling and zipping all over the screen and everything must by done by using icons, many of which have an unclear meaning. Too clever by half. Lots of frustrating searching around for what on a Windows machine involves clicking a clearly labeled menu item. Of course, the Mac Fanboys will all tell you that once you spend 1000 hours learning the Mac, it’s totally intuitive.
– Macs are incompatibleatable with vast numbers of software programs where the is no Mac version or other complications are involved. How many? You’ll find out as soon as you buy a Mac, I can assure you.
– The quality of Mac hardware has gone way downhill and repairs are very expensive compared to the same repair done on a PC. Also, servicing facilities are often limited as many repair places say they repair Macs, but what they actually do is send them out for repair. More time and $.
I was lucky and our corporate IT vendor agreed to let me return the POS Mac and get a real computer. I’m glad I didn’t make that mistake with my own money or I’d have been screwed and stuck with it.
The only good thing about a Mac was that I looked 7% cooler when posing in artsy coffee shops.
Grouse
August 8, 2012 at 3:01 pm #1090663Quote:
Quote:
Apple stock is 620 a share. Dell is 12. Somebody is doing something right
Signed,
Fanboy
That’s not comparing Apples to…. well even Oranges…. what does DELL have to do with operating systems ??? or IPhones or IPads …. you get it….
Agreed. I think that Apple’s market value comes from their Iphones and Ipads. I believe that 90% of the workforce is still using PC.
August 8, 2012 at 3:13 pm #1090666I have been in IT for over 25 years and Macs have their place. If you only do normal tasks like web surfing, email, word processing, spread sheets, etc, stick with a PC. If your into high end video or photo editing, you might want to consider a Mac.
I love the iPad and iPhone but I would never own a Mac computer or laptop, they are way over priced and expensive to fix if they are out of warranty.
August 8, 2012 at 4:50 pm #1090693Quote:
We are looking to switch from PC to an Apple this time around. My wife is concearned about losing here windows and other familiar apps. Any help would be great!
I own 1 – Mac Pro, 1 – Mac Book Pro and 6 – Mini Macs along with 3 PC laptops. All are in near constant use.
There’s a place for Mac products. If you plan to edit quantities of video or work in the audio field, get a Mac. The video and audio editing software available for a Mac is of better quality at a lower price point.
IF you don’t edit quantities of video or work professionally with audio… Mac products are overpriced, over-hyped and in my extensive experience with them… no where near as reliable as people like to make them out to be. I’ve had far more issues, hassles and repair costs associated with buggy Mac products in the last 2 years than I’ve had with PC products over a lifetime of use.
People talk about speed and reliability being in the favor of the Mac. What they fail to point out is they’re often comparing a $500 PC to a $2000+ Mac. Dollar for dollar you cannot beat the PC and the prices Apple charges for their products should be considered a “voluntary self-mugging.”
August 8, 2012 at 5:28 pm #1090713Quote:
Quote:
We are looking to switch from PC to an Apple this time around. My wife is concearned about losing here windows and other familiar apps. Any help would be great!
I own 1 – Mac Pro, 1 – Mac Book Pro and 6 – Mini Macs along with 3 PC laptops. All are in near constant use.
There’s a place for Mac products. If you plan to edit quantities of video or work in the audio field, get a Mac. The video and audio editing software available for a Mac is of better quality at a lower price point.
IF you don’t edit quantities of video or work professionally with audio… Mac products are overpriced, over-hyped and in my extensive experience with them… no where near as reliable as people like to make them out to be. I’ve had far more issues, hassles and repair costs associated with buggy Mac products in the last 2 years than I’ve had with PC products over a lifetime of use.
People talk about speed and reliability being in the favor of the Mac. What they fail to point out is they’re often comparing a $500 PC to a $2000+ Mac. Dollar for dollar you cannot beat the PC and the prices Apple charges for their products should be considered a “voluntary self-mugging.”
Spot on!!
August 8, 2012 at 5:53 pm #1090725I have just switched jobs and went from a MAC to a PC. I can only speak to ease of use as I have not been around the tech side as much. I found the MACS MUCH easier to use, and I TAUGHT PC’s for years. The MAC office I was in ran Windows on everthing and now that I am on PC I am finding it harder to do some basic tasks. Even email is differnt. I am sure some of this just comes from getting use to one system or the other so you WILL have that problem if you switch. Yes, we had some tech problems at my old office, but I know from years of teaching on PC’s there is problems there also. I do know that we hardly ever worried about the bugs and viruses on the MAC for what ever that is worth. I think your basic problem will be learning to transfer your skills to the other platform. I know this is giving me headaches this first week at my new job.
