# Help me buy a Mac **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 10, 2009, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-buy-a-mac/485226 "2009-02-10T16:06:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hrududu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Hrududu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hrududu)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-buy-a-mac/485226/21 "2009-02-13T09:35:56Z")
I’m considering making the switch too. I am currently using a PC and have everything (photos, music etc) backed up to a Western Digital external hard drive. Can I plug this into a new Mac and simply copy my files over onto it? ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-buy-a-mac/485226/22 "2009-02-13T12:15:10Z")
> [@Hrududu](#): > > I’m considering making the switch too. I am currently using a PC and have everything (photos, music etc) backed up to a Western Digital external hard drive. Can I plug this into a new Mac and simply copy my files over onto it? Yes. A modern USB hard drive formatted for a PC will mount correctly on a Mac running OS X. If the hard drive is NTFS, it will mount as read-only; if it is FAT32, it will mount read-write. However, PCs cannot read the native Mac filesystem, HFS+, without special drivers. If you format an external hard drive with the OS X filesystem, HFS+, you will not be able to access the files on a Windows machine. ---
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-buy-a-mac/485226/23 "2009-02-24T21:13:15Z")
…but I thought it would be better than starting anew. The white MacBooks, it looks like you can’t get the 2.4 processor. Those sneaky bastards have me eyeing the aluminimiumum one. Pricey! I am taking a class and the papers have to be turned in Word. Can I complete the paper in the word processor that comes standard and convert it to a word doc? As the receiver of this doc, would you have any issues with it? (other than it is poorly written and full of gramatical and spelling erors) Thanks again. ---
**Author:** ![flood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@flood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flood)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-buy-a-mac/485226/24 "2009-02-24T21:36:12Z")
TextEdit will allow you to save Word 97-03 and Word 2007 files (.doc and .docx respectively) but I’ve never tried using it. You can also download Open Office for free which should save .doc. I have MS Office 2004 on mine. Just tried using TextEdit, and saved a test file as a .doc and it opened in MS Word without a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-buy-a-mac/485226/25 "2009-02-24T21:45:29Z")
And you can get the Home and Student edition of Word for the Mac for around $140. I haven’t because Pages and OpenOffice/NeoOffice serve my simple needs. (Incidentally, the presentations created in Keynote look WAY better than those from PowerPoint.) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-buy-a-mac/485226/26 "2009-02-24T21:57:58Z")
Actually, for $140, you can get the Home & Student Edition of Office 2008 for Mac which includes Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage in addition to Word. (And you can install it on three computers, but it’s not licensed for commercial purposes.) But OfficeOffice might suffice and that’s free. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-buy-a-mac/485226/27 "2009-02-24T22:18:24Z")
> [@newcrasher](#): > > …but I thought it would be better than starting anew. > > The white MacBooks, it looks like you can’t get the 2.4 processor. Those sneaky bastards have me eyeing the aluminimiumum one. Pricey! > > I am taking a class and the papers have to be turned in Word. Can I complete the paper in the word processor that comes standard and convert it to a word doc? As the receiver of this doc, would you have any issues with it? (other than it is poorly written and full of gramatical and spelling erors) > Thanks again. You don’t get a full-fledged word processor with OS X, just like you don’t get Word with Windows. You get a text editor, and there are free word processors which are quite capable - Open (or Neo) Office, and AbiWord, for two. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-buy-a-mac/485226/28 "2009-02-24T22:21:21Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > You don’t get a full-fledged word processor with OS X, just like you don’t get Word with Windows. You get a text editor, and there are free word processors which are quite capable - Open (or Neo) Office, and AbiWord, for two. Or may I suggest Google Docs. Free, easy, and files can be accessed by any computer. Of course, it’s not as fully-featured, but it’s not lacking anything I need. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2009, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-buy-a-mac/485226/29 "2009-02-24T23:35:28Z")
Just bought MS Office 2008 home and student edition from Amazon for $109. I had 2004 before, and I’m quite pleased with the new product. If you are on a tight budget then use one of the open-source options already mentioned. But they just aren’t the same, especially when you start fiddling around with styles, formatting, cross references, and the like. I just did an experiment to see if you can embed other MS Office objects, such as an Excel spreadsheet, in a Word document and then view and edit the same embedded object on a Windows machine. It worked just fine in both directions. Nice. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-buy-a-mac/485226/30 "2009-02-25T08:31:02Z")
> [@newcrasher](#): > > Please send $20 to … Just kidding…sorta. I am considering making the leap from Pc to Mac. I don’t use my PC for anything more than internet browsing and some light gaming. Nothing network intensive. Creatively I can do all the video and picture stuff I need with what comes bundled on XP. I really don’t need the enhanced media capabilities inherent in a Mac. But Mac can do all the things I need. Through my work I can get a discount on Macs, which helps. What do you consider the minimum system reqs? I have an 80gig hd that Ihave never come close to filling. I am not media hog. How about RAM? I see some with 3MB shared. Is that enough? The only thing I have now with an Apple logo is my iPod Classic . What other peripherals will I need? I realize this is prrobably the jilllionth Mac thread. I appreciate your patience and assistance. Not having read any replies… I like Mac, I really do, but, for my uses, which really match yours, they are simply not worth the double cash layout for a really pretty case and the satisfaction of not using PC. I specifically was pissed that many games are not / were not available for Mac when I had one (around the early-mid 2000s.) My next PC will have a minimum of 4 MB ram, and whatever else they throw in. A decent video card would be nice. If I could get a Mac with comparable stats for the same price as a PC, I would STILL not do it, without checking the status of game compatibility first. And no, I am NOT a hardcore gamer AT ALL. Joe [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-buy-a-mac/485226.md?page=1)