Switching to Mac

[arthwollipot]

I've decided that my next laptop is going to be a 13" MacBook Pro. I haven't used a Mac for about twenty years.

The first computer I ever used (apart from the TRS-80, which I don't think counts) was a Macintosh. This was in 1986. My school had two computer labs - one with Macs (the 512k and four of the wonderful 800k), one with IBMs.

I walked into the IBM lab, sat down in front of a computer and switched it on. On screen was

A:\ _

I had no clue what to do with this, so I got up and went next door to the Mac lab. Someone there gave me a boot disk and a couple of games and I spent the next two years playing with games, WISYWIG word processing and music. Fast forward another ten years and I started working with DOS/Windows. I've barely even looked at Macs since then.

But my laptop needs an upgrade. I have a number of reasons for making the switch from Windows. Here are the biggest:

1. I spent fifteen years in tech support of windows boxen. The philosophy of "you don't want to know, you don't need to know, please return to your seat and watch the movie" is very appealing to me right now.
2. Most of what I use my Vista laptop for right now is web-based, and what isn't is iTunes.
3. GarageBand.

The main problem is that the MacBook pro is more expensive than a Toshiba or HP laptop with equivalent specs running Windows 7. But for me, right now, I think it's worth it. I'm probably going to pick up a couple of hundred dollars worth of accessories as well. Starting with a Magic Mouse. Have you seen that thing?

I have a few questions, and I'll start with the main one. Does Snow Leopard have an inbuilt basic text editor? I'm fairly inclined to buy iWork, but I don't know that I'll really need it, especially since there's always Google Docs and OpenOffice. What do the Mac-users of the community think? Should I get iWork? Is it better than OO? And what about for those situations where all I need is plain text editing?

 

[elgarak]

Yes, Macs come with a basic word processor/text editor called "TextEdit" (D'oh).

That said, Pages is my preferred word processor. BTW, you can buy it separately over the App Store -- no need to buy the whole iWorks pack. Don't know the price, though.

There are also a ton of free and cheap text editors out there.

Magic Mouse: Not only seen, I typically use it. [comic book guy]Best mouse ever![/cbg] YMMV, though. The big problem for people conditioned on traditional mice is that the whole top side is touch sensitive, so that you cannot rest anything on it. A lot of people have problems that their middle finger tends to rest on the surface, which is not a problem with traditional mice, but deadly on the Magic Mouse.

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Text editor: Forget about what come with it and download JEdit for free. That's what I use. Works great.

iWork: iWork is worth it just to get Keynote, which I don't think is available separately, but I could be wrong on that. If you ever have to do any kind of "Powerpoint" presentations, Keynote blows PowerPoint completely out of the water. It's not even close.

 

[Bell]

Welcome to the dark side!

I have a few questions, and I'll start with the main one. Does Snow Leopard have an inbuilt basic text editor? I'm fairly inclined to buy iWork, but I don't know that I'll really need it, especially since there's always Google Docs and OpenOffice. What do the Mac-users of the community think? Should I get iWork? Is it better than OO? And what about for those situations where all I need is plain text editing?

I use TextEdit as my basic PLAIN text editor, both for regular text, stories, letters and HTML editing. No complaints here.

I myself am a Mac whore and so have iWorks (Pages) which is perfect for my basic needs in designing and creating layouts. Pages is 15.99 euros in the Mac app store, so maybe some 22 Aussie dollars.

Don't know about Open Office, I have never worked with it.

 

[Uncle Otto]

I have an iMac now and I really like it. Text Edit comes on Macs. The Apple website has a very good support forum too. I've used it several times to find answers to different questions/problems I've encountered. If you want the iWork suite I think I only paid $34.95 at the time--U.S.D. I can't say about the mouse, as I use the standard one that came with it.

 

[leonAzul]

Does Snow Leopard have an inbuilt basic text editor?

Yes, TextEdit. It can create, open, and edit text (.txt), rich text (.rtf) and a Mac OS variant of rich text (.rtfd) that allows embedding graphics inline with the text.

Should I get iWork? Is it better than OO? And what about for those situations where all I need is plain text editing?

That depends on your needs. TextEdit might be all you require for word processing as well as text editing. The RTF is very flexible about layout and font faces.

A full-on word processor becomes more convenient if you need to create more complicated styles. Pages is designed specifically for the platform, looks good, can save documents in formats compatible with most platforms and is not terribly expensive.

If you really think you need an entire suite, LibreOffice is looking really good these days, OOo is looking stagnant. As I think of it, LibreOffice is probably the best idea until you have a chance to check out what you like and what you need for text and graphics editors. (MacPaint is long gone.)

 

[BenBurch]

Open Office works fine on a mac and I use it to edit WP files.

 

[Almo]

For plain text, I recommend TextWrangler. If you need formatting, other people have recommended good stuff.

Get Steam if you're interested in gaming. It's a good place to find games that have mac versions for decent prices.

 

[Bell]

By the way Arth, what are you going to use it for?

 

[arthwollipot]

By the way Arth, what are you going to use it for?

Pretty much for what I use my laptop for now - internet stuffs (mail, RSS, Facebook and forums), iTunes, and podcasting.

