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Trying to convince my friend NOT to buy a mac.

L

ljump12

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 10, 2006
254
0
philadelphia
My buddy really wants a new laptop, and has decided that he wants a mac. The problem is, he does a LOT of work with big spreadsheets in excel, and from my own experience, Excel for Mac cannot handle these large spreadsheets.

When i mentioned this problem to him, he said, "oh no problem - i'm only going to use windows anyway". When i asked why then did he want a mac, he replied, "Becuase i want a thin, fast computer"

It seems to me that he would be better off buying a PC laptop. Can anyone suggest a fast thin PC alternative to a macbook pro?
 
marchellobb said:
A Dell XPS
Click to expand...

I'd actually suggest he *should* go for a Mac if he wants something that is durable and long-lasting. In my experience, the XPS (which is the only real competitor for a high powered small laptop) is very fragile and brittle. I had one before my white Macbook (so, 2+ years ago), and I was always afraid of breaking the thing. Windows on the Macbook would do him just fine. Just let him get a Mac even if he doesn't want to use OS X. :)
 
Or if you want to make things easy on yourself just tell him how much macs suck and are unreliable :rolleyes:
 
Tell your friend to get a Thinkpad; that's the industrial monster better than a Mac in every way.
 
It seems like a better place to ask for recommendations for PC laptops would be a non-Mac forum, especially based on the title of this thread.
 
Hi,

ljump12 said:
My buddy really wants a new laptop, and has decided that he wants a mac. The problem is, he does a LOT of work with big spreadsheets in excel, and from my own experience, Excel for Mac cannot handle these large spreadsheets.
Click to expand...

I think there are over 100 people at Microsoft (their Macintosh Business Unit development team) who would absolutely, positively, disagree with you. Excel on the Mac is at LEAST as fast as it is on the PC.

My only guess here is that you're talking about a spreadsheet that exceeds 4Gb in size, as that would not fit in the memory space of Microsoft Office, which is a 32 bit app. But it's a 32 bit app on the PC, too, and will be until the next version:

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/ne...ffice-2010-will-come-in-32-bit-and-64-bit.ars

So I'm curious, why do you think it's going to be slower to view a spreadsheet on a Mac?

-Chilton
 
Hi,

Johns12 said:
I'm not sure I understand this comment. The friend is going to run Windows. What does no OSX matter:confused:
Click to expand...

Because you're going to have to run Windows? I consider that a major disadvantage. And you don't need to run Windows to run Microsoft Office.

-Chilton
 
If he wants a powerful computer that is also thin and light, then the Mac is probably the best option. Certainly there are cheaper, more powerful laptops, but no where near as thin or light. Hell the Macbook is only .5lb more than the Dell Adamo.
 
A Dell Latitude 4300 (I think that's the model) is a 13" Laptop, about the same size as a macbook, great battery life, and a backlit keyboard. You can get one from the Dell Outlet for about $300 less then a comparable Macbook, and it'll run the "real" version of Excel too.

Yeah, Office on the mac is a joke. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise- Half the time basic word documents are incompatible because of fonts.
 
Or he could buy the Mac he wants, experiment with the OS (which should be an added bonus if he is prepared to buy one just for windows) and then look at Bento or FileMaker.
 
When have you had problems with big spreadsheets in Excel? I would understand if he needed better Visual Basic/macro support, but I've never had problems with Excel with strictly 'large' spreadsheets...
 
I'm surprised to see so many negative comments on Office for Mac. I am in Excel all the time working with pivot tables and charts and have had no issues. I use Word to write specs (Arial font, always) and Power Point for presentations. I've also not had any compatibility problems. I just save everything as "97 - 2004" and no one's complained. And believe me, they'd complain! :p
 
If he is dead set on a mac, then he could always run windows via bootcamp or vm, and use excel on the windows side.

I wouldn't, but he may like it.
 
I have both Excel 2008 for mac and Excel 2004 for mac, and both versions can't handle the spreadsheet that he is working with. It can open it, but when i change pivot table values - it takes forever to calculate. ( about 5 seconds ). The spreadsheet isn't even thaat large (About 10,000 Rows - 60 Columns).

However, if i boot up windows in parallels, Excel can handle it almost instantly on there. So i believe the Mac Excel has serious problems.
 
ljump12 said:
However, if i boot up windows in parallels, Excel can handle it almost instantly on there. So i believe the Mac Excel has serious problems.
Click to expand...

So what is wrong with him continuing to use his windows copy of Office?

It is almost like saying, your solution isn't good enough for him ... so he shouldn't use it or the Mac.
 
ljump12 said:
I have both Excel 2008 for mac and Excel 2004 for mac, and both versions can't handle the spreadsheet that he is working with. It can open it, but when i change pivot table values - it takes forever to calculate. ( about 5 seconds ). The spreadsheet isn't even thaat large (About 10,000 Rows - 60 Columns).

However, if i boot up windows in parallels, Excel can handle it almost instantly on there. So i believe the Mac Excel has serious problems.
Click to expand...

so why not just suggest he gets a Mac and parallels to get the best of both worlds?
 
Prior to purchasing my MBP a few months ago I had used windows my entire life. I'm currently in grad school and have to use excel all the time. I wanted a mac because of the style, OSX and b/c it was something different. When I need to use microsoft office I started out by using VMFusion and running it that way...I had absolutely no problem. Recently I bought Microsoft Office for MAC...although it is a bit different once you get used to it its not an issue.

As far as performance goes, for whatever reason MACs are just better. I have not noticed Microsoft Office/Excel running slower on my MAC than on my Dell XPS laptop for work...if anything its a bit faster.

I'd 100% recommend this route.
 
ljump12 said:
I have both Excel 2008 for mac and Excel 2004 for mac, and both versions can't handle the spreadsheet that he is working with. It can open it, but when i change pivot table values - it takes forever to calculate. ( about 5 seconds ). The spreadsheet isn't even thaat large (About 10,000 Rows - 60 Columns).

However, if i boot up windows in parallels, Excel can handle it almost instantly on there. So i believe the Mac Excel has serious problems.
Click to expand...

Excel:Mac is horribly flawed and deeply lacking on just about everything. And that awful new default 'x' extension is a terrible idea. Not to mention Excel:Mac '08 lacks macro capability.
Microsoft Office '07 is still the most versatile after experience with all 3.
 
Personally, I'd tell him to either go with a ThinkPad Txxx model, or X-series model. ThinkPads are built with quality hardware, Lenovo's customer service is good, and they are solid as a rock. I love my X40 almost more than my MBP-- and the machine is nearly 5 years old.
 
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