Considering switching to Mac, need advice on advantages

I am considering buying a mac.

I am a strong supporter of the iPhone and iPad when compared to android products, they are superior, no other way to put it (we have 1-iphone and 2 ipads in the house, and we do a lot of facetime). BUT I am a longtime Windows guy and I have a hard time switching my desktop platform.

I just read all the stuff in the http://forum.notebookreview.com/app...ers-guide-v2-0-illustrations.html#post4999416

but I still have a few questions.

1) What is the biggest gain switching to OSX? Mainly I am curious about photo and video archiving, streaming to an apple TV, and such. Currently I use my desktop for storing and editing family videos, but Windows is rather poor at streaming those videos to my PS3. I currently use TVsersity to do so, but it is mediocre solution at best.

2) Also what software does a Mac need to after purchase? If I make a hackintosh, is iLife included in Snow Leapord?

3) Is Office or Pages pretty much essential? Will I need to buy those also?

4) How is iPhoto compared to Windows?

5) How is the synergy between Mac, ipad, & iphone? Do photos and like more easily sync than on a PC? Or is this cloud stuff still fairly new even for mac?

Thanks in advance + Rep for the help.

 

Hey ValkerieFire! Do me a favor and go ask this in our Apple forum on DTR - we'd be happy to answer your (hackintosh, and otherwise) questions there!

Mac Forums - Apple Desktop Forums, iMac Forums and OS X Discussions

 

I guess I kinda asked for that by referencing a desktop. Since it is a software question I removed the desktop references. Sorry about that.

 

1. Well, I would say the biggest advantage is OS stability, security (mainly because most trojans, malware, spyware, and virus content is programmed for Windows), and more simplified streamlined interface. That's not a knock at Windows 7 either as I think MS really did well with that. As far as what you are wanting to do, I think both OS's are going to provide a relatively similar experience. I will say that iMovie offers more features than many video editing programs on PC and of course, OS X runs Final Cut Pro (though the newer one isn't as advanced as the last edition). Streaming to an Apple TV is going to be the same on either as that is all done through iTunes. Streaming solutions for the PS3 are also going to be about the same as on Windows. Lastly, the main benefit of switching to a Mac (the full experience, not a Hackintosh) is that you get hardware married with software. Yes, it is the same hardware that everyone else runs now but OS X has been streamlined for that hardware.

2. I am not sure if vanilla Snow Leopard comes with iLife. I know my early 2011 13" MBP's restoration DVD (with Snow Leopard) came with iLife on it and, whenever I performed a clean install of Lion on that system, it too had iLife.

3. As essential as it is on Windows. Just like Windows, you will need to buy those as well. If you want to stick with just one, I recommend Office 2011. Word is still the standard when it comes to documents. Pages is compatible with Word files but I often encounter formatting issues when trying to open them. It is best to just stick with Word if you want to maintain compatibility. Even if you can open a Word doc in Pages correctly, you can encounter a formatting issue (i.e. font size problems, margins off, alignment off, breaking EndNote compatibility) if you try to save a Word doc in Pages.

4. Compared to what in Windows? The built-in photo functionality? iPhoto is a lot better. It is a pain to get up and running mainly because you have to properly tag all of your photos. After that though, iPhoto offers a much better experience.

5. The synergy is about the same. The main advantage of OS X in terms of iCloud compatibility is that it has that built-in. The only iCloud compatibility Windows has comes from iTunes. So, if you take a photo and sync it to your iCloud account, Windows will not be able to automatically download it. However, OS X can do this automatically. Photo syncing to an iDevice can also be done through iPhoto and that is a whole lot more streamlined than syncing just through iTunes on Windows.

Keep in mind that my above statements assume you will be buying a Mac, not making some Hackintosh. Also, I think OS X Lion is the only one that has automatic syncing with iCloud and that Snow Leopard is essentially like Windows in that it will have limited iCloud functionality through iTunes.

 

Thanks kornchild. +Rep.

Sounds like I may be hoping for more than is reasonable. This would be wife's main rig, and all it would be used for is internet, photo sorting, and occasional word processing.

