The total cost to switch to Mac

[IgnatiusTheKing]

You don't necessarily need to go the Mac Pro route. At my last job, I had a Mac Pro and it was a fantastic system. I, too, am freelancing full time now and have been using my 2007 iMac without issue. Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign are just as fast (PS actually starts up much faster for some reason), I have a second monitor connected to it, and the 24" display is greatness.

No, it's not as powerful as the Mac Pro, but since you're not going to be doing video work, you may not ever experience a lot of that power, anyway. If you can hold off a month or so, there will probably be a new version of the iMac.

As to your question about the Adobe programs, PC vs. Mac, I can honestly say there isn't a whole lot of difference. The only real difference I've ever noticed is that on a Mac you use the command key for the major keyboard shortcuts instead of the the control key. Really. That's the only difference.

 

[neiltc13]

Yeah, I wanna know too. What exactly was/is broken?

Leopard. It's an unstable mess. I have no idea why they chose to replace Tiger (my favourite OS of all time) with this. I still regularly get program crashes, hangs and te famous beach ball quite frequently. Most annoyingly though, I've seen the Mac OS-equivalent of a BSOD, "Kernel Panic" multiple times since starting using Leopard.

I've not had any of these problems with Tiger or Windows 7. I certainly don't think that it's worth spending 8000 of any currency to swap to.

 

[IgnatiusTheKing]

Leopard. It's an unstable mess. I have no idea why they chose to replace Tiger (my favourite OS of all time) with this. I still regularly get program crashes, hangs and te famous beach ball quite frequently. Most annoyingly though, I've seen the Mac OS-equivalent of a BSOD, "Kernel Panic" multiple times since starting using Leopard.

I've not had any of these problems with Tiger or Windows 7. I certainly don't think that it's worth spending 8000 of any currency to swap to.

Sounds like you've got problems with bad hardware (perhaps bad RAM).

I've used Leopard on four different Macs (Mac Pro, iMac, MacBook Air and white MacBook). I've never had a kernel panic, rarely get any program crashes or hangs and almost never get the beach ball.

Does this mean Leopard is the greatest operating system of all time? Not necessarily, but I don't think my experience is any less valid than yours. If you liked Tiger so much, go back to it.

 

[bozz2006]

have you tried a clean install? something in your system doesn't jive.

 

[neiltc13]

have you tried a clean install? something in your system doesn't jive.

Well I've owned three different MacBooks, an iMac and a Mac Pro since Leopard was released. None of them were free of these problems.

And anyway, this is going way off topic. Let's just imagine that Leopard is better than Windows, is it really 8000 better than Windows and worth all that investment when the newest version of Windows is easily the best yet?

 

[bozz2006]

I'd say that is way too subjective to come to a consensus on. If he needs to upgrade all his stuff, then it gets even more subjective. And I think it's too early to say windows 7 is easily the best yet. Yeah, you can test drive the pre-release, but it's not even finished yet. I mean, I'd hope that Snow Leopard is the best OSX yet, and I expect it will be, but how can a person say that? For instance, before Leopard came out, you probably thought it would easily be the best OSX yet, but now that you've used it, that certainly isn't your opinion now. Software companies only make money if they can convince people that the new version is easily the best yet.

 

[verybiglanky]

Well I've owned three different MacBooks, an iMac and a Mac Pro since Leopard was released. None of them were free of these problems.

And anyway, this is going way off topic. Let's just imagine that Leopard is better than Windows, is it really 8000 better than Windows and worth all that investment when the newest version of Windows is easily the best yet?

Not sure you cann call it the greatest version of Windows when it's still in Beta..

I've been using the (generous) Beta for quite a while now, and it's admittedly rather good - and probably the first real reason for PC users to switch from XP.

However - I cant help thinking that all the nice wallpaper and less clutter in the menus is really just a giant service pack for Vista. Say what you like about Vista's initial release - but it's hard to deny it was a system hog that was designed by comittee.

If they've cleared away all the excess baggage then all well and good.

I have no issues with Leopard at all. My bro uses Tiger and i compare the two a lot. I am positive I've got the better of the two operating systems. If you've had problems cross platforms with the same o/s have you considered that the common factor may well be a 3rd party piece of software on all 3? Sounds like a good probability to me...

