Switching from PC to MAC, please help?

I am thinking to do the switch pretty soon, I just need some help before I do it. I still have tons of software (paid for) working nicely with XP/Vista but it won't really work on a Mac. I got a MBP for a week but I ended up returning it (when the story about bad Nvidia cards came out), anyway I really liked the thing and if I can find a replacement for most important software I will gladly buy the refreshed MBP (hopefully pretty soon, I need a laptop in like a month or two).

Basically, I lost a lot of time downloading different thing for Leopard just to find out it won't really work the way I like it, so I am thinking to just ask you guys, it's much easier this way.

So .. what are the closest replacements for the following:

-PaintShopPro
-ACDSee(there is one old version working on MAC, but it's ported from PC to mac in a really bad way)
-TotalCommander
-GridMove(it's a window management software, will resize/move the current window to any part of the display, working with multiple displays too)
-optenet(parental filter, really good one-I need to leave the users with full control over the operating system but still a filter in place is good to have)
-e-sword (bible reading software, with tons of added features)
-alcohol120% (DVD image burner, maker, etc)
-a good player (codecs wise) for video files (or any addons to the quicktime app).

For the MS Office there is Mac Office but it's really different and it doesn't look good nor fast to work with. I might need some more time to adjust with it, but that's extremelly different and it's a problem for me since I am quite familiar with the PC version. If any of you are familiar with both version, the question is: is it hard to do the switch? Any big differences (as functionality) for Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Outlook (or the mac version)?

Again, I found a few things but there are so many options that I will just lose to much time installing/reviewing everything myself. Like e-sword or TotalCommander clones, I found some but there are so far far away from the original aplication I just can't use them (missing tons of features, etc). Maybe you guys can give me some heads up on what app should I install in those departments, also, for any other thing you need on a computer I will gladly take your advice.

 

Hi there,

Unfortunately, I don't know of any equivalents for the software you listed - except VLC player. It will play anything. There are other similar players out there as well. VLC player is free.

Now, that doesn't mean there aren't any equivalents for the other things - I'm sure there are. You need to find the right person to answer these questions. I'm sure someone will chime in, but if nobody here knows the answer, you can try macrumors.com. However, I'm confident someone here will tell you your answers.

As for Office, yes it's different, but the functionality is mostly the same. I did not have a hard time adjusting to the "how" - but what I don't like is that even the new office 08 for Mac doesn't feel "native" (ie run on intel). It's still super slow. I use iWork 08 from Apple. It's way faster and it works pretty well with office stuff. You can try it for free on apple's website.

Good luck!

 

run windows through boot camp and you can dual boot or you can do it with parallels and use windows while in os x

 

1) Photoshop, Apple's Aperture - http://www.apple.com/aperture/
2) iPhoto - http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/
3) Disk Order - http://www.likemac.ru/english/
4) I haven't worked with any software that would do what I can do with the mouse in this sense...
5) The parental controls built in OS X - http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/parentalcontrols.html
6) MacSword - http://macsword.com/
7) Toast - http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/toast/titanium/overview.html
8) Perian add-ons - http://perian.org/

Hope that helps homehow...

 

some more options:

1. GIMP is a free alternative to photoshop if you want to save some money while you save up for photoshop. i think gimp and photoshop are both better than paint shop pro.

2. iphoto (2nd cdnalsi's rec)

3. total commander replacement...

well...

a lot of that functionality is built into the OS. quick look, for example, just click on a file and it'll do what TC does. hit space and it will give you a large preview. you can view pdf files, quick time movies, word documents, etc. without actually opening an application. hit apple-space to open the spotlight, which is an instant-search-as-you-type function built into the OS. cyberduck is a good open source ftp client. the terminal can do a lot of file stuff also (its unix down there!) but you'll need to learn a bit of unix for that...

other than that, i don't know much about total commander, but i hope that helped some

4. i kind of get the point of grid move. its basically window management. play with expose and spaces (window management built in to the OS). i think that they are very sleek and simple and will grow on you, and ultimately replace gridmove.

7. toast is good, and the built in disk image utility can also do a lot of the same, and its also good.

8. in addition to perian, get flip4mac. flip4mac handles wmv files, perian handles basically everything else. between the two plug ins, quicktime is pretty robust - or just get vlc and that plays everything

 

I can also vouch for GIMP...it's pretty nice, especially since it's free.

 

Have you thought about running Boot Camp? It allows you to put vista on your mac and when you start your computer you have the option of running leopard or vista. This would allow you to run the PC programs that you like.

 

If you are not willing on making OS X your main operating system, buying a mac is a rip-off. Don't get a mac to "fit in". If you need the operating system, by all means go for it, but not as a machine to mainly use Windows on, that is just a waste of your money and not to mention extremely lame. Best of luck with your decision!

