[Sektorv]

Hi there!

Well the title says most of it! I'm seriously considering purchasing a Macbook Pro (or successor thereof) as soon as Leopard hits the streets (maybe with a 64 bit efi?) . I've been using Windows since vers. 3.11 (a long time ago) and was very very fond of it. The problems, that have been increasing over the years, viruses, spyware, malware etc. etc. compatability issues, constant driver updates (concerning compatability problems) and so on, have started taking the fun out of it though. Uninstaling programs, searching the registry for left overs, trying to remove them. Then you finally format the system, install everything (including the 10000 Windows updates), the system runs smooth and after 2 weeks it starts lagging again. Well I kind of guess you get the picture ;-) .

Although the new Macbooks will probably take a while to be released, I am the kind of guy, that likes to be prepared, due to that, I've starting searching the net already, reading forums and news sites and so on.

I have been using Outlook at home for a while now (appointments, contacts, e-mails) and have gotten used to it. I read that there is no outlook for OS X but Entourage. Supposed to have the same functions (more or less) except, exchange (but I don't use that server function anyway).

I also watch DivX films on my Dell at the moment. Concerning this, I read that Quicktime, does have it share fair of probs. MS has created a Media Player for Mac though, is it any good?

I am a hobby photographer and like posting pictures in binary newsgroups (please save your jokes now), I do landscapes, aquariums and buildings. Why I post them in binary groups? there are some pros using them and you get tips from them and constructive criticism. I've been using Newsbin for that. I haven't found a simlar program yet though. I read about Thoth, but that's been cancelled (vresion 2 was supposed to have UB support, but that's a no go now). Anyone know of any worthwhile progs?

Adobe has got a full range of progs for the Mac, so there's now problem with album of photo editing software (CS3 is supposed to run natively on MacIntel systems).

Another thing I'm worried about is the compatability of Word documents between Mac and Windows. I mean the fonts here. Both systems don't share the same fonts, do they? I like writing stuff at home for work, will I have any major issues, when I send documents to work?

Are there any Powerpoint issues, to be aware of? I read of a certain "feature", that pictures often don't get included when using a Windows presentation on a Mac system.

Is there a simple way to import my favorites, e-mails, and contacts from my windows system to the mac?

Recreation is also a key word here. I enjoy real time strategy games (Command & Conquer, to be exact). There doesn't seem to be a lot of games on the Mac. What are the games like runnning on boot camp? Any worthwhile? (I will survive it, if I can't play any games on the Mac though).

Do Macs also start lagging after a couple of weeks (boot sequence and so on), like windows systems?


I know that some questions have been asked in different threads, but I don't feel like bumping 10 different threads to the top position again, and I though it would be compacter and easier to have everything in one thread. So please bare with me

Thanks in advance!

[mdc]

Originally Posted by Sektorv 

I have been using Outlook at home for a while now (appointments, contacts, e-mails) and have gotten used to it. I read that there is no outlook for OS X but Entourage. Supposed to have the same functions (more or less) except, exchange (but I don't use that server function anyway).

Mac OS comes with Mail, Address Book, and iCal which separately do the main things that Entourage does. Personally, I like having three separate applications and opening each when I need them. I have Mail open 24/7 but Address Book and iCal whenever I need them.
If you like Outlook and don't need the Exchange part I'm sure you'll be fine with either Entourage or Mail.

Originally Posted by Sektorv 

I also watch DivX films on my Dell at the moment. Concerning this, I read that Quicktime, does have it share fair of probs. MS has created a Media Player for Mac though, is it any good?

I suggest downloading VLC and Perian. VLC is a great video application which will handle pretty much any file. Perian is a nice plugin for which will let you watch divx and stuff in Quicktime. 99% of the time I use Quicktime to watch movies since it has the neat fullscreen controls. The new VLC has those too now I hear. I haven't used it lately.

Originally Posted by Sektorv 

I am a hobby photographer and like posting pictures in binary newsgroups (please save your jokes now), I do landscapes, aquariums and buildings. Why I post them in binary groups? there are some pros using them and you get tips from them and constructive criticism. I've been using Newsbin for that. I haven't found a simlar program yet though. I read about Thoth, but that's been cancelled (vresion 2 was supposed to have UB support, but that's a no go now). Anyone know of any worthwhile progs?

Panic has Unison which I have used to browse around newsgroups with. I never upload anything, so I have no idea what it's like to do that, but I have downloaded some things and it works really nicely for that. I'm sure someone else can help you out better than I can in this department.

Originally Posted by Sektorv 

Another thing I'm worried about is the compatability of Word documents between Mac and Windows. I mean the fonts here. Both systems don't share the same fonts, do they? I like writing stuff at home for work, will I have any major issues, when I send documents to work?

I haven't run into any issues with Word documents that I've been emailed from Windows users and vice-versa. The compatibility between Windows Office and Mac Office is really good.

Originally Posted by Sektorv 

Are there any Powerpoint issues, to be aware of? I read of a certain "feature", that pictures often don't get included when using a Windows presentation on a Mac system.

