I bought my first IBM PC in 1980, and have been a PC user ever since... Until last week.

Got a MacBook, and so far so good. I can't really make the break from WinXP, so I installed Fusion so that I could install WinXP and run many of my Windows programs that I am locked into.

Here is a list of Windows programs that are running on the Mac desktop (Unity feature of Fusion)

PaperPort v8, I have 10 years of documents in their proprietary format, with no easy way to convert to a Mac format.

Quicken for Windows, there is a Mac version, but not compatible with my Quicken files.

Palm Desktop with support for a Garmin iQue 3600, along with many Palm programs that also run on the Windows desktop.

Picasa, again no easy way to get pics with captions over to iPhoto.

Trailer Life 2004, a discontinued product that I still use for trip planning.

Microsoft Office, Streets & Trips.

FireFox, IE7, but just to support WinXP

PrintShop and Scrapbook Factory to support my wifes many craft projects.

Family Tree Maker

On the Mac, I have made the switch to FireFox, Mail, Address Book (which I am able to sync with the Garmin). VZ Access manager (Mac version) works just fine with my USB727.

I would never switch back. Once you try the Spotlight feature in Mac, you will become hooked. Before I even noticed this feature, I carefully organized the Dock and Desktop so I could find stuff. Spotlight is such a super search function, it is the quickest way to launch a program, find an address or find a document. You can even use it do a calculation faster that you can launch the Calculator.

If anybody has any question about my experience, just ask.

I love my 24" 3.06 ghz iMac, awesome machine...

Misfit

I got a MacBook Pro in March, have not put windows on it yet. If you have windows do you get all the problems that windows has spyware, virus etc?? I like the Mac programs, installed the Mac program for word and numbers. It lets me open all my doc. Really would like my Streets and Trips.

2006 IH 4400
2000 Travel Supreme
Fulltimer 19yrs
SKP #15115

Yes, you get all the same old Windows problems. I still run McAfee on the WinXP Virtual Machine just to be safe.

The potential for a virus crossover are pretty small. I keep a my data files on a shared drive, so that I have access to them from the Mac side, so that would provide an access path.

However, even it a Windows virus got over to a file on the Mac side, it is unlikely that it would be designed to disrupt the Mac.

Also, since I do very little on the Internet from the WinXP side, that also reduces the possibility of infection. I did install Streets & Trips on the WinXP side, and do still use that.

Are you able to make a backup copy of the Windows virtual machine? I do a copy of what I install in VMs on my Linux system so no matter how badly the working copy gets fouled up I can just delete it and use another copy of the master version. Saves a lot of time over reinstalling.

When we converted to Imacs from PCs in March we also used VM Fusion to run Win XP because we had quite a bit tied up in Win Apps. What I did, was save my documents in my apple documents folders and that way any documents I create are protected with the Time Machine.

Stan,

Each VM is one large single file on the Mac. Fusion provides for snapshotting it, so you can restore the entire machine from a snapshot. (Guess I ought to do one!)

As with Dragonthreads, I keep all my documents in the shared drive, and out of the VM. That way I have easy access from the Mac, and I am using the Mac version of Mozy to do backups.

Tried using Time Machine with my 500g external drive, but it wanted to erase and format first. Not ready to do that, and haven't resarched re-partitioning the drive to give Time Machine a smaller partition and leaving my existing data alone.

quote:

Originally posted by Tom & Rocki:
Quicken for Windows, there is a Mac version, but not compatible with my Quicken files.

May I ask what's not compatible?

My next computer (some years down the road, hopefully) will probably be a Mac and I've been in the process of trying to find out whether or not I could convert some programs over to the Mac format.

Quicken is a biggie for me. According to the Quicken website, there is a way of converting Quicken PC to Quicken Mac, so I'm curious as to why you couldn't make this change.

The other thing I'm concerned about are all the spreadsheet programs I've developed using Microsoft Works. Mac does have a program that converts Works to the Mac format, but they don't list MSWorks 8.0, which is the version I'm using.

I'm not interested in partitioning part of the hard drive to load Windows onto the Mac, so if I make this change, it's got to be an all or nothing deal.

Gratz on the switch, computer life will be much less stressful and way more fun.

quote:

Originally posted by LindaH:

Quicken is a biggie for me. According to the Quicken website, there is a way of converting Quicken PC to Quicken Mac, so I'm curious as to why you couldn't make this change.

Much is lost in the conversion process. Here are the details from Quicken.

quote:

The other thing I'm concerned about are all the spreadsheet programs I've developed using Microsoft Works. Mac does have a program that converts Works to the Mac format, but they don't list MSWorks 8.0, which is the version I'm using.

I just installed iWork ($70 from amazon), and it opens my Excell spreadsheets just fine. Should work with Works, but I don't use works, so I can verify that.

quote:

I'm not interested in partitioning part of the hard drive to load Windows onto the Mac, so if I make this change, it's got to be an all or nothing deal.

