Alright here's the deal... should I switch to a Mac?

[Cooper1662]

I'm a PC guy.

I've got an iphone, and an ipad...and I love them!

But I'm a PC guy. I pick up an Apple computer and I'm lost. I can't do anything!

But my wife...bless her heart...bought herself a Macbook Air the day before yesterday.

And she hasn't stopped running her mouth about it ever since. It's like the best thing that's ever happened to her. You can take pictures right from facebook to your laptop and they look awesome! You can do this and this and this.

Okay babe, I get it already!

Now, ever since I was in the Apple store a few months ago, I've wanted an iMac. The 27 inch screen and the graphics...it was awe inspiring.

BUT, I'm resistant to change. And I spend all day on my laptop...literally. I am online probably 10 hours a day or more. A lot of programs I run, are PC only.

My wife is using parallels or something like that to run her oil and gas program which is pc only and she's going to switch back and forth. That's not really an option for me because I'm in and out of several windows only programs throughout the day.

So the question is...is it worth it for me to make the seemingly....GIANT....leap to Mac, or should I stick with the PC? I know most of you are biased, but I'm not going to be able to handle my wife and her macbook for long before something explodes.

The irony in the story is that I begged and begged her to get a new iphone when her blackberry finally gave out. She refused and just last month bought a blackberry torch or whatever it's called. Her justification is that the iphone touchscreen is too difficult to use. It's ill justified as my two kids ages 7 and 10 both have ipod touches and they seem to have mastered it with ease. She uses theirs as well as my ipad. No chance on the iphone though.

Sorry for rambling. I just got on the thought of being in the middle with products from both sides of the fence.

 

[PirateP]

It isn't that big of a leap. I use both PCs and Macs at work and at home and switch between the two just fine. Just do it already.

 

[stockscalper]

You can get an iMac and install Windows via Bootcamp. That way you'll be in Windows all the time. But frankly that's a lot like buying a BMW and tearing the engine out and putting Yugo engine in it.

 

[gwsat]

Don't worry about the learning curve for OS X because it is very intuitive. I had been a Windows guy since the '80s when I bought my first Mac, a Powerbook G4, 8 years ago. I continued to work on Windows machines at my work while I was learning to use OS X at home. OS X got easier and easier to use over time, so much so than I am now working on my third Mac laptop.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Try it, you'll like it.

 

[cheesygrin]

First off... I'm not as biased as you'd think. I'm a PC based IT engineer by day. I know PCs more or less inside out and I use a PC at work as happily as anything.

BUT... When I go home - to the machines that I CHOOSE to own - it's to a 27" iMac, a MacBook and an iPhone. In my mind, there really is nothing to compare with the sheer quality and user experience of a Mac. In recent reliability surveys, Apple came out tops over ALL PC manufacturers - and I wasn't remotely surprised.

If you're going to be using Windows apps most of the time though, then you won't get much opportunity to get used to using OS X - which is a shame, 'cos it's great. A learning curve, yes, but ultimately great. So really, it comes down to cost and what YOU want.

Do you want the BEST - never-mind the cost? If so, then I strongly recommend you buy a Mac, install Windows on Bootcamp (Bootcamp is free with a Mac and uses all of your hardware, whereas virtualisation software such as Parallels only gives you whatever performance is left over after OS X has booted), and use OS X at every opportunity that you get outside of work.

If, however, you really don't care about using OS X, aren't bothered about having the best quality hardware and only intend on using Windows apps anyway, then what's the point? Save yourself some cash and buy a cheapy Windows PC. But don't come crying to me when it breaks.

 

[Panch0]

Not sure why everyone wants to use BootCamp. The only application that I can think of where you really need to use BootCamp to be Windows Native is gaming. For Windows only business/productivity applications, I have found operating in a VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop VM to be perfectly fine. My personal preference is using Fusion in Unity Mode, which gives each Windows Application it's own Window within OS X. It's as if the Windows Apps are very just really ugly Mac Apps.

I guess that if your Windows applications were graphics or rendering tools that really push the graphics system (almost like a game would), BootCamp may be preferable to a virtual machine.

As an example, the Windows only tools that I use commonly in a VM:
IE
Visual Studio
SQL Server Management Studio
Visio
OneNote

 

[gwsat]

Do you want the BEST - never-mind the cost? If so, then I strongly recommend you buy a Mac, install Windows on Bootcamp (Bootcamp is free with a Mac and uses all of your hardware, whereas virtualisation software such as Parallels only gives you whatever performance is left over after OS X has booted), and use OS X at every opportunity that you get outside of work.