I read about that issues yesterday. For some reason I remember being emailed PowerPoint presentations from Windows users and being able to see the pictures. I guess the issue exists but I haven't run across it. According to the article I read yesterday Office 2008 on the Mac will address this issue.

If it weren't for Windows presentations I would not have PowerPoint on my Mac. In my opinion, Keynote is miles ahead of it.

Originally Posted by Sektorv 

Is there a simple way to import my favorites, e-mails, and contacts from my windows system to the mac?

I've never had to do it, but a quick Google search gave me these results.
Export email from Outlook to Entourage
Export mail into Outlook (Express) or Apple Mail

Originally Posted by Sektorv 

Recreation is also a key word here. I enjoy real time strategy games (Command & Conquer, to be exact). There doesn't seem to be a lot of games on the Mac. What are the games like runnning on boot camp? Any worthwhile? (I will survive it, if I can't play any games on the Mac though).

From everything I've read/heard running things through Bootcamp is as fast as it'll go on the same PC. Bootcamp isn't emulating anything, you're running Windows. A friend of mine restarts into Bootcamp to play some Counterstrike now and again.

Originally Posted by Sektorv 

Do Macs also start lagging after a couple of weeks (boot sequence and so on), like windows systems?

That's a very difficult question to answer since I've used a Mac which just felt a lot slower than it used to be when it was brand new. I downloaded Onyx and ran all the "housekeeping" tasks, restarted, and the machine was as fast as ever. Some people here, including myself, have user accounts that have been migrated to multiple machines, through multiple Mac OS upgrades.
All in all, I'd say that Mac OS doesn't suffer from Windows' degradation issues. It's possible, but I find it a lot simpler to fix it up on Mac OS (see: Onyx) than to fix it on Windows (see: reinstall).

[brokenjago]

Originally Posted by Sektorv

Recreation is also a key word here. I enjoy real time strategy games (Command & Conquer, to be exact). There doesn't seem to be a lot of games on the Mac. What are the games like runnning on boot camp? Any worthwhile? (I will survive it, if I can't play any games on the Mac though).

I am an avid PC gamer and find that installin Windows on a seperate partition works great for gaming, even with the most intense of games (C&C 3, Supreme Commander, etc)

[Sektorv]

@mdc: Thanks for the great answer!
@brokenjago: Glad to hear that the recreational "applications" also work on the mac! Looking forward to getting my mac already. Just glad, that I've still got some weeks to do overtime and save cash!

[JKT]

Originally Posted by Sektorv 

I also watch DivX films on my Dell at the moment. Concerning this, I read that Quicktime, does have it share fair of probs. MS has created a Media Player for Mac though, is it any good?

Another thing I'm worried about is the compatability of Word documents between Mac and Windows. I mean the fonts here. Both systems don't share the same fonts, do they? I like writing stuff at home for work, will I have any major issues, when I send documents to work?

Are there any Powerpoint issues, to be aware of? I read of a certain "feature", that pictures often don't get included when using a Windows presentation on a Mac system.

1. DivX player and the web plugin are available for the Mac (the plugin also lets you play DivX files in Quicktime so you don't need to use DivX player. MS created a media player for the Mac ages ago and have since dropped development, which was a relief because it is quite simply the worst Mac OS X application ever released. Yes, it is that awful and there is some pretty stiff competition out there. However, windows media playback, so long as it is not DRM'ed (and why would you want it if it was DRM'ed?) is possible in Quicktime via the free Flip4Mac plugin and in the OSS media players VLC and Mplayer.

2. There are sometimes issues with symbols not displaying but fairly trivial to fix (fwiw, this isn't unique to Mac<>Windows and often happens in Word on my work PC when changing fonts in files created in Word for Windows!)

IOW, yes there are sometimes compatibility issues, but they are no different or not much worse than any you will experience as a norm.

3. Powerpoint - its a horrible application on any platform and includes the ugliest templates mankind has ever seen... does that count? Keynote puts it to shame in almost every single department. As for images not showing up... can't comment, I avoid it like the plague but if they don't it will be because they are some odd, proprietary, Windows only format that in a sane world wouldn't even exist.

[steve626]

Originally Posted by Sektorv 

Another thing I'm worried about is the compatability of Word documents between Mac and Windows. I mean the fonts here. Both systems don't share the same fonts, do they? I like writing stuff at home for work, will I have any major issues, when I send documents to work?

Are there any Powerpoint issues, to be aware of? I read of a certain "feature", that pictures often don't get included when using a Windows presentation on a Mac system.

I can speak a little to the MS-Office questions you raised because I work in a company of 5000+ employees, mostly engineers, where maybe 40-50% are using Macs, the rest are on PCs. The Intel Macs run Parallels and Windows when necessary also, so more and more of us are using Macs full time now.

We are constantly sending Word and Powerpoint files back and forth internally as well as exchanging them with industry psrtners and various gov't agencies.

We have seen Word incompatibilities only very rarely. Sometimes a "1-pager" memo will be 1 page plus 1 line on a second page on one platform versus the other due to some slight difference in default margin settings or obscure tiny spacing different in the way the text is laid out on the page when printed.