But it also sunds like it could be worth it since I would really like to live in a world where I can take photos with my iPhone 4S, and have them wirelessly sync to the Mac, and then stream them easily to the iPads for viewing.

I appreciate your time.

 

Haha, I started typing a response forever ago, and forgot to send it:


Regardless, building a hackintosh is an exercise in frustration. Getting it to work, getting updates installed, using peripherals, etc. It can be fun, but personally, it's not worth my time.

iLife is included with every Mac.

iWork is not. If all you need is basic word processing and spreadsheet functionality, use something like Google Apps. iWork is okay; I do think that for power users, Office is wildly superior. It just depends on the experience you're after. iWork does support the new file features/systemwide autosave/etc that Lion does, so there's that.

When it comes to comparable functionality in Windows, OS X is no longer really 'better' than the equivalent PC experience, save when it comes to trackpad quality and drivers.

iPhoto is great, and until recently had no real Microsoft analog in terms of a database-driven photo management system. That's changed slightly with Microsoft's Windows Live Essentials: Windows Live Essentials - Download free Microsoft programs

Having said that, iPhoto and iMovie especially are an order of magnitude superior to programs offered by the competition, especially when you consider the fact that they're included with every new computer purchase.

I can't say as much to the synergy between the various iOS devices and OS X, though it is smooth, mostly because I use photography differently. Any photos I take on a mobile device are almost exclusively for use online or in a quick email to friends / family, and the rest I edit on the desktop first.

I know you edited it out, but since you originally mentioned the Mac Mini, I can confidently say that it simply won't be a purchase you regret. They're silent most of the time, and not that loud when they aren't. They're small. They fit in with any decor.

If you do go that route, you should know that they don't come with a keyboard or mouse - you would do well to pick up an Apple Keyboard and Magic Trackpad. They'd add substantially to the cost, but will save all the frustration you'd feel trying to remember the different keyboard mappings from the PC equivalents...and the Trackpad is simply an outstanding OS X experience.

 

Whether or not OS X provides a better experience than Windows really does come down to a personal opinion. I think both OS's have their strengths and weaknesses. I like Aero and the windows snap functions in Win 7 yet I prefer the dock, the way programs are installed and removed, and the general look of OS X. There are some other things here and there that each OS has over the other.

I should also clarify that when I said iMovie was better than many Windows solutions, I meant to say many free Windows solutions (especially Movie Maker). Vegas Video is better than iMovie but you will find some of the same features. iMovie is also pretty damn easy to use.

The way iCloud works with photo syncing is that you sign up for a free me account and everything goes through that. You take a picture on your iPhone and it will automatically download to the Mac and iPad (there is no photo streaming for the iPad through iCloud, just photo syncing). The same holds true if you took a picture using the Mac's built-in webcam or the iPad. It would automatically sync across all devices. Contacts, e-mails, and various documents can also be synced through this process (you can control what is synced through iCloud and what isn't). This type of functionality is not present for Windows, it is reserved for OS X Lion and iOS only (I don't think Snow Leopard will automatically work with iCloud).

I didn't know you were interested in the Mac Mini. I had a friend who purchased one and he likes it. Yes, the Mac Mini is outrageously overpriced but so are most other Macs. To me, the only Macs that are competitively priced is the MacBook Air line. Compared to other ultrabooks with the same features and specs, they are priced quite nicely (a little higher and a little lower for some cases). Still, the Mac Mini is a sleek machine and, if you already have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, it is really a nice way to break into OS X.

That is essentially what my friend did. He always wanted a Mac but didn't want to spend $1000 and end up not liking OS X. He essentially uses his Mac Mini as an HTPC. Now he is thinking about purchasing an iMac to replace an old desktop in his wife's office (either that or buying a baseline 13" MBP and using the monitor he currently has so his wife can work in the office or anywhere else she wants). I think of the Mac Mini as the gateway drug into OS X.

 

Hello ValkerieFire,

I have a few answers to add to what you have already seen. iLife is NOT included with any version of OS X, as previously mentioned it IS included when you purchase a new Mac (and if you buy a second-hand Mac, the seller includes it). If you build a Hackintsoh, you will not get iLife by just installing the OS. Apple sells iLife by itself (via the Mac App Store) if necessary.

