Should I change from Windows to MBP?

[Mrbobb]

I say there is no rush to switch. Now that you got other Apple products, see how they integrate with your Win laptop.

I switched because none of the current Ultrabooks "spoke" to me, so this was a right-brain decision. Having used OSX for a few months now, I kinda miss Windows. But I will stay, because the dang OSX gestures are SO SMOOOTH.

Common sense says u stay in one eco-system, everything should be seamless right? Generally I tend to agree but here is one glaring problem I recently encountered: Outlook Mac doesn't play nice with other Apple devices sync. Perhaps not surprisingly, Outlooks Win people have work-around for this problem. Go figure.

 

[James_C]

Sorry, but I disagree totally.

I am a sysadmin for several companies and use a MacBook Pro with OS X on it for this. I also play guitar and record music using my MacBook Pro. Oh, and I enjoy playing the odd game and guess what? I use my MacBook Pro for that too.

Your comments are equally as false as saying that you cannot use a Windows system for making music or design work.

To the OP I would say that if you are a power user of windows, you will find it frustrating to switch. Our Windows Certified Engineers cannot do things as quickly on Mac OS as they can in Windows, and as the Apple Certified Engineer, I cannot do things in Windows as quickly as I can in Mac OS.

Exactly, Apple is the most valuable and most profitable company in the world and I am pretty sure that its executive team are not running Microsoft office for Windows on their Macs.

 

[leman]

One thing that lots of people see differences is in font rendering technology. Windows uses ClearType, which makes fonts sharper on the screen, and that may be useful for Office productivity. Mac uses Quartz, which makes fonts less sharp on the screen, but more similar to its printed versions (and that is better for desktop publishing). Two different approaches, but for spending countless hours reading and writing text in front of the computer, ClearType is better.

I disagree. Windows font AA may create sharper pictures by forcing pixel-perfect-alignment of edges, but the tradeoff is the details - font features get gobbled. IMHO, this impacts readability. After working with OS X for several years, Windows fonts look extremely blurry and washed out to me.

 

[skaertus]

Sorry, but I disagree totally.

I am a sysadmin for several companies and use a MacBook Pro with OS X on it for this. I also play guitar and record music using my MacBook Pro. Oh, and I enjoy playing the odd game and guess what? I use my MacBook Pro for that too.

Your comments are equally as false as saying that you cannot use a Windows system for making music or design work.

To the OP I would say that if you are a power user of windows, you will find it frustrating to switch. Our Windows Certified Engineers cannot do things as quickly on Mac OS as they can in Windows, and as the Apple Certified Engineer, I cannot do things in Windows as quickly as I can in Mac OS.

Windows and OS X both can perform pretty much any task you may need these days. They have come a long way and became better and better.

However, they are not equally good in all things. Windows is far more used than Mac, especially in the enterprise market, and so software for enterprise tend to be more developed in Windows than in OS X. That doesn't mean that you can't do work on the Mac, but you'll probably be better served with Windows, depending on what your needs are.

The Mac has been a favorite platform for desktop publishing and video editing ("creative work"), so it has a history of being the better system for that kind of work. Windows can also perform these tasks - and it became particularly good with the fall of the Macs during the 1990s -, but many people will still prefer using a Mac for that kind of work.

As Windows is the market leader, most big companies develop leading expensive software for it, and sometimes these software crushes the competitors. Small software companies find a hard time flourishing, as they cannot compete with the big guys and with free alternatives. Independent developers, on the other hand, may find a way on the Mac.

The bottom line is: both can do any task, unless you have particularly specific needs. But that doesn't mean that both are equally good in doing any task. Windows has its advantages, as Mac has its own.

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I disagree. Windows font AA may create sharper pictures by forcing pixel-perfect-alignment of edges, but the tradeoff is the details - font features get gobbled. IMHO, this impacts readability. After working with OS X for several years, Windows fonts look extremely blurry and washed out to me.

I think exactly the opposite, and, if you do any web search, most people think like me. ClearType distorts the fonts, but the result is better readability on the screen. I much prefer ClearType than Quartz for font rendering, unless on very high resolution screens such as the ones found in the retina MacBook Pros.

