MacBook Pro, should i?

[MikeyK18]

Hey all,

I have always been a PC guy, esp with HP Laptops, but ever since my 1st iPhone 3G i have had my eyes opened by Apple and i think its time for a MBP.

But i am worried about some of the apps i use on a pc and if someone could shed some light then it will help greatly.

I use Adobe CS4 which i know will work ok, but i use newsleecher for downloading NZb's and don't know if it will work on a mac. I tryed searching the forum but couldn't find anything on it.

Thanks guys

 

[Hellhammer]

http://www.newsleecher.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15919
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/167957/

Maybe those links will help you?

 

[deeddawg]

I'm a recent convert. Photoshop of course is available and works well on OS X. Check into what you need to do to cross-version upgrade though, Adobe can be a bit weird about that.

Never heard of Newsleecher, but you made me curious and a quick search on Google brought up an item of interest to you: http://usenetreviewz.com/unison-review/

You may already know this, but if considering a MBP13, check if there's a Microcenter nearby. Their deal for a MBP13 for $999 can only be beat if you watch/wait for an openbox MBP13 to pop up at your local store so you can save another $100.

 

[Bending Pixels]

I'll chime in. Like you, I was a life-long Windoze user. But, this past April, when Adobe announced Photoshop CS5, I made the decision to make the switch.

I'm not familiar with Newsleecher. Their site shows that it's a Windows only application.

However, for all of the other Windows-based applications I used, there are Mac equivalents that are as good, if not better, than what can be found in the Windows realm.

Do a search for similar applications that you currently use, and I'll bet that you find Mac equivalents.

 

[Richard1028]

But i am worried about some of the apps i use on a pc and if someone could shed some light then it will help greatly.

Most every application written for the Windows OS will run on your mac.

 

[fibrizo]

Hey all,

I have always been a PC guy, esp with HP Laptops, but ever since my 1st iPhone 3G i have had my eyes opened by Apple and i think its time for a MBP.

But i am worried about some of the apps i use on a pc and if someone could shed some light then it will help greatly.

I use Adobe CS4 which i know will work ok, but i use newsleecher for downloading NZb's and don't know if it will work on a mac. I tryed searching the forum but couldn't find anything on it.

Thanks guys

I was in the same boat, now on my 3rd mac notebook. Granted I still use a PC desktop, and I have bootcamp and windows 7 on all my macs, but for the most part when at work, I am in mac os.

I use SABnzbD for all my newz on both the PC and windows side without issue.

As always, your own experience is the best here, Macs tend to be more costly for lower specs, but generally seem to have less problems than most pc OEMs. Also the apple in store support is far better to me than calling india. That's worth a premium to me now, whereas it was not such an issue when I was a poor student.

 

[MikeyK18]

Thanks for the replys guys, am saving for a 15" MBP and WILL get one lol

 

[eah2119]

If you run into problems you can always consider parallels.

 

[skiltrip]

I moved to mac in April. I was worried aboutthe same stuff, but I've gotten on just fine. In fact I found a lot of useful free programs for mac that replace windows stuff I used to have to pay for.

The one thin I miss that I wish I still had (without having to run VMware) is Sony Vegas. I find Vegas superior for video editing to anything I've tried. Thankfully I don't do THAT much video editing that it's impacted me. 99% of my needs is audio and all my audio software is cross platform.

 

[kc2kth]

Hey all,

I have always been a PC guy, esp with HP Laptops, but ever since my 1st iPhone 3G i have had my eyes opened by Apple and i think its time for a MBP.

Thanks guys

Well, this thread is almost a month old but I'll throw in my two cents worth. I've made my living for the past 16 years plus in the PC world. From NetWare and OS/2 through NT to W2K8 R2 now with some Linux, OS/400, BSD, and AIX thrown in along the way. I switched my home machine to a MBP in 2007 and it's been great. I like the clean look and snapiness of the OS X interface with the power of a UNIX beneath. It's all the benefits of something like Linux or OpenBSD with paid development and support teams behind it to make sure everything works. In my opinion, there is no such thing as the "Mac Tax" or "Apple Tax". Sure, you can find cheap PC hardware anywhere. Put together a taxonomy of what you get in a $700 budget laptop and compare that to a MBP and the answer is clear. The Mac costs more up front, but you get much more for your money included right out of the box. Finally because Apple doesn't simply use whatever commodity components they can get, but instead sticks with a platform for a longer period of time between refresh cycles, there are far fewer chances of problematic drivers and one off hardware issues.

Regarding Parallels, I used Parallels early on and switched to one of the free options for a while but I'm back to Parallels. Solid product that works well. Again, well worth the price of the software especially if you take advantage of their discounted upgrade options every so often in order to keep up.

Finally, to save on some cost take a look at the refurb options direct from Apple on the Store page. There are some good deals there from time to time, but some patience is necessary. I've bought three machines over the past three years (my MPB, a mini, and a MB white) and all were from the refurb section. You would never know these weren't brand new machines by looking at them (the box is marked, but no where else except maybe the s/n on the machine), and I probably saved on average 20% off list prices.