Mac and Office

[blueicedj]

Dell won't sell *you* a computer without Vista on it... when you are buying 10,000 licenses, the matter is somewhat different. Not to mention that the vast majority of these computers are imaged by the IT staff based on available licenses anyway. It's fairly typical for everything Dell ships on the computer to be immediately wiped off, first thing that's done with the computer. We'll see when 2008 rolls around.

As of right now, you're right. I'm working in the IT department of a company right now, and when we get a machine with Vista on it we usually will wipe it off and put XP on. This is because we haven't fully tested it out and found a way to make things right for the company on it...fix compatability issues and make sure the machines will run smooth. The trouble is that Dell has said they are only selling Vista models when 2008 comes, even though companies most likely wont want that. I'm sure we'll be wiping Vista off in favor of XP for a while...but we can't do that forever.
Another problem with the switch is when you buy a vista computer you will be forced to buy a much more powerful system...with at least 2gb of ran and a speedy dual core processor...If you don't get that then the system will be worse off than it was with XP.
Some of these reasons are why I think I'm gonna switch to a mac, because Vista doesn't really offer that much other than being "prettier" than XP, and while the OS does intrigue me, I would like to try out an mac (having never used one before). I just hope all the hype about macs are right...

 

[Goldcard]

Word and Excel: No problems.

Powerpoint: I've heard the Mac version has some compatibility issues with files created with Windows. Things like reading embedded media. I don't use Powerpoint, so I've never experienced these things first hand. Maybe someone else can chime in on issues they've found.

Access: I don't you didn't list Access in the initial request, but just in case you were thinking of using it, understand that Access for Mac does not exist.

Yea I've had issues before pulling in web links containing pictures and stuff. Basically, you just need to be very careful and test to make sure it works on a windows pc before going to class haha! Which, in my opinion, is something you should do anyways before making a presentation.

 

[ingenious]

Listen to this man (woman?) and save money. You campus IT store probably ill sell you a copy of Win XP and/or Vista pretty cheap as well - for bootcamp purposes.

Don't go with boot camp unless you absolutely have to. You'll soon realize (after you get your Mac) that things are better in OS X... don't waste your money until you absolutely need to use a Windows program... and then take advantage of the windows discount and also purchase parallels... I hear it's much nicer than Boot Camp.

 

[Ebonweaver]

Word and Excel: No problems.

Powerpoint: I've heard the Mac version has some compatibility issues with files created with Windows. Things like reading embedded media. I don't use Powerpoint, so I've never experienced these things first hand. Maybe someone else can chime in on issues they've found.

Access: I don't you didn't list Access in the initial request, but just in case you were thinking of using it, understand that Access for Mac does not exist.

Probably not quite right for this particular sub forum, but I have seen in our labs and offices a SEVERE problem with PowerPoint on the Mac. On every system we have, no matter the speed, you simply can't work with large files. Large is 300-400 slides, the files just don't open, but they pop right up under windows. All of the office suite is sluggish on the Mac compared to windows on equivalent (or in fact identical with the intel machines) hardware, but this is absurd. In my mind PowerPoint on the Mac is a broken product, but MS has not done anything to fix it for 3 years. Mind you I only have 1 user in 400 that wants to have PP files this large, but still, the software needs to be fixed.

 

[mkrishnan]

Probably not quite right for this particular sub forum, but I have seen in our labs and offices a SEVERE problem with PowerPoint on the Mac.

Interesting... I'd be curious to see if my computers replicate that issue, but I don't know any way to find or create a credible powerpoint file that big! I've never personally encountered more than 130 or so slides.... If there were one of these mammoth presentations available for download somewhere, I'd be very curious to see if the same thing happens outside your sandbox.