Considering moving to Mac from PC

[visualsup]

Hi all, I'm thinking of switching from PC to a new 2011 Mac laptop (will install Bootcamp on it only as a last resort; firstly interested in trying the Mac OS). I'm a heavy user of Outlook 2003; much of my work is done on it, since it functions both as an integrated email client and calendar. I have many gigabytes in my outlook PST archives and thousands of contacts and events.

I sync w/Nokia E72 for contacts, calendar.

Questions: Is it a good idea to move to Mac under these circumstances? i.e. does anyone have experience in importing very large outlook archives over to Outlook 2011?

Should I use Outlook 2011 for Mac, or iCal etc.?

Is syncing an issue for Nokia E72? I saw on Nokia's website that there is only partial software support for synching the phone on the mac.

http://europe.nokia.com/support/product-support/mac-support
Many Thanks

 

[drsox]

I just moved from Win7 to OSX. I also use Office2003 and Outlook2003.
It seems to work fine in Parallels/Bootcamp but I only do simple things with it.

Why not keep using Outlook 2003 ?

 

[visualsup]

I just moved from Win7 to OSX. I also use Office2003 and Outlook2003.
It seems to work fine in Parallels/Bootcamp but I only do simple things with it.

Why not keep using Outlook 2003 ?

Only as a last resort. But I'm curious why didn't the native Mac software work for you? it seems counter intuitive to get a Mac in order to run PC software.... many thanks for your reply...

 

[$MacUser$]

Apple is typically much better at handling the sorts of tasks Outlook attempts to do. Give iCal, Mail and others a go. The only way you can really find out is by getting a sense of the program first hand. Worst case Outlook is available native for OSX if I'm not mistaken.

There will be a slight learning curve (very slight), but moving to Apple is one of the best computing moves you can make.

 

[drsox]

Simple answer. My "User" files in Win7 are all on a share on a RAID NAS, that way all I have to is to mirror the NAS every so often. So each time Win7 falls over, none of my user data needs to be recreated. In 5 years I have had 3 SSDs fail, no problem for me - just replace and restore.

I can't do that on OSX (symlinks are unreliable) plus Time Machine is too much backup for me. I only want to recreate my user data if there is a problem, not anything and everything that has changed.

Perhaps over time I may change, but not at the moment.

OSX is great as a stable and fast OS, but not flexible enough for me.

PS. The main reason I changed to a MacBook Air was the hardware ! None of the Win laptops come close.

 

[SurferMan]

Just run Win7 in a virtual system so you don't have to bootcamp, that way you can flip back and forth between both OS easily. Thats what I did, as personally i hate Apples mail system, horrible. Running Thunderbird instead.

 

[drsox]

Just run Win7 in a virtual system so you don't have to bootcamp, that way you can flip back and forth between both OS easily. Thats what I did, as personally i hate Apples mail system, horrible. Running Thunderbird instead.

Exactly. However I'm not a great fan of TBird - tried it with Ubuntu for a while.
In the absence of a better solution I'm sticking with Outlook 2003 in Parallels.
The problem is that Parallels/Win7 doesn't want to reconnect with my NAS quickly enough when coming out of sleep, so I have to wait for a min or so before firing up any NAS related data links. HoHum.

 

[dimme]

Simple answer. My "User" files in Win7 are all on a share on a RAID NAS, that way all I have to is to mirror the NAS every so often. So each time Win7 falls over, none of my user data needs to be recreated. In 5 years I have had 3 SSDs fail, no problem for me - just replace and restore.

I can't do that on OSX (symlinks are unreliable) plus Time Machine is too much backup for me. I only want to recreate my user data if there is a problem, not anything and everything that has changed.

I do a similar backup strategy with OS X. Superduper & Carboncopy cloner are life savers. You can chose to only backup your home folder or documents folder

 

[driftless]

I moved from Outlook to Apple's Mail, iCal, etc. and I will never go back to Outlook. Importing your information is easy. If you have backups you can always go back to Outlook if you wish. FWIW - I like Mac OS X and prefer apps that work natively in that OS, i.e. -w/o bootcamp, parallels, etc.

Welcome.

- David

 

[codymac]

Questions: Is it a good idea to move to Mac under these circumstances? i.e. does anyone have experience in importing very large outlook archives over to Outlook 2011?

Should I use Outlook 2011 for Mac, or iCal etc.?

I did just this a few years ago, hauling >7gb of pst, and have been through a few iterations, starting with Entourage (well, starting with another mail program on Solaris, but that's not relevant here).

The import will take a while to complete (from memory, I give my 7gb 1-2 hours on an i7) and will yield archive style folders in the mailbox tree similar to the Windows version. It actually imports the pst files to a different format, so don't expect to be able to go from Outlook 2011 on OSX back to the PC if you archive on OSX (at least, not without a paid third party app to convert things to PC). On the up side, it leaves the pst files untouched.

If you're a heavy Outlook user, I'd recommend sticking with Outlook. Even 2011 is clunky compared to the Windows version, but it's certainly livable (Entourage was unbearable - I stuck to Outlook in a virtual machine until 2011 came out). Using iCal, etc. is a bit frustrating (I understand it's better in 10.7.x but I'm still running 10.6.8).

One thing you can do to ease the transition is to P2V your current Windows machine and run it as a VM on OSX. I did this for a long time before Outlook 2011 came out and even for a bit longer while I kicked the tires on Outlook 2011.

Worst case, you can try it however you like with little risk to your pst files and see if you like it. If you "leave mail on server" (i.e., IMAP), you should be able to run multiple mail programs simultaneously (obviously your pst files won't be in anything you don't import them into).

I can't comment on the Nokia part, as I use an iPhone, but if you've got any specific questions about making the Outlook switch, I may be able to answer.

Overall, Outlook 2011 works pretty well.

eta: I don't sync my phone with the same machine I use Outlook on. Everything on the iPhone happens OTA by hitting the Exchange server directly.

 

[kulimer]

I don't recommend moving from PC to MAC if you are a serious user. I bought a MacBook Air, compatibility problems, compatibility problems!!!

Some examples
1. Can't stream some pop-up music player, because it is in Windows Media Player.
2. Safari automatically downloads stuff, there is no "Are you sure you want to download?" prompt.

Apple hardware does beat Windows, but it needs a lot of improvements on software.

BTW, there's something called Nokia PC Suit. It is a software that lets you sync files and make calls from PC.

 

[GermanyChris]

I use Outlook for Mac for work and OSX mail for my personal accounts..

I prefer the mail, ical, and address book to he complete Outlook system..

ical recognized all my TB mail along with .pst..

I have no real issues with it, but it's going to take some tinkering to make it work, but it will.

 

[drsox]

I do a similar backup strategy with OS X. Superduper & Carboncopy cloner are life savers. You can chose to only backup your home folder or documents folder

Where does OSX store the user data files ? Specifically, where does Office2011 store Emails, Docs and Spreadsheets ? Is this different to Mail, Pages etc ? I see also that the home folder has lots of system files that are not so relevant for user data backup - Parallels files etc.