And why is that? Why would you give every single OS X and Mac advantage for a Windows laptop, because of a specific version of MS Office?
If you need it that much use bootcamp.
Well, I have to say that Microsoft Office is by far the single most important piece of software for me. Since the Internet became so popular, nearly every other task I have been able to do inside a web browser.
In fact, Microsoft Office is the most used software in the world, and is the de facto standard for everything one must do inside an office. I do not edit photos nor videos and I do not do graphic design or anything artistic. And most people do not do these tasks either. Photo editors, video editors, desktop publishing software, they are all useful for people with specific needs. But the vast majority of people rely on an office suite, and Microsoft Office is the one to be used in most tasks.
I am supposed to use Microsoft Office in my work. Every document I send to a client must be saved in Microsoft Word format. Every presentation I have must be saved in PowerPoint format, otherwise I will not be able to open it at someone else's computer. Every spreadsheet must be in Excel. I must use Outlook as the firm I work in uses Exchange. Every single article I write, either for newspapers or magazines or academic journals, must be saved in Microsoft Word format. I must use Microsoft Office because everybody else uses Microsoft Office. And I want to use Microsoft Office because it is the only one that has all the features I need.
It is very frustrating that Office for Windows is so much better than Office for Mac. Office 2010 for Windows was already way ahead of Office 2011 for Mac. And now Office 2013 for Windows has been available for one year and a half, and there are no signs of the counterpart for the Mac.
Office 2011 for Mac is slow and sluggish. Ribbons are not as customizable. It does not support plugins the same way Office for Windows does. It does not open PDFs as editable text. And the grammar correction is broken, at least in my Mac.
Yes, there are alternatives, but none of them are on par with Office. LibreOffice is OK, but not on par. I did not buy an expensive Mac with all the bells and whistles to use cheap open source software. I bought it to use premium software. iWork is fine, but I cannot rely on it to complex tasks. Pages does not support cross-references, and it does not even allow footnotes to be split in multiple pages. I have tried other word processors for Mac, and they all have their shortcomings.
So, I am back to Microsoft Office, and it is truly disappointing that my US$ 2,000+ Mac runs an inferior piece of software than a cheap US$ 500 Windows PC.
As for the advantages of using OS X, I don't think they offset the benefits of using the best version of Microsoft Office. The benefits of OS X are largely a matter of personal taste, and I do not think it is so superior to Windows in all respects. The most talked about benefits of OS X mean absolutely nothing to me. I will give some examples.
(1) The Mac works out of the box. Big deal. This is for dummies. I can install whatever I want in both Macs and PCs. The real deal is which one has more and better software, with more features, available. I cannot care less for what comes out of the box.
(2) Mac gets no viruses. This is for dummies as well. I am not stupid enough to open any suspicious e-mail that comes to my inbox. And if I am, I deserve to get a virus.
(3) Mac is simpler. Well, Windows is simple too.
There are, however, a few things in what OS X excels:
(1) OS X has better battery life than Windows.
(2) In OS X, when I boot I can choose to reopen the same software that was opened when I turned off the computer.
(3) OS X has better trackpad support, and this is good for laptops (although Windows is not bad at this).
(4) OS X allows for scrolling of the windows which are not highlighted.
(5) Mission Control / Expose is the best way of managing multiple windows.
Apart from these, I do not see too much benefit of using OS X instead of Windows. And Windows has its advantages too. I fail to see how OS X is so much superior to Windows that it would make me give up the best version of the most important piece of software (Office) just to use it.
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Why not sign up to office 365 and then run bootcamp? I have the best of both worlds, running a great office suite (in windows) and still use my Mac and OS X for everythig else.
If the new version of Vmware Fusion gets announced soon, I'll get that so I run windows within OS X
I sign up to Office 365 and I do run Bootcamp. Still, I run Office inside Windows, and not on OS X. And, while I use Bootcamp, I cannot run OS X. And trackpad support on Bootcamp is a joke, any Windows machine does a better job.
If I use a virtual machine, I have two operating systems running simultaneously and draining battery and consuming memory.
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I run office as well; I have to as my work uses it and I'd use it anyway even if they didn't. (Exception: Keynote blows away powerpoint all day, every day.)
I don't thing $99 a year for 5 computer seats plus 5 additional devices is expensive. Far from it; it's a much better deal than buying 1 copy of Office 2011 for $139 ($219 if you want outlook) for 1 computer. If you have multiple systems, that gets expensive real quick. For 5 machines, it costs a paltry $20 a year per box to have access to the latest version, even if it's a few years between releases.
And who knows? Maybe microsoft is going to adopt the full 365 update scheme for the next office mac, so it may not even be called Office 2015.
I have Office 365, but this is not the answer. It allows me to install Office 2013 for Windows and Office 2011 for Mac. Office 365 is just a subscription model, it does not change the software that is installed on my machine. Office for Mac is still inferior in all respects to Office for Windows.