Switching to Mac

B

badgermilk

Registered
Ive decided to try out the mac world but not sure what to get. I kinda want a laptop. Ill be doing the usual webbrowsing and stuff but also graphic design and maybe some programming. Money isnt really a problem but always prefer a good price.
 
The Mac Book Pro.

it's currently one of the fastest (if not the fastest) notebooks available, ude to the fact that apple can make all the insides as lean as possible, without having to keep to industry standards. it's also one of the fastest macs ever.
 
I agree, the Mac Book Pro is one heck of a machine. You really can't lose with it. Even if you decide you don't prefer OSX (which I can't imagine ;)), you can run XP. Amazing.

I might at least advise to wait for NAB to come and go (end of April) as rumors are predicting the 17" version which presumably will have more bells and whistles and a slightly faster CPU.

And the only other thing I would point out is that Dreamweaver (if that's what you're using to program in) runs in Rosetta, so it won't be native-fast. I haven't run Dreamweaver on my Intel iMac yet, so I can't comment on how comfortable it is. Many other apps (most) will not be native as well for a little while, so factor that in to your decision.
 
Aperture: a cross between picassa and photoshop. full pro-level photo post production and organising. like a dark room and everything but all software and digital

Motion: real time motion graphics. for example, you can drop a ripple or a pinch effect or what ever directly on to the full size moving video canvas and watch the effects run in real time. apply all effects in real time. easily replacte everything to make huge complex imagery really easily, without looking cheesy.

Shake: £3000 software for adding and making CG movie-quality special effects. won the last 6 oscars for special effects, including doing all the effects on Lord of the Rings.

Final Cut Pro: apples really impressive alternative to AVID video editing. most people swear by it, where they can.
 
NeoOffice/OpenOffice (http://www.neooffice.org/, http://www.openoffice.org/) is a decent FREE open source office suite with similar functionality to MS Office. Gimp (http://www.gimp.org/) is an open source program somewhat like Adobe Photoshop. TextWrangler (http://www.barebones.com/) is just about the best text editor available for any platform. VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) is a great multimedia viewer that can play some Windows Media Player movies, all MPEG movies, and DVDs. Toast Titanium (http://www.roxio.com/) is a great program for burning CDs, DVDs, or copying both! You can find really great software at Versiontracker.com http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22715.
 
For graphics design, GIMP probably won't do the job, I'd go Adobe. Try GIMP first though, it's like a stripped down version of photoshop.
You can program with Xcode, included on the install disk.

If you want to save a few bucks, get a refurbished macbook pro, for 10-30 percent off. It still comes with the warranty, so you've got nothing to lose. It'll look and act like new.
 
badgermilk said:
Ive decided to try out the mac world but not sure what to get. I kinda want a laptop. Ill be doing the usual webbrowsing and stuff but also graphic design and maybe some programming. Money isnt really a problem but always prefer a good price.
Click to expand...
Welcome to the wonderful world of Macintosh! I'm a Mac convert after using Windows PCs my entire computing life, and I can't ever imagine going back after using Apple computers for the past few years. I recently bought my own laptop (iBook G4), and I absolutely love it.

Here's my opinion: If you're not going to be running a lot of fancy, RAM-hogging apps or handling large video files, etc., the iBook is perfect--it will do everything you mentioned (Web browsing graphic design, programming, etc.)--and it will do it fast and efficiently. Plus, the price is quite nice, starting at $999. Though that price is for the smallest iBook (12 inch), so if you're planning to do a lot of photo/graphics, you might want to consider the 15-inch instead, just to give you more screen space. Personally, I prefer the 12-inch because it's compact, lightweight (less than 5 pounds) and the screen surface area is still adequate.

On the other hand, if you do plan to run a lot of fancy programs and work with large video files, you might want to consider the PowerBook, or, if you use a lot of Microsoft (universal) programs, the new MacBook Pro.

Whatever you choose, you can't go wrong with Apple, as far as I'm concerned. Good luck! Let us know what you decide on.
 
MacBook Pro is the way to go if you can afford it!

I'm pretty sure you will love OS X. I was on Wingows all my life... now that I have got myself a iMac and Os X... im totally converted! I'd like to put my entire experience in 4 words - "Mac Rocks....Windows Suck"
 
Badgermilk:

Here's my opinion about what hardware to get:

Do you want a desktop machine? Pick an iMac (with the Intel Core Duo) or a Mac mini (also with Intel chip) for less. I think the iMac is the better value unless you already own a really nice monitor.

Do you want a laptop? If money is not a problem, by all means go for the 1.83 GHz MacBook Pro for ~$2000 or the 2.0 GHz MacBook Pro for ~$2500. I (and many others) lust after these things. They're amazing.

Want to spend less on a laptop? ** Wait ** until the new Intel consumer Mac laptops come out. The ones that will replace the iBook. When? Who knows? Rumors say soon.

Expect a learning curve. Don't expect it to work just like Windows. Buy a good book such as Mac OS X: The Missing Manual by David Pogue, even if you're an expert user. Especially if you don't have a lot of experience with non-MSWindows operating systems.

And trust us, the Mac OS is very sophisticated. There's really nothing missing. We'll be glad to help you figure out how to do what you want to do.

Good luck.

Doug
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top