i have no idea , wwyd. need to invest in a new pc/or applemac, funds are limited but

[MincePirateCat]

I want to make the right longterm investment.
The pc i have now dates to 1998. Am running xp profesional (a copy) on it.

It's slow, its sad it's had it's day.

I hear that vista premium is crap and hard to use.

Do i buy a base unit and 'buy' xp for now. As i have heard that come 2010 microsoft are unveiling a much better alternative to vista.

Do I buy a mac.

Can i use/buy photoshop to use on a pc or it is just for macs. I intend to get back into design at some point.

help much appreciated.

oh, from speaking to various salesmen, new pc's only come with works. I have to buy word. I do very little word processing. the most i do is a leter once a year or an email. So is it worth having, or do i HAVE to have it?

...firstly, I don't use photoshop, but it seems that versions are available for PC and Mac, so that should not be a problem.

...I'm a bit of a Mac Anorak, bought my first one in 2005 for an OU course. I worried at that time that there would be compatibility issues, but have found virtually none. They are really easy to use, too. The late lovely (if fearsome) Mrs Goth was as un-techy as is possible, and she had to pulled, screaming, away from my iBook and refused to use a PC again!

...the problem with Mac is the cost. I think the best value for money is the base level www.apple.com/uk/imac/ or, if funds are too tight for that, Mac Mini and use the monitor etc that you already have.

...you don't HAVE to have Office. There are a number of free options, such as Open Office, Neo Office, and Bean. These are all compatible if you save documents as rtf (Rich Text Format). This applies to the Works word processor, too if you do decide to buy a Windoze computer...

Hi, vista does take some getting used to, but I've had it for about a year now and it isn't a problem - it can be a bit tougher to install things as it does keep asking you if you really mean to, but you just keep telling it you did mean it and it will be fine.

Don't know about mac's - people who have them always seem to love them though.

Photoshop does a Windows version so no problem there.

Works has a wordprocessor which you'll probably find just fine if you don't want to do much with it. Your email doesn't need to use word, so you can just use the standard email package without worrying about it.

I am having a similar dilemma. What I use my PC for now days, can easily be done on a MAC. I'm just scared of change... scared of the learning curve, scared of hardware compatibility issues - such as existing printers, external drives, broadband connection (does Nokia do Nokia Suite for the MAC?) etc.
Style wise, I like the style of the MAC's - I've currently been looking at Sony Laptops (and a desktop) and while they are PC's they are styled similarly to a MAC.
In the past, cost of software has been an issue - MAC versions always seemed to cost more. Is that still the case - does MAC software cost more than PC software?

With regard to your specific issue with regard to being a designer... I used to do Sales & Marketing for a small company and all the magazine companies I dealt with used MAC's. They far preferred files in MAC format, rather than PC. So, if you are intending to do design for Print production, talk with printing companies to see how they prefer the files sent, what software they use - can make life easier (correct colour reproduction for example) if you use the same as them.

You don't need Word these days, OpenOffice, Lotus Symphony, Google Docs can all cope with various file formats and are currently free. However I appreciate the problem you have there, as I also have that - though more with Excel, as things like Google Docs:Spreadsheet isn't fully Excel compatible.

hi thanks for the input.

just bumping. need all the help i can get here!

am a mac person too.

NannyNick - any ideas on Mac sales? DP said they would be cheaper in the sales, but I'm thinking they never get knocked down...

I don't have a MAC, I'm still using a PC - even when I when I did ad-design work, I used PC's... to the annoyance of the magazine publishing companies.
No idea about Sales running on MACs, can't imagine there will be much off.
Looking at prices at the Apple Store, seems to me that a MAC will cost about twice the amount of a comparable PC... is that really the case, or am I missing something? MAC experts, please can you explain the advantages of a MAC.

They don't generally get reduced, though sometimes old stock sometimes sells a little more cheaply (MacBooks have had an upgrade, so perhaps some places may sell these SLIGHTLY more cheaply)

Another option is refurbished/ex display stuff this is the cheapest place

Advantages?

No viruses, no crashes, no 'hangs', much easier to use (especially for 'non-techy' people) more reliable, quicker..

...and they look nice.

....and yes, they work out of the box.

How many times are there requests on here from people trying to get their computers to connect to a wireless network?

(lots of stuff about addresses and LANs and typing ipconfig whilst twirling around three times and praying to the Earth God)

...with a Mac you just turn the thing on. And it works.

I've always had MACs - never had a virus. Ever.

Thank You Retired - brilliant!

Or think out of the box, get a basic PC and run Linux on it, I would suggest Ubuntu. You can run it on your old PC to see how it works. You don't even have to install it to try it out, it can be run directly from the CD, but running from CD can be slow.

OpenOffice and Firefox are available for Linux.

Photoshop can be run with Crossover office, but it's not 100% compatible. GIMP is the equivalent Linux application. I couldn't say how it compares, but there is a Windows version, so you can try before committing yourself.