Since snow Leopard's taking the same approach as Windows 7 (building on what came before) I for one will be buying it.

Back to the original topic.

My bro's a web designer. He purposely switched from PC two years ago and never looked back. He's never yet found something he couldnt do in the Apple environment that he could do on a PC.

There's sooooo much open source stuff out there that it's hard not to find a way to do things.

I thought I'd miss my PC - and even ran them side by side for a while. Now my PC is only good for one thing - and thats it's secondary function as a footstool.

 

[Winni]

Thats a laugh. W7 is nothing more than a face-lift of vista. Microsoft hasn't made a decent MacOS clone since 3.1.1

Yep, and Snow Leopard is only a face-lift of Leopard which in turn was only a SLOW face-lift of Tiger.

I would agree if you said that Windows 7 is what Windows Vista already should have been on the day of its release. But that doesn't change the fact that Windows 7 is the best Windows release since Windows NT 4.0. Windows 7 is very fast, capable, robust and even fun to use. The only OS X feature that I miss in Windows 7 is Quick Look. In all other aspects and especially when it comes to networking and large network environments (where I earn my money), Microsoft leads the pack.

But that is the main difference between Apple and Microsoft, and most of you folks just don't seem to get it: Microsoft is mostly a corporate player. Apple caters almost exclusively to the home user.

It's not only that the two companies are in a different league, they usually don't even play the same sport.

But while Windows also is a good consumer platform, OS X falls short in a corporate environment. And that is not only true for the desktop versions of the systems, but even more so for their server siblings. Windows Server 2008 mops the floor with OS X Server anytime. I have to work with all of the major operating systems on a daily basis, and in my opinion, Windows Server 2003 and 2008 also mop the floor with any flavor of GNU/Linux.

OS X uses a Mach kernel on a FreeBSD foundation, so technically it could be a good corporate platform. The reason why it isn't is not its technical foundation but the fact that Apple does not play well with others and only creates ecosystems around its products by accident, if at all.

 

[brentsg]

Not sure you cann call it the greatest version of Windows when it's still in Beta..

It's not still in beta, the RTM version is readily available and in use by Technet and MSDN subscribers now.

 

[Infrared]

I'd say that is way too subjective to come to a consensus on. If he needs to upgrade all his stuff, then it gets even more subjective. And I think it's too early to say windows 7 is easily the best yet. Yeah, you can test drive the pre-release, but it's not even finished yet.

It was finished 18 days ago:

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/wi...ows-7-has-been-released-to-manufacturing.aspx

 

[verybiglanky]

It's not still in beta, the RTM version is readily available and in use by Technet and MSDN subscribers now.

Yaaay! Only another 7 years of service packs and bug fixes to go before they get it working right!!!

 

[neiltc13]

Yaaay! Only another 7 years of service packs and bug fixes to go before they get it working right!!!

I've been using a pre-release version since the RC became available and I have not had a single problem whatsoever. Well, maybe one incompatibility with an older video game, but that was it. No programs have crashed on me and the OS has been solid since day one.

I wish I could say the same about Leopard.

 

[bozz2006]

It was finished 18 days ago:

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/wi...ows-7-has-been-released-to-manufacturing.aspx

my bad.

 

[verybiglanky]

I've been using a pre-release version since the RC became available and I have not had a single problem whatsoever. Well, maybe one incompatibility with an older video game, but that was it. No programs have crashed on me and the OS has been solid since day one.

I wish I could say the same about Leopard.

I guess it comes down to user experience at the end of the day. I work in IT myself - and if nothing else doing network support has proved that one man's nugget of gold is another man's unpolishable turd.

Live and let live I say!

I plan to run Windows 7 through bootcampt when it becomes compatible - so I'll put them both through ther paces. The lack of games on Macs frustrates the hell out of me - so that's one area that Apple adopters will always be tempted to go back to Windows for...

 

[Infrared]

But while Windows also is a good consumer platform, OS X falls short in a corporate environment. And that is not only true for the desktop versions of the systems, but even more so for their server siblings. Windows Server 2008 mops the floor with OS X Server anytime. I have to work with all of the major operating systems on a daily basis, and in my opinion, Windows Server 2003 and 2008 also mop the floor with any flavor of GNU/Linux.

