Thinking of getting a mac

1337z0r

1337z0r

1337z0r

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Hi,

I am soon to be getting a new laptop, I have said many times if I was to buy a new laptop it would not be windows based it would be a mac. The spec of the macbook I am thinking of getting is..

* 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 1GB memory
* 80GB hard drive1
* Combo drive

I have never use OSX before, I have a windows PC. But I will mainly be using the mac for web design and office based stuff.

I would like to find out how well the following software run on OSX

Microsoft Office for Mac - This wil be the main peice of software I will be using. Does this work like the windows version as I will be working between a windows based pc with office 2003 and the mac.

Dreamweaver CS3 - Just for web design

Itunes - For my ipod

Also what is the best anti virus for OSX is you even need one as I am guessing it is more secure than windows.

Will I need to upgrade the ram to 2gb as I will also be running some music software off it like ableton live.

Thanks.
 
Microsoft Office works fine, can't say I've noticied a difference between the Windows version and it.

Dreamweaver works fine also, no difference to PC.

iTunes, well, works 'better' than that of the PC alternative, although it obviously works just fine as well.

Anti-Virus wise, no need to bother. The most you'll have to do for security on your new Mac is to tick the firewall box and that's about it.

My only concern for the line of work you mentioned (web-design) would be the size of the screen and resolution of a MacBook (assuming that's what you're looking at, from the spec) - which may frustrate.

Apart from that, I think you'd love it. I'm making the switch over from Windows completely and looking forward to it. Upgrading the RAM is also simple, just make sure you know what way your RAM is configured (2x512mb, 1x1gb etc) just so you don't buy more RAM than you have slots for.

And of course, if you find yourself getting lost - you can run Windows natively on the hardware or in a virtual machine within OS X - the latter I would definitely recommend 2GB of RAM for.
 
1337z0r said:
Microsoft Office for Mac - This wil be the main peice of software I will be using. Does this work like the windows version as I will be working between a windows based pc with office 2003 and the mac.
Click to expand...

MS Office at the moment is fully compatible. The current 2003 version is run through Rosetta (the binaries are still Power PC).
The new mac:Office 2008 is a native binary however MS is changing to Apple Script instead of vbscript - this will cause some incompatibility between advanced user's documents (such as funky templates).
If you use Visio - there's no mac:Visio :/

I'm currently using NeoOffice (open source office suite) until office '08 appears but it's not as well integrated together as it's MS brother.

1337z0r said:
Itunes - For my ipod
Click to expand...
No comment needed..

1337z0r said:
Also what is the best anti virus for OSX is you even need one as I am guessing it is more secure than windows.

Will I need to upgrade the ram to 2gb as I will also be running some music software off it like ableton live.
Click to expand...

There are anti-virus applications out there however most mac users don't run anti-virus applications. I've not experienced any issues currently however I'm not dumb enough to think that this doesn't happen on the mac - there are security updates for the mac from time to time so it's still a possibility.

I would recommend the 2GB as it's a simple task for the macBook.
 
Well if I go for the mac book which now looking at what you have said it seems like a great idea. Although the screen is fairly small I am not after a big laptop. Just something which is fast, reliable and easy to carry around with me.

Also how well does the built in camera work with 3rd party apps for msn messenger.
 
1337z0r said:
Also how well does the built in camera work with 3rd party apps for msn messenger.
Click to expand...

The webcam is available to any program. Apple encourage it too.

I have the msn messenger client 6.0.2 but it doesn't offer webcam but I believe other clients do.. Skype does.

Hehe when you first start your mac it will take a photo for your login picture..
 
1337z0r said:
I am starting to like OSX already.
Click to expand...

It's great. You'll love OS X.

Within the first week of using my Mac I was already drawing up plans of selling my PC (about 4 months old) and buying an iMac - such the impact it had on me. :o

Never followed it through but seriously considered it.
 
I am thinking of selling my windows PC which is a fairly good spec. As it seems OSX offers me everything I do on a windows PC. Plus I found that theres a newreading program this is good as I download off newsgroups. Plus MS office for my school work, my printer should work. And then if I do sell my pc I will buy a 1.5TB NAS storage drive for my downloads.

Are the DVD drives in the Macbooks Dual layer ones. As I burn a lot of dual layer dvds these days so I would need one. Also is there software allowing you to burn dual layer dvds?
 
1337z0r said:
I am thinking of selling my windows PC which is a fairly good spec. As it seems OSX offers me everything I do on a windows PC. Plus I found that theres a newreading program this is good as I download off newsgroups. Plus MS office for my school work, my printer should work. And then if I do sell my pc I will buy a 1.5TB NAS storage drive for my downloads.

Are the DVD drives in the Macbooks Dual layer ones. As I burn a lot of dual layer dvds these days so I would need one. Also is there software allowing you to burn dual layer dvds?
Click to expand...
The DVDRW is capable of dual layer burns, and the burning support is built in to OS X :)

If you're serious about burning a lot of DVDs then i'd recommend getting the Nero equivalent.. Toast (also made by Ahead)
 
I find office2003 on the Mac a bit sluggish running on intel compared to the powerPC chips. Considering office2008 will be out in a few months, I'd consider using some of the open source alternatives to bridge the gap rather than buying 2003.

Dont get me wrong, it works, but if I were in your position I wouldnt pay the money for something that was designed for the previous architecture.
 
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