That is only necessary if you are installing Boot Camp. I didn't do that. WinXP is running under Fusion, and is just another Mac application. So far all of the WinXP programs I use are working just fine on the Mac, alongside my Mac programs. In fact, it is easy to cut and paste data between Mac and Windows programs.

I have a Garmin iQue 3600, which we depend on for GPS, Address Book, Calendar and GeoCaching. So far I have found programs that allow me to sync my palm data with the Mac Address Book and Calendar. I am becoming less and less dependent on the Windows programs.

I'm getting more and more curious about the switch to Mac from Windows. I have never used a Mac and have been using a PC since back in the 80's. What is the learning curve like to make the switch? I did try to use my granddaughters Mac desktop machine and couldn't find the right click on the mouse. That really screwed me up. So what else is different? What makes the Mac so much better? Please don't think that I am being obnoxious. I am really curious. Our laptops are getting old and we may have to make a decision soon. Thanks for any advice,
Ray

Hold down the control key then click the mouse that is the same as windows right click.
Reason to switch is a choice over virus or no virus, don't have to buy 49.00 Norton, example my wife sits across from me she has laptop running windows xp, last night she said lets go on pogo.com and play dominoes', I said sure, well 15 minutes went by and I asked her what the problem was. She said xp kept popping up saying she had 71 infections, hmmm, so I don't her to simply turn the warnings off, she did, they still keep popping up even after shutting them off. No problems here I said, but no she wants to support Bill Gates.
I haven't had a problem yet with my new mac, as for learning curve that would depend on you...if you're like one guy I know you're in deep trouble, but really it was simple for me, just click the icons after a little reading.

We switched away from Windows because it was eating too much time and money to do what we wanted to do, keep it running and protect our personal information.

We are both computer folks and have lots of experience with different operating systems so our choice was Linux. That is a nice option because almost all your gear will still work (we lost one USB WiFi device that would work but is too much hassle) saving a bunch of money.

For my non-geeky friends I've been recommending Macs for several years now. All have made the transition some with more bumps than others, there is a lot of good user-to-user help available on the net for the bumps though. Once you have it figured out it pretty much just works and the hassle with virus, spyware and the like is a whole lot less.

I am worried a bit as Trudy was just looking at a Mac Air laptop. She recently gave me her old HP5000 laptop to play with, too bad she stole my new Dell laptop to replace it with, I'm thinking upgrade fever may have struck.

The learning curve is pretty short. I purchased 'Mac OS X Leopard: The Mission Manual' from amazon, and that was a big help.

I have a MacBook 13", and my Targus mouse works just fine. It is a two button mouse. However, once you get used to the touchpad, it is very easy. One finger tap is left click, two finger tap is right click. One finger movement moves the mouse, two finger movement scrolls.

Here are a couple of the features that I particularly like:

Expose: F3 key shrinks all open windows to fit on the screen, as you mouse over each window a pop up shows what program is running the window, release the F3 with the mouse over the window you want active. This is one of the easiest way to switch to a window you can't see.

Dashboard: F4 key does a transparent overlay all all kinds of useful widgets over the current screen. Things like a calculator, calendar, flight tracker, weather forecast and just about anything else you can imagine. I use it a lot.

Spotlight: a tiny search icon in the upper right of the screen. One click opens a small text box, type something in and get all references on your computer as you type. Need a phone number from your address book, just type in a partial name until you see the number you are looking for. This search is instantaneous, and looks into your data files, program files and PDF files to get all references.

General screen appearance: I run both the Mac version of FireFox, and the Windows version under Fusion/WinXP. Looking a both, side by side, there is just no comparison. The Mac version just looks better.

email: Setting up Outlook Express to access POP gmail is an exercise in following some very precise technical instructions. Setting up Mail to do the same thing is clicking 'ok' when asked if you want Mail to figure it out, and it does.

Every day I discover some new trick on the Mac. I can't say that it is self evident how to use a Mac program, like iPhoto, or iMovie. But viewing a short tutorial on the Apple web site will get you up to speed very quickly.

I have no regrets about making the switch. I still depend on a few WinXP programs, and they work just fine under Fusion. In fact, after three weeks, a gave my old laptop to my daughter. I just don't have any need for it.

There is no end to the surprises on my MacBook. Hidden away on the OS X Installation disc is Xcode, the complete development environment used to write Mac programs. For Windows, you pay hundreds of dollars to get these from Microsoft or MetroWerks.

I tried my hand at writing Windows programs without much success, but was able to write a couple of programs for Palm devices. My background is in MainFrame applications development, which is probably a disadvantage for writing PC applications.

Anyway, I just ran through a tutorial to get a simple GUI program up and running. It is amazing what comes with the Mac.