Convince me to buy a Mac

Feelgood

Hey folks,

I've been a windows / linux user for over 10 years at this stage, though as of late I am hearing more and more wonderful things about the Mac and OSX. I'm on the verge of investing in one but still am not totally convinced as of yet.

My question to you mac heads is how is my life going to be different if I get a Mac?. What are the main benefits that it will give me over my current windows / linux pcs?

Basically I use my current PC's for lots of different stuff...

The main areas would be:

a) Music recording and playback (Pro Tools, Cubase, etc etc)
b) Web development and surfing (HTML, javascript)
c) Programming - Mainly c++ and java
d) Office functions (Outlook, Excel, Lotus Notes).
e) Configuring networks and running network tools such as sniffers and monitors
f) Gaming - not really online
g) Management of my general media, mp3's jpegs and the like


Now I know bits and pieces about OSX and Macs but at the same time I know fcukall. Do you think it would be a good purchase for me?.

Cheers for any info....

unclebill98

Well, I use mine for music. Its far better than a PC in this area alone. I guess i'll try to sum it up as quick as i can.

It works from the box, load on your DAW and off you go, simple. I've also never had it crash during a session, 5 years on.

itunes, its the best music management software out there.

I'm sure the rest will chime in on your other needs.

im...LOST

a) Music recording and playback (Pro Tools, Cubase, etc etc)
b) Web development and surfing (HTML, javascript)
c) Programming - Mainly c++ and java
d) Office functions (Outlook, Excel, Lotus Notes).
e) Configuring networks and running network tools such as sniffers and monitors
f) Gaming - not really online
g) Management of my general media, mp3's jpegs and the like

a) Pro Tools is on Mac, I presume you know that already.
b) You can get Dreamweaver on Mac so you are grand there.
c) I dunno XD
d) You can also get Microsoft Office on Mac.
e) Again, I dunno.
f) There are a good few games on Mac but you could install Windows and use that partition for gaming.
g) iTunes is great for music management.

randombar

The way I look at it it's a unix box with a user friendly interface.

Got mine two weeks ago, take a bit of getting used to but it's FANTASTIC!!!

QuadLeo

Some of this may have been said already, but I'm a new enough convert to mac so I thought I'd share some of my experience with the change over.

Feelgood wrote: »

a) Music recording and playback (Pro Tools, Cubase, etc etc)

I just bought a Macbook Pro a few months ago specifically for music recording and editing. Pro Tools 7.4.2 (€50 approx) works perfectly on OS X Leopard. Also my MBox 2 audio interface works with Logic and iTunes. I also use my MBox as my default system sound card. This didn't work for me on XP (not saying it isn't possible but it works with every app out of the box on OS X). It's great to have a high quality balanced stereo output from my laptop. I have not had one issue with Pro Tools running on my mac. And Macbook Pros have firewire 800 which is great for using an external drive for audio recording etc...

Feelgood wrote: »

b) Web development and surfing (HTML, javascript)

Not big into web development but I did build a basic website using iWeb that comes with iLife software package. I found it really easy to design an edit my site. I did have to open the html files in dreamweaver (also on mac) to edit the code to do things iWeb couldn't. I found it very easy to work with images and videos for websites on the mac.

Feelgood wrote: »

d) Office functions (Outlook, Excel, Lotus Notes).

I use the Mail app that comes with Leopard. It's similiar to outlook but the search function seems to be a lot better and faster. And it integrates with the rest of your system easily. I wasn't a fan of apples iWork so I bought microsoft Office 08 for mac. It's not the cheapest but it is very good. Open Office is an alternative.

Feelgood wrote: »

f) Gaming - not really online

Do you like chess?

Feelgood wrote: »

g) Management of my general media, mp3's jpegs and the like

The best part of Leopard imo. I work with music files all day and I can preview them while exploring. No need to open any application. Same with movies and jpegs, and most media files I think. It's so handy. Leopard even previews MS Office files, something windows can't do afaik. One thing that is a bit of a pain is the lack of a cut function when moving files around. You have to copy a file to a new location and go back to delete the original.

