Taking a bite of the Apple

Longer to pay off the credit card? Having said that a quad PC would be a comparible price.

If you have anything 'PC only' that is essental to your life? Office is available for the Mac (get educational discount if you can).

That's about it.



Regards

Stephen

Having done the same thing myself a year ago, I'm sitting here writing this thinking "none", but everybody will vary.

I would post a list of apps and activities that you use your PC for, it makes the question much simpler to answer

cheers,
Paul

OK

I use the MS Office suite a lot (i.e. all day), but mainly Outlook and Word. I am concerned that I won't be able to get my cable internet connection and e-mail to work, but that is because I have absolutely NO experience of Mac workings.

Adobe Photoshop CS and Elements 3, also a lot.

Nothing else essential, but have got very used to internet banking and personal book-keeping. I have always used Quicken for this, and see it as the main problem in moving to Mac software. Quicken have stopped trading in UK, so I might have to make the move to another program anyway. If anyone does internet banking on a Mac, I'd be very interested in the program used. Do you think any other program could accept my quicken backup files?

I have probably lost any CD ROMs with the Mac drivers for my peripherals, but assume these can be downloaded as for PC from the manufacturers. Do Macs plug-and-play? I told you I was pretty ignorant about these things.

quote:

Originally posted by Rockingdoc:
OK

I use the MS Office suite a lot (i.e. all day), but mainly Outlook and Word.

Completely cross platform.

quote:

I am concerned that I won't be able to get my cable internet connection and e-mail to work, but that is because I have absolutely NO experience of Mac workings.

What cable company? On NTL, you just plug it in!

quote:

Adobe Photoshop CS and Elements 3, also a lot.

I use Mac Photoshop - is elements available? Have a check...

quote:

I have probably lost any CD ROMs with the Mac drivers for my peripherals, but assume these can be downloaded as for PC from the manufacturers. Do Macs plug-and-play? I told you I was pretty ignorant about these things.

What periperals? Not all have Mac drivers. I suggest you do a net trawl and check.

Regards

Stephen

If you've got a workable machine at present it's probably worth waiting for a few months so that the Apple/Intel issue clarifies itself - especially with regard to forward compatability etc.

Getting a decent Mac at the moment would be fine for a few years no doubt, however given the Intel Macs aren't that far away it might be better to wait and see.

quote:

Originally posted by Stephen Bennett:
[I am concerned that I won't be able to get my cable internet connection and e-mail to work, but that is because I have absolutely NO experience of Mac workings.

What cable company? On NTL, you just plug it in!

quote:

Regards

Stephen

Hooray! ntl .

I think the Apple Store will be getting my credit card to play with soon, as I am hopeless at waiting, but will do a bit of Googling on the Intel issue.

Go for it now - rumour has it that the Big Apples will not be in the first wave.

There is also the issue of waiting for all the Intel compatible SW to be available and having to use the existing SW under the Rosetta convertion/emulator/translator until the new versions are available

As a Doc you know how uncertain life is so eat your desert first <g>

I moved over 17 months ago to a second user twin 2.0 Powermac - since then I have bought a PowerBook so that I have the same SW when travelling.

Get the biggest screen that you can afford or have desk space for.

Also get
a Wacom tablet (if you do not have one at the moment)

A colour calibration device - A Spyder or a Gretag Macbeth

a two button mouse with a scroll wheel

Enjoy the learning experience - it is most rewarding with a Mac

Probably also worth investing in some of the David Pogue missing manuals to help you adapt to the way Mac's work. Easier than working through the help menu.

Also worth setting up more than one browser i.e firefox as some company web sites do not like Safari.

The only thing I cannot do on the Mac is use AutoCad so I still have a PC, otherwise never looked back.

Regards

Nic

Have you thought of a G5 iMac?

If you can justify a Quad Power Mac then fair enough, but at the moment the current iMac seems to offer a hell of a lot for the money.

Just a thought, as much as I agree with the idea that if you need it now, buy it now, a Quad Power Mac is bloody expensive and I'd be thinking "Intel" even if it's a year or so away.

The PowerMac will have more upgradeability - eg another hard drive and more memory capability and the ability to add and change screens

Go for the top one

Hi Rockingdoc,

I was forced, by my employers, to go in the other direction (ooer missus!) from a desktop Mac and a Powerbook to the 'equivalent' PC set up. This was two years ago, so I've had ample time to adjust to the PC world. When I go back to using the Mac (approx 20% of the time) the first thing that always hits me is how much more intuitive it is to use, and how much more work I can get done in a given time. I've given the likely reasons for this some serious thought, and in the end I decided that in the PC world I always feel as though I'm having to fight the technology to achieve output, - in the Mac world the technology is much more of a background 'service' to my needs.

Best Regards,
Mark Dunn

Rockingdoc

Upgrade from a PC to a Mac and you'll never regret it. It always amazed me how Microsoft made so much money selling software that I can only describe as rubbish (it must be good marketing). The Mac versions of Office are better than the Windoze versions, but you'd be better off with NeoOffice which is free. if you don't need a spreadsheet then Pages, Keynote and Filemaker give you a decent word processor, superb presentation package and very good database.

That said if you have to run legacy software then you can always use Virtual PC - Microsoft took over Connectix, but the software works. Although in version 7 Microsoft has made it slightly worse in that it doesn't duplicate VPCs as reliably as version 5 or 6, but in fairness it does support multiple processors now - the upgrade install routine is dire, but you won't have this problem if you go from new.

However, I cannot think of a PC program for which there isn't a superior Mac alternetive, except viruses of course which thrive on Windoze. So I only ever resort to Virtual PC to test my programs will work with IE and Java VMs on Windoze and to run Amiga OS, which again I find much better than Windoze.

So go for it.

Best regards, Rotf

quote:

Originally posted by Paul Hutchings:
Have you thought of a G5 iMac?

If Rockingdoc is serious about using Aperture and will use it a lot (or any other video or graphics intensive application) then he should get as much horsepower as he can afford.

My advice is that if you want one and you can afford it buy it now.

Aperture looks like an amazing piece of software and should become the "standard" that Final Cut became for film.....I should have my copy this weekend.

Jim

Many thanks for all the advice, it is greatly appreciated. I feel that real life experience with these computers from others who are not "geeks" is invaluable, and hard to find on the many computing forums where everyone talks above my head.

Aperture is an amazing photo handling tool, and I honestly believe it justifies the change of platform on its own.

All my professional artist and photographer friends have gone into "told you so" mode. They were useless regarding advising about the change from PC, as most of them had never actually seen a PC.

Photoshop Elements flies on the Mac platform as well...I forgot to add that. If you want to dip your toes into the film world and move above (the excellent) iMovie then get a copy of Final Cut Express which will give you almost 50% of the power of pro video editors at a fraction of the cost.

Cheers

Jim

PS. My day job invloves managing over 12,000 PC's (as well as some other stuff) and my home network consists of a G5 for me (video, photos and sundry other stuff, a G4 laptop for daughter, an Intel PC for my son (heathen!!) and my own work laptop for VPN connectivity to my corporate intranet and services so i think I have a pretty unbiased view of what Mac's are good for vs. PC's.

Don't forget to add the 30" cinema display!

I had a play with Final Cut pro on a quad 2.7 G5 with 2GB RAM and 30" display at the local Apple store. WOW!

Forget the intel/PPC switch issue. It's irrelevant. OS X on PPC will continue to be supported for a long time due to the massive installed user base on PPC and the top end G5's with the Apple pro apps (FCP, Aperture, Logic, Shake) are way ahead of anything running under windows.

Read this:

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/apps/aperture.ars/9

I am a professional photographer (fashion for mail order catalogues and advertising), I use Capture One software (made by Phase One) on Mac and PC processing Raw files from Canon 1DS Mk2 cameras.

I can tell you that the PC (P4 3.2 2Gb Ram)blows away the highest spec Mac when using this software to process files and the final quality output on the PC is unrivalled. Once in Photoshop CS2, again, there is simply no contest. But I guess to some of you that is a pill that's simply too bitter to swallow.

