Should I convert to a Mac....convert me?

[KatieMac]

Over Christmas my hard drive died....virus related
I reg get annoying blue screens - that mean I turn off & start again
My dad has got a horrendous virus and been out of action for 2 days..still not fixed (and his clients pay him hundreds a day - so he has lost a fortune)

I am considering a Macintosh......but know nothing. My brother swears by them...but is in Sweden so it will cost less to ask Q here and discuss the answers with him when I have facts.

Everyone uses Word/Excell etc can they read any Mac docs? Can I read their docs?
Can I still email/mumsnet/banking?
I use MS Money....is there a reasonable alternative (its April - I need to start this yrs accounts soon - well when I've finished last years)?
I'm haveing a website written - will it still work?
How much will it cost me?
Will I need to change my ISP?

As you can tell I'm fairly illiterate when it comes to puters.....so HELP pleease

oooo.....very tempted....but, hub2dee - yours is a bit out of my reach, my darling dearest brother has promised to post me his old one....for the cost of the postage, and unfortunatley that wins out....sorry for you but for me...I'm waiting for the spec from him - but it will be a few yrs old, maybe 2........

Sorry to mess you arround....would still be interested in a workshop (if you wouldn't mind)

Alibubbles - I fancy that accounts stuff

Can I just add, a little off topic, that my ibook calls to me to play, no kidding, it sits on the desk like something out of the kinder bar advert and beckons me to play all day I think I may hug it right now! That's how much I love my mac!!
JOIN US..... JOIN US......you know you want to Willow

I can't compete with free, katieMac !!!!

No problem, have just e-mailed you. E-mail when you know times etc. and if we're around you can pop in and I will fill your brain with Mac.

Welcome to the dark side

jabberwocky: Macs are better for anyone who thinks that one day they will die. Life is too short to spend your life rebooting through Windows and doing endless spyware scans.

iota: you're in the ideal position. When you're feeling masochistic, turn on the Windoze box, when you feel like treating yourself, grab a hazlenut whirl and snuggle up with your Mac.

alibiubbles: Hi ! What a fine collection you have. Mine is a 1Ghz, 512MB 17inch PB (Airport Extreme, Superdrive, Bluetooth), 60GB, Applecare to July 6th '06. I think I offered it to KatieMac for £1290.

I'm not desparate to sell it, I only mentioned it because these Willow2 and KatieMac were about to buy. I might sell it and get a MacMini for dw and a 12inch PB for travelling.

In this thread at 8:25 I outlined precise differences, to the best of my knowledge , with the current 17inch PB.

Dont get me wrong macs are good at what they do.
And they look toatlly cooler than PCs.
BUT they aren't better
Believe me. as an IT amanger I know.
PCs are more popular - and theres a reason for it. It might not be the best in the world but they're a safe bet.

Macs are a definate cult.
Kinda like the unix freaks out there (I like unix too). Good luck on whatever you do anyway.

Dont get me wrong macs are good at what they do.
And they look toatlly cooler than PCs.
BUT they aren't better
Believe me. as an IT amanger I know.
PCs are more popular - and theres a reason for it. It might not be the best in the world but they're a safe bet.

Macs are a definate cult.
Kinda like the unix freaks out there (I like unix too). Good luck on whatever you do anyway.

£1300 for a computer!!!!
Shux buy a dell laptop for £400.

XP SP2 has helped no end (taint perfecc\t but what is?)

I had a PC at work and a mac at home... mac anyday.... never never had a problem... no virus either.
And all macs are no expensive at all.

I just love your posts Shazzler, kind of reinforces why I use a Mac.

Yeah, Windows is a safe bet. Would you kindly go and then help out the several users currently facing spyware diallers / viruses etc. ?

And I just visited dell.co.uk. The cheapest 17 inch screen is £959. That's somewhat more than £400. If you want a cheaper laptop maybe you should get an iBook or something ?

Too right XP SP2 was helpful. Helpful like a plumber in a flood.

Thanks for not holding a grudge Hub2dee....I'll let you know when it arrives....and if I like it.....

Seeya round....(my best thread ever i think)

Awwww.... Katie

Once you get your bro's computer, check how much RAM (memory) it has using an application called System Profiler in Utilities (or by using the TELEPHONE to yer bro), and consider taking your laptop up to 512MB RAM (crucial.com sells decent RAM and this will make your laptop feel even more magnificacious.

Remember, the only requirement is that if after a few months you like what you find, SPREAD THE LOVE !

Just a note, I have bought from the Apple education site, put DD's school in the details box and I have bought from the refurb site.

I bought the first iBook from there, they have just replaced the logic board under warranty, They sent a box on monday, collected it Tuesday and I had it back on Friday! I have bought iPods from there too and saved a lot of money.

