I long time ago I bought a MacBook Pro and I tried to make the switch to Mac. I tried very, very hard but I eventually gave up. I took a lot of heat from my PC friends for trying the Mac and from my Mac friends for giving up.
Although I’ve been a PC guy for all of my adult life, I’m always up for a change IF it will boost my productivity. I was a huge palm pilot fan back in the day but I eventually made the switch to a pocket PC (and then a Blackberry pager) when I felt I had reached the limits of what it could do for me.
I’ve said all that to say that I "bought" a new MacBook Pro a couple of days ago at Fry’s to give it a shot yet again. I’ve been frustrated with Vista and although I’ve been a big fan of tablet PC’s there has been no new compelling software developed for that platform in years.
SO, here I am writing this blog post on a Mac and I’m trying to see if it will boost my productivity like they say. Thankfully, Fry’s doesn’t charge a restocking fee so I’ve got about 10 days left before I have to decide whether or not to keep this unit.
To make the switch, I’ve got to find some good Mac equivalents of my favorite apps. I know, I know, I can run parallels and then run all my windows apps but I’ve never quite understood the reasoning there. I don’t want to run two OS’s and take the performance hit.
Anyway, I thought I’d blog about my journey here. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Besides the Bible software…what else are you looking for on the mac side as alternatives?
Besides the Bible software…what else are you looking for on the mac side as alternatives?
If you have a list of software that you use on the PC, I can build a list for the Mac. I still use both platforms and love dealing with interop between the two – no really.
The only advice I have is certain things you just don’t want to manage twice. If you buy into the Mac platform and want to put your pictures on it, try not to manage your photo library on both PC and Mac. Well, you can – but you might go crazy.
I’m always changing and stretching myself – and my computing platform so here’s what I do:
I mostly develop software on the PC. The Mac is strong for web development but there’s no single app that screams Mac-only except TextMate for Rails (RoR). And for IT work, it’s mostly PC or Remote Desktop from the Mac to a PC. Otherwise…
> Adobe Suite (both)
> Web Dev: Coda and TextMate (Mac) — MS Expression Web and Visual Studio (PC)
> Photos: iPhoto (Mac) — Adobe Photoshop Elements, Windows Photo Gallery, Picasa (PC) .. but I use iPhoto
> Chat: iChat (Mac) — Google Chat (PC) .. and Live Messenger (both)
> Music: iTunes (Mac) — iTunes and Zune (PC)
> Office Suite: iWork 08 (Mac) — Office 2007 (PC)
> Cheap photo editor: Pixelmator (Mac) — Paint.NET (PC) .. although I use Photoshop mostly
> FTP: Transmit (Mac) — WS_FTP/Filezilla (PC)
I’m still doing a lot on the PC that I just RDP from the Mac to do. Still haven’t picked an online mind mapper tool (because there are no good native Mac apps). Nothing beats Outlook so I OWA or RDP into a PC. Moved away from OneNote to Evernote. Testing out tadalist.com (eh) and rememberthemilk.com (nice!) for task management. So, still changing it up…
Say what you will about the platforms – OS X vs Vista but nothing beats the hardware. That’s the best laptop I’ve ran Vista on too.
If you have a list of software that you use on the PC, I can build a list for the Mac. I still use both platforms and love dealing with interop between the two – no really.
The only advice I have is certain things you just don’t want to manage twice. If you buy into the Mac platform and want to put your pictures on it, try not to manage your photo library on both PC and Mac. Well, you can – but you might go crazy.
