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Nutella

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 27, 2003
67
0
I'm oh-so-close to becoming a switcher and getting a powerbook 12" but I still have some questions. I'll still be using a PC at work, plus I have no intention of ditching my perfectly good desktop pc at home. But my question is - will I be able to send and edit files back and forth between operating systems? Jpgs? And preferably I'd like to save $ and get an office shareware (openoffice?) - will I have problems creating a file on one system and opening it on another? Thanks!
 
you won't have problems sharing files such as jpg, ms office docs, photoshop docs or anything else that is available on both platforms.

i have my mac networked with PCs at home and everything i've needed to do has worked out fine. i have MS Office on the PCs and on my Mac, so I've never used Open Office. You might want to check openoffice.org for that info, unless someone else here is an Open Office person.
 
I use it

I refuse to put more money in Bill Gates' pocket, so yes, I use OpenOffice.org. It's open-source, and very good, and worth the download. You will need X11, which should already be included, I think.

I'm in a one Mac one PC household, and things are working out fine. I haven't had one incompatible file go from one to the other. I have also impressed others with the fact that I can give them files from my PowerBook to their PC.

I say, Good Luck finding a problem exchanging files! As long as they have the same extention (OpenOffice.org's Word Processor extention is .sxw) you should be fine.
 
I also have a PC and a Mac. The only compatibility issue I've had is with the bank's encryption software. So, basically, home banking is the only thing I can't do on my Mac. (Keep in mind that in Korea, Macs are almost non-existent.) Transferring tunes and pics between them was easy.

I also have some problems with attachments in Hotmail, but there's another thread dealing with that. ;) It seems that it can be worked out.

Squire
 
Thank you everyone!
I'm somewhat relieved. Only somewhat. See, one of the reasons I'm buying a notebook at this point in time is because I plan to be on the road overseas for several continuous months, and aside from office documents and digital photography, I need to manage all my banking, bills and finances from my computer. I had taken this for granted, but guess I need to check with each one on this.... Thanks.
 
What i have discovered is that most banks only require that you use Internet Explorer. You can still use Safari to load those pages though. By enabling the Debug menu, you can change what client Safari looks like. You can make it MSIE 6.0 if you want, which works with almost every site. The only real problem comes when the site requires you to use a PC... in which case you need Virtual PC, which works fairly well with just net browsing.
 
Okay, I've checked with my two most important online accounts and here's what they say:

---
Macintosh® System 8.0 or higher
Netscape® Navigator™ 4.06 or higher
Mircrosoft® Internet Explorer™ 4.02 or higher
America Online® Version 4 or higher
---
To access this site, we suggest that you use a 4.0 (or higher) version of a Web browser such as AOL®, NetscapeTM Navigator, or Microsoft® Internet Explorer. Your browser must also support 128-bit SSL encryption so that we can maintain the highest encryption standards throughout our site to protect your online account information

So, what does everyone suggest? Thanks.
 
sounds like you are fine. better, actually, because if you really hate ie you can download netscape.
granted, netscape is a memory-hog when its loading and isnt as good as safari, but its a non-ie alternative.
also experiment with mozilla. netscape and mozilla are cousins/siblings, but netscape is the more bloated one. (at family reunions netscape has to watch how much code it consumes.)
also, i have not personally encountered any banking websites that require a pc. the only time i've seen it is online games on yahoo, etc.
--carly
 
Buy a copy of MacLinkPlus from www.dataviz.com

This should ease the problems for the times people decide to send you odd documents, like WordPerfect files. :rolleyes:

Or anything else PC that may come along where you might not have the can opener laying around to open it.

You could alway use the PC, but why?

It's only good for games. ;)
 
Originally posted by crazzyeddie
What i have discovered is that most banks only require that you use Internet Explorer. You can still use Safari to load those pages though. By enabling the Debug menu, you can change what client Safari looks like. You can make it MSIE 6.0 if you want, which works with almost every site. The only real problem comes when the site requires you to use a PC... in which case you need Virtual PC, which works fairly well with just net browsing.

Get a different bank then! Bank of America doesnt care as long as it has the encryption! Firebird baby!
 
SSH transfers between Windows and Mac machines

What I've done at home (we've got two Windows boxes and my Powerbook) is install Cygwin http://www.cygwin.com/ with OpenSSH on the main Windows computer, and then have sshd run as a service. That way I don't have to leave the NetBIOS ports open, and I can still move files back and forth between my Mac and the Windows machine using a secure protocol. I run the WinXP firewall, leaving just port 22 open.

There's even a Cygwin SSH installer floating around somewhere http://lexa.mckenna.edu/sshwindows/ to make installation a snap - if you use that, don't install Cygwin separately.

Personally I've found it occasionally useful to have the Cygwin environment available on Windows, but most people probably don't care.
 
Thanks! Not that I understand all the technical-ese right now, but it's good to know there are solutions and this will work!
 
Originally posted by Nutella
Thanks! Not that I understand all the technical-ese right now, but it's good to know there are solutions and this will work!

Oops, sorry - guess I was in the Linux world too long. There they point and laugh at you if you speak in a manner that's actually comprehensible to a normal human. :)
 
File types are independent of platform so everything will just be recognised on each platform, as others have mentioned.

One thing though, make sure you include the three letter extension (e.g. mypicture.jpg) or else Windows will not recognise the file as a JPEG, bless it.:p

Cross-platform programs make life easier too. I have MS Office X for Mac, so I can just load up Word files from the PC and vica-versa. On the other hand, TextEdit and AppleWorks now read and write to Word format also.
 
Excellent, I'm convinced, non c'e problema! I'm thru with "Buying Decision" questions, I'm gonna go for it! Stay tuned, my next posts will be "I just got my new PB, I love it, how do I....?" :D
 
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