PC ---> MBA as main computer

[Meric]

Dear all,

I am thinking of switching from PC to the mac side with the new MBAs and have some questions about it...

It will be my main computer for...

- emails ( will be moving from outlook )
- web browsing
- quickbooks
- light photoshop ( cleaning/fixing up images..no rendering or filters )

I have an ipad and love it.. Using that during the day and night time for emails and web... Love the instant sleep and wake up feature.... Which pushes me thru the MBA rather than a MBP....

Things I hate about my laptop pc ( gateway 14" amd tl-60 turion )

- it takes 30 secs to a minute to hibernate.. Or wake up from hibernation
- fan never stops on AC charge...drives me crazy
- hdd sound drives me crazy
- sick of windows
- heats up a lot

Love my ipad as it doesnt have any of this..no sound..no heat..instant on and off..

As I dont use much CPU intensive programs.. I think MBA will be a great thing to have....and solve all my PC related problems...

However....

I will need to move my outlook pst file ( 3 different mail accounts in 1 pst file ) to the mac os.. Will I be able to split those 3 email accounts under the mail in mac os? Or should I use thunderbird? Or keep outlook under windows....

I need to move my quickbooks to the mac environment.. Or leave it on the windows and do bootcamp...

If I opt to use windows.. How much hard drive space will a xp? Vista? Or 7 take?

I checked the display machine in bestbuy.. Mac os takes like 10 gig with ilife...

I am thinking of getting the 128gb SSD one... And will use external drives for movies and pics...

What do you think of 4gb mem? It looks 2 gb would be enough....but its good to leave a room right? Too bad these cant be upgraded later.....


Also can anyone please post geek bench scores of the 1.86 MBA with 4 gig memory?

The base model with 2 gig is around 2700... Wondering how much extra ram adds...

Thanks a lot.

 

[Kenrik]

Dear all,

I am thinking of switching from PC to the mac side with the new MBAs and have some questions about it...

It will be my main computer for...

- emails ( will be moving from outlook )
- web browsing
- quickbooks
- light photoshop ( cleaning/fixing up images..no rendering or filters )

I have an ipad and love it.. Using that during the day and night time for emails and web... Love the instant sleep and wake up feature.... Which pushes me thru the MBA rather than a MBP....

Things I hate about my laptop pc ( gateway 14" amd tl-60 turion )

- it takes 30 secs to a minute to hibernate.. Or wake up from hibernation
- fan never stops on AC charge...drives me crazy
- hdd sound drives me crazy
- sick of windows
- heats up a lot

Love my ipad as it doesnt have any of this..no sound..no heat..instant on and off..

As I dont use much CPU intensive programs.. I think MBA will be a great thing to have....and solve all my PC related problems...

However....

I will need to move my outlook pst file ( 3 different mail accounts in 1 pst file ) to the mac os.. Will I be able to split those 3 email accounts under the mail in mac os? Or should I use thunderbird? Or keep outlook under windows....

I need to move my quickbooks to the mac environment.. Or leave it on the windows and do bootcamp...

If I opt to use windows.. How much hard drive space will a xp? Vista? Or 7 take?

I checked the display machine in bestbuy.. Mac os takes like 10 gig with ilife...

I am thinking of getting the 128gb SSD one... And will use external drives for movies and pics...

What do you think of 4gb mem? It looks 2 gb would be enough....but its good to leave a room right? Too bad these cant be upgraded later.....


Also can anyone please post geek bench scores of the 1.86 MBA with 4 gig memory?

The base model with 2 gig is around 2700... Wondering how much extra ram adds...

Thanks a lot.

#1) Outlook is on the Mac... just import.

#2) Quickbooks Mac.... Just Import

#3) Windows XP can be installed in as little as 200MB if you get a stripped down version. Hit me up if you need a stripped version I think I have one floating around... you will just need a legit XP key to use it. I think a Windows 7 install is around 6GB.

#4) if you reinstall with only your language you cut a bunch of gigs off of the size. I think I had like 58GB after reinstalling.. (the OS only used like 4gigs with only english installed and no iLife) If you're going to install iLife... keep in mind garage band uses most of the space.. if you're not making music. skip it.

#5) Without question... get 4GIGs.. it's a no brainer.

