Just got my Macbook - Few Questions

Hi

Just got my Macbook yesterday and i have a few questions

First of all where can i download apps and widgets? And which ones would you reccomend?

Is there anywhere where i can download games for my Macbook?

Is it easy to boot windows from your mac?

I want to get some virus protection software which is the best?

Also i was thinking about getting Microsoft office 2008 for mac for £38 but was wondering is it any good? Or should i just use my older version and boot through windows?

Thanks

 

you can find widget downloads on apples website...
apps you can find all over the web in many different places... its not much different than Windows software, its not all in 1 location, there's thousands of companies/people that make software... one place i usually look for freeware is versiontracker.com

you can search and find free games, or buy games that will work.. sure...

if you really want to install Windows.. you can use Boot Camp to do so... or get something like Virtual Box or another app that lets you run it in a virtual machine on top of OSX.

no idea on virus protection, I don't use any

MS Office 2008 is pretty good... if you can get it cheap go for it. OpenOffice.org or NeoOffice are free Office suites that are pretty good too. iWork from Apple is nice as well but not free.

If your just going to boot up in Windows all the time, might as well have bought a Windows machine... so your better off switching to OSX software rather than just turning your Mac into another Windows machine.

 

Widgets

Recommended apps? Just let us know what kinda app u want and we'll find u one.

It is easy to boot windows. But it has its share of problems as well.

Anti-virus is not required, but if you're paranoid like me then use clamxav or iAntivirus.

Imho, iWork rox. If u just want a word processor then use bean.

Cheers.

 

OpenOffice is free , for mac as well.

http://www.openoffice.org/

 

office: mac is quite different from the normal microsoft office for windows. it's quite weird. i prefer virtualising windows and then using microsoft office.

 

Ditto. I use Office 2003 w/ Crossover so that I won't have to boot in Windows.

I've used Office Mac, but it's just not the same.

 

yes, crossover is a nice program to emulate small apps like office, msn messenger etc.

 

Crossover uses Wine, and its not "emulation," its basically a way to add win32 apis to the OS... though a bit more complicated than that in truth. It can run many programs, even complex ones, and can run many games with good graphics too, so its good for a lot more than just "small apps"

 

well, i thought it emulated the windows platform (not the shell, only the kernel). the only sad thing about it is that i cannot install visual studio on it.

 

doesn't emulate anything really. It basically sits in there and get the win32 API calls and translates them to something the platform understands... kind of think of it as an extra layer that sits in there and translates back and forth on the fly.... it adds a bit of overhead so can slightly slow down the applications (sometimes majorly if its having issues with the app)...

Visual Studio is a bit too complicated to run on something like this... it would be able to run everything if it wasn't a group of people trying to reproduce the APIs on their own without help from Microsoft.... but MS doesn't want them to succeed.... they want people to run Windows.

 

I like to keep my macs free from pc software to avoid virus problems.
I agree with sathyaterry that iWork is a great suite of programs.
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Is iWork compatible with Office 2007? If I create a file in iWork and then send it to Windows does it work easily?

 

iWork will open an Office 2007 file, but I don't know how well/if it works in the other direction.

 

MS doc and docx files are usually right between iWork and MS Office. Anything I've made in Pages shows up in Word ok. Some things made in word, especially involving tables, do not show up right in Pages though.... auto numbers gets off and such.

 

I didn't want to start another thread but I also just bought a Mac annd....

I've already calibrated my battery when I first bought it about a few days ago and I know calibration should be done every month or so.

I'm always on campus and basically always near an outlet. Is it recommended to use the adapter whenever I can or should I periodically use the battery from time to time?

 

you really should start a new thread... don't be shy

its usually good to use the battery with a full discharge and recharge at least once a month...

 

I for one, love MS Office 2008 for Mac. It is much easier to use than Office 2007 for windows and now that I am used to it, it is easier than Office 2003 for windows. It uses a Toolbar Menu and everything I ever need is found there. Font, formating, shapes, etc, I makes alot more sense to me than Office 2007 ever did... If you can get Office 2008 for a reasonable price, I would go for it! My 2 cents