Help me make my coworker switch

[Veldek]

Hi all,

my coworker has finally given up with his laptop. It had Windows ME (!) and crashed every now and then, the CD-ROM drive was dead and his daughter dropped it some time ago. He wanted to get it repaired, but the techguy said it's hopeless. So he decided to get a new one.

Well, he already owned an Apple desktop a lot of years ago (don't know exactly but at least 10-15) and is also interested in it today. But he wants to get a Toshiba. I think an iBook could be a good choice for him, as he only uses it for Word, Internet and games for his daughter (6 years old). He already told me that the games he has are Mac compatible. Now, what really disturbs him about buying an iBook is the fact that with a Windows laptop he gets Word and Works with it, but the iBook has no really good word processing app (I don't count TextEdit) and so he would have to buy MS Office which is quite expensive and would stack up to the price of the iBook.

Do you have any arguments I could use to convince him in favor of an iBook? I want to show him a test where the iBook 12" is first place to start with and recommend him to go to a local Apple reseller and play with one for himself, but is there anything else I can tell him?

 

[CubaTBird]

tell em...

Tell him to get a a total of 768 ram, tell him the battery life is ~4:45, and tell him not to buy from the apple store. Especially the ram, (trust me, bad experience, long story, some thread around here ) So yea...

 

[Veldek]

Tell him to get a a total of 768 ram, tell him the battery life is ~4:45, and tell him not to buy from the apple store. Especially the ram, (trust me, bad experience, long story, some thread around here ) So yea...

Well, RAM is a good advice if he already wants to buy an iBook, but he doesn't yet, so this isn't exactly what I need.
The battery life is a good argument, but he normally plugs his laptop in, so he doesn't really need much battery life.

 

[mac_gal]

Have you tried mentioned the major flaws about Windows?

(1) Viruses
(2) Trojans
(3) Crashes (hmm, sounds like he should know this firsthand)
(4) Everything else

It might be helpful to point out the durability of an iBook. This should be a huge factor, considering a 6-year-old will be using it. Maybe you can refer him to the thread on here about the iBook that was run over twice, and survived.

Might he or his daughter qualify for the student / teacher price on Office? From Microsoft's web site:

To license Office 2004 for Mac Student and Teacher Edition, you must be a Qualified Educational User or the parent or guardian of a Qualified Educational User who is a minor. Qualified Educational Users include:


Full- or part-time students
Home schooled students
Full- or part-time faculty or staff of an accredited educational institution

 

[EminenceGrise]

The iBook comes with Appleworks - whether or not this qualifies as a "good wordprocessing app" or not is up for debate... It depends mostly on what you need from a word processor. IIRC, it doesn't import (or is it export... maybe both) Word documents, but TextEdit in Panther can deal with most basic Word docs (text wise, anyway). How important is compatibility with Word? If it's a must, then MS Office is really the only way to go. There are some other word processors out there for Mac OS X (Mellel, Nisus Writer Express, etc.) that look pretty good and are relatively cheap (less than $70US), but I've not used them. They also have some tradeoffs feature wise compared to Office. OpenOffice may be a good choice, but it's not OS X native yet, so you lose the benefits that come along with that - and the setup is a little more tricky than the normal Mac OS X drag and drop (it requires X11).

Also don't forget the iLife Apps - you can't get those anywhere but from Apple, and are almost by themselves reason enough to switch. Throw in the "Virus/Worm of the Week" that comes with Windows (this week it seems to be visiting cracked websites that install spyware....) and, to my way of thinking at least, it's no contest. Not many people have an IT department at home to keep up with all the Windows patches and all. Tell him: "you don't necessarily want everything that 'comes for free' with a Windows laptop." Hehehe

 

[brap]

Now, what really disturbs him about buying an iBook is the fact that with a Windows laptop he gets Word and Works with it, but the iBook has no really good word processing app (I don't count TextEdit) and so he would have to buy MS Office which is quite expensive and would stack up to the price of the iBook.

AppleWorks not enough?
If not, tell him to get the Darwin port of Openoffice. Sure I remember seeing a project attempting to make it fit in with Aqua.

So... he gets iLife, Panther and all the other goodies a new Mac comes with, and can edit all his MS Office documents. For free.

Edit: here is the Aqua OOo port, but sadly it's pre-release. Maybe it'll be enough for him.

 

[Mord]

it doesn't import (or is it export... maybe both) Word documents

it dose apple works can open and save in .doc format can we please dispell this myth that it cannot, only powerpoint (it's very lame with cheesy effects i use keynote when i have to do presentations) and very complex document with embedded stuff in it come out slightly wrong but otherwise it is fine

i also second openoffice it is good but using x11 is a pain

depending on your ethics you could just get a pirate copy (yarr!)