#6) Buy it off the Apple Education site.. you knock off $100 on the computer and $10 off each of the upgrades.

 

[Penooker]

I just made the switch you're talking about, and I suggest pausing until you know what Mac OS is like. The shock of switching is pretty instaneous -- Mac OS is not amazing like iPad was amazing. Really, it's just another run of the mill OS.

If you're used to Windows specific features like the taskbar, alt-tab, or even uninstalling programs, you'll take lots of time and sacrifice to adjust. I still don't understand how people can be nearly as productive without a taskbar.

Anyhow, running BootCamp is poor second choice due to the diminished battery life and half-assed drivers.

 

[SandboxGeneral]

I still don't understand how people can be nearly as productive without a taskbar.

I have been a Windows guy since 3.1. I only got into Mac in 2007 and in 2009 made my home all Apple and no Microsoft except for the XBox. There certainly was a learning curve, but I got past it and love OS/X better than Windows. Now Windows 7 is very nice and I like it, but if push came to shove, OS/X is my OS of choice.

As for the task bar, once you understand OS/X you never miss it. Everything you need is in the menu bar at the top.

 

[Meric]

#1) Outlook is on the Mac... just import.

#2) Quickbooks Mac.... Just Import

#3) Windows XP can be installed in as little as 200MB if you get a stripped down version. Hit me up if you need a stripped version I think I have one floating around... you will just need a legit XP key to use it. I think a Windows 7 install is around 6GB.

#4) if you reinstall with only your language you cut a bunch of gigs off of the size. I think I had like 58GB after reinstalling.. (the OS only used like 4gigs with only english installed and no iLife) If you're going to install iLife... keep in mind garage band uses most of the space.. if you're not making music. skip it.

#5) Without question... get 4GIGs.. it's a no brainer.

#6) Buy it off the Apple Education site.. you knock off $100 on the computer and $10 off each of the upgrades.

Thanks for the tips.

I know there is outlook and quickbooks for mac...just dont wanna pay 110 for office and 170 for quickbooks... And it seems iwork dont have a outlook lookalike..

How bout open office? Will that help?

Do you think I could get the quickbooks mac version free ?

I have a 500 gb external drive.. Pc formatted i guess... Will mac os x read and write that? Or only read?


How do I buy from apple edu? I am not a student...

It gives $ 50 discount...trying to avoid tax.. Which is $ 130 in CA

 

[Meric]

I just made the switch you're talking about, and I suggest pausing until you know what Mac OS is like. The shock of switching is pretty instaneous -- Mac OS is not amazing like iPad was amazing. Really, it's just another run of the mill OS.

If you're used to Windows specific features like the taskbar, alt-tab, or even uninstalling programs, you'll take lots of time and sacrifice to adjust. I still don't understand how people can be nearly as productive without a taskbar.

Anyhow, running BootCamp is poor second choice due to the diminished battery life and half-assed drivers.

I am a big alt tab user and i guess apple has the same thing with ctrl + something..

I'll be keeping my pc for a while when playing around with mac os x...so i think i'll have a smooth transition...

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Meric]

I have been a Windows guy since 3.1. I only got into Mac in 2007 and in 2009 made my home all Apple and no Microsoft except for the XBox. There certainly was a learning curve, but I got past it and love OS/X better than Windows. Now Windows 7 is very nice and I like it, but if push came to shove, OS/X is my OS of choice.

As for the task bar, once you understand OS/X you never miss it. Everything you need is in the menu bar at the top.

I have been a windows use since 3.0 had the first version on floppies and even i remember creating shortcuts to my dos based games in windows..and adding the win command line to my autoexec.bat to boot into windows....

Now i am all mac'd up... Iphone, ipad...

I hate the fan sound...my gateway is killing me ( its probably the Amd chip ) but even intel chips heat up a lot and fans never stop... I have tried those cooling pads they don't help either...

This MBA looks it was made in heaven for me... Slower CPU, less heat but faster hdd... Faster light computing overall...

And also it loooks so cool...coolest notebook ever...

I guess I just need to find a good deal and order one...!!

 

[mcdonaldtosh]

I was in the same box as you, but got out of the shop with a basemodel 11.6" with 2GB and the system is really good. At the moment I have 8 programs open, including Photoshop, and a great deal of Safari windows with tabs open. Going from a Macbook Pro 2,66Ghz with 4GB, I am pleased of getting rid of it. The SSD keeps the beachball away. I feel like i upgraded rather than downgraded.

All computers get old, so future proofing isn't possible. As mentioned earlier, if you do alot of RAW work and process hundreds or thousands of photos each day, I would go with a 15" Pro, else...Macbook Air has been sent from heaven.

I use mine as my main computer, I also have a PC which now serves as a mediacenter in the livingroom, havent yet turned it on after the switch.

As many other experienced mac users on the forum say, it's better to buy the basemodel and sell it, than to try to fight the future with hard cash.

 

[Meric]

I was in the same box as you, but got out of the shop with a basemodel 11.6" with 2GB and the system is really good. At the moment I have 8 programs open, including Photoshop, and a great deal of Safari windows with tabs open. Going from a Macbook Pro 2,66Ghz with 4GB, I am pleased of getting rid of it. The SSD keeps the beachball away. I feel like i upgraded rather than downgraded.

All computers get old, so future proofing isn't possible. As mentioned earlier, if you do alot of RAW work and process hundreds or thousands of photos each day, I would go with a 15" Pro, else...Macbook Air has been sent from heaven.

I use mine as my main computer, I also have a PC which now serves as a mediacenter in the livingroom, havent yet turned it on after the switch.

As many other experienced mac users on the forum say, it's better to buy the basemodel and sell it, than to try to fight the future with hard cash.

11 might be too little for me.. I really liked the resolution and battery life of the 13... As a main computer i guess 13 is a better fit, too...

I dont do any wild stuff in photoshop..just cropping...cleaning up background...erasing etc.. Mostly work on 1 image at a time...

I mostly have many tabs of browser open..( 10-15 ) Which shouldnt be a problem...

Am sure 11 would handle my tasks great... Its just if i use parallels or fusion and keep some of my pc softwares on windows,,. I think i'd need the extra memory and processing power...

Plus i do have an ipad and will be carrying them together all times....

Thanks.

 

[Meric]

I was in the same box as you, but got out of the shop with a basemodel 11.6" with 2GB and the system is really good. At the moment I have 8 programs open, including Photoshop, and a great deal of Safari windows with tabs open. Going from a Macbook Pro 2,66Ghz with 4GB, I am pleased of getting rid of it. The SSD keeps the beachball away. I feel like i upgraded rather than downgraded.

All computers get old, so future proofing isn't possible. As mentioned earlier, if you do alot of RAW work and process hundreds or thousands of photos each day, I would go with a 15" Pro, else...Macbook Air has been sent from heaven.

I use mine as my main computer, I also have a PC which now serves as a mediacenter in the livingroom, havent yet turned it on after the switch.

As many other experienced mac users on the forum say, it's better to buy the basemodel and sell it, than to try to fight the future with hard cash.

11 might be too little for me.. I really liked the resolution and battery life of the 13... As a main computer i guess 13 is a better fit, too...

I dont do any wild stuff in photoshop..just cropping...cleaning up background...erasing etc.. Mostly work on 1 image at a time...

I mostly have many tabs of browser open..( 10-15 ) Which shouldnt be a problem...

Am sure 11 would handle my tasks great... Its just if i use parallels or fusion and keep some of my pc softwares on windows,,. I think i'd need the extra memory and processing power...

Plus i do have an ipad and will be carrying them together all times....

Thanks.

 

[Meric]

I was in the same box as you, but got out of the shop with a basemodel 11.6" with 2GB and the system is really good. At the moment I have 8 programs open, including Photoshop, and a great deal of Safari windows with tabs open. Going from a Macbook Pro 2,66Ghz with 4GB, I am pleased of getting rid of it. The SSD keeps the beachball away. I feel like i upgraded rather than downgraded.

All computers get old, so future proofing isn't possible. As mentioned earlier, if you do alot of RAW work and process hundreds or thousands of photos each day, I would go with a 15" Pro, else...Macbook Air has been sent from heaven.

I use mine as my main computer, I also have a PC which now serves as a mediacenter in the livingroom, havent yet turned it on after the switch.

As many other experienced mac users on the forum say, it's better to buy the basemodel and sell it, than to try to fight the future with hard cash.

11 might be too little for me.. I really liked the resolution and battery life of the 13... As a main computer i guess 13 is a better fit, too...

I dont do any wild stuff in photoshop..just cropping...cleaning up background...erasing etc.. Mostly work on 1 image at a time...

I mostly have many tabs of browser open..( 10-15 ) Which shouldnt be a problem...

Am sure 11 would handle my tasks great... Its just if i use parallels or fusion and keep some of my pc softwares on windows,,. I think i'd need the extra memory and processing power...

Plus i do have an ipad and will be carrying them together all times....

Thanks.

 

[Meric]

I was in the same box as you, but got out of the shop with a basemodel 11.6" with 2GB and the system is really good. At the moment I have 8 programs open, including Photoshop, and a great deal of Safari windows with tabs open. Going from a Macbook Pro 2,66Ghz with 4GB, I am pleased of getting rid of it. The SSD keeps the beachball away. I feel like i upgraded rather than downgraded.

All computers get old, so future proofing isn't possible. As mentioned earlier, if you do alot of RAW work and process hundreds or thousands of photos each day, I would go with a 15" Pro, else...Macbook Air has been sent from heaven.

I use mine as my main computer, I also have a PC which now serves as a mediacenter in the livingroom, havent yet turned it on after the switch.

As many other experienced mac users on the forum say, it's better to buy the basemodel and sell it, than to try to fight the future with hard cash.

11 might be too little for me.. I really liked the resolution and battery life of the 13... As a main computer i guess 13 is a better fit, too...

I dont do any wild stuff in photoshop..just cropping...cleaning up background...erasing etc.. Mostly work on 1 image at a time...

I mostly have many tabs of browser open..( 10-15 ) Which shouldnt be a problem...

Am sure 11 would handle my tasks great... Its just if i use parallels or fusion and keep some of my pc softwares on windows,,. I think i'd need the extra memory and processing power...

Plus i do have an ipad and will be carrying them together all times....

Thanks.

 

[Meric]

I was in the same box as you, but got out of the shop with a basemodel 11.6" with 2GB and the system is really good. At the moment I have 8 programs open, including Photoshop, and a great deal of Safari windows with tabs open. Going from a Macbook Pro 2,66Ghz with 4GB, I am pleased of getting rid of it. The SSD keeps the beachball away. I feel like i upgraded rather than downgraded.

All computers get old, so future proofing isn't possible. As mentioned earlier, if you do alot of RAW work and process hundreds or thousands of photos each day, I would go with a 15" Pro, else...Macbook Air has been sent from heaven.

I use mine as my main computer, I also have a PC which now serves as a mediacenter in the livingroom, havent yet turned it on after the switch.

As many other experienced mac users on the forum say, it's better to buy the basemodel and sell it, than to try to fight the future with hard cash.

11 might be too little for me.. I really liked the resolution and battery life of the 13... As a main computer i guess 13 is a better fit, too...

I dont do any wild stuff in photoshop..just cropping...cleaning up background...erasing etc.. Mostly work on 1 image at a time...

I mostly have many tabs of browser open..( 10-15 ) Which shouldnt be a problem...

Am sure 11 would handle my tasks great... Its just if i use parallels or fusion and keep some of my pc softwares on windows,,. I think i'd need the extra memory and processing power...

Plus i do have an ipad and will be carrying them together all times....

Thanks.

 

[Meric]

I was in the same box as you, but got out of the shop with a basemodel 11.6" with 2GB and the system is really good. At the moment I have 8 programs open, including Photoshop, and a great deal of Safari windows with tabs open. Going from a Macbook Pro 2,66Ghz with 4GB, I am pleased of getting rid of it. The SSD keeps the beachball away. I feel like i upgraded rather than downgraded.

All computers get old, so future proofing isn't possible. As mentioned earlier, if you do alot of RAW work and process hundreds or thousands of photos each day, I would go with a 15" Pro, else...Macbook Air has been sent from heaven.

I use mine as my main computer, I also have a PC which now serves as a mediacenter in the livingroom, havent yet turned it on after the switch.

As many other experienced mac users on the forum say, it's better to buy the basemodel and sell it, than to try to fight the future with hard cash.

11 might be too little for me.. I really liked the resolution and battery life of the 13... As a main computer i guess 13 is a better fit, too...

I dont do any wild stuff in photoshop..just cropping...cleaning up background...erasing etc.. Mostly work on 1 image at a time...

I mostly have many tabs of browser open..( 10-15 ) Which shouldnt be a problem...

Am sure 11 would handle my tasks great... Its just if i use parallels or fusion and keep some of my pc softwares on windows,,. I think i'd need the extra memory and processing power...

Plus i do have an ipad and will be carrying them together all times....

Thanks.

 

[Meric]

I was in the same box as you, but got out of the shop with a basemodel 11.6" with 2GB and the system is really good. At the moment I have 8 programs open, including Photoshop, and a great deal of Safari windows with tabs open. Going from a Macbook Pro 2,66Ghz with 4GB, I am pleased of getting rid of it. The SSD keeps the beachball away. I feel like i upgraded rather than downgraded.

All computers get old, so future proofing isn't possible. As mentioned earlier, if you do alot of RAW work and process hundreds or thousands of photos each day, I would go with a 15" Pro, else...Macbook Air has been sent from heaven.

I use mine as my main computer, I also have a PC which now serves as a mediacenter in the livingroom, havent yet turned it on after the switch.

As many other experienced mac users on the forum say, it's better to buy the basemodel and sell it, than to try to fight the future with hard cash.

11 might be too little for me.. I really liked the resolution and battery life of the 13... As a main computer i guess 13 is a better fit, too...

I dont do any wild stuff in photoshop..just cropping...cleaning up background...erasing etc.. Mostly work on 1 image at a time...

I mostly have many tabs of browser open..( 10-15 ) Which shouldnt be a problem...

Am sure 11 would handle my tasks great... Its just if i use parallels or fusion and keep some of my pc softwares on windows,,. I think i'd need the extra memory and processing power...

Plus i do have an ipad and will be carrying them together all times....

Thanks.

 

[Meric]

Sorry for the multiple posts...ipad got stuck and i hit the submit button numerous times...

 

[bcaslis]

11 might be too little for me.. I really liked the resolution and battery life of the 13... As a main computer i guess 13 is a better fit, too...

I dont do any wild stuff in photoshop..just cropping...cleaning up background...erasing etc.. Mostly work on 1 image at a time...

I mostly have many tabs of browser open..( 10-15 ) Which shouldnt be a problem...

Am sure 11 would handle my tasks great... Its just if i use parallels or fusion and keep some of my pc softwares on windows,,. I think i'd need the extra memory and processing power...

Plus i do have an ipad and will be carrying them together all times....

Thanks.

The 11" and 13" can have the same memory, but the 13" can have more storage. There are a number of posts of people running parallels and fusion on the 11", I haven't seen any real issues raised with doing. I have the 1.6GHz, 4GB ram, 128GB SSD 11" and it's turned out to a more capable computer than I expected.

 

[Meric]

The 11" and 13" can have the same memory, but the 13" can have more storage. There are a number of posts of people running parallels and fusion on the 11", I haven't seen any real issues raised with doing. I have the 1.6GHz, 4GB ram, 128GB SSD 11" and it's turned out to a more capable computer than I expected.

Ultimate 11 is same price as 13-4gb-128hdd

Is there a reason you picked 11? Because its being smaller and lighter?

I think having little bit faster cpu, sd card slot and better battery life along with better resolution are nice to have....

Thanks.

 

[Meric]

The 11" and 13" can have the same memory, but the 13" can have more storage. There are a number of posts of people running parallels and fusion on the 11", I haven't seen any real issues raised with doing. I have the 1.6GHz, 4GB ram, 128GB SSD 11" and it's turned out to a more capable computer than I expected.

Can you please post a geek bench score? Thx.

 

[gwsat]

I made the move the OP is considering three years ago. For reasons I will describe, I think he wouldn't go wrong by duplicating his current Windows setup from his PC in a VMware Fusion or Parallels virtual machine on a 13 inch Ultimate MBA.

To be able to enjoy the best of both the OS X and Windows worlds I got an MBP three years ago and ran Windows XP in a VMware Fusion virtual machine in Unity mode. At the time, I had only 2GB of RAM so Windows apps were both too slow and too unstable.

