Will Mac OS be right for me?

Hi I will be attending university next year to study engineering. I need a new laptop and im not sure if the Mac operating system will be right for me and I thought the people in these forums could help.

The last time I used a Mac was in grade 6; didnt have a very good experiance with it. But times change and I keep hearing about how great their system is. I have always used a PC with windows and am very comfortable with it.

If i got a Mac I would get the basic Macbook Pro. I would need it to run applications like Autocad, Fruityloops, Photoshop, some other various math/science applications (i think), and some videogames (WC3). One of my main worries about switching over is compatability of software. Will Mac OS be able to run most of the applications without having to get a parallel program to run windows? (doesnt matter too much but adds to the cost)For example, I own an older version of photoshop will it run on the mac without launching windows? How often do Mac users come across software that cannot run on Mac OS?

Now lets say that I was to download some legal software through a torrent. How will I know if the software will run on the Mac OS?

 

O man I feel like an idiot. I posted this in the wrong forum and I can already see that some of my question can be answered there. Mods pelase move this thread to other forum.
Thank You.

 

Like an idiot or a poopsicle?

The only things I use Windows for (via Boot Camp) are Gaming and since I already own Office 2007 - all that stuff too.

There are torrent clients for OSX (Azureus for example), but I'm not sure what 'legal' software downloading via BitTorrent refers to.

 

I'm afraid that you will need to get Mac versions of all the applications you need in order to have it run natively in OS X. For example, your Office 2007 will not work natively in OS X, you will need to get the Mac version.
Mac installatons are usually disc images in the form of a .dmg file. OS X does not recognise Windows executable (.exe), and therefore none of your windows installers would work.
I personally obtained OS X versions of a number of software I use (Office and Adobe Studio), but I Parallels some other software (Matlab and RobotC). If you have sufficient RAM (2GB or above), you should have no problems running Windows in parallel with OS X.

 

^^ Yeah, my point was that since I already own Office 2007, which is for Windows, I'm not planning to purchase Office 2004/2008 for Mac. That would be a complete waste of money (but then again that's probably why Poopsicle asked about BiTtorrent).

And if you already own programs like AutoCAD and FruityLoops, it may be more convenient to just keep using them in Windows through Boot Camp rather than finding alternatives for OSX.

I don't know of a Mac equivalent to AutoCAD, but I've heard ReCycle is a good Mac alternative for FruityLoops. Also, Photoshop and WarCraft 3 are available for both Mac and Windows.

 

Dont forget to consult your university to find out whether they provide education and examination software that is MAC compatible or not.

 

YES! Thankyou very much for explaining to me about .exe files it has really helped me out.
Now it does sound like Mac OS will probably not be right for me.