PC to Apple: Questions

[jk]

Re: PC to Apple: Questions

fwiw, a few months ago i bought a brand new late-2012 model macbook pro retina on sale at a reseller, about 1-2 weeks before apple released the new haswell machines. it was a pretty good deal, and i love the screen. i'm still adjusting to the os.

i'm still keeping my windows xp lenovo 301x as backup. as april approaches and the end of microsoft security patches for xp, i'm taking off the current antivirus and installing kaspersky, which supposedly works well with xp in particular.

[santafe2]

Re: PC to Apple: Questions

as april approaches and the end of microsoft security patches for xp, i'm taking off the current antivirus and installing kaspersky, which supposedly works well with xp in particular.

I finally tried Kaspersky 2 years ago after using and being dissatisfied with everything else. I think it's the best on the market. Using it with Windows 7 and 8.1.

[don]

Re: PC to Apple: Questions

We decided on an iMac - it's sitting next to me, still in the box.

After transferring files and hooking up a backup, via Time Machine and a 3T external drive, I'll hookup to the internet.

What, if any, additional internet protection should I add to the iMac?

It's been all PCs on the internet up till now.

[jk]

Re: PC to Apple: Questions

i'm interested in the same question. many people say don't bother with antivirus or antimalware, others point to the handful of exploits that have indeed happened. among sources that recommend doing something, sophos seems at the top of the list.

i've only been on a mac a few months and yet to install anything of the kind. so i am very interested in hearing what the technologically sophisticated among us have to say on the matter.

[dcarrigg]

Re: PC to Apple: Questions

i'm interested in the same question. many people say don't bother with antivirus or antimalware, others point to the handful of exploits that have indeed happened. among sources that recommend doing something, sophos seems at the top of the list.

i've only been on a mac a few months and yet to install anything of the kind. so i am very interested in hearing what the technologically sophisticated among us have to say on the matter.

I'm writing on an old white macbook I bought refurbished six years ago. I've thrown more ram (crucial) and a solid state drive (intel) into her and upgraded to Snow Leopard. Otherwise, it's stock. I had one problem a little more than a year in. The refurbished warrantee was over a month before I brought it in. Apple honored it anyways and did the fix for free. Don't know if I was lucky or if they allow some overhang time as policy. They also recalled the bottom for some bad glue and mailed a new one for free about 3 years ago. It even came with return packaging and free postage to return the old bottom and a pretty nice screwdriver and instructions to do the work. My point there is that their customer service is worlds better than Dell's India "Okay, now I want you to unplug your PC and plug it back in." hotline.

I still use a Dell box at work. But the macbook is my daily machine. The problems listed above are the only ones I've had with it. I have never run an antivirus or antimalware on it. I've never had a problem. Hell, I'm pretty sure I've gone six months without restarting it. That said, there certainly are exploits out there for OSX. But I don't keep state secrets or anything, and regular backup to an external hard drive has me feeling safe enough. Battery health is down to about 60% of what it was at this point. Overall, $800 and another $200 in parts for 6 years of computing isn't so bad. This has been the only mac I've owned, but the laptops I owned prior never lasted this long.

You should have no problem opening docs or jpegs or almost any other file you want. Office for Mac 2011 works fine. 2008 didn't do VB macros if you use them in Excel spreadsheets. If you work at a medium to large organization, you should check out Microsoft's home use program. If you're eligible, you can pick up Office for $10. Otherwise, iWork works fine for most things and pages opens most Word docs without issue. I believe the new version's free (I'm still on 2009) There are various versions of openoffice out there and google docs is always available for free too.

It takes a little getting used to. But soon enough, it feels like home - especially the gestures on the trackpad. Using bad trackpads on PC laptops feels like going from a power ratchet to an adjustable wrench at this point - it works, but it's a lot slower. Unless you're really into video games or running specialized software for work made exclusively for Windows, there's not anything your mac won't do that Windows will. Wine can even solve some of the lightweight specialized software issues. I've had good luck with the old Snow Leopard. I haven't used the newer ones yet. I've heard a few complaints, but nothing too intense. Then again, I had good luck with XP, so I never moved on to Vista either. They just forced me to go up to 7. It seems to be fine too. I hear more negative things about 8.

That said, they cost more money. I got the last of the 'budget line' plastic ones. And like so many others here, I tend to be thrifty about most things. For what it's worth, I think of this as I think of shoes. I bought my big old American boots for $250 six years ago too. I might be on the fourth pair of laces, but with a bit of spit and polish, they're otherwise fine. I haven't even needed to see a cobbler yet. But when I do? I'll take them. It has to be cheaper than going through a pair of the $60 every year or two...

