Moving to a new Windows PC is a time consuming nuisance, chiefly because you need to re-install the applications from the original CD’s (or download files) as they cannot be “moved” to the new box.
Do Mac’s work in the same fashion? Leave aside the possibility that more software comes “built in” on the MAC and therefore you have fewer applications to move. Is it the same “re-install”, “re-register” process ?
When you buy a new Mac now, and you start it up for the first time, the new Mac takes you through an easy, and pleasant set-up process. Early on, it asks if you have an older mac, and if you would like to transfer all the apps, network settings, documents, and other preferences (like bookmarks and mail and all that jazz). If you choose yes, it asks you to hook up a firewire cable (if i remember that part correctly) to both machines and the rest is automatic. Worked incredibly well every time i used it, to the point that it was indiscernible from the original mac. Practically a brain transplant.
The other way is to network the two machines so you can drag from the old to the new, app by app and file by file. Most of this is just that simple… drag the app into the app folder, let it copy, and it should work. But I use A LOT of third party apps, like the Adobe suite, Cinema4D, and Final Cut Pro. Some of these require serial numbers and activations, and also might install supporting files in other directories besides the Applications Folder… so in that case it’s best just to re-install. But you’d be surprised at how sometimes it’s just as easy as dragging that app from here to there, and voilá! it works!
Note that if you’re moving from an PPC (last year and before) to Intel (this year) based Mac, there are a very few applications that won’t work on the new one.
Also, many apps on Windows (especially those that have Mac roots) will successfully do the “move the folder to the new machine and it just runs there” trick, although if you want Start Menu entries for them you’ll have to build them by hand. Most of the ones that don’t are large, multi-piece applications that tie tightly to the Operating system: any Microsoft application, pretty much any application that costs more than $150, and copy-protected stuff like games. Most of the little, day-to-day apps you use will probably transfer just fine, although they’ll forget all their preferences (which often happens on the Mac, too) because the registry entries won’t transfer.
IMHO, this is one of the big advantages of the Mac that people forget. For the most part, applications are just files (they’re folders now, but the same logic applies), and you can move them around, put them anywhere, and they just run. Mac OS X is starting to impose a little more order on where things are installed by default, but when your disks start getting full and you have to move apps around…it works.
Thanks for the info. I am stuck with PC’s and Windows for the foreseeable future.
Just wondered if Mac migration was better, and apparently it is.
You can even hook up your old computer to the new one, mount the old computer’s hard disk, and run its applications without transferring them to the new one at all. Likewise, you can run the applications installed on the computer of your buddy down the hall (as long as your buddy permits it in the sharing prefs, etc).