Anyone switch from a pc to Mac?

My computer and monitor are dying a slow death.

I've been socking money away for a high performance computer. I thought I found an HP that fits the bill.

However, I want to make sure I'm not making a mistake with not checking out the Macs.

The one thing I want to make sure is ALL of my pc programs can and will run on a mac. For some reason the answers I find are kind of vague.

I'm wondering if anyone's made the leap and if so how painful or painless the transition was.

Thank you!!

PC programs on a Mac?
No.

And yes.
If you slow down your Mac by running a PC emulator and Windows on it, and it has the newer Intel processors (Macs have gone mainstream at last) then probably.

But why buy a Mac and then run Windows on it?
Why not buy a decent PC?

What's held me back from going Mac is the loss of most of the applications I use and the cost of buying either Mac versions or native Mac replacements.
The only one I know I can use is Lightroom, which comes in PC and Mac on the same disc.

Then there's the (in)compatability between Mac and PC when sharing files and disks.
When we had Macs in Germany and I was supporting older Mac applications (my experience is 4 yeas old) the biggest problem was the Mac apps would use weird characters in file and folder names that the PCs just could not cope with.
Like bullet points - yeah it looks pretty in finder, but it's not compatible!
Applications like MS Office on the Mac were so far out of date as to make it incompatible with the rest of the company, nowadays you can probably get by with Open Office for most work. Only users of Office 2007 on PCs will give you trouble.

I've been offered a Mac laptop, so if that materialises (may be a Xmas present) then I can give you my blow by blow account of conversion, and interoperability with the house LAN and the PCs.

I switch from Mac to PC everyday. I work on a Mac at my regular job and have PC's at home. :) I know that's not what you're looking for but what I can say is that I have no problem going from one platform to the other.

I needed a new computer about a year ago and kicked around the idea of getting a Mac. The biggest thing that held me back was the cost. Not just of the computer but replacing all of my software as well. To me (I'm cheap) it just wasn't worth it. In the end, I went with a refurbished PC. I got an HP Pavilion, Quad Core Media Center PC with 2.2GHz Quad Core processors, 3GB or RAM and 640GB of hard drive space all for $560 (including shipping). Granted there are much better machines out there but what are you going to get from the Mac store for that price? Even the Mini Mac starts at $599!

I do love working on the Mac, but for the same price of a really nice Mac, you can put together a stellar PC, and not have to replace your software.

Thank you both!

It sounds like running windows on a Mac isn't all to wonderful and I wouldn't be able to use all of my software. I can't afford to replace my software. I'm going to get back to the HP site and check out Dell as well. I've always had Dell laptops and been very happy with them, so I'll see what they have to offer.

Any advice on monitors?

Actually running the Windows OS on mac works great! Consumer reports even gave the macbook pro top spot as 'best laptop for running windows OS'. Even if you don't want the mac OS, the hardware may still be worth the investment, then throw windows on it. The Imac's, for example, have a great design - like a laptop/desktop combo, they don't have a big tower, no major cable mess, keeps clutter to a minimum, and they put some great hardware in them. You pay a premium for this though, and your dollar doesn't go as far for performance, rather - function and design are equal contenders here.

If cost to performance is your primary goal, and function/design is a secondary thought - then the ideal is to build your own PC. Getting the new i7 platform cpu will make your computer a speed demon. I personally chose this route because performance matters much more to me than function and design - though the function/design of the IMac is quite compelling.

Photoshop runs equally well on both Mac and Windows now.

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Originally Posted by JETA

Any advice on monitors?

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The HP LP2475w H-IPS panel LCD monitor is simply brilliant.

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/hp_lp2475w.htm

I switched to Mac 2 years ago. I originally was going to partition my drive and run Windows in a dual boot set up. After getting used to the OS, I found that I had no need to run Windows at all and I just run OSx. I lost Pro Show Gold and Breeze Browser, but Lightroom, Photoshop Elements, Photomatix, etc. just required a re-license to Mac OS, I just downloaded the Mac versions and put my license in. Most programs that have both Mac and Win versions will transfer this way. I use Neo Office for word processing and it works great and it's free. I don't think I'll ever go back to a Windows machine again.

Like Anbesol said Macs run Windows fine now and all windows programs run fine on an Intel Mac with Windows running on a partition. The biggest drawback to a Mac is the price, they are spendy, but they have a lot of little things that make them wonderful to use. Every time I get on a Windows machine now I try to run it like a Mac and get mad when it it won't respond like my MBP.