It's my living and if the Mac was better I'd use it, simple as that. So would my colleagues.

Aperture? I wouldn't touch it.

Stop falling for the Apple marketing and wonderful aesthetics.

Ian

Like any new software I expect it will be version 2 before Aperture really shows its merit.

I'd treat reviews with great caution. I firmly believe there is a large software company that influences reviews in any way it can - I have personal experience of the workings of this company when they tried every trick in the book to stop me recommending an Apple + Sun based solution to a client.

I'd definitely go with the Mac over the PC - the operating system alone is years ahead. The Apple Keynote V1 presentation package was not great, but now it's at V2 it is my preferred presentation package - it concentrates on useful features rather than trying to do everything the marketing people can think of. I'm sure Aperature will be the same - Apple usually gets it right.

quote:

I can tell you that the PC (P4 3.2 2Gb Ram)blows away the highest spec Mac when using this software to process files and the final quality output on the PC is unrivalled. Once in Photoshop CS2, again, there is simply no contest. But I guess to some of you that is a pill that's simply too bitter to swallow.

You compared the P4 system to the quad G5 2.7?? I didn't think it was even available in the UK yet (shipping to consumers). For 3D and video I doubt that many desktop PC systems will outperform the top end Mac if any at the moment.

Aperture will get better, just as all of the iApps have. Maybe not quite ready for 'pro'status just yet and definitely a work in progress according to arstech review.

quote:

Originally posted by ianmacd:
Read this:

if the Mac was better I'd use it, simple as that. So would my colleagues.


Ian

But so many of your professional photographer colleagues DO use Macs?

Rockingdoc

Yes, you are absolutely correct. Many photographers use Macs and the whole design and publishing industry is centred on them.

However, it doesn't change the fact that I get my speed from PC.

I have a colleague who is currently in Cape Town shooting a kids catalogue, all his raw files are processed on a PC laptop.

Next week I am in Palma (yes, in December!) shooting menswear and my Powerbook will be taken only as a backup.

Of course, the images will eventually end up on Macs once the design studio gets their hands on the processed files but my job is then finished.

Think of a catalogue fashion shoot. We shoot approximately 70 frames on one garment and maybe shoot 20 garments in a day. The Canon 1DS Mk2 Raw file size is between 16 and 17 mb per file so if you do the Maths, you are requiring your computer to do a lot of number crunching.

Only a PC can hack it. As I said, I will use anything that makes the job better and quicker.

Regards

Ian

your argument is only based on processing raw files then - prabably as a batch process

Derek.

Wrong. If you read my first entry on this topic, I mentioned that the speed advantage for PC carried through to Photoshop CS2 as well.

Curves, Colour Corrections, Unsharp Masking and a whole host of processes are much quicker.

Listen, to be honest I really don't care what your opinions are for the Mac. It just amazes me that Mac fans cannot accept that sometimes a PC will outperform them.

Don't get upset about it, just accept it with a little dignity. It's not exactly of life-changing importance anyway, is it?

Ian

Given that all computers wait at the same speed I find the time to determine what to do and choose the tool is where the time goes - the actual implementation of the command is very close to instantaneous in terms of curves, colour corrections etc.

I do admit that the twin G5 is much preferred to the PowerBook when working with PS, and that menu drawing is noticeable faster with the latest PowerMacs however hitting enter as soon as the panel starts to appear implements the action without waiting for the display to comlete.

I am just suprised at your vehemence of your statements. It is the final result that counts.

quote:

Originally posted by ianmacd:
I can tell you that the PC (P4 3.2 2Gb Ram)blows away the highest spec Mac when using this software to process files and the final quality output on the PC is unrivalled. Once in Photoshop CS2, again, there is simply no contest. But I guess to some of you that is a pill that's simply too bitter to swallow.

Ian

Ian

You didn't say what the actual specifications of this 'highest spec' Mac were?

Anyhow, speed isn't everything as I'm sure you understand.

Regards

Stephen (Mac and PC user)