 

[Pompiliu]

Hello all,
I am new to Apple products, and I got my iPhone 5 & iPad Mini as my first Apple products... And I love these products, and now I am thinking to get MBP as it will fully integrate with the iPhone & iPad

However as I didn't touch any Mac laptops or desktop before as I am all life long Windows user, it's scares me. As I am worried that all my programs will not work, and I can't use the MBP as the way I used the windows ..

I use the laptop for MS office, outlook, downloading movies & music, watching movies, browsing Internet... Normal everyday use ..

Looking at the expensive prices of the MBP, is it worth to switch from windows to Mac ?

NO.
OS X used to be good, but lately it sucks (Lion and M Lion).
Stick with windows 7 (That's what i use on my retina MBP).

 

[James_C]

Windows and OS X both can perform pretty much any task you may need these days. They have come a long way and became better and better.

However, they are not equally good in all things. Windows is far more used than Mac, especially in the enterprise market, and so software for enterprise tend to be more developed in Windows than in OS X. That doesn't mean that you can't do work on the Mac, but you'll probably be better served with Windows, depending on what your needs are.

I think today that is very true, however in the future I can see a change as more and more companies adopt Software as Service (SaaS) cloud applications like SalesForce, particularly among the SME (Small Medium Enterprise) marketplace. Yes larger businesses will be slower to move, but that is the way things are going. This is one of the reasons that Microsoft is pushing its own cloud based Office suite so hard (with mixed success at the moment), Office 365, as that is where the future is headed. Companies are increasing looking to liberate data stuck on someone's hard drive and make it more available to other co-workers to increase collaboration.

Many companies are dumping giving laptops to mobile employees and giving them tablets like the iPad instead. Now I am not suggesting this will happen quickly, or that the need for high powered desktops running niche software will go away, but over the next 3-5 years I think we will see a big change in how enterprise applications are developed. Once a corporate application is on the cloud and can be accessed via a web browser, it does not really matter if it is a PC, Mac or Tablet.

 

[bogatyr]

for real work and gaming = Windows.

For casual use, facebooking, messaging, email, etc = Mac.

You cannot really be as productive on a Mac when you do real work such as 3d parametric modeling, programming, etc...

I prefer having a mac where I can enjoy the best of both worlds via bootcamp. The people who only use Mac and swear by it are usually people who facebook all day or download pictures or photoshop.

As an IT manager for a company running 100% windows at 25 locations globally, I have to completely disagree. My job feels quite a bit easier since switching to a Mac (subjective, I know).

Programming:
I do all my programming (C#/Obj-C/Ruby/PowerShell) in XCode now (I added in syntax highlighting for C# and Cisco configs - no PowerShell syntax highlighting yet). XCode builds all of my Windows based programs using Mono's compiler. I then SCP programs to Windows machines using Ruby scripts and execute them over SSH as well (PowerShell Server Enterprise License).

Network Configs:
XCode also downloads all of my Cisco configs using Ruby scripts and custom build settings for switches/routers/APs across the Enterprise. It offers easy Git commits to track changes made to all of the equipment. I can also send out changes to all of the devices - either individually or globally. Again, all custom build settings and Ruby scripts. Was a lot easier to setup than Visual Studio for management.

Managing AD/Servers:
This can be done from any OS using SSH (again, PowerShell Server). I use PowerShell to manage everything nearly 100% and have scripts written on my Mac to automate most tasks. Far easier than using the GUI based tools that come with Windows (though to be fair - these scripts can be used on Windows, including the Ruby ones, just with a little more effort to setup).

Office:
I'm not in Sales or Finance, I don't need most things that Office offers. I need to create quick Word documents with documentation, Excel sheets with budgetary info and PowerPoint presentations for meetings. Nothing special - the Apple equivalent apps can do these things as well. I would guess many people don't require the Windows specific features of Office (not everyone but many).

I do use a Windows VM for Visio and NetZoom. Visio combined with NetZoom is the best app for documenting rack layouts, wiring, etc. OmniGraffle doesn't even come close (I have tried). This is the only item I couldn't do on my Mac with the same level or better quality.

Mail/Messaging:
I use the Mac apps for all Mail/Messaging/Calendar etc. We use hosted Exchange with Microsoft and I have no issues with compatibility aside from no archive support or voting support (fyi: neither are supported in Outlook for Mac). I also manage the hosted Exchange using SSH/PowerShell from my Mac.