August 8, 2012 at 7:15 pm #1090748these guys are clueless.. apple makes a great product, has a great user experience – that is clean, consistent, and intuitive.
they might be expensive or overpriced I won’t argue with that, but MacOSX is 10x better than Windows.
August 8, 2012 at 7:17 pm #1090750Yeah, what does Holst know… he is only running all kinds of their products constantly….
and has EVERYTHING to gain by falsifying info here… 
August 8, 2012 at 7:26 pm #1090755Didn’t read what he wrote, I still stand by what I said.
August 8, 2012 at 7:34 pm #1090759Quote:
these guys are clueless.. apple makes a great product, has a great user experience – that is clean, consistent, and intuitive.
they might be expensive or overpriced I won’t argue with that, but MacOSX is 10x better than Windows.
Clueless…
But then you’re probably right. I’m sure everything I’ve gleaned about computing, video, audio… the 50 terrabytes of data I archive and manage using Mac and PCs has gone for naught. Let’s not forget the servers. 20 more drives there. 8 processors. 32 GB RAM… providing connectivity for millions of page requests per month. All the machines I update and maintain for employees to edit audio and video and the meticulous records I have on repairs and operating costs maintained for taxes surely couldn’t possibly be more accurate than what you learned from a mag you read while waiting for your last $10 hair cut.
August 8, 2012 at 8:07 pm #1090775Quote:
…couldn’t possibly be more accurate than what you learned from a mag you read while waiting for your last $10 hair cut.
August 8, 2012 at 8:12 pm #1090777James,
Sorry you felt you got lumped into the “clueless” group of people I was referring to that were bashing OSX and Mac products. And for video and editing which I’ve done a lot of myself, the PC is a great platform and a lot cheaper to make a pissed off rig that can render HD than it is to do on a Mac. I know, I have one. And that article in the magazine, I could have written it. I have been doing engineering work and software development on UNIX and Windows systems for over 15 years now. I can tell you why in detail if you’d like about the virtues of the Mach kernel powering OSX and why Apple built such a great platform, but you want to get hung up on price points. If you want to spend 500$ on some shoddy PC with an operating system from an out of touch, pathetic shadow of its self company that dominated the software industry in the 80s through pilfering of other peoples’ ideas and work and then branding it as their own and have stood by that for 30 years, by all means.. I don’t mean to bash MSFT, they have some smart people working there and I have many good friends there as well. Guess what, they all own macs too.
Same with nearly every employee at Facebook or Google, they all have Macbook Pros. Why do the best infosec people in the business run Macs? Apple has a lot better security track record than Windows, period.
Apple’s market cap is 581 billion, HP 38, Dell 21.
Windows and the PC market are dying. If you’re considering switching to OSX I think now is a great time, they might be more expensive but in my opinion I think they offer a superior USER EXPERIENCE.
.m
Quote:
Quote:
these guys are clueless.. apple makes a great product, has a great user experience – that is clean, consistent, and intuitive.
they might be expensive or overpriced I won’t argue with that, but MacOSX is 10x better than Windows.
Clueless…
But then you’re probably right. I’m sure everything I’ve gleaned about computing, video, audio… the 50 terrabytes of data I archive and manage using Mac and PCs has gone for naught. Let’s not forget the servers. 20 more drives there. 8 processors. 32 GB RAM… providing connectivity for millions of page requests per month. All the machines I update and maintain for employees to edit audio and video and the meticulous records I have on repairs and operating costs maintained for taxes surely couldn’t possibly be more accurate than what you learned from a mag you read while waiting for your last $10 hair cut.
August 8, 2012 at 8:26 pm #1090780Quote:
James,
Sorry you felt you got lumped into the “clueless” group of people I was referring to that were bashing OSX and Mac products.
Show respect, get respect. Your opinion is no more or less valid than that shared by anyone else. Labeling a successful group of people with dozens upon dozens of combined years of experience in the IT fields as ‘clueless’ isn’t likely to go unchallenged.
Quote:
If you’re considering switching to OSX I think now is a great time, they might be more expensive but in my opinion I think they offer a superior USER EXPERIENCE.
My opinions are based on experiences gleaned running X.