You will need some sort of office "suite," but which you choose is entirely up to you. I currently use Office 2011 for Mac, and have used the two earlier versions (Office 2008 and Office X), and the current version is vastly improved, but it is not the same as Office for Windows. If you need MS Office, Office 2011 is the best native way to get it. Personally, I found that running the Windows version of Office via Parallels or VMWare Fusion to give a better experience. There is also now other options out there such as Google Docs, and Open Office. It really depends on what you prefer.

Prior to Windows Live Essentials, there really was no free, easy-to-use Windows application for photo editing (this is also debateable, as different people have different ideas as to what is "easy to use"). Now, they are pretty much a wash, just depends on our personal preferences. You just need to remember that if you do not get a copy of iLife, you will not have iPhoto.

Good luck!
Rich S.

 

So is that a confirmation that OS X does not come with iLife? The only reason why I ask is that I have performed a few clean installations of OS X Lion (from a DVD I burned) on my 13" MBP and all the iLife applications were there. This wasn't a backup DVD or anything. I downloaded Lion from the Mac App Store and burned it to a DVD using a known method.

 

OSX does not come with iLife... a new Mac comes with the latest version of iLife along with OSX, but its not a single package deal... if you just buy OSX, it doesn't have iLife.

 

Backup discs that ship with new Macs contain both the OS and the pre-installed iLife applications. Retail OS X Discs (or the download of Lion) will not include iLife. I do not know how it works, but if your Mac comes pre-installed with Lion, the Mac App Store will allow you to re-download the iLife suite directly if it is missing. However, since my MBP came with Snow Leopard, I will have to restore iLife from my restore DVD, I will not be able to do it from the App store.

Rich S.

 

Then how did my MBP have the iLife apps on it after a clean install of OS X Lion? That is why I am confused. iPhoto, GrageBand, and that other iLife program were all there on my MBP after I performed a clean install (three times over a one year period) of OS X Lion. Did Lion change things by coming with iLife while the retail discs of Snow Leopard didn't?

 

Lion has only been out 6 months so I'm confused on what you meant by that. Are you absolutely certain that you did a "clean install" of Lion. That would be fully erasing your HDD and installing onto an empty drive. The only way this can be done is creating a DVD from the Install DMG file within the install package then going into Disk Utility upon installation and completely erase the HDD. I did read that you already created the DVD but you weren't clear on your install method.

No retail stand alone version of OS X ever came with iLife. If you did a "clean install" and still ended up with iLife then only 2 things could be possible.

1) You didn't actually do a clean install but really re-install of Lion.
2) If your Mac is brand new and shipped with Lion then iLife may auto install from the cloud upon installation. The recovery partition from Lion has only the essentials to start the installation, it still has to download the rest of the files to complete.

 

I have used both Windows (most if not all flavors (except ME)) Apple OS what ever since 9.
i just got rid of my OSX Lion notebook and moved back to Windows.
Why because i need it for work and to be honest it was to much of a hassle to run both OS's.
Bootcamp in my opinion is a waste of time (drivers suck), VMware or Parallels is a better option, just it was not cutting it for me.

So now to your questions.
1. I can tell you iLife is not included for what you are looking for. This comes with a new Mac purchase from what I have seen. I have a copy of OSX Lion (Yes my paid for one) on VMware Workstation (still have to support some user so still need to access it once in a while) and I can tell you it does not have iLife.
Aside from that i have never found any gain in switching. People say more secure, stable etc. I call BS as Mac's are the first to fall at the yearly security conferences. As well after the last virus that came out Apple did not have a fix for months. I always run an AV on any OS including my SUSE and FreeBSD OS’s.

If anything switching for me was more of a headache than anything as my company is MS based as are the servers (well and Linux). As the Sys Admin, the limitations on OSX and making it so most of the needed DSB tools would not install was a pain, so back I went. But that is me lots of people use it just fine.
In general they are not as popular so less viruses, but do not fool yourself, they exist and are coming more and more.

