[PGurm]

Hey,

Alright so a quick recap... I'm on my third PC, this one is a Toshiba laptop. My roommate just got a Macbook, and he loves it. I'm sick of Windows crashing and giving me issues so I am thinking about the jump to Mac. I am going to need the 2.2ghz Macbook Pro because occasionally I like to play a computer game and so I think the graphics card is worth it. A few questions I want to clarify before I buy one are:
1) I love to download torrents (mostly movies & tv shows) - Will this be an issue on a mac?
2) Mac office to Windows office - Are there any issues with this? For instance, will a PowerPoint designed on Mac, display correctly on a PC? This is important as I am in business school and am constantly sending/receiving office files (mostly from PC's).
3) I know that they have the current 'Tiger' OS. When the 'Leopard OS' comes out, will there be a free upgrade for 'Tiger' users? Or should I consider waiting until October?

Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.

Paul

 

[Aero]

Hey,

Alright so a quick recap... I'm on my third PC, this one is a Toshiba laptop. My roommate just got a Macbook, and he loves it. I'm sick of Windows crashing and giving me issues so I am thinking about the jump to Mac. I am going to need the 2.2ghz Macbook Pro because occasionally I like to play a computer game and so I think the graphics card is worth it. A few questions I want to clarify before I buy one are:
1) I love to download torrents (mostly movies & tv shows) - Will this be an issue on a mac?
2) Mac office to Windows office - Are there any issues with this? For instance, will a PowerPoint designed on Mac, display correctly on a PC? This is important as I am in business school and am constantly sending/receiving office files (mostly from PC's).
3) I know that they have the current 'Tiger' OS. When the 'Leopard OS' comes out, will there be a free upgrade for 'Tiger' users? Or should I consider waiting until October?

Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.

Paul

1. Mac has Azureus so you can use that if your familiar with it, utorrent will be releasing a client in a few months/weeks/days (dunno when but soon I hope lol)

2. I had no problem with powerpoint (but I dont use it that much, never gave me a problem. I usually get my class notes in powerpoint format and all of them works).

3. You need to buy it, sorry no free upgrades, but before they did some sort of promo, if you bought your OS ___ months/weeks/days before you can get the new OS for ~19 dollars.

 

[JAGflyer]

No problem with Torrents. I use Transmission as my torrent client.

 

[teknikz]

See my macbook pro thread

 

[phuviano]

2) you can always use parallels or boot camp to resolve this issue, if there are any. Just run your office applications under windows.

 

[fyrefly]

In my experience, Powerpoint between Windows/Mac does sometimes have issues, mostly related to formatting/layout of the slides. The cause of this is usually (again, in my experience) related to fonts.

You can solve this problem if you choose common fonts that are on both OSs. If you do, the slides/layouts should be pretty similar, but see phuviano's comments about using Parallels to ensure 100% compatibility.

 

[Aero]

In my experience, Powerpoint between Windows/Mac does sometimes have issues, mostly related to formatting/layout of the slides. The cause of this is usually (again, in my experience) related to fonts.

You can solve this problem if you choose common fonts that are on both OSs. If you do, the slides/layouts should be pretty similar, but see phuviano's comments about using Parallels to ensure 100% compatibility.

MS Powerpoint has a compatibility test of some sort. Its not perfect but it helps.

 

[macmac]

Paul

DO IT. YOU"LL LOVE THE ENTIRE EXPERIENCE. I"M IN AWE...just got mine today about 20 minutes ago.


1.Tomato, Azureus, (I use transmission) OSX isn't the problem, its all dependent if your internet provider allows it. If they do, no problem at all downloading.


2. I am a teacher in a PC world. The only issues I ever run into are 'formatting' ones, but they are easily resolved. Don't worry though, you'll soon start using KEYNOTE as I did, and will love it. You'll see how easy it is to make a presentation. Simply grab that quicktime movie, drag into your keynote and it's done. No need to start formatting..etc. Also, you can share your keynote with PP users by simply exporting to powerpoint from keynote. Don't hesitate.

3. This is all a matter of personal perspective. I had an opportunity to get a new mac now, so I did it. If you can wait, ..then I suggest wait. Although you can easily upgrade to Leapord.

4. If you like to play games, then I suggest the 17" for the bigger screen and the better video card. With laptops its generally a good idea to get the best you can afford, as they are not easily upgradable. It comes down to your budget.

What everyone here will tell you, is that you will not regret it. System-win-config- error messages will be a thing of the past. You won't need a virus scanner using valuable resources from your system as there are no viruses for the mac. Spyware will also be a thing of the past. If you can live without spyware and without viruses..then you'll enjoy the mac.

P.S...the only problem with 'games' is that the price does not drop over time, and you have a limitted selection. Just something to consider...but hey, you can always you use bootcamp to resolve that.