I run Windows in VMware Fusion's Unity mode on my 13 inch Ultimate MBA because both my bookkeeping program, Quicken for Windows, and wordprocessing program, WordPerfect, are Windows apps for which there is no OS X substitute that suits me as well. I tried Bootcamp when I got my MBP three years ago but ended up hating it. I need both Quicken and WordPerfect at the ready at any time, so being forced to close OS X and reboot in Windows before I could do bookkeeping or wordprocessing was a deal breaker. Thanks to Fusion's Unity mode, I can go back and forth between a Windows app and an OS X app just as fast as I can switch from one OS X app to another.

I have 2GB of RAM and one processor core dedicated to the Fusion virtual machine, which leaves the rest for OS X. Both Windows and OS X apps run with good speed and total stability. For me at least a virtualization program like Fusion or Parallels is an exponentially better solution for running Windows apps on a Mac than Bootcamp ever was.

 

[St. G]

OSX is fine for everyday computing. Not better to me, but certainly not worse than Windows or the various Linux distros I've used. Mac Hardware is, unfortuantely, usually yesterday's PC hardware at tomorrow's PC prices, wrapped in the the best (looking) industrial design out there. But for something like the Air, where the packaging IS the product, I think the inflated price is justified.

But the iMac? Doesn't seem like your extra $$ is really buying you much there. An iMac running Bootcamp Win7 is just a pricey, slightly prettier than average, slow PC.

 

[T4R06]

LOL it looks like your wife is much much geekier than you

 

[PirateP]

OSX is fine for everyday computing. Not better to me, but certainly not worse than Windows or the various Linux distros I've used. Mac Hardware is, unfortuantely, usually yesterday's PC hardware at tomorrow's PC prices, wrapped in the the best (looking) industrial design out there. But for something like the Air, where the packaging IS the product, I think the inflated price is justified.

But the iMac? Doesn't seem like your extra $$ is really buying you much there. An iMac running Bootcamp Win7 is just a pricey, slightly prettier than average, slow PC.

And you hang out on a Mac enthusiast board because why?

 

[HardLuckStories]

I used OSX and WIN a lot, I also talked WIN people into OSX, big mistake. WIN people really need to stick with WIN purely for application reasons, basically results in endless whine about how win apps aren't available for osx.

 

[OasisNYK]

I switched last December and never had an issue - its pretty simple.

I still use PC's for work but I find myself wishing they were mac's now.

 

[psirix]

First off... I'm not as biased as you'd think. I'm a PC based IT engineer by day. I know PCs more or less inside out and I use a PC at work as happily as anything.

BUT... When I go home - to the machines that I CHOOSE to own - it's to a 27" iMac, a MacBook and an iPhone. In my mind, there really is nothing to compare with the sheer quality and user experience of a Mac. In recent reliability surveys, Apple came out tops over ALL PC manufacturers - and I wasn't remotely surprised.

If you're going to be using Windows apps most of the time though, then you won't get much opportunity to get used to using OS X - which is a shame, 'cos it's great. A learning curve, yes, but ultimately great. So really, it comes down to cost and what YOU want.

Do you want the BEST - never-mind the cost? If so, then I strongly recommend you buy a Mac, install Windows on Bootcamp (Bootcamp is free with a Mac and uses all of your hardware, whereas virtualisation software such as Parallels only gives you whatever performance is left over after OS X has booted), and use OS X at every opportunity that you get outside of work.

If, however, you really don't care about using OS X, aren't bothered about having the best quality hardware and only intend on using Windows apps anyway, then what's the point? Save yourself some cash and buy a cheapy Windows PC. But don't come crying to me when it breaks.

I'd have to completely agree. I work in IT and admin a complete windows network, and have been a pc enthusiast most of my life. I still am to a degree. However, once I got my hands on my first MacBook Pro back in 2007, I have completely enjoyed my experience. I have had two MBP's since, a Macbook, and am contemplating getting an MBA. For me, I am mostly on the go so a laptop makes more sense for me. When I am home, I do a lot of work on my PC desktop, but keep my MBP next to me, and usually hook it up to my second monitor. Get the iMac and use VMware, Parallels, or Virtualbox for your PC applications. You can continue to do what you know, while learning OS X. And if you're any bit of being tech savvy, you'll pick up OS X in a few minutes The hardware is absolutely great and even though I kind of miss the whole pc building experience, the computing experience is incomparable to the PC. That was probably quite a lot of blabble, but home some of that helps!