I’m always changing and stretching myself – and my computing platform so here’s what I do:
I mostly develop software on the PC. The Mac is strong for web development but there’s no single app that screams Mac-only except TextMate for Rails (RoR). And for IT work, it’s mostly PC or Remote Desktop from the Mac to a PC. Otherwise…
> Adobe Suite (both)
> Web Dev: Coda and TextMate (Mac) — MS Expression Web and Visual Studio (PC)
> Photos: iPhoto (Mac) — Adobe Photoshop Elements, Windows Photo Gallery, Picasa (PC) .. but I use iPhoto
> Chat: iChat (Mac) — Google Chat (PC) .. and Live Messenger (both)
> Music: iTunes (Mac) — iTunes and Zune (PC)
> Office Suite: iWork 08 (Mac) — Office 2007 (PC)
> Cheap photo editor: Pixelmator (Mac) — Paint.NET (PC) .. although I use Photoshop mostly
> FTP: Transmit (Mac) — WS_FTP/Filezilla (PC)
I’m still doing a lot on the PC that I just RDP from the Mac to do. Still haven’t picked an online mind mapper tool (because there are no good native Mac apps). Nothing beats Outlook so I OWA or RDP into a PC. Moved away from OneNote to Evernote. Testing out tadalist.com (eh) and rememberthemilk.com (nice!) for task management. So, still changing it up…
Say what you will about the platforms – OS X vs Vista but nothing beats the hardware. That’s the best laptop I’ve ran Vista on too.
Allow me to start you on your journey.
The program is called NeoOffice…
– It does everything Microsoft Office does, including spreadsheets and presentations
– You can save your files in Windows formats, from 93 to XP (and soon Vista)
– IT’S FREE!!!!!!!
Here’s the link –
http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php
Dude, what other apps do you need? I’ve got a million of ’em…
Allow me to start you on your journey.
The program is called NeoOffice…
– It does everything Microsoft Office does, including spreadsheets and presentations
– You can save your files in Windows formats, from 93 to XP (and soon Vista)
– IT’S FREE!!!!!!!
Here’s the link –
http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php
Dude, what other apps do you need? I’ve got a million of ’em…
finally you got saved.
I use VMWare fusion to run windows on a virtual desktop in Leopard and it freakin rocks. There is virtually no detectable performance hit. I only did it because I have to have windows for my “pay job” – but I LOVE my mac. Do NOT go back. You will make the crossover eventually and once you do – well once saved always saved.
finally you got saved.
I use VMWare fusion to run windows on a virtual desktop in Leopard and it freakin rocks. There is virtually no detectable performance hit. I only did it because I have to have windows for my “pay job” – but I LOVE my mac. Do NOT go back. You will make the crossover eventually and once you do – well once saved always saved.
http://www.openoffice.org/ – might be a better alternative to neoOffice – I believe neoOffice is based of OpenOffice which had not been ported yet.
http://www.openoffice.org/ – might be a better alternative to neoOffice – I believe neoOffice is based of OpenOffice which had not been ported yet.
Dude, isn’t there some mention of you getting a Mac toward the end of the Revelation?
I’ve played with both OpenOffice.org and NeoOffice on the lone Mac at our office, and the hands-down winner was NeoOffice. The current version handles all MS Office files, and can save in those formats as well. It is indeed based on OpenOffice.org, but it runs as a regular Mac app, whereas OpenOffice.org runs in an X11 shell (if I’m using the right terminology). The X11 aspect of OO.o made it take longer to load and look clunkier. There is an OO.o “Aqua” version, but it’s still in beta.
Good luck, and may God have mercy on us all.
Dude, isn’t there some mention of you getting a Mac toward the end of the Revelation?
I’ve played with both OpenOffice.org and NeoOffice on the lone Mac at our office, and the hands-down winner was NeoOffice. The current version handles all MS Office files, and can save in those formats as well. It is indeed based on OpenOffice.org, but it runs as a regular Mac app, whereas OpenOffice.org runs in an X11 shell (if I’m using the right terminology). The X11 aspect of OO.o made it take longer to load and look clunkier. There is an OO.o “Aqua” version, but it’s still in beta.
Good luck, and may God have mercy on us all.
@Davis – thanks for the clarification. Good stuff to know if I ever need to use it. But will keep a eye on openoffice.
@Davis – thanks for the clarification. Good stuff to know if I ever need to use it. But will keep a eye on openoffice.