Thanks for the info about TextEdit. That really helps. I think I'll fork out for iWork anyway, because I can see myself needing to do the occasional presentation every now and again.

 

[Bell]

Pretty much for what I use my laptop for now - internet stuffs (mail, RSS, Facebook and forums), iTunes, and podcasting.

Thanks for the info about TextEdit. That really helps. I think I'll fork out for iWork anyway, because I can see myself needing to do the occasional presentation every now and again.

In that case, why not get the standard 13" MacBook? I have one, am using it mainly for internet stuff. I believe the Pro series are mode aimed at people who want to edit photo's and video on the fly, so they need more CPU powerrr. But if have the extra money, then why not?

 

[arthwollipot]

In that case, why not get the standard 13" MacBook? I have one, am using it mainly for internet stuff. I believe the Pro series are mode aimed at people who want to edit photo's and video on the fly, so they need more CPU powerrr. But if have the extra money, then why not?

Well, I do do a lot of work with photography, and I'd like to teach myself to make videos as well (I have a couple of projects I'd love to do sometime). It sorta makes sense that when I've got the budget for it I might as well.

 

[leonAzul]

Well, I do do a lot of work with photography, and I'd like to teach myself to make videos as well (I have a couple of projects I'd love to do sometime). It sorta makes sense that when I've got the budget for it I might as well.

For basic rotating, cropping, colour-balancing, re-sizing and format conversion, iPhoto does a very good job. It's also a pretty good library manager, but not well-suited for managing professional projects. For batch conversion and editing I can highly recommend GraphicConverter. There is a free trial-ware version, but it is definitely worth the $40 or so for the license.

GarageBand and iMovie work really well together for video productions and podcasts. There's always HandBrake for batch video transcoding. For batch audio conversion, Max is about the best freebie, but it has some quirks in its tag and metadata management. IMHO it's still the best tool for dealing with FLAC on a Mac.

 

[BobHaulk]

Good choice. Mac's are just so much better. Buying a mac is like picking up a chick in a bar and finding that in the morning she's just as good looking as you though she was the previous evening and you fall in love, get married and stay faithful for the rest of your life. The only drawback is the pain you will feel for the wasted 20 years you spent using them useless, ugly, horrible window thingies.

 

[Soapy Sam]

But after the honeymoon, you go back to the office and realise you really, really like that hottie in accounts and you always meant to show her your spreadsheet macros...

 

[arthwollipot]

For basic rotating, cropping, colour-balancing, re-sizing and format conversion, iPhoto does a very good job.

I'm pretty sure iPhoto comes with the bundle, but I'd have to check to make sure.

Bob, I have absolutely nothing against Windows. I've used Windows of various kinds for many years, and enjoyed it. The only issue I have is that you have to keep tinkering with it - not as much as with Linux, to be sure, but I just don't care about that inside-the-box stuff as much as I used to.

But this is not the place for a religious war.

 

[not daSkeptic]

The only issue I have is that you have to keep tinkering with it - not as much as with Linux, to be sure, but I just don't care about that inside-the-box stuff as much as I used to.

This is the exact reason I switched to Mac. I used to delight in hand-crafting my systems and compiling a custom tweaked software-set from source. But somewhere along the line, getting things done became more important.

 

[not daSkeptic]

*deleted*

 

[arthwollipot]

This is the exact reason I switched to Mac. I used to delight in hand-crafting my systems and compiling a custom tweaked software-set from source. But somewhere along the line, getting things done became more important.

Yeah, part of my problem is that I didn't do all that constant tinkering, and performance slowly got worse and worse, and having to do the periodic registry cleanouts and checking for unremoved files after uninstalling software got pretty old. Not to mention not knowing whether any particular new hardware or software would work the way I expected it to.

Windows works. Well... Windows XP and (I'm told) Windows 7 work. Vista sucks ass. But there's absolutely nothing wrong with using Windows in an enterprise environment, IMO.

I just want something... simpler.

 

[ThatSoundAgain]

Yes, Iphoto should be included. I believe you still get iLife as they call it, including iPhoto, iMovie + iDVD, and Garageband. They also used to include some kind of small game, but I can't find anything on that. Other than that, a number of core applications are considered part of the OS, but you can find alternatives for most - Quicktime, Calendar, Address Book, Facetime, Mail, Safari.

Once you're set, I recommend looking these up: VLC media player, Perian and Flip4Mac Quicktime extensions, TextWrangler (if you do any sort of code/HTML editing), Skype, Vienna RSS aggregator, the iStat widget, CleanArchiver, and the Omni suite. All are free, except the Omni stuff, of which I use Omnioutliner to make advanced todo-lists.

For games, I've been playing a bit of Minecraft as well as using DosBox and ScummVM for the classics. Bungie has also made their old Marathon games available free of charge, via the Aleph One project. I really like DarkPlaces Quake as well. Yes, I'm an oldschool gamer on the Mac side - this machine is three years old, and even though it can keep up with L4D in Windows / Bootcamp, the Mac version is almost unplayable on the same hardware. All right for my productivity, I guess.