 

[jeffg819]

My first Mac was a WTF purchase in 2004 as something to occupy my mind during some craziness in my life. I could go into all the details but in the end I purchased a PowerBook for my soon to be ex wife as well as replaced my kid's PCs with Mac minis.

When I brought home this mid life crisis machine, I allocated 4 hours to get everything setup (wireless router, printer, etc). It took 15 minutes. That was the beginning of the end of my PC life.

My biggest regret in all of this is when I purchased my PowerBook, Apple stock was at $30 and had I not been going through some financial "adjustments", I would have purchased stock. Now, at 10x that price, I find myself taking some solace in at least knowing I knew of the value of Apple computers before the market figured things out....

So, get a Mac. Install a VM (take your pick) and get on with it. I think Win7 is a pretty good product and I've upgraded both of my Mac machines to the latest MS offering, but I'd rather spend my day in OS X. Worst case? Should you decide you don't like the Mac life, the machine can be sold at a good resale price.

My .02

 

[bowlerman625]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Once you go Mac you never go back!

 

[gdeputy]

OSX is fine for everyday computing. Not better to me, but certainly not worse than Windows or the various Linux distros I've used. Mac Hardware is, unfortuantely, usually yesterday's PC hardware at tomorrow's PC prices, wrapped in the the best (looking) industrial design out there. But for something like the Air, where the packaging IS the product, I think the inflated price is justified.

But the iMac? Doesn't seem like your extra $$ is really buying you much there. An iMac running Bootcamp Win7 is just a pricey, slightly prettier than average, slow PC.

Find me a 27" IPS display with the resolution of the iMac for a price WELL below 1000 dollars. Please.

You pay 999 for the magic mouse, wireless keyboard, and a quad core i7 with 4GB ram, 1TB HDD and admittedly underpowered graphics, which really is only maybe 300 above market value.

That 300 extra your paying basically is for aesthetics, (best in the industry, PERIOD) and what is proven to be the best support of any hardware manufacturing company in the game.

A quad core i7 is in NO WAY slow, and the ram is ddr3 1333, so wtf u really saying bro?

P.S. peek at my sig, I run a PC machine, but the iMac isn't really THAT overpriced.

 

[gwsat]

So, get a Mac. Install a VM (take your pick) and get on with it. I think Win7 is a pretty good product and I've upgraded both of my Mac machines to the latest MS offering, but I'd rather spend my day in OS X. Worst case? Should you decide you don't like the Mac life, the machine can be sold at a good resale price.

I agree that Windows 7 is quite a good OS. It is far less intuitive than OS X but it does its job quite well. For the first time since MS rolled out Windows XP in 2001, MS has, finally, been able to improve on it.

As noted in an earlier post I keep a couple of Windows apps running in VMware Fusion's Unity mode, simultaneously with several OS X apps. This setup allows me to use Windows apps for which I have found no satisfactory OS X substitute, Quicken and WordPerfect primarily, from the OS X desktop. Now I don't really care whether a program runs in Windows or runs in OS X.

 

[potentpotable]

This is my first Mac, and I was so accustomed to it after just a few days that I cant really go back to a PC comfortably anymore...I keep pressing Alt thinking it's the Mac's Command key!

 

[rnb2]

I'll just echo what several others have said: I was a Windows user from early '95, built my own PCs, and did tech/network support for a Windows shop for over a decade. I bought my first Mac in over a decade, a G4 mini, in early 2006, just out of curiosity, to supplement my existing Windows desktop (a homebuilt Shuttle box).

Over time, I found that I just enjoyed using the Mac more. Part of this was that I was learning something new, but it was also just more fun and less of a headache. No driver issues, no constant updates, no viruses - just a fast, stable OS. I eventually bought a new widescreen monitor, just for the mini. Then a first-generation MacBook. Then a first-generation Intel 17" iMac (since sold to my dad). Then a Mac Pro (sold to another photographer). Then an aluminum MacBook (selling to a friend). Then a 27" i7 iMac (traded the original MacBook and mini towards this one). Soon, an 11.6" MacBook Air.