August 8, 2012 at 8:27 pm #1090782I also find it funny that people will balk at the cost of Mac products (around 2000$ for a decent laptop, or a few hundred dollars for an iPad or iPhone) but will but in 4000$ worth of electronics in their boat that might get used a few days a week at best, vs the thousands of hours you’ll put on your computer if you use it every day like I do.
The first person to make a transducer that can plug into an iPad or Android device and some software to go with it is going to be a very very rich man..
August 8, 2012 at 8:33 pm #1090783Quote:
Apple’s market cap is 581 billion, HP 38, Dell 21.
Windows and the PC market are dying.
You are trying to link stock value with having an objectively superior product. There is no such link. Pets.com once had half a billion in market cap and look where that got them. What about Enron? Great market cap, haven’t heard much about them lately.
IMO, comparing Apple to other computer companies is wrong. Apple is not, IMO, a technology company. They are a seller of luxury goods, much like Rolex. The value of the company is directly linked to their customer’s strong desire to be seen owning and using them. Superior function is an intellectual alibi for paying the high price much like a socccer mom justifies owning a Hummer SUV because it’s safer and can haul a lot of kids.
As anyone who owns a Rolex will tell you, thier ability to keep accurate time over any extended period can easily be bested by a $40 Timex. That doesn’t stop people from paying $5000, $10,000, or $30,000+ for a Rolex because they aren’t buying a watch. They are buying a statement of who they believe they are and who they want other people to percieve them as being.
You are correct, the PC market is dying. Apple’s portion of that PC market is also dying. The market is dying not because of Apple’s superiority, but because we are quickly moving to a point where the only PC most people will have is the one in their pocket–the smartphone.
Grouse
Grouse
August 8, 2012 at 8:36 pm #1090786Quote:
My opinions are based on experiences gleaned running X.
As are mine. And managing hundreds of thousands of computers and exabytes of data, on a global network.
OSX > WINDOWS
MAC > PCperiod.
August 8, 2012 at 8:44 pm #1090788I don’t agree with you about the luxury products, that is just a by-product of solid engineering, good user interface design, an awesome marketing department, and a technological revolution that THEY defined.
I definitely agree with you about smartphones and tablets, and am a big fan of cloud computing enabling solutions like that to be a reality. We saw this sort of thin computing back in the 70s and 80s with Mainframes and we’re going right back to it.
.m
August 8, 2012 at 8:44 pm #1090789Quote:
Quote:
My opinions are based on experiences gleaned running X.
As are mine. And managing hundreds of thousands of computers and exabytes of data, on a global network.
OSX > WINDOWS
MAC > PCperiod.
Oh, well, since you used the highly persuasive <> symbols I’m sold.
August 8, 2012 at 8:50 pm #1090791Are you seeing massive moves to the Apple platform at large corporations in the US? The reason I ask, there is rarely ever a requirement for Apple experience in any of the infrastructure positions I watch.
August 8, 2012 at 9:01 pm #1090793I think what you’re missing here is, this guy is not asking you to set him up with the best $2000 laptop (maybe he is, but that’s not what I’m getting out of it).
A giant percent of home users are not going to purchase top end laptops or desktops. You are not speaking to a group of top end users, we have a varied audience here. Some that can use the computer strictly to check IDO and do some email, to high end programmers.
You comparing what people spend on sonars to computers is not only an unfair comparison, but it assumes that everybody on this site holds their computers to the same standards that you do. Many people here will spend their money on a high end sonar because that’s what they do for fun. That’s what they spend their money on. I work on computers every day at work, and to be honest, outside of checking email and IDO I could care less if I see one after work.
Try to take my HDS unit or my Ipilot away from me on a weekend and there will be some major problems. If Apple is the only computer ever worth having please answer these questions for me.
1. My wife has a netbook that she loves, for the $250 I spent on that for her to check facebook and pintrest, what other 10″ screen with the same functionality could I have gotten from Apple?
2. I bought a Thosiba Thrive because I liked the SD card expansion and the built in USB 2 port. I got the 16GB for $300 on sale, with more RAM than the Ipad 2, stuck in a 64GB SD card and now have an 80GB tablet for about $350 with tax. What makes the $700-$800 for the 64 GB Ipad2 at the same time that much better?
3. How will the average home user recoup the extra money spent on an entry level Apple vs an entry level pc? I concede that the Audio/Video software standard on Apple is superior, but let’s count that for 25%-50% of the users, as many others only require the ability to plug in an sd card and upload pics to facebook/walmart etc…
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