Another bout with a virus (that my new virus protection program missed) has got me thinking about purchasing an Apple. Aside from the expense of Apple products, I’m concerned about compatibility with years of files that originated with my PCs. I doubt there’s a problem with jpg’s, pdf’s, etc, but what about Word and Excel documents. Further, I know there is a Microsoft Office suite , but are files originated on one system truly compatible with the other?
Any other hassles?
It’s not guaranteed that you’ll be able to do it 100 percent without errors, but generally speaking, as long as you use microsoft office for the mac you will probably be ok. I have heard of some compatibility problems, but they seem to be rare.
If you use open office or neo office you are much more likely to run into compatibility problems.
Also, despite the mac fanboy hype, macs are not 100 percent immune to viruses nor are they 100 percent free of problems. That said, I am very reluctant to surf the net on a windows box these days. Mac or linux is definitely the way to go to avoid almost all of the bad crap out there.
As far as the expense of apple stuff goes, your other alternative is linux. There isn’t a microsoft office version for linux, so you are stuck with using some variant of open office, which again is more likely to have compatibility problems. Linux isn’t quite as user friendly as a mac either (IMHO).
A virus? In this day and age? I haven’t been hit with one in… well at least a decade.
You must be engaging in some seriously risky activity for this to happen, and so I must point out that having an Apple product will not, magically keep you from picking up viruses.
About your only hope is that the people making viruses or worms (a much more relevant problem now a days) will continue to neglect that market - something that current news shows is not likely to be true for ever.
As for compatibility, well it’s going to depend entirely on the programs you use and their purpose. If yo are using word and excel for your journal/simple spread sheet use, you’re probably good.
If you’re running macros to calculate tables, then not so much. Image and music should be a flawless import as both operating systems handle the vast majority of types fine. Video might require re-encoding depending on what codecs you’re using to store family videos and stuff, but trans coding is probably not necessary.
You should be fine. If you go to the Apple Store and bring your old computer, a Genius will transfer all your old files for free. jpgs and pdfs are indeed not a problem, Office documents can be read with any program you want, iWork (the Apple Office) will edit them, but if you really want to be sure, get MS Office. There might be very minor issues with layout, but the chance is pretty small and you’d probably not even notice it.
Transition is pretty smooth, one thing you’ll love is that, as worn-out as it sounds, everything “just works”.
ETA: Damn it, too slow!
Yes and no. You’re more likely to have compatibility problems during the initial migration, but once that’s done you’ll never again have to worry about an upgrade creating new problems, like you sometimes get going from one version of Word to another. And even that first round of problems will just be in subtleties of formatting, unless your Word documents are extremely complicated: You should still be able to read them just fine, and if there are any problems, they’ll probably be such that you can fix them manually.
“You must be engaging in some seriously risky activity for this to happen, and so I must point out that having an Apple product will not, magically keep you from picking up viruses.”
Don’t think so. My most recent problems occurred when I simply visited two sites. As soon as they opened, I knew I was in trouble. The first was the the DrudgeReport, which gets tens of thousands of hits (if not more) every day. The other was twitchy.com, a Michelle Malkin site that tracks Twitter comments.
I often wonder whether political ideologues target “opposition” sites.
The drudge report having a virus seems to have been much a do about nothing.
Simply one of those stupid “You have a virus download our program!” pop-up ad…
dont’ tell me you have pop ups enabled? Don;'t tell me than you proceeded to click and download said anti-virus program?
If so,… again, going Apple won’t change a thing.
Are you:
Running an outdated OS - windows XP or older?
Running an outdated browser?
Running an outdated version of Flash? (running any version of Flash opens you up to potential security issues on BOTH Macs and PC’s)
Allowing pop ups?
Clicking on ads and downloading/installing programs from said ads that you are not 100% sure are issued from a reputable and safe website?
Office for Mac is compatible with Office for Windows. I frequently edit files in Word for Mac and then send them back to clients who are using Word for Windows, and there’s no problem.
Additionally, if there are any Windows-only programs that you don’t want to lose, you can get virtual machine software (I have VMWare Fusion) that allows you to run Windows programs on your Mac. It’s really pretty seamless. My indexing software is Windows-only, but I run it in VMWare with no problems whatsoever.
Apple has some info targeted at users who are switching from PCs: Mac - Official Apple Support I found it to be pretty useful when I was making the switch myself.
And yes, I too had a few viruses, including one requiring a complete system reinstallation, during my 10+ years of Windows use, and wasn’t engaging in particularly “risky behavior,” had AV software installed, etc. It’s one of the many reasons I decided to make the switch, and I haven’t regretted it.
Also, uninstall Java unless you can’t live without it. From my experience, by far most viruses come from Flash and Java… Flash unfortunately you can’t do much about, but most people can run their computer without Java just fine.
Note the same applies on Macs, OS X security problems are usually due to Java.
Running an outdated OS - windows XP or older? No
Running an outdated browser? No
Running an outdated version of Flash? (running any version of Flash opens you up to potential security issues on BOTH Macs and PC’s) Will check.
Allowing pop ups?No
Clicking on ads and downloading/installing programs from said ads that you are not 100% sure are issued from a reputable and safe website? No
running a Flash blocker can help you out there - and speed up your browsing. Only downside is that you need an extra click to start Flash when you need it. (I use ClickToPlugin on my MacBook)
I have a Windows machine at work and a Mac at home, and I regularly share Word and Excel files between them using DropBox. I have many documents that have gone back and forth between Mac & Windows dozens or possibly hundreds of times.
I’m using Microsoft Office on both platforms. When I was using Open Office around 2003-2004, it worked well for straightforward documents, but every time I moved back & forth between Open Office & MS Office I would lose background images, macros, index entries, and a bunch of other advanced (at the time) features.
I made the transition about 7 months ago, and have had no problems with compatibility of old windows files. Just get MSFT Office for Mac. I use the pro version. About $180 at Amazon.
Go for it!
Macs are starting to be targeted (e.g. Flashback), so don’t buy one for its virus-resistance.
That might be good advice if/when Mac malware catches up to Windows, but given that it’s orders of magnitude less of a problem today it seems like a reasonable move.
Not sure if you are aware of this: The term “virus” is commonly used by people and the anti-virus industry itself as a catch-all phrase that includes all kinds of malware.
I’m sitting in bed next to somebody who has had their identity stolen due to malware on a Mac.
Caveat emptor.
With Flashback, it’s at least approaching that level. Relative to installed base, Flashback was about as big as Conficker. (And Conficker is still affecting Windows PCs, even today). It’s true that the total amount of malware is orders of magnitude less, but it’s no longer as insignificant as it was a few years ago.
Not that I’d want to discourage anyone from switching; usually there are other reasons that go into it besides just “viruses”.