Now, I can't imagine going back to using Windows on a regular basis. I do very occasionally run XP in a virtual machine for a couple things, but otherwise, I spend all of my time in OS X. You'll get used to it very quickly, and once you get used to the GUI, you can start digging into the UNIX underpinnings if you like (it's not required, by any means). That's one of the great things about OS X - it's easy for non-technical people to use and keep running without all the headaches of Windows, while at the same time being technically quite sophisticated 'under the hood'. I run a couple different utilities that display some of the text system logs in real time on my desktop, for instance.

Since I switched, I convinced my dad to switch, then my sister. I also got my fiancee to switch - she was extremely resistant (didn't want to be a "Mac person"), but after a couple days, she absolutely loved it and never wanted to go back.

Don't let your pride at being a "PC guy" keep you from the pleasure of running a better OS

 

[aristobrat]

I'll just echo what several others have said: I was a Windows user from early '95, built my own PCs, and did tech/network support for a Windows shop for over a decade. I bought my first Mac in over a decade, a G4 mini, in early 2006, just out of curiosity, to supplement my existing Windows desktop (a homebuilt Shuttle box).

Over time, I found that I just enjoyed using the Mac more. Part of this was that I was learning something new, but it was also just more fun and less of a headache. No driver issues, no constant updates, no viruses - just a fast, stable OS.

That's so close to my exact history that I'm sort of weirded out.

 

[wirelessmacuser]

So, get a Mac. Install a VM (take your pick) and get on with it. I think Win7 is a pretty good product and I've upgraded both of my Mac machines to the latest MS offering, but I'd rather spend my day in OS X. Worst case? Should you decide you don't like the Mac life, the machine can be sold at a good resale price.

Very well said. Your advice is ideal. My bet is this solution is just right for the job...

 

[treynolds]

Well, Might as Well Jump In...

Over time, I found that I just enjoyed using the Mac more. Part of this was that I was learning something new, but it was also just more fun and less of a headache. No driver issues, no constant updates, no viruses - just a fast, stable OS.

I'm a PC guy as well, but since February I've become a Mac guy.

I've been using Windows since V2.1, DOS before that and a Commodore before that. My first "computer" was a Timex-Sinclair with a cassette drive: Not very user friendly.

I've been using an iPod Touch through work as a PDA and display controller for the last three years and through that introduction to Apple basically fell in love with the "it just works" mentality that Steve Jobs is always touting. After a seriers of viruses and trojans a year ago on both our home notebooks (despite valiant software efforts to erradicate them) I threw up my hands and said enough... Not that those machines couldn't be salvaged and made to function (they are and we still have them), but I was tired. Tired of always needing to have stuff running in the background to protect my machine and files from attacks that made my life harder than it really needed to be.

I bought an iMac in February and run OS X as well as Win XP Pro under Parallels. AutoCAD works great and I found that my adjustment period with Snow Leopard was very short. As as been said earlier, it's very intuitive. Some things are different for sure, but I feel very productive on it now.

I supplimented my iMac with a 13" MBA Ultimate a month ago and my wife was so impressed that she got Apple to take back her Mac Mini and credit it towards an 11" MBA.

A lot of change for a guy who thought that his daughter's 12" white, college-issued Macbook from 5 years ago was "lame" and "how can you use this to do REAL work?" (She still uses it, along with her Toshiba...)

I'm not looking back. Steve Jobs and company has lightened my wallet this year for sure, but he's also made my life much easier, more coherent and less frenetic. Oh, and WAY more beautiful. As an industrial designer it's a pleasure to use finely-sculpted, well-executed "art" to do my work.

I'd highly recommend the switch; you won't regret it.

 

[Cooper1662]

Thanks to everyone for the replies!

My personal preference is using Fusion in Unity Mode, which gives each Windows Application it's own Window within OS X. It's as if the Windows Apps are very just really ugly Mac Apps.

So you're saying VM Fusion, in "Unity Mode", will allow me to open Windows like an app and within that I can run any installed Windows only programs?

If that is the case, I think maybe I might be able to make the switch. I'm going to mess around with my wife's macbook air a bit and if I can make it happen for sure like it sounds maybe go ahead and get a mac.

 

[Mabyboi]

Ive been a windows users for years. Got a MBA and now a MBP and i dont think i could go back... i sell laptops at my job on a daily basis and they're all windows based... im just not sure if i could go back...

to use your windows programs you could either bootcamp, or use parallels or vmware..

 

[tom vilsack]

you could also use free vmware like program...virtualbox

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads