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C-dub

Syntyr wrote: Nope... We are a bank. Things like this come slowly. We are moving to Windows 7. I figure Windows 8 is probably a few years down the road at least...

I can understand that way of thinking for an IS department. My company just started upgrading their Office 2003 suite to 2010, not the latest version. And this year we are upgrading from XP to Windows 7. They seem to skip a version or two, but are always one version behind the latest in almost everything. My industry also moves slowly. We're not the government, but are heavily regulated by them and several other groups.

C-dub

Calm down everyone. While my thread title may have been poorly thought out it looks like it was a little prophetic. Sorry again Charles.

I've always been curious about Macs, but was so much a PC person that I never took the initiative to learn about them. I was concerned over the compatibility with MS Office products because even if I do go Mac my employer will not and I do quite a bit of work from home. I don't mess around under the hood of these things any more.

I've had my current laptop for over 6 years and haven't had any trouble. It's a 17" Toshiba Satellite running Vista. Nothing special and has been solid for me. My wife's is the same laptop, but 15". She has had several problems with hers. She always got mad at me when any of our other PCs broke down or had problems because I always asked her what she did. Well, for the last 6 years we've each had our own and her's has been in the shop every other year, while mine hasn't had one problem. We are running the same software. I don't know what she does do it.

C-dub

Charles L. Cotton wrote:I'll bet this turns into one of the biggest arguments we've had on the Forum. The thread started last night at 7:26 pm and 15 1/2 hours later we are on our third page. Oh this is going to be fun. Thanks to the OP for starting this. It's going to be a great recruiting tool when people join the Forum to weight in on this Ford v. Chevy fight. Maybe they'll also join the NRA and the Texas Firearms Coalition too!

Chas.

Sorry about that Charles. Does it really feel like an argument? I'm actually learning quite a bit about Macs. They do sound like a great machine.

I told the wife today that I asked this question here and was considering a Mac. She just rolled her eyes at me when I told her where they started at price wise. I will still have to check with my employer's IT guys to see if there will be any problems, but I think I'm warming up to that 27" iMac.

C-dub

magicglock wrote:You will get a lot of emotional back and forth over who is better, who is more secure blah blah blah. MAC is secure and you should take the same precautions you would with your PC. The issue is that the majority of malware, virus, hack attempt target the PC market and thus don't impact us MAC users as much.

I do have experience with the MS products on both platforms. It really depends on what you are doing with the software. I can't think of any issues I have encountered with Word. Excel has limitations if you are more than a basic formula user. Many macros written in the PC version are not supported in the MAC version. My work depends on some very complex workbooks that simply will not run in the MAC environment and any Access databases that tie to Excel worksheets are problematic in the transition between the two platforms. I don't remember all of the specifics because I just don't attempt to run that stuff on in the MAC version of the MS suite. I have had more success running that stuff in the windows environment using an emulator than in the MAC environment. I look at it this way, get a iMAC and enjoy all the niceties of MAC and the ability to run your PC environment too! Otherwise, you are stuck with just the same old PC on the latest version of windows that is full of bugs. I am not a self proclaimed expert on either platform so knowledge here is limited to my experience. In my opinion, you won't ever regret a MAC purchase. I have plenty of PCs I regret including the laptop I am using right this minute.

I guess I'm not really concerned about the arguments over which one is better. They are both good and that really is a Glock/1911 or Ford/Chevy issue. I'm concerned with compatibility across both platforms. If I go Mac I must be able to create and edit files in Excel and Word and work with Outlook. Maybe Outlook is not that big of a deal since we're really just talking about a program to handle e-mail and a calendar.

I don't think I use any macros in any of my spreadsheets, but I do have some complex formulas. Most of those are if/then and statistical in nature, though.

C-dub

baldeagle wrote:
C-dub wrote:Certainly are of the potential war and absolutely do not want one. The pros you mentioned are why I'm considering a Mac. I've been lucky for years or all the precautions I've taken have been effective or both.

MagicGlock, do you have any experience with any of the MS Office suite products on your Mac?
I use Office 2011 on my Macs. Outlook on my workstation at work is a nightmare. I hate it. At home it works fine. I've had zero problems with Word, Excel or Powerpoint.

Interesting. I will have to remain on a PC at work. There's no way they are going to spring for an iMac for me at work. I also work fromhome quite frequently and will have to save files that are compatible with the PC versions. I work heavily with Excel and have some files that are 50-60 Mbs in size.

C-dub

snatchel wrote:Switched from PC to Mac about 6 months ago. I'll never go back. It was a bit of a learning curve, but now that I'm used to Mac OS, I love it. This is coming from a student-turned-salesman. I use my computer for emailing, Internet research, and paper writing. Did I pay a premium for Apple product? Yeah...I did. But I don't regret it one bit!

I am a little worried about that. My dad, retired 30+ year IBMer just might disown me if I go over to the dark side.

C-dub

E2P989 wrote:
C-dub wrote:Certainly are of the potential war and absolutely do not want one. The pros you mentioned are why I'm considering a Mac. I've been lucky for years or all the precautions I've taken have been effective or both.

MagicGlock, do you have any experience with any of the MS Office suite products on your Mac?
Since you'll be spending a good chunk of change by purchasing a MAC, you can save some money and earn some street credz by trying either OpenOffice or LibreOffice:
http://www.libreoffice.org/download/?nodetect
http://www.openoffice.org/porting/mac/

Yeah, that's going to be an issue if I stay with a laptop and may be a deal breaker. That's one reason why I'm considering an iMac, probably the 27". It'll cost more than the PC laptop I'd get, but might be worth it in a desktop.

C-dub

E2P989 wrote:First, in response to the idea that MACs are less susceptible to malware, that's because Apple is relying on the idea of "security through obscurity." Macs are only a small percentage of the whole market share, so a cracker (malicious hacker or script kiddie) will get his/her biggest bang for the buck by targeting computers running Windows. If you want the best "security through obscurity," go with Linux.

Thanks for finally jumping in and welcome. Iv'e read these reasons for the apparent increase security level of Macs. However, isn't their OS and basic firewall structure at least a little more difficult to break into?

C-dub

Certainly are of the potential war and absolutely do not want one. The pros you mentioned are why I'm considering a Mac. I've been lucky for years or all the precautions I've taken have been effective or both.

MagicGlock, do you have any experience with any of the MS Office suite products on your Mac?

C-dub

Charles L. Cotton wrote:A Mac is a toy, a PC is a tool.

Bye now . . .

Chas.

Heard that for years/decades.

C-dub

Oh, while I've had a laptop for the last 6 years, I've looked at the iMac's and might be interested in going that route. I don't take my laptop out as much as I used to.

C-dub

tbrown wrote:Chrome Book

That's strange. I did a search and find that Google Chrome is also an OS. I thought it was only a search engine. I like using that Chrome. I'll look into this a little more.

C-dub

I told the wife I would like a new laptop this year. I've had the same Toshiba Satellite for over 6 years and would like to replace it before it bites the dust. I've been a PC guy ever since my dad brought home the very first IBM PC back in 1977 or so. However, they've changed so much that I'm more just a user now and don't mess them like I used to. So, I'm open to Macintosh and I know some of you are Mac people.

I'm curious what the differences are and what I can do with one that I can't do with the other and vis-a-versa. For work, my company relies heavily on MS-Office (Outlook, Word, and Excel). I know MS makes Office for Mac, but are their compatibility issues going back and forth between the two platforms. What about this forum? Haven't some of you guys mentioned that you have difficulty wen using a Mac?

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