Agreed. I think Leopard Server is more a competitor to Windows Home
Server, if anything. When you peruse the Leopard Server features, it
doesn't look very high-end at all. Features like "Podcaster Producer 2"
may appeal to the general consumer, but not to serious business users.

Curiously, Apple doesn't seem to be selling any server OS at the moment.
Maybe I'm not looking in the right place, but I can't see it here:

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/software/apple?mco=NDA5MTM

Or here:

http://www.apple.com/server/

There are a few references to Snow Leopard server scattered about the
site, but Apple aren't selling that yet. Is this another situation like the
one where Apple weren't selling their Xserve boxes for months?

Not exactly five nines availabillity

 

[Tesselator]

Leopard. It's an unstable mess. I have no idea why they chose to replace Tiger (my favourite OS of all time) with this. I still regularly get program crashes, hangs and te famous beach ball quite frequently. Most annoyingly though, I've seen the Mac OS-equivalent of a BSOD, "Kernel Panic" multiple times since starting using Leopard.

I've not had any of these problems with Tiger or Windows 7. I certainly don't think that it's worth spending 8000 of any currency to swap to.

Hmm, I had a few kernel panics in Tiger (10.4) none in 10.5.x yet though. I guess it's just a personal experience thing. Anyway, I thought maybe you had something specific to contribute and not just anecdotal.

My own personal preference goes to Mac OS ever since X. Prior to that it was Linux, IRIX, Solars, or Amiga OS. MS has never had a good OS imo - ever. They ripped off CPM to create DOS and messed it up in the process, they ripped off Apple to create windows and messed that up too - and are still suffering from those same mistakes. NT 3.1 ~ 3.5 was fairly good for the times but IRIX, Solaris, Next Step, Gem, Amiga OS, and OS Warp, all kicked it's ass at the time - in terms of features, security, stability, and ease of use. I haven't tried Windows 7 yet but I have a lot of experience with all other versions. Well, I missed the windows 95 and Millennium versions - but other than those from 2.0 to Vista 64 I know them fairly well.

To be totally fair Apple ripped off Xerox Pink to create their OS. But they didn't mess it up. They improved it dramatically - even from version 1.0. And yes, I'm old enough to remember computers before there were mice. Actually before there were keyboards!

 

[Tesselator]

Curiously, Apple doesn't seem to be selling any server OS at the moment.
Maybe I'm not looking in the right place, but I can't see it here:

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/software/apple?mco=NDA5MTM

Or here:

http://www.apple.com/server/

There are a few references to Snow Leopard server scattered about the
site, but Apple aren't selling that yet. Is this another situation like the
one where Apple weren't selling their Xserve boxes for months?

Not exactly five nines availabillity

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB607Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDAzOA&mco=NDQ0OTI0Ng&p=1&s=topSellers
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB606Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDAzOA&mco=MjE0OTM1NQ&p=1&s=topSellers
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB605Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDAzOA&mco=MjE1MDQwMQ&p=1&s=topSellers

 

[alent1234]

Hmm, I had a few kernel panics in Tiger (10.4) none in 10.5.x yet though. I guess it's just a personal experience thing. Anyway, I thought maybe you had something specific to contribute and not just anecdotal.

My own personal preference goes to Mac OS ever since X. Prior to that it was Linux, IRIX, Solars, or Amiga OS. MS has never had a good OS imo - ever. They ripped off CPM to create DOS and messed it up in the process, they ripped off Apple to create windows and messed that up too - and are still suffering from those same mistakes. NT 3.1 ~ 3.5 was fairly good for the times but IRIX, Solaris, Next Step, Gem, Amiga OS, and OS Warp, all kicked it's ass at the time - in terms of features, security, stability, and ease of use. I haven't tried Windows 7 yet but I have a lot of experience with all other versions. Well, I missed the windows 95 and Millennium versions - but other than those from 2.0 to Vista 64 I know them fairly well.