I have both a MacBook Pro and a Vista/Dell laptop.

IMHO, the Windows interface is vastly superior. Vista works well but does crash sometimes. The Mac is simpler but super stable: it has never crashed, ever. The Dell was cheaper by about $300. The MacBook seems much more substantial and sturdy yet weighs less. The LCD screens are similiar with the MacBook a bit brighter. Windows covers more peripherals and more RAW file formats. The MacBook touchpad blows the Dell away! Windows can't use sleep mode very well, the MacBook sleeps and wakes like a charm: I leave it on for more than a week at a time.

The bottom line is that you get different strengths with both machines. If you choose a Mac, you should be running Mac software, skip the emulation stuff. If you can't find what you need on a Mac, buy Windows (WAIT FOR PRE_INSTALLED WINDOWS 7).

Good luck!

Thank you all for the wonderful info. I read it all and then research. Just wanted you to know that because I do appreciate all of the feedback.

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buy Windows (WAIT FOR PRE_INSTALLED WINDOWS 7).

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I forgot to mention that this was thrown into my decision making too. I'm hearing windows 7 is the bomb;

If I get windows 7 will my software run on it? I've never bought a computer with a brand new windows version and not sure how this works with existing software.

The software I'm most concerned about is:
cs4
LR
PSE
proshow producer
zoombrowser ex (canon)
eos utility

No, not all software runs on Windows 7 (just like vista).
But it does have a compatability mode that uses a virtual machine and runs XP.

Is your current machine using XP or Vista? If XP, some software may have to be run in XP mode as mentioned above. If you are using Vista, it should all work on Win7. To be sure, go to Microsofts website and download the Windows 7 compatibility wizard. It will go through all your current programs and hardware and tell you what is/is not compatible.

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Originally Posted by Canuck935

Is your current machine using XP or Vista? If XP, some software may have to be run in XP mode as mentioned above. If you are using Vista, it should all work on Win7. To be sure, go to Microsofts website and download the Windows 7 compatibility wizard. It will go through all your current programs and hardware and tell you what is/is not compatible.

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More great info! Thank you all so much.

I'm running XP so I'll go get the compatibility guide now. I've decided to go with a HP machine. There are still a few things I'm investigating because I don't understand all of the new hardware yet. Also I have to go back and read info on monitors. The ones that come with the computer don't look so swift so I have to research monitors a bit more too.

Thank you all again!

Wanted to thank everyone for the help. I've got my new machine ordered, the monitor just arrived and all I have left to do is order a huey.

I ended up going with an hp & the HP LP2475w Widescreen LCD.

• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-950 processor [3.00GHz, 1MB L2 + 8MB shared L3 cache]
• 12GB DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM [6 DIMMs]
• 2TB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s - two 1TB hard drives
• 1GB ATI Radeon HD 4850 [2 DVI, HDMI and VGA adapters]
• Blu-ray writer & Lightscribe SuperMulti DVD burner
• Blu-ray ROM (player)
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium

Thanks again. I love this forum and all of the great people here who are so forth coming with advice and help. :)

JETA..........

Congratulations! That's awesome. It looks like you picked 2 winners from all the specs listed.

I got a new HP pc a few months ago. Although Vista has been a challenge (which I still haven't conquered completely), I am very happy! I'm blessed to have a very knowledgeable gentleman who installs/repairs, etc. my computers. His job is building computers, so he is quite helpful as I'm "technically challenged" when it comes to computers, etc.

Enjoy your new set up. I'll be upgrading to Windows 7. BTW, my computer person has had Win7 for months - he always gets the beta versions of Windows way before it's officially out. He told me it's the best version of Windows yet!

Let us know how you're doing with it.

Liz

Well update on this wonderful powerful machine I got. It's been failing for the past two weeks. I've had two hp techs in my home for two days and have spend probably close to 20 hours on the phone with tech support. We've reinstalled now twice from f11 and three times from disk. They've replace teh video card, one of the hard drives and the mother board. It's got to be shipped back to hp. What is just so sick about this is I'm supposed to be composing two high graphic slideshows for one of the football programs I shoot for.