 

[Veldek]

@mac_gal: The idea that his daughter could qualify for the Student version is a very good one. Well, she comes to school this summer, but it's first grade. Does this already qualify?

@EminenceGrise: Wow, I didn't think of AppleWorks. If this is able to open and save as Word documents (thx Hector), then this could really be an alternative!

 

[TednDi]

What more do you need to know??

More secure, better designed, doesn't crash, really cool, software works.

IS'T windows!


UPDATE: Internet Attack Slowing Down June 25, 2004

More Stories on:
Viruses and Patches
Security



A major Internet attack that installs hacker tools on users' systems is subsiding, security experts say. But more copycat attacks are possible in the days ahead.
By George V. Hulme



A widespread attack that targeted major E-commerce sites and secretly planted hacker tools on the computers of Internet surfers is subsiding, security experts say.
Security experts estimate that thousands of Web sites were compromised in the past week. The attack, which may have begun as early as Sunday, didn't attract much attention until late Thursday evening when it was identified by Internet security firms.

Most of the Web sites known to have been infected have been cleaned, security analysts say. Also, Internet service providers have blocked access to, or "black-holed," the Russian server that was planting the hacker tools on user PCs.

Alfred Huger, senior director of engineering for Internet security firm Symantec Corp., says Web sites running Microsoft's Internet Information Services software version 5.0 were attacked and infected with a malicious JavaScript application. When Web surfers visited affected sites, their computers were subsequently infected through multiple vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer.

Once a Web surfer's system was attacked by the malicious JavaScript application, the surfer's computer was connected to a server located in Russia and infected with hacker tools such as backdoors and keystroke loggers, which could be used to take control of the user's system or steal confidential information.

While patches are available for most of the Internet Explorer vulnerabilities used in the attack, no patch is available for one of the flaws, commonly known as the ADODB vulnerability.

It's still unclear how the attackers managed to successfully compromise Web servers running Microsoft's IIS software, security experts say. "It's something we're looking into," Huger says.

It's possible, but unlikely, that systems running Microsoft IIS 5.0 software could have been attacked by a "zero-day" vulnerability, which is a new software flaw that's unknown and unpatched by software vendors, says Marcus Sachs, director, of The SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center. "That's the worst-case scenario," he says.

Other possibilities include Web servers that administrators believed to have been patched but were not, or Web servers that could have been attacked through vulnerabilities unrelated to IIS 5.0.

Security experts warn that future attacks are possible. "Others may attempt copycat attacks, especially if there is a zero-day attack in IIS," Sachs says.

Major antivirus companies have updated their software to spot the malicious code downloaded to end-user systems in this attack.

Microsoft is urging Web-site operators running Windows 2000 Server and IIS to apply a patch found in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-011.

Microsoft has published a Web site with more information about this attack and the IIS and Internet Explorer vulnerabilities; it's located at www.microsoft.com/security/incident/download_ject.mspx.

 

[sethypoo]

Tell him to get a a total of 768 ram, tell him the battery life is ~4:45, and tell him not to buy from the apple store. Especially the ram, (trust me, bad experience, long story, some thread around here ) So yea...

I'd just like to add that the online Apple Store is the best place to buy anywhere. Great customer service, coupled with knowledge of their product makes buying direct from Apple the best bet.

I'd get RAM elsewhere, like Crucial, though.

 

[wPod]

@mac_gal: The idea that his daughter could qualify for the Student version is a very good one. Well, she comes to school this summer, but it's first grade. Does this already qualify?

http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/routingpage.html

it says k-12 schools. . . so im guessing 1st grade would be fine!!! (come on, apple wants to get them young and keep them around!)

id have to say the best reason to switch is b/c it doesnt crash and doesnt get viruses.

 

[ftaok]

http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/routingpage.html

it says k-12 schools. . . so im guessing 1st grade would be fine!!! (come on, apple wants to get them young and keep them around!)

id have to say the best reason to switch is b/c it doesnt crash and doesnt get viruses.

Actually, he was talking about the Office 2004 Student liscensing agreement. Apple's Student discount is for higher education students only. The K-12 reference that you posted is for school employees.

So in summary, the co-worker will qualify for Office 2004 Student/Teacher edition, but not for discount prices on the iBook.

 

[applemacdude]

Hi all,

Well, he already owned an Apple desktop a lot of years ago (don't know exactly but at least 10-15) and is also interested in it today. But he wants to get a Toshiba. I think an iBook could be a good choice for him, as he only uses it for Word, Internet and games for his daughter (6 years old). He already told me that the games he has are Mac compatible. Now, what really disturbs him about buying an iBook is the fact that with a Windows laptop he gets Word and Works with it, but the iBook has no really good word processing app (I don't count TextEdit) and so he would have to buy MS Office which is quite expensive and would stack up to the price of the iBook.

Get it thru other means...