[jk]

Re: PC to Apple: Questions

i'm using crossover, a commercialized version of wine, to run the one windows-specific program i need [my scheduler and pim]. my xp machine was having recurrent mechanical problems- buttons ceasing to function, and i hated everything i read about windows 8, so here i am on my late 2012 model retina macbook pro- bought new in late 2013, loaded with ram and a big ssd, heavily discounted as the haswell macbooks were just coming out. the retina screen is amazing. finder kind of sucks compared to explorer for file manipulation, but i've figured out what i need. i haven't wanted to shell out for office, so i'm using libre office. however, i'm resisting learning how to use the spreadsheet, graphing and so on, after so many years of excel. the keyboard isn't as good as the lenovo thinkpad 301x it's replacing, but even lenovo isn't making that style keyboard anymore. it's fine.

but dcarrigg, SOME mac users were affected by the osx exploits. think it was just bad internet hygiene? or just bad luck?

[dcarrigg]

Re: PC to Apple: Questions

i'm using crossover, a commercialized version of wine, to run the one windows-specific program i need [my scheduler and pim]. my xp machine was having recurrent mechanical problems- buttons ceasing to function, and i hated everything i read about windows 8, so here i am on my late 2012 model retina macbook pro- bought new in late 2013, loaded with ram and a big ssd, heavily discounted as the haswell macbooks were just coming out. the retina screen is amazing. finder kind of sucks compared to explorer for file manipulation, but i've figured out what i need. i haven't wanted to shell out for office, so i'm using libre office. however, i'm resisting learning how to use the spreadsheet, graphing and so on, after so many years of excel. the keyboard isn't as good as the lenovo thinkpad 301x it's replacing, but even lenovo isn't making that style keyboard anymore. it's fine.

but dcarrigg, SOME mac users were affected by the osx exploits. think it was just bad internet hygiene? or just bad luck?

Honestly, I think it's a combo of bad internet habits and not keeping software updated. Software updates for apple software are fairly automatic, but you have to actually stop and let it restart the computer, which people don't always do. Exploits can and do find their way in through other programs that don't operate on the mac software update schedule. Keeping all that Adobe and Microsoft stuff up to date to is helpful. Just clicking 'skip update' every time probably increases the risk a lot.

File manipulation I think actually was more intuitive on earlier versions of OSX. The newer versions of finder look like they were 'dumbed down' to make it easier. Terminal's still there to grep around and use Unix commands. Have you tried using smartfolders or automator at all? I just ran an automator script that pushes everything into one of only a couple places based on subject. I find I do far less folder organization now. I leave things in big piles, make sure to name them correctly, and search for what I need. People sometimes think I'm crazy for it. But it works for me and I never have to 'be the secretary' and organize files in folders and cabinets like the bad old days...

I did end up giving in and getting MS Office. Libreoffice and iWork work - and iWork is pretty lightweight, while MS Office feels clunkier - but it's just what I'm used to, especially for excel. Pivot tables, macros, it's just tough to move on without them. But I lucked out and could get it for $10. I might have tried harder to get around it at full price, which is something like $200.

I'm not messing around on the internet too much. The better half got a similar laptop around the same time I did. She never had problems either. Maybe our habits are just similar. Or maybe we were both lucky. But so far, so good with no antivirus or malware stuff. And I had both running all the time back when I ran XP and still ran into malware issues on occasion...I just think there's a much larger MS user-base, and so more junk is written to effect it, and more diseases live among a denser population to look at it from a public health angle...

[jk]

Re: PC to Apple: Questions

thanks for the comments, and i'll look into smart folders and automator. i haven't touched either one- i've just learned the minimum i've needed to know to make my life work ok.

[don]

Re: PC to Apple: Questions

jk: did you use Apple's PC transfer program?

[jk]

Re: PC to Apple: Questions

jk: did you use Apple's PC transfer program?

no. i just set up the new machine, installed what i needed, and broght over my essential files on a flash drive. sometime i'm going to transfer over some other files i want handy. my old computer is full of files of dubious long-term value, which i saved for some reason or other at some point over the last x years. kind of like my house.

[don]

Re: PC to Apple: Questions

I thought I'd purged the Dell first. The load is light because it's mostly been an internet machine. Then use the Apple program.