Other departments:
The only two departments that wouldn't work well using Mac would be Engineering and Finance. Engineering could go to Linux though as all of their software packages have Linux/Unix builds available. Finance... well, our current finance department uses some legacy Windows apps and extensive Excel VB scripting - they could get by using a VM but I see it as more of a hassle and more expensive to go Mac at that point.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

for real work and gaming = Windows.

For casual use, facebooking, messaging, email, etc = Mac.

You cannot really be as productive on a Mac when you do real work such as 3d parametric modeling, programming, etc...

I prefer having a mac where I can enjoy the best of both worlds via bootcamp. The people who only use Mac and swear by it are usually people who facebook all day or download pictures or photoshop.

The problem is you say get a mac for casual usage, but a mac is 2x the cost of a PC, or ever more than 3x as much if you're trying to spec them out equally.

I switched from a MBP to a Dell laptop, and couldn't be happier. It works just fine for casual usage, and when I need the horsepower for games, it has that too.

 

[leman]

You cannot really be as productive on a Mac when you do real work such as 3d parametric modeling, programming, etc...

I can't program on Windows... already the lack of the Unix shell is a deal breaker for me. Of course, if you are programming for Windows and have to use Visual Studio, there are basically no alternatives. And even for my cross-platform software, I do all the Windows-specific code on OS X, simply because the tools I have there are vastly superior to anything I have found for Windows.

----------

The problem is you say get a mac for casual usage, but a mac is 2x the cost of a PC, or ever more than 3x as much if you're trying to spec them out equally.

Please show me a 3x cheaper equally specced PC machine comparable to say, the iMac, the retina MBP or the MacBook Air.

 

[A Hebrew]

Only change to a 15" MBP. Both 13" MBPs are ridiculously over priced for the technology in them.

 

[runebinder]

Personally for Word processing and presentations I prefer Pages & Keynote.

Images stay where you want them to, even if your'e adding your 5th. In Word normally when I get to this point, the first image then changes position and I spend the next half hour shifting them round till I can get all of them where I want. Have tried Word 2013 in Windows and that is still the same. In Pages I don't get this issue, far more productive and less frustrating.

Keynote beats PowerPoint for me, better animations and transitions.

The only issue is at work everyone else uses Windows which necessitates using Office, which is why I run Parallels with Office 10 pro installed. Get the OS X gestures on the VM which makes it more pleasant to work with vs Bootcamp.

Apart from gaming I can run pretty much any SW I need from within OS X, which is why I much prefer having a Mac Notebook over a Windows one.

 

[el-John-o]

Only change to a 15" MBP. Both 13" MBPs are ridiculously over priced for the technology in them.

I disagree. If you only look at the CPU, RAM, and Hard Drive, you might say that. But find me an inexpensive laptop with the form factor of the 13" MBP, that has a 7+ hour battery life and will still have a 7+ hour battery life a year from now, has high speed I/O via thunderbolt AND USB 3.0 for use with large external drives AND has a third party accessory market that sells you a device that lets you mount a second hard drive in there to run RAID 0?

That's the problem with the way many people compare specs with Macintosh products. The CPU, RAM and Hard Drive space aren't the reasons you buy a MacBook. If those are your sole needs, you are better off with a cheaper windoze laptop. It's the other features a MacBook has, the build quality, the ecosystem and integration with mobile devices (iOS), the LiPo battery that, despite it's superior technology, is often not adopted in the Windows Laptop market (because it's expensive), or an acoustically silent fan that you cannot hear unless you are really putting the machine through it's paces, or an aluminum enclosure that spreads heat and keeps the laptop cool to the touch.

There are a lot of good reasons to go with the 15" MBP but users like me prefer a bit more portability, and are willing to trade a bit of performance to get it. The 13" MBP is the perfect size for being portable, and yet still have more horsepower than a MacBook Air. Then, when I get home, it gets plugged into my 27" Apple Cinema Display and becomes a full sized desktop. It has no problem gaming at low to mid settings (high on some games from a few years ago).

I think the 13" MacBook Pro is the perfect MacBook, myself!

Also, Parallels 8 coherence mode works incredibly good, including for games. If you are a user who likes to game, or needs certain Windows Applications, there's no reason to be scared away from a Mac. Running Parallels in coherence mode, you can open up windows applications as if they were Mac OS applications, and they work just fine. In fact, if I open up a word document in the finder in Mac OS X, it opens up in Word 2010 for Windows!

I, too, prefer Pages and Keynote, but unfortunately the monopoly stranglehold that Microsoft has necessitates MS Office. I'd love to see businesses go to open source solutions like OpenOffice. For 99% of the daily tasks a user would face, OpenOffice can do it. It would force Microsoft to improve many of the issues (like the aforementioned issues with formatting with images, etc.) because they could no longer get by with just being the stand by... Similar to the way Windows 7 was released so quickly and done so well... Vista was terrible, got terrible reviews and it went over like a lead balloon. The result? With the gaining popularity of Apple and Mac OS once again gaining real traction in the PC Market share, lots of users jumped ship and went to OS X over Windows Vista. Without this competition, we'd still be on vista, or if a new edition had been released, it would simply be a cash cow and be just as poor. Microsoft was forced to improve the stability, security, and functionality of their software because they stopped becoming the 'standby'. Another great example is internet browsers. Internet Explorer is falling fast, and Microsoft has improved it drastically in a few short years, making it very secure and much faster (though not as good as the alternatives!) Ultimately, the competition is a good thing, and I think businesses and schools have the power to force Microsoft to 'compete' in the Office Software market!

 

[A Hebrew]

I disagree. If you only look at the CPU, RAM, and Hard Drive, you might say that. But find me an inexpensive laptop with the form factor of the 13" MBP, that has a 7+ hour battery life and will still have a 7+ hour battery life a year from now, has high speed I/O via thunderbolt AND USB 3.0 for use with large external drives AND has a third party accessory market that sells you a device that lets you mount a second hard drive in there to run RAID 0?

That's the problem with the way many people compare specs with Macintosh products. The CPU, RAM and Hard Drive space aren't the reasons you buy a MacBook. If those are your sole needs, you are better off with a cheaper windoze laptop. It's the other features a MacBook has, the build quality, the ecosystem and integration with mobile devices (iOS), the LiPo battery that, despite it's superior technology, is often not adopted in the Windows Laptop market (because it's expensive), or an acoustically silent fan that you cannot hear unless you are really putting the machine through it's paces, or an aluminum enclosure that spreads heat and keeps the laptop cool to the touch.

There are a lot of good reasons to go with the 15" MBP but users like me prefer a bit more portability, and are willing to trade a bit of performance to get it. The 13" MBP is the perfect size for being portable, and yet still have more horsepower than a MacBook Air. Then, when I get home, it gets plugged into my 27" Apple Cinema Display and becomes a full sized desktop. It has no problem gaming at low to mid settings (high on some games from a few years ago).

I think the 13" MacBook Pro is the perfect MacBook, myself!

7+ Hour Battery Life - MBP only gets that if you dim the screen way down and only use something like Text Editor. Realistically, you will get 5. Which is a standard in almost all Windows laptops.

Thunderbolt - Very rarely used technology, it wins on this one.

USB 3.0 - This has been a standard in Windows laptops for the past few years now.

Integration with iOS - If you try to tell me Windows 8 is not integrated with mobile devices, you are crazy.

Fan - From what I hear, only the retinas have this 'top quality' fan. I have a 13" 2011 MBP (Got it for a good deal) and the fans kick on for any flash program that I have running for a while.


The 13" MBP has such a little power boost over the MBA that anyone who chooses it either A) Regrets it or B) Is awkward. People who deny it just have buyers remorse and are trying to justify their purchase.


Edit: By the way, you misspelled Windows.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Please show me a 3x cheaper equally specced PC machine comparable to say, the iMac, the retina MBP or the MacBook Air.

Boom: Dell Inspiron 13z is a tad heavier, has a 5 hour battery, skull candy speakers, and starts at $600. With a next-business day, on site warranty.

Likewise, you can get a Dell all in one that's just as fast, for much less. Starting at $1200 you can get a touchscreen all in one, or there's the 27" all in one for $1400. Some of them even come with Blu-ray.

If you let me compare a MacBook Pro 13" or a MacBook Pro 15", it becomes a piece of cake.

 

[el-John-o]

7+ Hour Battery Life - MBP only gets that if you dim the screen way down and only use something like Text Editor. Realistically, you will get 5. Which is a standard in almost all Windows laptops.

Thunderbolt - Very rarely used technology, it wins on this one.