 

The OP has never mentioned he intends to run his Mac as a Windows machine. On the contrary, he was looking for OS X software.

Some people just like to hate like that.

 

As cdnalsi said, I do intend to use the MBP with Leopard. Otherwise why would I look for mac software to replace my current crop of windows/pc software?

I will install BootCamp (it's extremelly easy) with a Vista on a small partition, but only for when I can not use the Leopard. I don't know how will things work with the network at work, and I am using the laptop as a business laptop too; that's why I really need Office, cause my company is all over Exchange Server/Outlook/Excel/Word/Powerpoint - I will have to be able to open those files and USE them. But that I can do under Leopard, I hope. I know Office works, I will have to try Exchange to make sure it will work with my (future) MBP. I mean syncronizing emails, contacs, calendar, etc ...

Thanks to all for the responses to my initial questions. If anyone else has some different opinions or knows some better software for my needs (expressed up there) please post them

Also, should I expect any problems running Leopard in a Windows 2003/2008 Server network, with all other computer on Vista/XP ? Can I share files or access network files/printers? (I ask cause the file system is different as u know and I honestly have no ideea how will this work)

 

I'm not a hater, I skimmed through it and saw that you were concerned about using much of your Windows software, so I decided to post a heads up. No need for hostility from you cdnalsi. I do however notice that the tone in my post was not very friendly, sorry about that, I am just trying to offer best advice.

 

Myself, I didn't take it too harsh, don't worry. I got so many questions cause .. it's a pretty big move (considering the price of the laptop PLUS software:just the Office will be like $400, what about other software - I do not like stealing it). And even so, the $$$ point is of much smaller importance than being able to use the laptop in everything I do, either home or work.

As I could and will install Vista on a different partition, I hate restarting the laptop if I need something .. if you go that route you have to restart it several times per day .. if so I would just stick to Vista. But, I am pretty sure I can find/install everything I need inside Leopard.

My only remaining questions are:-
-how good is network access (files, sharing, printers, permissions) over a MS Windows 2003/2008 Server? Is it transparent, or I will have to install aditional software?
-how straight forword is the MAC version of Outlook regarding conectivity to an Exchange Server (emails, contacts and calendar syncronizing)
-any programs that will allow me to move a window (through keyboard shortcuts) to a previous set point on the screen? also resize it to fit that 1/4 of the screen, or full screen, or 1/2 screen, etc .. I need that while using the external display, somehow everytime I resize a window on the external display I find it too huge for the laptop after disconnecting the external. I need something to bring it back to proper dimensions.

Thanks guys!

 

Don't know what kind of machine he uses, but Ark the Mod does great work with the Gimp.

I agree with Stunner, fwiw, about buying a Mac to use Windows and Windows apps. That doesn't make sense in my mind (and I love my Macs), but am not sure that really is what the OP had in mind. Sounded like he just wanted to be able to use his favorite apps, or equivalents.

 

Yeah, skimmed too fast, got wrong impression, my bad. I apologize.

 

equivalents are fine

 

I use Entourage 2008 for exchange functionality, and it works great. Very different than outlook 2007, but works. Just make sure you buy the step up version of Office 2008 for Mac, as the student/teacher version won't run Exchange accounts. It's also nice that you can have multiple exchange accounts on Entourage, very slick.

The only thing you may run into is Office Publisher files, so far I've found nothing in Mac that can open/use them...

 

I am a long time PaintShopPro user. I even installed Crossover to try to get it working on my Mac. No go. I also have Photoshop CS2 license tied to my now defunct PC. Rather than write a big check to Adobe I downloaded Gimp and it works great. It does everything PaintShopPro used to do and almost everything Photoshop used to do.

I decided to stay away from Office 2008 on the Mac after getting stung by Office 2007 at work. I was getting close to buying it until I found out two awful things about Office 2007. 1) Ribbons instead of menus means a lot of extra clicking 2) Bullying to save in 2007 file formats for minutia like fonts and colors is an underhanded way to try to force people to upgrade. In excel, I have to go 3 menus deep to get colors that are compatible with excel 97-2003. Those standard colors should be on the top level but they are not. Then when I go to save I get those dumb "loss of fidelity" warnings. What a nasty ordeal.

As for filtering, I find Apple parental controls to be a step in the right direction but not quite enough. I also use opendns.com filtering. It's free. You set it up in your router and it works quite well.

Window managers? I don't think you'll miss those kind of things once you have used a Mac. Take a look at the OSX add-on freeware quicksilver. For navigating deep folder paths it is great.

I use Olivetree bible reader on my palm smartphone. It works well and has a lot of features. I don't have a bible reader on my desktop. I use online bibles. I did investigate bible software for Mac. There are some choices but I haven't picked one yet.