I have ordered Tiger from the education site and it is £30 less, it is due out on my DD's birthday,

Just a note, I have bought from the Apple education site, put DD's school in the details box and I have bought from the refurb site.

I bought the first iBook from there, they have just replaced the logic board under warranty, They sent a box on monday, collected it Tuesday and I had it back on Friday! I have bought iPods from there too and saved a lot of money.

I have ordered Tiger from the education site and it is £30 less, it is due out on my DD's birthday,

If you like a mac - you could go to the their refurbishment store which is where I bought my current Powerbook G4 664 Mhz for less than £1200 2 years ago. It has never let me down, I have loads of software and well over 3000 pictures, some movies (I use iMovies to edit home movies).
That shop sells at 45% less.... and its excellent service.

Ali - we cross posted

pupuce

ok - h2d, hope you out there... basic 15" combo, should I bother beefing it up to 1gb now - or will it be easy to do later if needs be (as you can tell, I know nothing)?

No.

Although Apple's own memory might be very high quality, and they may blame system crashes on 'after market' memory, the price they charge on their Web site is a bit OTT.

I just looked at apple.com/uk for you and they want an extra £100 for a second 512MB chip on yer 15 combo when that should only be about £45.

I'd say buy it 'as is' and add more memory later if you find you need it.

Be aware that if you order after April 29th your new Powerbook will come with Tiger OS X 10.4. If you order now it'll be OS X 10.3 disks with an 'upgrade certificate' entitling you to buy Tiger for £12 or therabouts. Personally, I'd either wait or place the order buy phone with clear instructions that it is a 'Tiger' order (if they let you).

just bumping this old thread as i have a desktop PC but am thinking of getting an apple laptop. if for instance i had a word file from the PC saved to a memory stick, would i then be able to open that file on the apple laptop?

haven't read the thread but YES - although I come from entirely from a they look so nice angle
have to say thought I really like the whole itunes thing on mine. I have a tiny laptop in the kitchen and LOVE it

I have both a Mac and a PC, and whilst the Mac operating system is definitely more stable and I get fewer viruses on the Mac (oh, and the Mac is a lot prettier) I still prefer the PC because of the compatibility issue (I don't have virtual PC). This iBook has had the keyboard replaced twice because the letters wear off the keys within weeks, so the quality isn't perhaps as good as it's made out to be. If Macs go wrong they are much more expensive to sort out. Sorry Mac lovers, but the PC is cheaper and compatible with what most other people are using, so for those reasons I would choose a PC.

so on my laptop i can read windows and MS documents but would i be able to read mac documents on my PC?

Ahem. Unix Freaks? We all know that unix is infinitely better than macs and PCs. Real computers for real computing.

Come and talk to me when you want to have a grown-up computer discussion.

Nappy, I THINK you have to buy MS office (Word/Excel etc) for MAC, but my iMac is a year old now, and things may have changed in what Apple provide by way of software

Just to add to the mix - all new Macs have Intel processors (Core Duos not that Celeron or Pentium c*!p) and will run Windows as well as Mac OS X. Apple provides Boot Camp with each machine to be able to boot Windows or you can download Parallels to use Windows/Linux/whatever in a virtual machine.

Oh - and the cheapest Mac starts at £399 and many configurations beat Dell at pricing - not that this is a recommendation just get what you need at the price you can afford!

macs are much easier to use. everything is very intuitive. when i got my g5 2.5 gig dual processor home i gave myself 2 hours to see how far i could get in setting it up. i:

• unpacked all the equipment
• plugged it all in / together
• set up email, internet, virus checker
• installed some software (eclipse, mysql)
• logged into work and still had time to spare. ever done that with a windows machine? i think not.

they may cost more to buy and fix but that doesn't matter because they don't go wrong. my machine has never crashed and i have it permanently running. i only reboot for software upgrades.

osx may have a few bugs, but this is nowhere near, not even in the same galaxy as the number of bugs in windows.

yes, there are viruses for macs but again a drop in the ocean compared to the number of windows viruses.

i upgraded my operating system last year. big deal on a windows machine, on my mac it took 30 mins and i was up and running again. how much time do you spend pfaffing around on your windows machine with boring admin stuff? endless upgrades, sorting out virus checkers. ugh! my mac does it all for me.

arfishymeau? eh? osx IS a version of unix! try getting your terminal up. you can tinker away to your heart's content.

you can get a windows emulator for the mac if you really want. and you can load osx and windows crap on the new intel processors. can't see microsoft ever doing that. whatever happened to longhorn eh?

i've had a windows, linux, unix and mac machine. give me a mac anyday. i do all my software development on my mac now.