USB 3.0 - This has been a standard in Windows laptops for the past few years now.

Integration with iOS - If you try to tell me Windows 8 is not integrated with mobile devices, you are crazy.

Fan - From what I hear, only the retinas have this 'top quality' fan. I have a 13" 2011 MBP (Got it for a good deal) and the fans kick on for any flash program that I have running for a while.


The 13" MBP has such a little power boost over the MBA that anyone who chooses it either A) Regrets it or B) Is awkward. People who deny it just have buyers remorse and are trying to justify their purchase.


Edit: By the way, you misspelled Windows.

I get 7 hours out of my 2012 MBP easy. I calibrated the battery when I got it per Apples instructions. Not when gaming, but, that's when gaming sheesh. With the screen at full brightness, browsing the web, working with MS Office, etc., the kinds of things I do on a daily basis for work (and need the most battery for) I easily get 7 hours. I get 5-6 hours doing more complicated tasks such as working with DSLR photos in lightroom and photoshop. The big deal here though, is the fact that it's a LiPo battery and will STILL get this battery life a year from now. I've owned many Windows laptops with a 5ish (screen dimmed, using Office) hour battery life, that within 6 months was half that, and in a year to a year and a half, were no longer usable (30 minutes or so at best).

Also, I never hear the fan, at all, on my MBP unless I'm gaming. Even if I put my ear to it and listen for it. Even when gaming, it's quieter than my last windows laptop was when doing basic day to day tasks. Combined with the SSD's my MacBook Pro is as silent as my iPad, you just don't hear anything.

For many people, a Windows laptop makes more sense. It's certainly cheaper, they may not be concerned about a few decibels of fan noise, having a plastic computer, or having 'hot spots' that are hot to the touch. They may also not care about OSX, integration with iOS, Apples superior color profiles and monitor calibration (useful for when working with images on my 27" ACD), or any of these other features. As I said, those people should go with a Windows laptop. Others, like myself, prefer the features and enjoy our 13" MBP's. IMO, 15" is too big to be portable, it becomes bulky. Nobody is denying the 15" is more powerful, but it's power I am willing to trade for the portability of my 13" MBP. It's the same reason I carry a cellphone, when I could carry around a VoIP desk phone, desktop computer, and a host of other large devices. The iPhone does't do it better, or have more horsepower, or anything like that. But it's portable, fits in my pocket, and does it well enough. Likewise, a 13" MacBook Pro provides the level of performance I need, with the features and user experience I want, with portability that makes it not unwieldy.

Also, it was an intentional spelling of 'Windoze'. Surely you've heard of that before, it's just a sarcastic spelling. Like calling someone who thinks they are a photographer but takes really crappy pictures a 'fauxtographer'. Faux = fake, false, or imitation. In this case, Doze indicates tired, unexciting, exhausting.

 

[skaertus]

I think today that is very true, however in the future I can see a change as more and more companies adopt Software as Service (SaaS) cloud applications like SalesForce, particularly among the SME (Small Medium Enterprise) marketplace. Yes larger businesses will be slower to move, but that is the way things are going. This is one of the reasons that Microsoft is pushing its own cloud based Office suite so hard (with mixed success at the moment), Office 365, as that is where the future is headed. Companies are increasing looking to liberate data stuck on someone's hard drive and make it more available to other co-workers to increase collaboration.

Many companies are dumping giving laptops to mobile employees and giving them tablets like the iPad instead. Now I am not suggesting this will happen quickly, or that the need for high powered desktops running niche software will go away, but over the next 3-5 years I think we will see a big change in how enterprise applications are developed. Once a corporate application is on the cloud and can be accessed via a web browser, it does not really matter if it is a PC, Mac or Tablet.

That's for sure.

Still, the future will be as asymetrical and confusing as the present.

Software will move to the cloud, but there will still be legacy software which will be required, and tons of files written in proprietary formats which simply cannot be abandoned nor transferred to anywhere else. And some companies will prefer not to move to the cloud; there are sometimes sensitive data which companies prefer not to store on someone else's server. In addition, the cloud-based systems require companies to pay a fixed amount for a period of time; with software installed in hard drives, companies may choose whether to spend additional money upgrading it or not. I know companies which still use Microsoft Office 2003 because they did not want to spend more money on it. The future is not cloud-based, nor stored in a hard drive. The future is, well, a combination of what things turn out to be.