Stable, I have crashed my OSX several times and Lion when first release was a nightmare for most. Hardware issues were another issue, notebook would overheat and crash out etc. Windows not much better but Windows 7 is not Vista or XP. It is a whole new animal. I would say it is as stable or more stable these days.

2. No real word editor, no iLife on a new CD. You get just the basics. Mail, photo booth, face time, Safari, iTunes, chess (big whoop), etc etc. so get ready to buy.

3. Yes. I would get Pages. While Office works, it is no Office 2010. More a child between 2003 and 2007.

4. iPhoto is a great app and nothing built into Windows is as good, however it is not built into the base OSX Lion either. I prefer ACDsee for Windows ( http://www.acdsee.com) myself, the Apple version is eh.

5. OSX I find iTunes is more prevalent here and you are forced to use it more (I have an iPhone 4s and iPad2) Photo syncing is iTunes on windows or the Mac. I just find it easier to get them off on my Windows box.
As for the cloud. Heard stories, a photographer friend lost everything on it. A friend of mine cannot get his bosses exchange calendar to sync anymore (apple ‘s support response was, “ well that is a new one” issues is still not resolved. They have 200 iPhones and this one is the only problem and the only one that went on iCloud with his calendar (BTW I read a 9 page transcript online on another user with the same issue, no resolution).
The iCloud is very new (released to the public October 12th 2011) I personally will give it a year before I rush to it.

That’s all I have. Anyone who wants to Flame me on any comment feel free (and if anything is misspelled sorry about that), but you better do a few searches in Google before you do. Nothing I said cannot be found out easy enough through a good web search.

 

Sorry, I meant to say over the period of 6 months. I had my Mac for about a year so my numbers were off.

Yes, I performed a complete re-install and did not use the migration assistant. I made the installation DVD from the downloaded DMG file. I performed a clean install (formatting the hard drive) once after getting Lion, again when I installed an SSD in my Mac, and then I did it a few days ago before selling my Mac. iPhoto, GarageBand, and that other iLife app were all there after the installation was complete (without me putting any personal information in). My Mac shipped with Snow Leopard and not Lion as well.

That is why I am so confused.

 

Maybe something it stores locally?

 

From where did you download the DMG file? Through the App store or from some third party?

 

I don't think it's worth anyone's time here to flame you. I'm pretty sure "we"....the ones who read your entire post know exactly where you stand.

 

You really know you're making a great point when you craft a lengthy one-sided argument with only generalities. There's my mini comment-flame.

 

I purchased it through the Mac App Store.

 

I too have been a long-time Windows users and while I like the design and UI of OS X, I'm still hesitant on changing over. Mostly, I just have concerns about the incompatibility and limited(?) software options. Perhaps another reason is that I plan on going into Accounting and I'm not even sure if there's accounting software for OS X.

I disagree with your point that iOS is superior to Android but let's get away from that. The thing that I love about Apple is their ability to incorporate all of their machines and services into one large ecosystem. Once you buy an Apple product and invest into it, it's hard to leave. You said that you love and own an iPhone and 2 iPads. I think that alone is good enough for switching over to a Mac since it will make everything easier. We're starting to see it with MS in how they're incorporating all their services such as XBL, Windows Phone, Windows, and their cloud services. I have products from the three major software companies (Android phone, iPod Touch, and Windows laptop) and I really do wish I just invested into an ecosystem to make my life easier.

So basically, yes, I would recommend you get a Mac. Now you just have to decide which one.

 

I switched over the wife last year, I just recently switched myself. I'm in the technology industry (24+ years, 3rd company), developer, system architect, etc., so I didn't switch _just_ because Macs are shiny (but the are real purty)

I do have the need for running some Windows based development apps, so I'm doing it in a VM via Parallels v6. In fact, right at this moment, I'm running Windows 7 which is running VS2010, IIS, EMS/Oracle) and on the native side I'm running Word '11, iTunes, Mail, iCal, Chrome (lots of tabs) and a number of services like DropBox), using an external 24" display concurrent with my 15" HR integrated display.

I like working from a VM since I can easily restore it, share files between the OSs, setup different environments to simulate different clients, plus with OSX, I'm also developing with XCode for iOS solutions.