Anyway, my experience of macs and OS X has been great. I don't think I could ever use a windows machine again unless I really had to. A few days in front of mac and you'll feel the same. One more con is the price but that balances out after a few years without the need to pay for anti-virus software.

Hotblack Desiato

Feelgood wrote: »

My question to you mac heads is how is my life going to be different if I get a Mac?

Well, it doesn't have to change at all if you don't want it to! as you can triple-boot Windows, OSX and Linux (or virtualise) which will ease your transition considerably.

Heretic alert... I hardly ever boot into OSX and don't intend to switch over from Linux, either, but a Macbook made a lot of sense for price/performance ratio and lack of Windows tax. I just couldn't bear the thought of adding +1 to Vista sales even though I'd never once boot into it. Plus it looks way cool

johnk123

OP you sound like a pretty serious power user so i presume you'd be opting for the mac pro. Like everyone has said already, a mac can accommadate all of your current needs. The transition might seem a little daunting in the beginning but by the time you get used to it, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.

I hope you do switch over, and best of luck if you do!

unclebill98

Feelgood, the one thing i get from your most is that you use multiple PC's. Get a MacPro and you'll be fine using just on the one machine from now on.

johnk123

Yeah, agreed, the MacPro will handle all of your professional apps with ease. Sure it can hold up to 32GB of RAM! Like...... thats insane!

Feelgood

Thanks for getting back to me folks, appreciate it.

I probably should have mentioned that it is a Mac book laptop that I am after as I work remotely on sites

@Quadleo & UncleBill98 - Would you mind reviewing a bit more for me on the Pro Tools side of things. I too have an MBOX 2 Pro and have a copy of Pro Tools LE that came with it for Mac so I think I am sorted there. Whats the story with plugins though?. Is there any problems running RTAS plugins such as Guitar Rig, Amplitube etc. I also have a lot of Vst plugins I use on my windows machine with pro tools. I have Vst to RTAS conversion programmes, I take it its possible to also get this for OSX?. Does your MBOX 2 work directly with the firewire adapter on the Mac?. Cheers guys.

@Ninja900, what software are you using on Mac to Virtualise?. Is it Vmware?

@JohnK123, Garycocs & im...Lost - You sound like very content and happy Mac users, its really what I needed to hear!. I don't hear that very often with from Windows users!.

I guess what I am aiming at is that I need the Mac to be an all in one solution. I work in I.T. so I would need the Mac to be able to perform all the tasks that a Windows platform could perform such as plugging into router console ports (Cisco, Juniper). Remote Desktop to Windows / Unix boxes. Writing scripts and programmes etc. Basically I need it to be a system support tool.

On the other hand, I love my movies, music and gaming so I also want it to
be able to accommodate this.

If I move to Mac and say 3 months down the line I decide OSX is pants (hopefully not going to happen), I take it I can just throw a copy of Windows back onto it?. Has anyone done this?.

whiterebel

Not that you will "Put your underpants on your head, stick a pencil up each nostril, and say "wibble" (Need to go back to Windows in Blackadder talk):D,
All you need to do its boot into Windows on the other partition.

johnk123

Yes, if you get hit on the head very hard, and decide that you want to use windows, you can load windows via bootcamp.

You mention that you looked at the MacBook....... i dunno if this would be powerful enough for what you want to do. I'd choose a MacBook Pro if your on the road a bit, its an absolute workhorse.

Are you considering making a complete switch straight away, or easing your way in?? There is always the standard "try a Mac Mini first" approach. Then when you realise how good OS X is, sell the mini, buy your mac of choice

Feelgood

johnk123 wrote: »

Yes, if you get hit on the head very hard, and decide that you want to use windows, you can load windows via bootcamp.

You mention that you looked at the MacBook....... i dunno if this would be powerful enough for what you want to do. I'd choose a MacBook Pro if your on the road a bit, its an absolute workhorse.

Are you considering making a complete switch straight away, or easing your way in?? There is always the standard "try a Mac Mini first" approach. Then when you realise how good OS X is, sell the mini, buy your mac of choice

Sorry John as in Macbook I mean Macbook pro!!. Not in with all the Apple lingo as of yet, will get there though!.