I'm physically sick and trying to figure out how to tell the Coach I'm not going to have his product for him banquet night. :(

Ouch, that's bad news JETA.
My old HP WX6600 is still going strong.
I'm considering a second CPU for it to up the machine to 8 cores.
So far (touch wood) not a problem with it, but it's probably end of life and no spares for it now.

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Originally Posted by SmartWombat

Ouch, that's bad news JETA.
My old HP WX6600 is still going strong.
I'm considering a second CPU for it to up the machine to 8 cores.
So far (touch wood) not a problem with it, but it's probably end of life and no spares for it now.

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PAul, what is kind of funny is the old puter that was dying a slow death is still running. LOL

The new one is running now. I decided to not send it in for a few weeks and cross my fingers I can compose my slideshows on it. I hate to disappoint the team or the Coach who has been so good to me over the years.

JETA sorry to hear that you are having so many problems with your new computer. Sometimes you just get a bad component in a computer and it can take a while to find what it is that's causing the problem.
One thing you may want to look into is the "lemon law" in your state. If your computer is having that many difficulties then I would demand that they replace the whole thing, not do patch work on it. Sometimes you just get a bad component in a computer and it can take a while to find what it is that's causing the problem but you should have to be down as long as you have been.
I got tired of dealing with Windows so I switched to running Linux (Ubuntu). I run a virtual Windows for the programs that don't run in Linux. When I run virtual Windows in Ubuntu it runs much faster than the stand alone Windows.

Long time no see my photography friends....

A quick update on this situation. The computer went back to HP for repair. I got it back and guess what? It is still running errors and windows will not update.

Took two days of phone calls, but I told them I was done. I wouldn't be trouble shooting, reformatting, absolutely nothing from me end. They escalated my claim yesterday and a case manager was to call me right back. They never did. I called again after getting the 800# directly to all HP case managers to find out the person yesterday never did escalate my claim. Not only that there was no record of it. So I guess they yanked my chain over the phone for over an hour for sick pleasure? lol

Today after I actually talked to a case manager he offered me a new computer right off the bat. I have to go thru the specs he sent me on the new machine and then I should be good to go.

I get bumped up to 16 gigs of ram from 12, but don't get my fancy sound card. Does this sound like a fair trade? I'm not a gamer and think ram will be more beneficial to me.

This has been a long road!

I've never had any problems with any of the Macs that I've owned. Of all the Macs that I administered in the Air Force, I only had one that was balky, that was finally tracked down to be a bad SIM chip. My current desktop is a 24" iMac 2.66, with 4 GB of RAM, and a 256 MB NVidia graphics card. I'll have 10-15 full res images open on it at once and it never slows down in CS5. I'll never buy a PC, you get what you pay for.

Mark

I have had several PC computers and have had trouble with all of them. A couple of months ago when my laptop died I decided to get an IMAC with a 27inch screen. It runs windows CS5 just fine and I can drag and drop files from the windows side to Mac or the other was around with no problem. I have only had it a few months but I am very happy with it and the learning curve has been fairly easy. I do have windows 7 and Office 2011 installed on it and everything I have tried so far works just fine, Jeff

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Anbesol

Actually running the Windows OS on mac works great! Consumer reports even gave the macbook pro top spot as 'best laptop for running windows OS'. Even if you don't want the mac OS, the hardware may still be worth the investment, then throw windows on it. The Imac's, for example, have a great design - like a laptop/desktop combo, they don't have a big tower, no major cable mess, keeps clutter to a minimum, and they put some great hardware in them. You pay a premium for this though, and your dollar doesn't go as far for performance, rather - function and design are equal contenders here.

If cost to performance is your primary goal, and function/design is a secondary thought - then the ideal is to build your own PC. Getting the new i7 platform cpu will make your computer a speed demon. I personally chose this route because performance matters much more to me than function and design - though the function/design of the IMac is quite compelling.

Photoshop runs equally well on both Mac and Windows now.

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:thumbsup: I agree as you

But don't think that Macs are immune to issues. I have a friend who is a professional photographer and her iMac crashed hard. It took her about 2 weeks and lots of headaches to get it back to normal. Macs might have fewer problems than Windows machines, but if you buy into the "Macs never crash" BS, you might pay for it when you are unprepared.

I just purchased an iMac 27 last weekend. Big learning curve for me, but it runs CS5 so much faster and smoother then my old machine that I think I'm going to love it. Still have not figured much of it out but have my fingers crossed.

PS: Jeff if you have any tips for me I would appreciate it.