Tablets will become more popular in the future, but desktops will still be needed. People need to write stuff, and tablets are far from ideal for this purpose.

----------

Personally for Word processing and presentations I prefer Pages & Keynote.

It's not always a matter of personal preference. Microsoft Office may be required for full compatibility on the enterprise.

Images stay where you want them to, even if your'e adding your 5th. In Word normally when I get to this point, the first image then changes position and I spend the next half hour shifting them round till I can get all of them where I want. Have tried Word 2013 in Windows and that is still the same. In Pages I don't get this issue, far more productive and less frustrating.

Pages is good at dealing with pictures. This is a quality of desktop publishing software. But Pages lacks features of powerful word processors. Pages doesn't have support for cross-references nor indexing, and these two features are required for long structured writing.

Keynote beats PowerPoint for me, better animations and transitions.

Keynote may be better than PowerPoint for lots of things. But you will probably not be allowed to use your own Mac to put your Keynote presentation in a congress where lots of other speakers will give their speeches too. I've faced this a lot of times. People ask you to send the PowerPoint presentations to be included in the material of the congress. Keynote is of no use in these scenarios.

 

[el-John-o]

I agree with the above, and I think laptops are going to really replace desktops in a lot of ways. Power Users will never want to believe that, but it's true. You are going to find less and less desktops on the shelves, MOST users do NOT need a desktop. Most users are not willing to spend the money on a gaming PC, and just need mediocre performance. Gamers will be a niche that will need more powerful machines, but they are a niche. As are creative professionals needing the horsepower and expandability of a desktop. But for your typical user, who needs basic word processing, perhaps presentations, web browsing, communication, etc. A laptop will replace the desktop.

I have several in my family who now own only laptops. I've got a desktop which I use when I need it, but I use my laptop more. My laptop is also a bit of a desktop replacement as it gets hooked up to my big displays and used in that fashion quite a bit. The desktop is now mainly used for gaming, which the laptop can't handle to that degree.

 

[JoeRito]

Yes, I don't know why people constantly knock Mac Office, it's not at all bad.

Its OK. As a heavy user, I can agree with earlier posts that the apps are much more sluggish in Mac Office vs. windows Office. Plus you lose most keyboard shortcuts and use of the f2 key to edit a cell in Excel. Excel is seriously slow in Mac version...its sad, it doesn't need to be, but that's the way MS wants it. Also, no MS Access is available if that matters to you.

 

[amrabari]

thanks all for your reply, i feel in 24 hours a lot and really a lot of information & users experience have been written here to compare between Windows & Mac ... Microsoft & Apple should pay MacRoumors and you guys a lot of money for this such great information that they should use in there researches and improve there products.

after reading all your comments, i really feel that i should go to Apple Laptop and try to use Mac OS X as sometimes Apple make u addicted to there products... I also saw it in other forums where users are saying when you buy an iPod, then go for iPhone, iPad and MacBook or iMac ... it happen with me, i got the iPhone 4, then iPhone 5 then iPad mini ... and soon i hope i can get an MacBook for my next laptop ..

I believe that the future is for the cloud, tablets, and fully integrated devices ... so when you start something in your laptop or desktop, you can finish it in your tablet or smart phone ... you can see it your self .. most of us already have an average 3 devices to work with ... (Smart Phone, Laptop and tablets) some users have other devices for gaming like PS3 or Xbox but that's other story even thou they started integrated that into mobiles & tablets ... like sony integrated there Play station game center in to there mobiles & tablets .. also Microsoft started doing the same thing ...

in the near future i believe that will happen .. so people are moving to Windows 8 and you can see it's even the same design of the mobile and tablet version .. even thou they have put Office & Outlook in the Nokia Lumia 920 so you can create and edit your documents right from your mobile and finish it in your laptop ... so you they are going in that direction to make a user loyal to a company .. if you really want to be synchronized in everything.

So it depend on your all other devices ... I used Android and i didn't like it for my HTC, so i moved to iPhone, and loved the way you can use it without any problems of hanging or heating .. because the same company is doing the software & hardware ... and that's the same thing is going for laptops .. since Apple is doing the software & hardware they manage to overcome most of the issue regarding the crush, heating, hanging and other issues (based on your reviews)

so regarding that, i really don't want to go back to Nokia or HTC to use Windows 8 and integrated to my Windows 8 that you must upgrade to it any time in the future ... so i should consider going for Mac OS X to have the fully integrated system with my other devices as my iPhone & iPad so i can use all of them for the same direction in work..