I had considering get a Mac mini alright and doing a trial run, but it just looks like something you would give a 13 year old for Xmas or something. I'm probably just going to bite the bullet and go for a Macbook Pro straight out. They seem fairly reasonable at the minute.

This is the particular one I was looking at....


Specification

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz Processor

3 MB L2 Cache 800 Frontside Bus

2048MB DDR2 (PC2-5300) RAM Max: 4GB

200GB SATA Hard Drive

15" Antiglare Widescreen TFT LED Display

Built-in iSight Camera and internal Omnidirectional microphone

NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT Graphics with dual-link DVI support and 256 MB Dedicated Video Memory

8x Slot-loading SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

Built-in AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi wireless Networking (802.11a/b/g/n)

Built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR

Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet

1 ExpressCard (34 slot)

2 USB 2.0, 1 Headphone out; 1 Microphone-in, DVI Output port, 1 FireWire 400, 1 FireWire 800, 1 RJ-45 LAN

Approximate Unit Dimensions: 14.1" (W) x 1" (H) x 9.6" (D)

Approximate Unit Weight: 5.4 lbs

€1488...

Any comments??

whiterebel

Plus Vat? There is a 2.4 15" on the refurb section of the AppleStore. €1529 incl VAt, saving about 270 yo-yos.

johnk123

Is it a refurb model at €1488?????????? or preowned or something?

And don't be fooled by the mini's looks. the top spec one of those is actually pretty powerful. A friend of mine runs it as his main computer system, and runs Aperture at good speeds.

Also, im sure you know this but by no means bye your RAM from apple! Go with the standard config option and buy it from the likes of crucial.com Much much cheaper

Feelgood

That price is actually Inc Vat and its brand new in the box. Its a supplier that I do business with so he is doing me a deal a bit of deal..

Whiterebel, are refurbs not a bit dodgy though?. Know a few chaps that bought refurb ipods from apple and they are knackered now.

John good point about the memory, I didn't actually know that though are you saying that as Apple supply ****ty memory or just because it is extremely overpriced??

johnk123

No, its not that its bad RAM, its just that its extremely overpriced! And the fact that its so simple to install on macs these days. I would seriously reccommend using crucial.com

And as for the refurb store, you get the same guarantee (1yr), and the option to purchase Apple Care(extends the warranty to 3yrs). It makes sense to purchase a refurb mac.

WIth the ipods, well, ipods have a limited life span anyway. But the savings on the ipods aren't really enough IMO to justufy buying a refurbed one. (theres only like 20-40 quid in the difference usually)

unclebill98

Feelgood wrote: »

@Quadleo & UncleBill98 - Would you mind reviewing a bit more for me on the Pro Tools side of things. I too have an MBOX 2 Pro and have a copy of Pro Tools LE that came with it for Mac so I think I am sorted there. Whats the story with plugins though?. Is there any problems running RTAS plugins such as Guitar Rig, Amplitube etc. I also have a lot of Vst plugins I use on my windows machine with pro tools. I have Vst to RTAS conversion programmes, I take it its possible to also get this for OSX?. Does your MBOX 2 work directly with the firewire adapter on the Mac?. Cheers guys.

Well, I've been using PTLE for close to 5 years now on a Mac. I'm using a refurb'd Powerbook G4. I get a 32t with a good few plug ins before everything gets slow. So I can only imagine what the newer macs will do in that dept. Your plugins should be fine to cross over. Yes, the firewire will work with no issues at all.

On the memory issue, don't buy apples. Its just over priced. There are plenty of cheaper ram online.

QuadLeo

What version Pro Tools are you running? If it's 7.4 then you'll need to download the free 7.4.2 update to run on OS X Leopard. I think you must have Leopard 10.5.2 too, which you can update to for free when you get your mac. Any Pro Tools version prior to 7.4.2 doesn't run on Leopard. I got caught out there. I had to wait for a few months for the update. If you only have version PT 7.2 or 7.3 then you'll have to purchase the Pro Tools update, around €50.

whiterebel

Feelgood wrote: »

That price is actually Inc Vat and its brand new in the box. Its a supplier that I do business with so he is doing me a deal a bit of deal..

