A topic you guys are probably tired of.. Swapping to Mac.. A few questions

[Artemus]

As well as a bit of background on where I stand on Macs and PCs!
I admittedly don't know much about Macs, never really getting to use one in-depth.

Well, ever since I've had to look at the machine my mother ordered, a Dell with Vista on it (Looking at it's 'new' features and annoyances)... I've decided that Windows XP SP2 was the last Windows machine I will hopefully own...
I left Windows 98 SE reluctantly and learned to live with XP and XP SP2... They all have their own issues, as Macs do, I'm sure. But until this machine dies out on me... I'll be tinkering on the Vista machine I have access to and gathering as much info on the systems I 'loved to hate' 5 or more years ago as I can... So far, I'm pretty much sold on the idea of learning a system 'that just works' as opposed to the swiss cheese OSes I've bought and was taught on.

So far... Vista... It has horrid probs with media.. Like music, videos, etc... Small simple programs, for no reason just hit periods every minute or command where they just don't wanna work for up to a few minutes... On a brand new machine running a minor program (Winamp), when it has the same specs as the machine I'm on now (Better processor, I do believe). She has Vista Premium... Way too many kinds to choose from really... It never shuts down when it's told (Yes, I changed behavior on the power button, etc so it asks what to do). And the problems flow on and this isn't the forum to nag about Windows machines, just that I am seriously considering the move.

I think that I have always been curious of the 'near bulletproof' systems that everyone loved and coveted... I used one in school (I don't know the model... It was all in the monitor... Looked tear drop style, came in lots of colors, single button mice... Etc)... I never really thought to because I've been given second hand machines before discarded. I bought this laptop I'm on now (Toshiba Satellite A205-S1064; 1.6GHz, 2GB RAM (Originally 512MB), Intel 915GM 128mb Dynamically allocated memory (Shared with RAM, in long terms...), 40GB hard drive). She's lasted me a few years, I like to play games and such on machines when I can... Love my music (Rip to MP3 so I need not change CDs 100 times a day), I write my so-called novels... Edit photos and just create new ones, use IM programs... Etc...

My major questions are just compatability...
I have lots of programs I enjoy (Winamp, Opera browser, Gimp (Like Photo Shop, etc), ton of my games... (WoW, American McGee's Alice, Black and White, DOS versions of Doom 1, 2 and 3) and I'm not sure they'll run on OS X Tiger or Leopard... I know it has BootCamp and such... But that just means I'll be running what I just fled from on what I just bought... Hehe...

From what I can tell, a lot of my peripherals will work still... Like my good old Logitech 2 button with scroll (The Mighty Mouse looks neat tho...).

Basically... I'm just fearful that once I drop the cash for this new machine, everything I like and use now will become unusable to me. I know I'll have to learn a new OS, and honestly, I don't care so much about that... DOS to Windows 98 and then to XP was enough. (The gap was due to not OWNING a computer until Win98SE was the common). I'm a Windows person... Used to swear by them... But the new way of making things prettier in sacrifice of usability and integrity of the machine... Not so much anymore...

I'm waiting until this one goes out or gets to a point where I have to swap to Vista or not really have anything at all, as it will be, as it has been with every new Windows OS.
I've heard people swapping to Macs and loving them to death... With the "new" things Vista has to offer, I think a system that's had the 'new' things for years and knows how to do them will be better...

Honestly... I used to look at Alienware and drool over them... Since Vista hit the market and I got to use it... I've been looking at Apples the same way...

Thus concluding my long rant... Long story short...
Will all the things I know now become unusable when and if I swap? Long post for my first as a bit of an introductory and background on where I stand to those that may post. I thank you ahead of time for reading and answering.

 

[emptyCup]

Long story short...
Will all the things I know now become unusable when and if I swap? Long post for my first as a bit of an introductory and background on where I stand to those that may post. I thank you ahead of time for reading and answering.

OS-X has always supported 3 button, scroll wheel mice out of the box. If you mouse is USB just plug it in. OS-X is Unix so most of the Unix/Linux stuff you mention will run on the Mac, but there are Mac versions of some of it. If you are willing to use Bootcamp or buy Parallels you can use all of your software on a Mac under Windows. Most people prefer not to switch into Windows unless they have to. There is a wealth of Mac specific programs that don't exist under Windows. It is worth checking out alternatives.