I am an IT company owner, and i really care about my files, doing quotes & designs in Visio so i think i can use the VM and use windows for these kind of things .. the rest of things (as i read from your reviews) i can use the Mac with peace of mind ... please correct me if i am wrong?? can i use the Mac for everyday use .. i mean for entertainment, because sometime i get cracked software or movies from friends that they download from the torrent files online ... can i still use them on my Mac??

other question please, Regarding the integration & synchronization between Apple devices, will the mail app of the Mac & iOS will have an archived copy of my all emails? i mean all my emails will be automatically copied to all my devices anytime i do a synchronization in iTunes?? or should i leave a copy in the server same as i am doing now with outlook??

a lot of you has asked me to go to Apple store and try the Mac my self, the problem (which i am scared from it the most) that i am in Yemen, and there is no Apple store or even iTunes store for our country .. the App store for iOS devices is very poor compare to US Apps Store .. so i am scared that the Mac Apps store for Yemen will not be having many programs for my next MacBook or maybe we don't have Mac Apps store at all ...

I believe that there were a lot of information been shared and i really would like to thank everyone for there kind advises & sharing .. i really would like to know more about your experience and information.


thanks all again for your support and sharing ...

----------

One more thing, i agree with the above that desktops will be replaced by Laptops, tablets & Smart Phones ... and you can see most of the network security company are talking about BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) so you can do the work on any device that you like securely without any problem ...

take care guys ...

 

[runebinder]

It's not always a matter of personal preference. Microsoft Office may be required for full compatibility on the enterprise.

I agree, hence why I went onto to say the issue is everyone else at work uses Windows, still doesn't change the fact that I prefer Pages and Keynote.

Pages is good at dealing with pictures. This is a quality of desktop publishing software. But Pages lacks features of powerful word processors. Pages doesn't have support for cross-references nor indexing, and these two features are required for long structured writing.

I write computer training docs so picture location and anchoring is far more important to my work than support for cross-references or indexing. Whilst your example might have benefits for one type of work, that is not all word processing SW is used for.

Keynote may be better than PowerPoint for lots of things. But you will probably not be allowed to use your own Mac to put your Keynote presentation in a congress where lots of other speakers will give their speeches too. I've faced this a lot of times. People ask you to send the PowerPoint presentations to be included in the material of the congress. Keynote is of no use in these scenarios.

Never been and doubt I never will go to a congress, so that scenario is not really a concern for me. I do deliver training, so do a fair amount of presentation work, and apart from the exception of an Apple Mac course which I insisted had to be done in Keynote, I have to use PowerPoint as everyone else does. So yes you will generally only have PowerPoint as an option under a lot of circumstances, having used both to create and deliver content I still rate Keynote as the better SW.

 

[runebinder]

Entertainment wise OS X is fine. Like Windows there is SW like VLC to play most file types.

 

[amrabari]

As an IT manager for a company running 100% windows at 25 locations globally, I have to completely disagree. My job feels quite a bit easier since switching to a Mac (subjective, I know).

Network Configs:
XCode also downloads all of my Cisco configs using Ruby scripts and custom build settings for switches/routers/APs across the Enterprise. It offers easy Git commits to track changes made to all of the equipment. I can also send out changes to all of the devices - either individually or globally. Again, all custom build settings and Ruby scripts. Was a lot easier to setup than Visual Studio for management.

Managing AD/Servers:
This can be done from any OS using SSH (again, PowerShell Server). I use PowerShell to manage everything nearly 100% and have scripts written on my Mac to automate most tasks. Far easier than using the GUI based tools that come with Windows (though to be fair - these scripts can be used on Windows, including the Ruby ones, just with a little more effort to setup).

Office:
I'm not in Sales or Finance, I don't need most things that Office offers. I need to create quick Word documents with documentation, Excel sheets with budgetary info and PowerPoint presentations for meetings. Nothing special - the Apple equivalent apps can do these things as well. I would guess many people don't require the Windows specific features of Office (not everyone but many).