1) It's not just the switch to OSX, but the whole Apple experience, including the hardware design, service and support model, services offered across all of Apple's products (like Airplay) etc., plus some of the unique OSX software options like XCode.

2) Depends on what you're doing with your machine. Potentially nothing ... possibly $1Ks of dollar in software. I tried a H'Tosh, just too much potential hassle (especially in a professional capacity .. maybe as a "project machine").

3) If you want to author some docs, you'll need something like Pages, or OpenOffice (free office suite), or Word ... I'm running Office '11 for OSX and it's pretty solid so far, just completed a large [medical] research doc, and we had zero interoperability issues passing revisions back and forth from Windows Office (including a couple of Excel worksheets).

4) iPhoto is pretty excellent, so is iMovie, especially considering they're price (from free to cheap). The Windows Live! apps that offer the same functionality aren't nearly as good as this stage.

5) One the reasons I migrated to a Mac is we're also users of other Apple products, and from my experience, the experience is better with a Mac/OSX iTunes/etc., with iPhone/iPad/AppleTV.

 

so you download Lion from the app store. you get the DMG file from this download. you restore a thumb drive with this DMG file.

you boot from the USB key by holding down option during boot and selecting the USB key. you run disk utility (not the lion installer), you select your disk drive, you format.

THEN you select the newly formatted drive and install. edit: when you do this install, you are still booted from the same USB drive, no rebooting necessary between the format and install step.

at this point, there is no way you end up with iLife installed on your machine if you followed the instructions precisely.

 

It's not 1999, It's now 2012, time has greatly passed. If software for Mac is still very limited Apple would be out of business. There's hardly anything on Windows that's not on Mac,(and generally the Mac versions have a better UI and more features) and I'm not referring to games, cause if we're gonna go there about games there's a lot of great things out there that are Mac only as well. I'm talking about in general, major software is available for OS X and as far as compatibility, what's not compatible?
I'm attending Macworld SF this week and if you ever have a chance of attending your concerns about software would end. Sadly Windows aficionado's will make it seem like it's the only system you'll ever need.

You're not sure? Have you honestly looked? While there's more on Windows there are some good pieces of accounting software for Mac. And as far as software choices, I can show you 10 pieces of Windows software of the same product and maybe only 1 or 2 of them will be desirable at best. Having more software choice doesn't mean it's better. Because the Mac is in the minority in this case the majority of software developers go out of their way to make great versions of their products. This is not always the case with Windows.

THIS ⬆.
If Kornchild2002 did it exactly this way I can't see how it's possible to end up with iLife installed after installation.

 

If you mean you just want to do personal accounting for yourself, or maybe a small business (1-10 employees) or a self-owned business that uses Macs primarily, then it's no different than a PC. There are a lot of options.

If you are considering becoming a career accountant, then you should know that the majority of businesses from medium to large use either QB Pro, Sage Peachtree, or SAP modules, with whatever 3rd party modules on top of that they like for their payroll, benefits, etc. There is no Peachtree or QB Pro for mac. There is a QB basic, but it's for small business and personal accounting only, and even then there are lots of basic and necessary functions that are missing, like Accountants Copy for one. SAP will function on a mac, but if you're in a business that is large enough to be using SAP/ERP, your IT department will most likely hate you for asking them to deploy it on your mac, especially if it's a personal computer and not business issued. More likely they won't allow it anyways for security reasons, they'll just issue you a PC. You won't get 100% of the same functionality, as there are lots of things 'lost in translation' - similar to QB basic for mac.

They may work with more retained functionality on parallels, but I can't speak to their performance when running via parallels.

Take any accounting information systems course and try it within the OSX environment and you'll see there are minor problems. Now multiply that by 100 because you're dealing with a gigantic corporation.

 

I forgot that this was going on... Yes, I followed those steps (though I burned a bootable data DVD instead of using a thumb drive) and iPhoto, GarageBand, and iMovie were all there after a fresh reformatting of the hard drive (and SSD) and installation of OS X Lion. Those three apps are also associated with my Mac App Store account so maybe that has something to do with it? Either way, after I reformatted my system using a download of OS X Lion multiple times, the iLife programs were waiting for me.