Switching to Mac

[NickFitz]

I would say Parallels too, I have a 20" iMac that I bought earlier this year, and run everything in OS X with the exception of Outlook 2007 that I run in Parallels.

Don't buy a memory upgrade from Apple though, they charge an extortionate amount of money for their RAM. Go for the standard memory and then buy a 4Gb upgrade from Crucial or another reputable RAM manufacturer. Provided you want that much RAM of course!

I can definitely recommend Crucial. When I got my MacBook last year I ordered a RAM upgrade from their UK site at around 4:30 in the evening; at 8:00 the next morning my order arrived in the post.

Of course, postal strikes may interfere with this process at the moment...

[DaveB]

I'm looking at the 2.8ghz 24" iMac with 2Gb of Ram. Not sure if I will be running bootcamp/parallels etc atm cos I will still have the old PC, at least initially, untill I get everything up and "Macified". I'm assuming that Mac OS isn't the same sort of resource hog as Vista?

[daviejones]

I'm assuming that Mac OS isn't the same sort of resource hog as Vista?

Sh*t no...not even close...

[NickFitz]

I'm assuming that Mac OS isn't the same sort of resource hog as Vista?

It's not uncommon for me to find myself using my year-old MacBook (2 Gig RAM) with:

• Safari
• Firefox
• Opera
• Eclipse IDE
• Parallels VM: WinXP SP2 allocated 512M of RAM
• Mail
• iCal
• iTunes
• iPhoto
• iDVD (encoding and burning)
• Transmit FTP client
• Adium chat client
• Chicken of the VNC (allowing me to use my old PowerMac G4 without having to get up and walk to the desk)
• Apache web server (comes with the OS) running several PHP4 apps (comes with the OS) connecting to a mySQL database, and maybe an instance of Tomcat running a couple of Java Servlet apps

and I only realise just how many apps I have open when I absent-mindedly open another Parallels VM which also has 512M allocated to it and switching between stuff becomes a bit slow. This usually comes about because I never log out, just shut the lid when done and open it again when I need it. With 60+ days of uptime*, you can end up opening a lot of apps and just forgetting to close them again.

Of course that's only a laptop; you can expect a desktop machine to do better than that.

* There's usually a system update requiring a restart every couple of months or so, so I don't often get past 60 days uptime - although I was over 100 days once when I'd forgotten to approve the restart-after-update for a month or so

[OrangeHopper]

I have used Macs since the early 90s and I've not used a PC in the house since.

Why not buy a cheaper one and see what you think. I am using a Mini (LG 19' monitor, HP keyboard and Logitech mouse) now and have one of the new 20' iMac downstairs for the faimily. Think I may have that round the wrong way.

I've not experienced the crashes reported above.

[scooterscot]

I'm assuming that Mac OS isn't the same sort of resource hog as Vista?

Are you mad? My CPU usage is below 5% most of the time unless I'm processing video or something. The system is silent like the grave I never hear it, applications just appear.

I agree with NickFitz it's about the little things that make is stand out from windows. You can work on a mac all day and produce work to show for it while not getting frustrated over updates, hard drive grinding away doing knows what... it's all about the little things.

[Cowboy Bob]

Late to the thread but I'll chime in in favour of Macs too. I bought my first Mac about a year ago now (MacBook, Core 2 Duo, 2Gb RAM) and I'd never go back now. It does absolutely everything I require, much faster and snappier than it used to in Windows. It's also a thing of beauty (I have a black one) and always gets comments when I get it out of its case in a work situation.

I don't bother with Parallels - there's no Windows software that I need that I haven't managed to replace with native software. YMMV in this area though.

[threaded]

Ok, I'm looking at replacing my personal PC, an aging Medion 2ghz box running XP. Apart from simply replacing it with another PC I'm also thinking of changing to a Mac. For those who have Mac's or have made the switch what are the agruments in favour that justify the additional cost?

I need it for the usual office functions plus some games ( WoW and Counter Strike mainly ).

I'm looking at a 24" Imac that comes in at £1459 on the Apple Store.

Is there any software recommended over and above that supplied with it? ( apart from Office, also looking at Open Office for Mac )

Funnily enough, I swapped from probably that self same Medion model to an Apple. I got myself one of them Apple G5 8 core jobbies and it came with a VMWare utility that copied the XP to an image I can run on the Apple. Not everything works obviously, the Apple doesn't have the card readers and what not, but most stuff does.

[NickFitz]

Medion
youtube.com/watch?v=ar8bXYS-eKQ

Apple
youtube.com/watch?v=ar8bXYS-eKQ

VMWare utility
youtube.com/watch?v=ar8bXYS-eKQ

You are lonelygirl15 and I claim my £5.

[b0redom]

If you're working for a large corporate, you may find that they have a reduced deal with Apple. I got 6% off working for a large Japanese electronics company, and 6% off working for a large US company. All you need to do is flash your ID badge in store, and give you an immediate discount.

This also applies to ipods etc....