Gaming under Windows on a Mac depends on the hardware you buy but graphic options are more limited. I'll leave it to the gamers to comment on the games you specifically mention.

There are many Switcher threads that are worth looking at. Best wishes and good luck.

 

[Artemus]

OS-X has always supported 3 button, scroll wheel mice out of the box. If you mouse is USB just plug it in. OS-X is Unix so most of the Unix/Linux stuff you mention will run on the Mac, but there are Mac versions of some of it. If you are willing to use Bootcamp or buy Parallels you can use all of your software on a Mac under Windows. Most people prefer not to switch into Windows unless they have to. There is a wealth of Mac specific programs that don't exist under Windows. It is worth checking out alternatives.

Gaming under Windows on a Mac depends on the hardware you buy but graphic options are more limited. I'll leave it to the gamers to comment on the games you specifically mention.

There are many Switcher threads that are worth looking at. Best wishes and good luck.

Ok. I was pretty sure the mice worked fine. Just not sure of the no "Right Click" thing I guess. Hehe.

The graphics I was looking at currently were NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB SDRAM... So I should be fine I think. I just don't know the difference in the coding is all.. I don't know. I like a lot of older games over the new ones. I know they have Mac alternatives to it, but that means rebuying them on top of the system. lol.

I'm totally new to the Mac universe, last time I looked, they were extremely limited on what could be run... I've seen that change, but not how much. Either that was truth or hype from Windows enthusiasts, I'm not all that sure.
As for BootCamp... Yea... Only when its a "have to". Not buying a Mac to keep using Windows. So, I take it 'Parallels' just give a program a temporary environment to run in?

I surfed the forums for a bit, I guess I looked over most of the switcher threads on accident, I'll see if I can get this one deleted to not take up any more space ><

Thank you for replying, as well as the good wishes. ^^

 

[tominated]

macs seem so limited because of the fact that most PC users don't know that there are soooo many alternatives to most windows programs! One thing to keep in mind is that when searching for an application for windows, there are a lot of results, but not many deliver. when looking for mac software, there are far less results, but most of them work really well. Take movie file conversion as an example: A quick search on softpedia in the windows section brings up tons of results, but most of them are duds. take mac, however, most applications that say hey convert videos work perfectly!

 

[emptyCup]

Artemus, you are welcome to ask questions but you might feel more comfortable doing some reading first. You might start with Apple's Switch 101 or David Pogue's Switching to the Mac. If you are heavily into Unix/Linux you might like OS-X for Unix Geeks or Linux for Your Mac.

There are some old habits you will need to relearn. It takes most people one day to two weeks. If you are hesitant, buy a book first. Best wishes.

 

[Chilll]

Very Helpful thank you

Artemus, you are welcome to ask questions but you might feel more comfortable doing some reading first. You might start with Apple's Switch 101 or David Pogue's Switching to the Mac. If you are heavily into Unix/Linux you might like OS-X for Unix Geeks or Linux for Your Mac.

There are some old habits you will need to relearn. It takes most people one day to two weeks. If you are hesitant, buy a book first. Best wishes.

HI I've made a post about switching to Mac maybe.I wanted to know why people say macs are so much better that Windows.SO far I have not had 1 response ,anyway I found your post w/the links which did give me some insight as to what to expect and it did take away all the confusion as to how to navigate through Tiger..Now all I need is to know why Macs are so great and if the switch is wise.I've been using windows for years.Going to the dark side (lol) It's not a quick decision due to the macbook pro 2.4 G i might buy is 2500.00..verses the 1500.vista laptop .I really need some insight from people about how they feel after switching.Has to be from people who were windows users then switched,especially if you played games.Thank you in advance to everyone.

 

[Riverrun]

Hi Folks, I'm after switching as well. On Sunday, I bought a brand new Macbook with 2.16 GHz and 2 GB of memory. My Sony Vaio is only 1.6 GHz and has half the Ram but you know, it performs as quickly as the Mac.

Mind you, the Mac is much more stable, windows, even XP, are prone to crashing and one has to be careful when using applications as a small mistake will cause a freeze up.

Windows are also highly demanding as far as maintenance goes. With Mac there are no scans, no registry cleaning (correct me if I'm wrong), and no defragging.

The reason I switched is Vista; I hear so many complaints about it and didn't want to migrate. I'm on a steep learning curve but it's going well, I have to say. No complaints so far!

Cheers all.