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Trying to pursuade Dad to switch

G

Grasbak

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 17, 2006
434
16
UK
Its time for my Dad to replace his lovely Dell Inspiron laptop and I am trying to pursuade him to get a mac.

He uses XP & Office XP on the current machine. If he got a MacBook, could he run office xp through parallels without it being a hassel (!)? Bearing in mind he is 60, but is ok with computers. He uese word/excel/powerpoint and has some simple access databases and uses outlook for contacts/emails/calendar. He is NOT a power user by any means.

He also has a dell axim handheld - will this work ok through parallels?

You might think, get a PC, but his main reason for upgrading is digital media (current laptop has 10gb HDD) - i am thinking he will find managing his photos etc a lot easier with iLife.
 
My wife, who purely looks at computers as a means to an end, resisted spending the time to learn the Mac until she saw me using iPhoto. Connecting up our digital camera, downloading the pictures, quickly tagging the photos, creating albums, dynamic albums, emailing parents with updated pictures, etc... Her PC is now gathering dust.

The downside -- she hates Safari, because it doesn't load all the sites she visits. However, she puts up with it because there is no way she can handle photos on her PC like we do on the Mac.

It may be worth a trip down to your local store to show iPhoto and the rest?
 
mags631 said:
The downside -- she hates Safari, because it doesn't load all the sites she visits. However, she puts up with it because there is no way she can handle photos on her PC like we do on the Mac.

It may be worth a trip to down to your local store to show iPhoto and the rest?
Click to expand...

I totally agree...except the Safari thing- I can't remember the last time I had problems with a web site loading...there is always other browsers for the Mac...Mozilla, etc. The only problem I still have with web sites is compatibility of certain software with a Mac, not necessarily Safari per se. But that only happens once a month if that.
 
GoKyu said:
Mags: She doesn't have to put up with Safari if she doesn't like it - there are other great browsers out there for the Mac - Firefox, Camino and Opera, just to name a few...

-Bryan
Click to expand...

He he he -- tried those routes. In the end, we just deal with the random Safari problem. I don't personally have an issue with Safari, because I know none of the browsers are perfect (incl. IE). My wife thinks (thought?) IE is (was) better only because it loads (loaded) some of her sites better than Safari: E!, coupon sites, clothes, shoes, etc. :rolleyes:

I've experienced less issues in supporting my wife on the Mac by NOT pretending it's perfect, because, invariably, she would come across some problem (perceived or real) and say "why doesn't the computer do this -- I thought you said it was better." Been down that road, and I don't want to become her (full-time) personal IT support staff.

In sum, we both like the Mac, albeit for different reasons.

Good luck Grasbak and let us know how it goes!
 
Thanks!

I think the main concern for him would be:

1. can he use office xp through parallels 'transparantley'

2. will his dell axmin syc with activesync (under parallels)

There will be no problem impressing him with iLife, safari wont be a problem.
 
Grasbak said:
Thanks!

I think the main concern for him would be:

1. can he use office xp through parallels 'transparantley'
Click to expand...
I believe so now, though consider Office for Mac as it will give a better experience ;). Office '08 will give the educational price (legally) to home users so it may be worth waiting for that, also iWork '07 will hopefully support OpenXML (MS's new Office format) natively, so waiting for those may be sensible.
2. will his dell axmin syc with activesync (under parallels)
Click to expand...

Yes, if it does on Windows it will in Parallels, he could also try the MissingSync to get it to sync with iSync.
 
I believe so now, though consider Office for Mac as it will give a better experience . Office '08 will give the educational price (legally) to home users so it may be worth waiting for that, also iWork '07 will hopefully support OpenXML (MS's new Office format) natively, so waiting for those may be sensible.
Click to expand...

as he owns a copy of office xp i think it would be a good incentive for him to switch if he can use it.... i agree, would be better to switch the software aswell....

Yes, if it does on Windows it will in Parallels, he could also try the MissingSync to get it to sync with iSync.
Click to expand...

I have used missing sync with my mobile phone. Horrible experience - wouldnt feel comfortable with him going with that.
 
Grasbak said:
as he owns a copy of office xp i think it would be a good incentive for him to switch if he can use it.... i agree, would be better to switch the software aswell....
Click to expand...

It might be cheaper that way too, and will feel very strange using a Windows Application on a Mac, and it will make it harder to get used to, though dropping £300 (or whatever it is) on Full Office is a lot of money.
 
mags631 said:
My wife thinks (thought?) IE is (was) better only because it loads (loaded) some of her sites better than Safari: E!, coupon sites, clothes, shoes, etc. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I just tried loading the E! page in safari and it worked just fine. Do you have adobe flash player 9 installed? That might be your problem because there was plenty of flash on that page. It's a free download from Adobe here. It's finally a universal binary, whoopie. I'd almost bet you that this is the problem. :D

Oh, and don't forget about Crossover for running office. If Office is the only reason you need windows, I would say that Crossover is a much better option since you don't have to install windows at all (why spend the money on the extra license AND Parallels?). You can get it here.
 
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