Whiterebel, are refurbs not a bit dodgy though?. Know a few chaps that bought refurb ipods from apple and they are knackered now.

John good point about the memory, I didn't actually know that though are you saying that as Apple supply ****ty memory or just because it is extremely overpriced??

Great price that, all in. Refurbs are tested more than machines off the production lines. If a Superdrive is faulty, not only is that fixed, but the rest of the machine is thoroughly tested, cleaned etc. Sometimes people chaneg their mind and refuse an order, or send it back, and with Applestores 14 day policy you can do that, but Apple can't sell it brand new again. I have also seen it suggested that end of life machines that have been superceded sometimes end up on the refurb store as a way of getting rid of the slightly older stock. I used to work in Apple, and I'd certainly get a refurb, no problem. I ordered 4 GB of RAM for my Macbook for €90 delivered from crucial v €300 from Apple.

440Hz

whiterebel wrote: »

Not that you will "Put your underpants on your head, stick a pencil up each nostril, and say "wibble" .

:pac:

You don't have to talk to me in that stupid voice, I'm not a tourist!

Feelgood wrote: »

The main areas would be:

a) Music recording and playback (Pro Tools, Cubase, etc etc)
b) Web development and surfing (HTML, javascript)
c) Programming - Mainly c++ and java
d) Office functions (Outlook, Excel, Lotus Notes).
e) Configuring networks and running network tools such as sniffers and monitors
f) Gaming - not really online
g) Management of my general media, mp3's jpegs and the like

Ok so aside from f (i leave that to the Wii), I do all of those things on a daily basis on my MBP. Like it's all been said here, at this stage almost everything you can get for Windows you can get the same or close to for Mac, and in many cases, you can get better!!

johnk123

Yeah, I also have used crucial for Ram many times. Out of interest OP, If you don't mind me asking, what is your budget?? Do you need both a desktop and a laptop????

drunkmonkey

I just bit the bullet and got a 24' imac last week......I had no idea if It would do what I wanted......all I knew is I wanted something to make great looking graphiics, create my own music and work on mywebsite...

Now i'm crap at graphics, I never done any courses and photoshop is somwhere I go to get my pictures developed....

Now i'm able to knock out sweet pictures, bop to my own tunes and my website has never looked as good.....all in one week.....

My advice.....go for it.....suggest refurb 24' imac.......

here's something I knocked up in under 60 seconds......take that pricey photoshop......:D.

Picturesque-1.jpg

Go for it.....there excellent!!! That's coming from an ex Dell head...

Hotblack Desiato

Feelgood wrote: »

@Ninja900, what software are you using on Mac to Virtualise?. Is it Vmware?

I don't, I just dual-boot. If you want to virtualise, check out Parallels as well as VMWare.

randombar

Lads what about installing os X on my ibm server/desktop at home? How good is it as a server? Robust? Would there be a million driver issues??

ethernet

GaryCocs wrote: »

Lads what about installing os X on my ibm server/desktop at home? How good is it as a server? Robust? Would there be a million driver issues??

Taboo on this forum Apple's software licence agreement states that you can't install OS X on any machine without an Apple logo. There are all sorts of hacks -- software- and hardware-based -- but the best experience you'll get is running it on the real deal, IMHO.

randombar

Hmmmm how much would an old mac that would do as a server cost so? Too many bloody computers at home all ready and don't wanna spend big bucks on anything! Have the ahrd drives etc etc

turly

ninja900 wrote: »

I don't, I just dual-boot. If you want to virtualise, check out Parallels as well as VMWare.

There's also Sun's free VirtualBox. Did I mention it's free? Works a treat.

erie

Just got iMAC 20" a few weeks ago... then bye-bye windows PC... very satisfied, just 2-3 days I've already familiar with Mac OSX... speed... my god, no longer waiting for start up (in Windows PC)... and a few sec sutting down... run between program very fast (multitask)... love iChart... iPhoto...iMail... and everything in there... poor VISTA very2222 slow..

