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General discussion

Switching to a Mac

Oct 21, 2006 8:55AM PDT

Dear Macfriends,
I have been using a Dell Laptop with Windows XP for the last 1 year. Or rather I might say I have had a crash course on how to torture a computer user in hell for this one year. I have had spywares, adwares, viruses wreaking havoc until finally my windows decided one day to stop booting up. I have nothing but curses for the customer support at Dell. Being a scientist, I also need a stable computer which will run for the next 4 years atleast.and hence...
I want to switch over to Mac. All that I have read in this forum makes me feel I am about to make the right decision. However I need some advice so as to make my choice much more determined

1.How is Os X as far as work in Animations/Multimedia is concerned. Does it give a better performance than XP? My wife is bringing along softwares like 3D Studio Max, Flash, Adobe Director, CorelDraw which are for the Windows Platform. If I have both XP and OS X installed in my Mac, will these softwares run?

2. Will I need to seperately buy MS Office while buying my Mac or does every Mac have MS Office installed?

Discussion is locked

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Its one of the best decisions you can make
Oct 27, 2006 11:36AM PDT

I am also a "fairly" recent switcher it is one of the best things I did you will defiantly be glad you did it

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Great! You will not regret
Oct 27, 2006 11:40AM PDT

your choice.

Any problems, you know where to come


P

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Recovery from mac is a must have tool
Aug 2, 2009 7:10PM PDT

Problems of data loss on account of accidental deletion and corrupted or formatted hard drive is a common issue faced on a wide scale and the ultimate solution for the above situations is only one and that indeed is the software <a href="http://www.macharddriverecovery.com">Mac data drive recovery</a>. One of the most obvious reasons behind it can be virus; other good reasons may be application error or improper system shutdown. I have tried it and that why I know how instant and accurate results are delivered to Mac users.

It?s the most efficient data recovery tool for Mac OS using Intel processors and various file types can be recovered. Supports HFS, HFSX and HFS+ file systems.
<a href="http://www.macharddriverecovery.com">mac data recovery</a>

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from a mac user of 13 years.
Oct 28, 2006 2:40AM PDT

The software you wish to use on a Mac will work with the Intel hardware model of Macs which is the new standard for Apple Computer. It requires that you install a full version of Microsoft OS sevice pack 2 included and not a two disk version ( such as XP plus service pack 2 on two disks will not work). You need not worry about viruses and malware if you never use the Windows OS on the internet or with unsafe software backups and untested files. The hardware will run perfectly with Windows and some claim that it runs faster.
I would suggest that you begin purchasing software specifically to run in the OSX environment or the OSX version of these software packages if they are available so that you do not have to reboot into Windows ever. There is also a software package made by Parallels which runs Windows in emulation but it is made primarily for such products as Office for Windows and not for graphics intense programs. For that reason, you have to work with the special installer software available from Apple to install easily the Windows system in a partition on your hard drive from which you reboot to run the Windows programs. Parallel does not require the reboot and will run less intensive software from within OSX in emulation which will be very handy, indeed. Corel Draw should run in Parallels. Macs do not come with OFFICE but again, you can run it in the Windows reboot approach but it will also run very slightly slower in Parallels but frankly, it will run fine. Some software companies will exchange the original disks for the Windows environment for those of the Mac environment so long as you send them the originals, swear on an affadavit that you have deleted the Windows version and so forth. Adobe has been known to do this for example. There might be a fee but surely much less than starting over with new software kits. Even if you are forced to replace all of the software, I can assure you of one thing. On the Mac OSX ENVIRONMENT you will simply not have crashes, not have incursions of virii, worms or malware, You will get work done and once you learn the system, you will never go back.
Professor Neil Fiertel

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Please do not spread these untruths
Oct 28, 2006 10:23AM PDT

"You need not worry about viruses and malware if you never use the Windows OS on the internet"
There are enough vulnerabilities in Windows to be attacked no matter what you do. If a user has a Broadband, always on, Internet connection and Windows is actually running, it is ON the internet.
Any computer connected to this type of connection is on the internet and actually becomes part of the internet, even though there are no Web Browsers or Email clients running. All computers are at risk when connected to the Internet. Some are more protected or less vulnerable than others.

P