Powerpoint is required for all our reviews, of which we have many. One issue that sometimes happens is that a Powerpoint document prepared on a Mac has graphics that don't show up on a PC (a box appears that says "Quicktime compressor required"). This happens when the Mac user pasts a graphic into the powerpoint document in a Mac-only format (such as PICT). Under certain conditions and sequences of copying and pasting, this can be the default and hence the incompatibility. The way to avoid this is to make sure the graphic is in a PC-compatible format (such as jpg, there are many others that work also) and then paste it in. Programs like Graphic Converter and Adobe Photoshop Elements and Adobe Photoshop, or even Preview, can be used on the fly to ensure a compatible graphic pasting process into powerpoint.

The only area where I have seen an issue on the Mac is with Microsoft Project. The version for the PC is newer than the one for the Mac. I used Parallels to install the latest PC version of MS Project and hence I can do just about anything with my Mac that is done on the PCs. We have over $1B of space projects here for various government agencies and industry partners and there is no tolerance for PC/Mac hassles ... we just haven't encountered any that don't have easy workarounds (yet).

If you are a heavy user of business software tools (like Oracle) I advise you to make sure you can do what you need to do on your Mac. On my Mac, there are still one or two Oracle modules I have to run on the Parallels/PC side, but most work fine cross platform.

[Sektorv]

@JKT: Thanks for the info concerning the DivX plugins. I take it you don't like powerpoint ;-) . I also think the user interface is below average. But I do have to work with it and make my presentations. The powerpoint hype only started about 3 years ago, in my line of work. We used to use overhead projectors (now that was really torture!), but now everybody has got a USB stick. The problem is that at work we've only got windows pc's. I'm going to be the only one using a mac, and just need to be sure, that there won't be any compatability issues.

@steve626: Glad to hear, that the Word problems aren't that bad. I was getting worried, that the whole document and the whole format could be shifted, due to using font types, that don't exist on windows. Are there any, that get used by both sytems. It would be a total nightmare, if I make a powerpoint presentation, get to work, flip the on switch on the beamer and the whole format is a mess.
I thought that the missing picture issue might concern a certain graphic format issue.
The main programs I use at work (and at home, because "nobody" takes work with home.....) are Word, Powerpoint and Excel, so I guess I should be on the safe side.

Thanks once again!

[OreoCookie]

I think this is better suited in the Applications forum.

Regarding a few of the questions:

Originally Posted by Sektorv 

I have been using Outlook at home for a while now (appointments, contacts, e-mails) and have gotten used to it. I read that there is no outlook for OS X but Entourage. Supposed to have the same functions (more or less) except, exchange (but I don't use that server function anyway).

You should probably give Apple's Mail and iCal a try. This way, you get the best of OS X' integration. You can still switch back to Entourage later on. Note that MS has also separated its Mail and Calendar application with Vista.

Originally Posted by Sektorv 

I also watch DivX films on my Dell at the moment. Concerning this, I read that Quicktime, does have it share fair of probs. MS has created a Media Player for Mac though, is it any good?

Use VLC (same as for Windows). Flip4Mac allows you to playback most WMV file in QuickTime, but VLC is much more forgiving with damaged files.

Originally Posted by Sektorv 

Adobe has got a full range of progs for the Mac, so there's now problem with album of photo editing software (CS3 is supposed to run natively on MacIntel systems).

No. As a matter of fact, some software came out on a Mac first (Lightroom for instance).

Originally Posted by Sektorv 

Another thing I'm worried about is the compatability of Word documents between Mac and Windows. I mean the fonts here. Both systems don't share the same fonts, do they? I like writing stuff at home for work, will I have any major issues, when I send documents to work?

I haven't seen too many issues, only a few. One of my father's clients was using the Polish version of Word 95 (!) and the document looked strange. We couldn't determine whether it was supposed to look horrible or it was due to the conversion.

Originally Posted by Sektorv 

Is there a simple way to import my favorites, e-mails, and contacts from my windows system to the mac?

I've successfully used Outlook2Mac.

Originally Posted by Sektorv 

Recreation is also a key word here. I enjoy real time strategy games (Command & Conquer, to be exact). There doesn't seem to be a lot of games on the Mac. What are the games like runnning on boot camp? Any worthwhile? (I will survive it, if I can't play any games on the Mac though).

All games work with `Boot Camp': Boot Camp just allows you to install Windows in parallel to OS X. That means whenever you want to/have to use Windows, you can boot it and you have a genuine Windows machine.

Originally Posted by Sektorv 

Do Macs also start lagging after a couple of weeks (boot sequence and so on), like windows systems?

No, as long as you leave about 10+ GB of space on your harddrive and plenty of RAM (1+ GB).

[dylanw]

I am a hobby photographer and like posting pictures in binary newsgroups (please save your jokes now), I do landscapes, aquariums and buildings. Why I post them in binary groups? there are some pros using them and you get tips from them and constructive criticism. I've been using Newsbin for that. I haven't found a simlar program yet though. I read about Thoth, but that's been cancelled (vresion 2 was supposed to have UB support, but that's a no go now). Anyone know of any worthwhile progs?

MT-Newswatcher deserves a look. It's not as polished as Unison, but it's free and has the best filtering of any currently-maintained usenet app.