Feelgood

Hey dudes and dudess's,

Just said I would throw a wee update to you all. Got my Mac about 6 weeks ago. Macbook Pro, 17", 2GB RAM, 250GB Hard Drive, 512mb Graphics, 2.5 Core 2 Duo. Worked out at 1720 euro in the end, so still reckon I got a good deal.

Anyways, thank you all for you help and guidance very much appreciated. Its going well enough so far though and I am happy enough but jasus it does take a lot of getting used too particularly when your coming from Windows. I think its probably down to me though. Say even when installing software, its kindof too easy and I keep thinking that there has to be more to it like setting some options when there isn't!. Stuff like that.

Your probably going to laugh but I ended up Bootcamping Windows XP. Why o why do you ask?. Well I couldn't for the life of me find a decent VPN client to work with OSX and I needed one (Particularly the AT&T Client) to dial into work!. There is no AT&T client for OSX!. I also found that its tricky to work with compressed files, particularly with .rar files. I found a rar client for OSX though it was woefully slow. I also play quite a lot of games and I couldn't find any decent ones for OSX.

I gave VMware Fusion with a belt with XP and it was grand though Bootcamp just appealed that bit better. Anyways XP works like a dream with Bootcamp. The installation was as easy as the chicks over in the ladies lounge . I don; think I have ever seen XP work so well as it does on a mac.

But this is the thing, I know when I open my laptop I can boot into XP and its hard to veer off the old habits and boot up OSX instead. I kindof split it up into work = Bootcamp XP and play = osx. Hopefully eventually (If someone can recommend a VPN client that works with AT&T and OSX), I will delete my bootcamp XP partition.

Anyway again thanks for your help guys, expect probably 50,000 questions about OSX from me in the next few months!!.

Cheers..

Passenger

Feelgood wrote: »

Hey folks,

I've been a windows / linux user for over 10 years at this stage, though as of late I am hearing more and more wonderful things about the Mac and OSX. I'm on the verge of investing in one but still am not totally convinced as of yet.

Do you think it would be a good purchase for me?.

Absolutely. Why don't you have a play around with a mac and familiarise yourself with the OS before you purchase. For everything your demanding from a Desktop, especially music composition, Pro Tools is yer only man.

randombar

The best advice I got here is not to install boot camp unless I REALLY needed it. I forces me to get used to the mac os, the short cuts and the other million reasons it's better than windows , my advice steer clear of boot camp unless you really really need it!

Red Alert

Apart from some very old Mac gear I'd used years ago, I came to the Mac just over a year ago as a seasoned Windows and Linux user. I have couple of Windows and Linux machines in the lab I work in, but I find I do most of my work on my Macbook Pro - that includes everything from programming, using data analysis and computational tools, writing reports and doing presentations on my MBP. Then throw in internet surfing, music, movies and photo stuff...

I find that compared to Linux it's zero-effort to get most things done, while at the same time I've got all my programming tools and other UNIX utilities I like. Compared to Windows it doesn't break down inexplicably from time to time.

Definitely a good experience.

J-blk

GaryCocs wrote: »

The best advice I got here is not to install boot camp unless I REALLY needed it. I forces me to get used to the mac os, the short cuts and the other million reasons it's better than windows , my advice steer clear of boot camp unless you really really need it!

+1 - I got a Mac Mini 2 years ago and kept Windows on it for well over a year (mostly because I was using it as an HTPC) but that really got in the way of my getting more used to the Mac OS X. I finally got so fed up of Windows crashes/quirks that I got rid of my Boot Camp partition and went over to Mac OS X 100%. Haven't looked back since . Even got a MacBook Pro recently so I could get rid of my Windows laptop too. Now the only thing that bothers me is that I'm stuck using Windows at work... Grrrr.

Red Alert

I'd add in that I've gone the Parallels route to using Windows XP, but I've done much with it and as soon as I need the 15 GB back it'll be gone.