To be totally fair Apple ripped off Xerox Pink to create their OS. But they didn't mess it up. They improved it dramatically - even from version 1.0. And yes, I'm old enough to remember computers before there were mice. Actually before there were keyboards!

windows was a lot more usable than IRIX or Solaris. and the hardware was cheap compared to a Solaris workstation. and it had apps a home user could use other than Bourne Shell.

just like the iphone. it's missing features that other cell phones have, but the total package makes it a lot better than every other cell phone out there.

 

[gugucom]

And yes, I'm old enough to remember computers before there were mice. Actually before there were keyboards!

Did you have to punch your cards to input your programs? I remember those days.

I can still use these for computing:

 

[alent1234]

I guess it comes down to user experience at the end of the day. I work in IT myself - and if nothing else doing network support has proved that one man's nugget of gold is another man's unpolishable turd.

Live and let live I say!

I plan to run Windows 7 through bootcampt when it becomes compatible - so I'll put them both through ther paces. The lack of games on Macs frustrates the hell out of me - so that's one area that Apple adopters will always be tempted to go back to Windows for...

i work in IT as well and the only problem i've had was with VM client software. otherwise everything works on 32 bit Vista/7. and almost everything on 64 bit.

 

[Infrared]

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB607Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDAzOA&mco=NDQ0OTI0Ng&p=1&s=topSellers
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB606Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDAzOA&mco=MjE0OTM1NQ&p=1&s=topSellers
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB605Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDAzOA&mco=MjE1MDQwMQ&p=1&s=topSellers

Oh, I see. You have to hit that microscopic "Show All" link at the top right.
And if you don't hit it, there's no indication that some products are missing.

What a crummy bit of web design!

ps

The search box isn't very good at finding Leopard server either
I.e., it doesn't appear on the first page of results.

 

[Tesselator]

Did you have to punch your cards to input your programs? I remember those days.

I can still use these for computing:

Nah, us science geeks and programmers were doing paper-tape mostly. Cards were more for business geeks and and such.

Slide-rules do ROCK tho! I still keep one on my desk!

 

[Doctor Q]

- I’ve spent some time going through the tutorials on Apple’s site and it seems the GUI is as easy as Windows.

I think the Mac interface is easier, but that the overwhelming factor in ease of use is what you are used to. If you've gotten used to the Windows way of doing things, Mac OS X will be harder... at first. And vice versa. Switching platforms takes some adjustment of habits. You'll love some features that become available to you (e.g., Exposé) and miss others (e.g., resizing windows from any side or corner).

I do light PHP scripting and it helps after knowing I can enable Apache in a few clicks.

With Unix beneath the surface, Mac OS X is a good platform for scripting work. I do scripting too (I came from a Unix background) and it was easy to move to Mac OS X.

- Learning a new Operating system can be refreshing to mind and help me to break away from old habits and explore better and more efficient way to work

- Having experience in both platforms can be a marketable skill.

Among the factors you've mentioned in favor of switching, I think these are the most important. I'm glad I've used many operating systems and multiple platforms because it helps me see the bigger picture, have wider and more interesting experiences, and feel at ease in either world. Ultimately, that benefits your clients too.

 

[joekun]

Leopard. It's an unstable mess. I have no idea why they chose to replace Tiger (my favourite OS of all time) with this. I still regularly get program crashes, hangs and te famous beach ball quite frequently. Most annoyingly though, I've seen the Mac OS-equivalent of a BSOD, "Kernel Panic" multiple times since starting using Leopard.

I had this same problem with Tiger and my first mac (power mac G5), and after months of frustration and fighting with Apple they replaced both of my processors and I've never seen a kernel panic since. Neither with Tiger or Leopard which I've been running since its release.

 

[pencilbox]

You don't necessarily need to go the Mac Pro route. At my last job, I had a Mac Pro and it was a fantastic system. I, too, am freelancing full time now and have been using my 2007 iMac without issue. Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign are just as fast (PS actually starts up much faster for some reason), I have a second monitor connected to it, and the 24" display is greatness.

Hi thanks, there are a few refurbised imac on sale at my local apple store, can imac supports large graphics files that go up to gb in sizes? I work with lots of high res photos for my print work though I don't do any photography editing.