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major_clanger[I've split this into a new thread to get over the 'LiveJournal discussion disappearing off into the distance problem]
I recently asked for advice on buying a new PC, and mentioned that I was probably going to disappoint some of my friends by not switching over to a Mac. Well, I was right enough there. Some of the comments I got have prompted me to review my thoughts in this area.
What do I want a computer for? Reading email and browsing the web for starters, then 'office applications': word processing and to a lesser extent spreadsheets. Web content creation and image editing are also important to me. Gaming used to be but is less so lately (I have less time for it, and anyway I have an Xbox). There are also some specialised applications, such as my project to digitise recordings of old SF convention programme items, or computer work relating to astronomy.
Obviously, web-browsing is just as easy on a Mac as on a PC. Email should be, but there's a catch in my case. For nearly ten years I've used CIX as my service provider (I'd say ISP, but I didn't have true internet for the first few years). CIX has its own conferencing service that I'd like to keep on using, and like most CIXen I use the AMEOL off-line reader, which is only available for Windows. However, there is a CIX OLR for the Mac available, Parlance. I'm a little wary of any software still in version 0.7, but it claims to be stable and in wide use, so is probably worth investigating.
I'm aware that there are perfectly good office applications for the Mac, and that they even claim compatibility with Word and Excel. I would be very keen though to hear comments on how good this compatibility is. I do a lot of document exchange (SF Foundation work, web site content being sent to me, etc) and I need to reliably continue doing this with Windows users.
For web creation, I still mainly hand-edit HTML, mainly indeed due to an aversion to the awful mess that FrontPage makes. I'm prepared to believe though that there is much better software for the Mac. In terms of playing with pictures, moving to the Mac would mean dumping Paint Shop Pro (which cost me £35 or so) and moving to, probably, Photoshop Elements (£65). As for loading the pictures, I would probably have to migrate from my digicam's bespoke Windows software to a generic product like iPhoto.
Games... well, it does look like Half Life 2 and Deus Ex: Invisible War will be coming to the Xbox (eventually), so I suppose I can't complain too much.
Sound processing. This is actually quite important, as it is for a huge project that I have committed to taking on. It's also not the case that I can just keep my old PC to run it on, as it above all else needs a fast processor and huge amounts of storage. On the PC I can use Goldwave, a very well-respected application for purposes like cleaning up old tape recordings, and available for only £25 or so. My initital inquiries led me to suspect that for the Mac there was plenty of studio-level professional software for several hundred quid, but not much else. However, I've now found that Bias's SoundSoap is available for £100 or so, and claims to do exactly what I want.
And for astronomy, there doesn't seem to be a Mac equivalent of the range of quality shareware and freeware that you get for the PC (such as Cartes du Ciel). Instead, Starry Night Pro will set me back another £90 or so. But in terms of image processing applications, I suppose I could learn to use Unix-based professional apps.
So to summarize, it does look as if moving to a Mac would not stop me from doing any of my current or planned work, although I would have to spend maybe £200-300 extra on new software. And I'd have a much easier choice of which model to go for. But... I have so much going on right now, do I really want yet another change? On the other hand, I do have a lot of sympathy with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
purplecthulhu's points about Microsoft. [One thing I am doing is replacing my work-loaned Pocket PC PDA with a PalmOS one, as soon as the much-rumoured Palm Tungsten T3 hits the streets.]
OK, I am thinking about it. Any more useful advice?
MC
I recently asked for advice on buying a new PC, and mentioned that I was probably going to disappoint some of my friends by not switching over to a Mac. Well, I was right enough there. Some of the comments I got have prompted me to review my thoughts in this area.
What do I want a computer for? Reading email and browsing the web for starters, then 'office applications': word processing and to a lesser extent spreadsheets. Web content creation and image editing are also important to me. Gaming used to be but is less so lately (I have less time for it, and anyway I have an Xbox). There are also some specialised applications, such as my project to digitise recordings of old SF convention programme items, or computer work relating to astronomy.
Obviously, web-browsing is just as easy on a Mac as on a PC. Email should be, but there's a catch in my case. For nearly ten years I've used CIX as my service provider (I'd say ISP, but I didn't have true internet for the first few years). CIX has its own conferencing service that I'd like to keep on using, and like most CIXen I use the AMEOL off-line reader, which is only available for Windows. However, there is a CIX OLR for the Mac available, Parlance. I'm a little wary of any software still in version 0.7, but it claims to be stable and in wide use, so is probably worth investigating.
I'm aware that there are perfectly good office applications for the Mac, and that they even claim compatibility with Word and Excel. I would be very keen though to hear comments on how good this compatibility is. I do a lot of document exchange (SF Foundation work, web site content being sent to me, etc) and I need to reliably continue doing this with Windows users.