I do use a Windows VM for Visio and NetZoom. Visio combined with NetZoom is the best app for documenting rack layouts, wiring, etc. OmniGraffle doesn't even come close (I have tried). This is the only item I couldn't do on my Mac with the same level or better quality.

Mail/Messaging:
I use the Mac apps for all Mail/Messaging/Calendar etc. We use hosted Exchange with Microsoft and I have no issues with compatibility aside from no archive support or voting support (fyi: neither are supported in Outlook for Mac). I also manage the hosted Exchange using SSH/PowerShell from my Mac.

Other departments:
The only two departments that wouldn't work well using Mac would be Engineering and Finance. Engineering could go to Linux though as all of their software packages have Linux/Unix builds available. Finance... well, our current finance department uses some legacy Windows apps and extensive Excel VB scripting - they could get by using a VM but I see it as more of a hassle and more expensive to go Mac at that point.

I really like and got a lot of information and knowledge from this .. As I am Cisco partner and deals with Cisco equipments ...

 

[James_C]

other question please, Regarding the integration & synchronization between Apple devices, will the mail app of the Mac & iOS will have an archived copy of my all emails? i mean all my emails will be automatically copied to all my devices anytime i do a synchronization in iTunes?? or should i leave a copy in the server same as i am doing now with outlook??

a lot of you has asked me to go to Apple store and try the Mac my self, the problem (which i am scared from it the most) that i am in Yemen, and there is no Apple store or even iTunes store for our country .. the App store for iOS devices is very poor compare to US Apps Store .. so i am scared that the Mac Apps store for Yemen will not be having many programs for my next MacBook or maybe we don't have Mac Apps store at all ...

Mail will not sync emails to other devices by itself. Best advice is to use an IMAP mail account like iCloud or GMail. With these services all Mail is stored on the server and any changes are then replicated across connected devices. Using a PoP mail service will drive you insane if you access your mail on multiple devices. I am not sure what Mail service you use at the moment, but be warned that Hotmail will not work with IMAP on a Mac.

Apple are continually rolling out the iTunes Store and the MAS to more countries each year. Hopefully it will reach Yemen soon. Most developers will sell their software directly from their own Web Store as well as making it available in the MAS. So getting software should not be a problem.

One final point - Yes you will be able to run Visio fine under a VM like Parallels, but take a look at OmniGraffle from the Omni Group. It is a while since I used Visio for Windows, but when I switched I much preferred OmniGraffle. There is a free trial on their website. OmniGraffle Pro can read and write Visio files.

 

[amrabari]

Mail will not sync emails to other devices by itself. Best advice is to use an IMAP mail account like iCloud or GMail. With these services all Mail is stored on the server and any changes are then replicated across connected devices. Using a PoP mail service will drive you insane if you access your mail on multiple devices. I am not sure what Mail service you use at the moment, but be warned that Hotmail will not work with IMAP on a Mac.

Apple are continually rolling out the iTunes Store and the MAS to more countries each year. Hopefully it will reach Yemen soon. Most developers will sell their software directly from their own Web Store as well as making it available in the MAS. So getting software should not be a problem.

One final point - Yes you will be able to run Visio fine under a VM like Parallels, but take a look at OmniGraffle from the Omni Group. It is a while since I used Visio for Windows, but when I switched I much preferred OmniGraffle. There is a free trial on their website. OmniGraffle Pro can read and write Visio files.

Thanks for your advice, will try the OmniGraffle and hope it do the job right..

Regarding the mail, we bought a domain online and I think it's IMAP but the problem when I send emails from outlook I can't see it in any other devices, not even if I login to the webmail account .. However when receiving emails I do ask the outlook to have a copy on the server so I can access it thru any device .. Is there a way to over come this problem when sending emails since I will be using the same mail application on the Mac & iOS?

 

[James_C]

Thanks for your advice, will try the OmniGraffle and hope it do the job right..

Regarding the mail, we bought a domain online and I think it's IMAP but the problem when I send emails from outlook I can't see it in any other devices, not even if I login to the webmail account .. However when receiving emails I do ask the outlook to have a copy on the server so I can access it thru any device .. Is there a way to over come this problem when sending emails since I will be using the same mail application on the Mac & iOS?

If it is IMAP you should be fine. In Mail preferences under the Mail Behaviours Tab just make sure Store Sent Messages on the Server is turned on.