For anyone thats a windows user thats considering getting a mac as a secondary computer or to switch completely here's my experience so far.
My situation: I'm a web designer/developer. I work primarily with DW, Flash, Cold Fusion, some asp and asp.net. I also am a heavy user of Photoshop and Cubase. I switched away from mac when win95 was released.
Set up: Piece of cake. I have a Power Mac dual 2.0 added 1gig of RAM and installed a second HD it was much easier than with the wintel box took all of 15 minutes, seriously. Connection to the home network was plug and play. Setting up remote access to the wintel box (I must have this for asp and still in he process of moving to mac and have to keep productivity up) again, simple works like a charm. Install of Microsoft Intellimouse Bluetooth was a problem, the usb bluetooth adapter for the mouse would not work, purchased iogear usb bluetooth adapter which solved the problem, mouse, phone, pda are all paired. Oh the monitor I'm using is the Dell 20" that gets good reviews on this board, works great. The apple mouse that came with the computer is a problem, I really like having 2 buttons.
Software install. Piece of cake, Studio MX allows 2 installs, everything else was without issue. Still experimenting with ftp programs. For now I'm still using the pc for most ftp.
Issues: I really like OSX but like anything else there is going to be an adaptation process. I haven't quite figured out Apache and haven't attempted installing J2EE or Tomcat to run Cold Fusion. Windows Media player, I have yet to figure out if it will play within the browser window. This is a bit of a problem but hopefully I'll find a solution. Iphoto, I really want the default directory on the secondary drive, I read where you have to edit a config file for this...haven't got to that point though I have opened up terminal and poked around. I spent on a Solaris box so I still remember a few unix commands, need to get the OReilly OSX Unix book.
I have to mention remote access to the wintel box works like a dream. On an ethernet connection it's almost like sitting in front of the box. The search function is wonderful, and I have found myself using Dashboard more than I anticipated it's very handy.
Imported all of my itunes files to the mac, worked great, authorized with itunes simple procedure.
So far so good, it's day 2 and the only times I've had to get into the wintel box I have done with remote access.
So far getting the Mac has been a good move, zero regrets. Once I tackle the Cold Fusion set up I'll feel more at home.
My situation: I'm a web designer/developer. I work primarily with DW, Flash, Cold Fusion, some asp and asp.net. I also am a heavy user of Photoshop and Cubase. I switched away from mac when win95 was released.
Set up: Piece of cake. I have a Power Mac dual 2.0 added 1gig of RAM and installed a second HD it was much easier than with the wintel box took all of 15 minutes, seriously. Connection to the home network was plug and play. Setting up remote access to the wintel box (I must have this for asp and still in he process of moving to mac and have to keep productivity up) again, simple works like a charm. Install of Microsoft Intellimouse Bluetooth was a problem, the usb bluetooth adapter for the mouse would not work, purchased iogear usb bluetooth adapter which solved the problem, mouse, phone, pda are all paired. Oh the monitor I'm using is the Dell 20" that gets good reviews on this board, works great. The apple mouse that came with the computer is a problem, I really like having 2 buttons.
Software install. Piece of cake, Studio MX allows 2 installs, everything else was without issue. Still experimenting with ftp programs. For now I'm still using the pc for most ftp.
Issues: I really like OSX but like anything else there is going to be an adaptation process. I haven't quite figured out Apache and haven't attempted installing J2EE or Tomcat to run Cold Fusion. Windows Media player, I have yet to figure out if it will play within the browser window. This is a bit of a problem but hopefully I'll find a solution. Iphoto, I really want the default directory on the secondary drive, I read where you have to edit a config file for this...haven't got to that point though I have opened up terminal and poked around. I spent on a Solaris box so I still remember a few unix commands, need to get the OReilly OSX Unix book.
I have to mention remote access to the wintel box works like a dream. On an ethernet connection it's almost like sitting in front of the box. The search function is wonderful, and I have found myself using Dashboard more than I anticipated it's very handy.
Imported all of my itunes files to the mac, worked great, authorized with itunes simple procedure.
So far so good, it's day 2 and the only times I've had to get into the wintel box I have done with remote access.
So far getting the Mac has been a good move, zero regrets. Once I tackle the Cold Fusion set up I'll feel more at home.
