Indyana

Time for a new computer (Laptop) and I am seriously thinking about switching to a Mac. I have been a lifelong PC user (Windows) and my current set up is a laptop/docking station with the Windows XP Professional operating System.

If I stay with Windows I would have to go to Vista and I know they have had some problems, most of which have been worked out by now but I have always heard great praise for Apple products & the OS platform.

I am an I-phone user and like the look and feel of this Apple product however a computer is a different issue.

My biggest concerns/Questions are:

1) Conversion of all my existing (old) documents, files, photos etc. (huge MS Office user).

2) Using a Mac within a company environment of all PC windows/MS Office users. (I work thru a remote connection to company servers)

3) Ease of use, I assume an e-mail with an attached MS office file created in the windows version will open seamlessly in MS Office for Mac?

4) The Mac contact management program vs. MS Outlook?

Obviously some of these questions could be answered by our company's IT folks however it will most likely be a cat fight to change to a Mac with them so I thought I would ask some actual Mac converts/users to get the answers I need before using the information to "Sell" the IT folks.

I have read a few articles on "converting" however I am interested in real world experiences.

EBungo

as long as you get the word pack (a MS product for a mac) all of your office stuff should convert over. I know all of ours did when we went to macs. the email for macs works well also. As for everything else, I dont know and dont want to give you false information.

vollrathian

go to an apple store, their staff is very friendly they will answer any questions for you to take all the guess work out

Indyana

I am going to do this but I wanted to get some real world info from Mac users first so I can seperate the sales pitch from the real information and hopefully know better which questions to ask.

Thanks

RENDERMAN

I will try to answer with my own personal experience. I was the one that made the wooden box for steve jobs back in '79

My biggest concerns/Questions are:

1) Conversion of all my existing (old) documents, files, photos etc. (huge MS Office user).

Macs can read almost all type of photo files and the new version of Office 2008 is well compatible with the PC version.


2) Using a Mac within a company environment of all PC windows/MS Office users. (I work thru a remote connection to company servers)

This one can be tricky, if you

captainbk

I have vista on my laptop and have had zero trouble with it. Might be the luck of the draw or good customization by HP.

It would be a tough decision for me to go that way but I do do like the looks of the mac products.

S2KSuzuka

I have a macbook, I've had it for about a year. For most of the time I've had it, i have run a dual boot system with bootcamp and XP. I did have some issues and re-did it with a program called VM ware and XP. Now XP runs within the Mac environment...no more dual boot. for work i must have PC based software for programing remotes and lighting systems. Now I use the mac for all my email , surfing , photos etc, and the pc side just for programming. No issues at all. when i surf and download it's on the mac side. I can then access those files from the pc side through a virtual shared drive that can be seen by XP.

I'm really happy with the setup, and it is my far the best built laptop i have ever owned.

Hope that helps

RXDI

Barry, you can run both OS X and Vista on a mac with no problems. I have installed Vista on 2 Macbooks and the people love it.

You can have both operating systems running at the same time. When you want vista, just click an icon and it opens. When your done, just minimize it, and your back to OS X. Pretty slick I think.

PrimoGen

Amiga FTW!!!

captainbk

Comodore 64 or a TRS-80 A Sinclair is very portable