Windows to Mac apps

[sryan]

Hi,

I'm considering buying a 2011 27" iMac with the i5 2400 and 6970M, but I want make sure the applications are available and will work for me.

First of all, which do you guys prefer: iWork 09 or Office for Mac 2011? How would you compare Office for Mac 2011 and Office 2010 on Windows, is it better or worse?

Does the Mail/iCal applications work well with a Microsoft Exchange mail server? I'm using Outlook 2010 with Exchange at work and Outlook always has problems connecting and syncing and crashes a lot.

I work in IT so I use the device manager and task manager a lot. Do I have to mess with updating drivers on the Mac, is there even a place to do this? Also can you check the utilization of disk/network/memory on OS X?

How is iTunes on the Mac? On Windows it is horribly slow and crashes a lot even with an i7 860. I use VLC anyway I just want to know if it is better on the Mac.

Installing/Uninstalling applications on Windows is painful. Some applications install a bunch of crap in random places (e.g. different folder locations and registry) and sometimes applications won't uninstall correctly. I usually use CCleaner and Revo uninstaller just to clean up some of the crap left behind. Does the Mac do this much cleaner?

Thanks for your responses.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Hi,

I'm considering buying a 2011 27" iMac with the i5 2400 and 6970M, but I want make sure the applications are available and will work for me.

First of all, which do you guys prefer: iWork 09 or Office for Mac 2011? How would you compare Office for Mac 2011 and Office 2010 on Windows, is it better or worse?

Does the Mail/iCal applications work well with a Microsoft Exchange mail server? I'm using Outlook 2010 with Exchange at work and Outlook always has problems connecting and syncing and crashes a lot.

I work in IT so I use the device manager and task manager a lot. Do I have to mess with updating drivers on the Mac, is there even a place to do this? Also can you check the utilization of disk/network/memory on OS X?

How is iTunes on the Mac? On Windows it is horribly slow and crashes a lot even with an i7 860. I use VLC anyway I just want to know if it is better on the Mac.

Installing/Uninstalling applications on Windows is painful. Some applications install a bunch of crap in random places (e.g. different folder locations and registry) and sometimes applications won't uninstall correctly. I usually use CCleaner and Revo uninstaller just to clean up some of the crap left behind. Does the Mac do this much cleaner?

Thanks for your responses.

Cannot comment on iWork vs. Office as I use neither.

Similarly, I have zero experience with Exchange so I cannot comment on Mail's integration with it.

As for updating drivers, this is handled mostly by Apple, at least for core Mac components. For third-party components this is handled on a per-manufacturer basis. Mac OS X comes with an application called Activity Monitor, which lets you monitor what your Mac is up to - disk, CPU, network included.

Since Mac OS X is UNIX-based and is thus designed to handle lots of processes running at once (a task Windows does poorly at by comparison), iTunes is generally more stable in its Mac incarnation. Also worth mentioning is iTunes's support of AppleScript automation on the Mac.

Installing/Uninstalling is a LOT simpler for the vast majority of cases. Most Mac applications can be "installed" by dragging them to the Applications folder from their distribution archive (ZIP, GZIP, disk image, etc.) Such applications are also trivial to uninstall - drag to the Trash and empty it. Some Mac applications do require a traditional installer - for these, the manufacturer usually provides an uninstall tool if such a thing is required for proper removal.

 

[Mrguidogenio]

I use Office 2011 because I'm a student and all my partners use Windows.

iTunes is just rubbish on Windows. In Mac it does really well.

 

[KirkL]

Office for Mac 2011 and Office 2010 on Windows are pretty comparable with the exception of some advanced features on Excel.

I think Mail actually does better with Exchange than Outlook does. I might be wrong on this one. Never used Exchange.

Most Drivers come built-in and the updates are done through Software Update. There are apps that do this. Activity Monitor shows you the memory details and Disk Utility and Network Utility would probably do what you want.

iTunes on Mac is much better than iTunes on Windows.

Uninstalling on Mac is as simple as dragging the Application to trash. There's no Registry on Mac but Apps sometimes leave behind Preferences. You can deal with them with AppZapper or some other free alternative.

 

[techpr]

Hi,

I'm considering buying a 2011 27" iMac with the i5 2400 and 6970M, but I want make sure the applications are available and will work for me.

First of all, which do you guys prefer: iWork 09 or Office for Mac 2011? How would you compare Office for Mac 2011 and Office 2010 on Windows, is it better or worse?

Does the Mail/iCal applications work well with a Microsoft Exchange mail server? I'm using Outlook 2010 with Exchange at work and Outlook always has problems connecting and syncing and crashes a lot.

I work in IT so I use the device manager and task manager a lot. Do I have to mess with updating drivers on the Mac, is there even a place to do this? Also can you check the utilization of disk/network/memory on OS X?

How is iTunes on the Mac? On Windows it is horribly slow and crashes a lot even with an i7 860. I use VLC anyway I just want to know if it is better on the Mac.

Installing/Uninstalling applications on Windows is painful. Some applications install a bunch of crap in random places (e.g. different folder locations and registry) and sometimes applications won't uninstall correctly. I usually use CCleaner and Revo uninstaller just to clean up some of the crap left behind. Does the Mac do this much cleaner?

Thanks for your responses.

iWork 09 is great. If you are a heavy Excel user, you may find it's better than Numbers, but Pages and Keynote will do the job fine.

Mail and iCal on Snow Leopard and Lion are MS Exchange ready.

You don't need to mess with drivers. Task Manager in Mac is Activity Monitor located in Applications/Utilities folder.

iTunes on Mac is more stable than Windows.

To manually delete software, you simply drag out from Applications to the Trash the .app. Still some config files are located in /Library/Application Support and /Library/Preferences. Still more easy to manage than the horrendous Registry on Windows.