Buying a Mac- some questions

[PaulBowman]

Hi All

I want to by a new MAC for two reasons:
1 - My old pc is one its last legs and is as slow they come.
2 - I am sick of Windows and really want to use something other than windos.
3 - Has anybody had any problems reading/changing MS Office files on a Mac then reading them on an XP machine or vice versa?

My questions are:
1 - I have a Lexmark 5000 printer and I dont want to have to buy a new printer - Is there a 3rd party driver/cable (its a serial port so I imagine USB would work with some sort of converter) for the printer? Lexmark have said they have no intention of providing a Mac driver! .
2 - With all the talk of Mac using the intel chips is it worth holding on for them? I am intending to buy a G4 with a gig of RAM and a large disk. The computer would be used for The usual home stuff WP/Excel etc. and development work (java, database). Plus we would store avi on the machine and my wife has said she would like to edit digitial photographs on the machine.

Any thoughts on the above would be gratefully read.

Thanks

Paul

[Esquilinho]

Originally Posted by PaulBowman

3 - Has anybody had any problems reading/changing MS Office files on a Mac then reading them on an XP machine or vice versa?

Not that I can remember... it's pretty smooth.

[Gig']

Originally Posted by PaulBowman

My questions are:
2 - With all the talk of Mac using the intel chips is it worth holding on for them? I am intending to buy a G4 with a gig of RAM and a large disk. The computer would be used for The usual home stuff WP/Excel etc. and development work (java, database). Plus we would store avi on the machine and my wife has said she would like to edit digitial photographs on the machine.

Transition wise : unless you want to wait, @ least , summer next year go for it now. You didn't mention which G4 you're looking into so I would recommend the iMac G5 it great value compared to 1st generation I own.

If I may suggest, you should also look into using the search feature of this forum to read more views/opinions about Intel transition, mini vs G5, PC switch and so on. I'm convinced you'll find valuable info/ideas

Sorry can't help about the printer and unless there's an open source solution for it I'd be looking into gettin' another one

[fryke]

Originally Posted by Esquilinho

Not that I can remember... it's pretty smooth.

... if you have Microsoft Office for the Mac, that is. If you don't, you can still open Word files in TextEdit, but you shouldn't expect the result to be the same as the original. So: You'd have to get Office for your Mac.

[symphonix]

3 - Has anybody had any problems reading/changing MS Office files on a Mac then reading them on an XP machine or vice versa?

The only problem I found is pretty minor. Office files on the Mac don't require an extension, meaning that you'll often have a file called "document" which you need to rename to "document.doc" in order for the PC to know which program to use to open it. I think they changed it in the current version of Office though.

1 - I have a Lexmark 5000 printer and I dont want to have to buy a new printer - Is there a 3rd party driver/cable (its a serial port so I imagine USB would work with some sort of converter) for the printer? Lexmark have said they have no intention of providing a Mac driver!

I was going to suggest setting up your old PC as a linux box, putting it into a cupboard and using it as a print server, however it looks like the Lexmark 5000 isn't supported by Linux (In either CUPS or GimpPrint) either. I would just sell it and get another printer.

2 - With all the talk of Mac using the intel chips is it worth holding on for them? I am intending to buy a G4 with a gig of RAM and a large disk. The computer would be used for The usual home stuff WP/Excel etc. and development work (java, database). Plus we would store avi on the machine and my wife has said she would like to edit digitial photographs on the machine.

You will have no regrets for buying a G4 or G5 system now, I suspect. The prices are at their low point, the hardware is established and proven, the software is reliable and the performance is snappy. Intel Macs won't start to appear for at least a year now, and won't offer any real advantage for the sort of work you'll be doing with your computer.

[PaulBowman]

Hi Esquilinho

Thanks for your reply, Your response is really helpful and gratefully recieved. I agree there is probably little benefit to waiting for the intel macs to appear and I was mistaken the MAC I am interested in is the iMac G5 coz it looks great and we want a machine that can go in our living room without making it look a mess.

Its a shame about the printer but thats the way the cookie crumbles I guess!

Cheers

Paul

[Esquilinho]

Originally Posted by fryke

... if you have Microsoft Office for the Mac, that is. If you don't, you can still open Word files in TextEdit, but you shouldn't expect the result to be the same as the original. So: You'd have to get Office for your Mac.

Yep, sorry, forgot about that little detail
You can also open word docs in Apple Works (I think) and in Pages, but I agrre with you, the best solution is Office, if you have to exchange lots of documents with Windows PCs.

[Esquilinho]

Originally Posted by PaulBowman

Hi Esquilinho

Thanks for your reply, Your response is really helpful and gratefully recieved. I agree there is probably little benefit to waiting for the intel macs to appear and I was mistaken the MAC I am interested in is the iMac G5 coz it looks great and we want a machine that can go in our living room without making it look a mess.

Its a shame about the printer but thats the way the cookie crumbles I guess!

Cheers

Paul

err... I think you meant Gig'