For web creation, I still mainly hand-edit HTML, mainly indeed due to an aversion to the awful mess that FrontPage makes. I'm prepared to believe though that there is much better software for the Mac. In terms of playing with pictures, moving to the Mac would mean dumping Paint Shop Pro (which cost me £35 or so) and moving to, probably, Photoshop Elements (£65). As for loading the pictures, I would probably have to migrate from my digicam's bespoke Windows software to a generic product like iPhoto.
Games... well, it does look like Half Life 2 and Deus Ex: Invisible War will be coming to the Xbox (eventually), so I suppose I can't complain too much.
Sound processing. This is actually quite important, as it is for a huge project that I have committed to taking on. It's also not the case that I can just keep my old PC to run it on, as it above all else needs a fast processor and huge amounts of storage. On the PC I can use Goldwave, a very well-respected application for purposes like cleaning up old tape recordings, and available for only £25 or so. My initital inquiries led me to suspect that for the Mac there was plenty of studio-level professional software for several hundred quid, but not much else. However, I've now found that Bias's SoundSoap is available for £100 or so, and claims to do exactly what I want.
And for astronomy, there doesn't seem to be a Mac equivalent of the range of quality shareware and freeware that you get for the PC (such as Cartes du Ciel). Instead, Starry Night Pro will set me back another £90 or so. But in terms of image processing applications, I suppose I could learn to use Unix-based professional apps.
So to summarize, it does look as if moving to a Mac would not stop me from doing any of my current or planned work, although I would have to spend maybe £200-300 extra on new software. And I'd have a much easier choice of which model to go for. But... I have so much going on right now, do I really want yet another change? On the other hand, I do have a lot of sympathy with
purplecthulhu's points about Microsoft. [One thing I am doing is replacing my work-loaned Pocket PC PDA with a PalmOS one, as soon as the much-rumoured Palm Tungsten T3 hits the streets.]OK, I am thinking about it. Any more useful advice?
MC
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no subject
Date: 2003-09-29 04:06 pm (UTC)I suspect the claims that 'Macs just work' may not be the case if interacting too much with non-Mac users. You will certainly be paying a premium to go down that route, and the Linux alternative, while a lot cheaper, is even less likely to 'just work'.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-29 04:20 pm (UTC)Re: PC / Mac
Date: 2003-09-30 12:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-29 06:54 pm (UTC)As for other s/w: well, I wouldn't know. I mainly use free software here, on Windows, together with the odd journo freebie. But increasingly, a lot of open source stuff - Linux s/w, basically - is available on MacOS X. Worth investigating.
It's a bloody good OS and a damned good h/w platform. If you're a Unix user, migration is easy and painless and worthwhile. If you're a committed Windows type, it's much harder and you may not be so happy. If you're seriously considering the £2K+ outlay, I'd buy an old 2nd hand Mac and have a THOROUGH play with OS X first, before you buy.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-29 11:18 pm (UTC)Word v.X will open Plokta issues reliably, which is a very stringent test of Word compatibility.
Re: PC / Mac
Date: 2003-09-30 01:06 am (UTC)There is a free Office App available in the shape of Open Office, but you would have to run this on top of X which goes on top of the Quartz desktop. I installed this on a friends Mac and she hasn't contacted me with any problems, so I guess this works OK. Installing X and Open Office was fairly painless, as with most installs on the Mac.
I'm not that familiar with Outlook, but Office.X comes with Entourage which is a combined email/news/PIM application which works quite well, though I have stuck to Apple applications for this sort of thing, using Mail, AddressBook and iCal. I don't have any experience with image processing, but iPhoto does allow some editing capabilities, and the Gimp is available for the Mac for free, which might do all your photoshop tasks. There are some built in sound recording facilities, but I've not used those.
Since you're going to be on broadband in Cambridge, is an offline reader necessary?
Astronomical Software is available, but I guess it depends on what you want to do. I have downloaded some sky viewers etc., but I'm not really certain what facilities you need. As for image processing, you can easily go the whole hog and use iraf and ds9 etc. which are the professional packages I use every day. They are Unix based though, so you don't get to use the nice desktop. I guess you could also use the gimp for this, but it depends on what you want to do.
We could talk some more about at the Tun if you want.
Re: PC / Mac
Date: 2003-09-30 01:34 am (UTC)Re: PC / Mac
Date: 2003-09-30 04:30 am (UTC)NB - this isn't an argument as far as I am concerned for buying a laptop. I want to leave my computer behind at weekends when I've coming back home to see
I certainly would be interested in talking about this at the Tun - see you there!
MC