Not quite a year ago I upped the MBP's RAM to 6GB and installed Windows 7 Ultimate on it. After that I ran Fusion in Unity mode, which allowed me to simultaneously open Quicken, WordPerfect, and any other Windows apps I needed on the OS X desktop along with several OS X apps. It turned out to be a great combination and turned the MBP into the most satisfactory computer I had ever owned up until I got a 13 inch Ultimate MBA.

I have admired MBAs ever since they were released but decided I would not buy one until and unless it was upgraded sufficiently to allow me to use it as I had been using the MBP. The 13 inch MBA Ultimate MBA filled the bill. To my delight I quickly saw that its combination of 4GB of RAM and flash storage allowed my to run as many Windows and OS X apps in combination as the MBP with 6GB of RAM and a conventional hard drive does.

The bottom line is that the 13 inch Ultimate MBA would allow the OP to run the same Windows apps he runs now, along with OS X apps, on the same computer.

As a final word and a warning let me say that I have never seen an OS X version of any Intuit software that wasn't inferior to the Windows version, and this is coming from an old OS X guy.

 

[Romulus]

Do it and never look back... It just works!

 

[Penooker]

Do it and never look back... It just works!

This has got to be the biggest let down of Mac OS. With everyone's hype about how easy it is to use, I did have high expectations but still. Arggh.

Why is there no way to copy paths from finder window to another finder window or a file open window?

No way single place / method to uninstall programs? (Don't tell me about deleting the .app folder, because it doesn't actually clean up after itself, and doesn't apply to some apps that leave stuff over the control panel)

No built-in ability to boot off a "legacy" USB?

the Fn keys are actually buried underneath shortcut keys? And the Fn keys actually do half of the same things as the shortcut keys? And they're mapped to different keys? eg, F3 = Fn+F9!!!!

I'm going to take a breather and give Mac OS X more time, but I'm seriously disappointed that "It just works" has simply been a big hype. It's as silly and messed up as any OS that has decades of crud in it.

Also, to anyone in my shoes, go out and buy Parallels 5 from Staples for $15. You can then get a free upgrade from the Parallels website. https://slickdeals.net/deals/desktop/

 

[GT-R]

my main pc died, and i moved onto my 13" sony vaio for a couple of years... now my sony is dieing, and i just bought an 11" macbook air

tested it out today for school/work and i love it, its small yet screen resolution is big enough to fit lots on the screen... this is my first mac so im still trying to get used to the OS but after one day i think i've gotten the hang of it...

 

[gwsat]

This has got to be the biggest let down of Mac OS. With everyone's hype about how easy it is to use, I did have high expectations but still. Arggh.

Why is there no way to copy paths from finder window to another finder window or a file open window?

No way single place / method to uninstall programs? (Don't tell me about deleting the .app folder, because it doesn't actually clean up after itself, and doesn't apply to some apps that leave stuff over the control panel)

No built-in ability to boot off a "legacy" USB?

the Fn keys are actually buried underneath shortcut keys? And the Fn keys actually do half of the same things as the shortcut keys? And they're mapped to different keys? eg, F3 = Fn+F9!!!!

I'm going to take a breather and give Mac OS X more time, but I'm seriously disappointed that "It just works" has simply been a big hype. It's as silly and messed up as any OS that has decades of crud in it.

Also, to anyone in my shoes, go out and buy Parallels 5 from Staples for $15. You can then get a free upgrade from the Parallels website. https://slickdeals.net/deals/desktop/

Be patient, grasshopper. OS X is in no sense of the word worse than Windows. It is different, though. When I bought my first Mac, a Powerbook G4, eight years ago, I had used Windows exclusively from Version 2 to XP and could make it whistle Dixie. Thus, I was pretty uncomfortable with OS X for awhile but it got better. Way better. Just relax, celebrate OS X's many superiorities and learn to deal with the few things it doesn't do as well as Windows does.

 

[bcaslis]

Ultimate 11 is same price as 13-4gb-128hdd

Is there a reason you picked 11? Because its being smaller and lighter?

I think having little bit faster cpu, sd card slot and better battery life along with better resolution are nice to have....

Thanks.

Smaller and lighter, which make it more portable. That's the reason. If those aren't as important to you, then you should get the 13".