Switching to Mac: Macbook or Pro?

[Locke]

Hey guys, I figured I'm bump this baby as I too am considering switching to Mac and, as CP is a veritable reservoire of information I figured I'd ask my questions here.

I'm looking at a macbook, nothing too insane mind you, but I want it for fairly general purposes.

1. Music and movies: I gather my iPod will sync up just fine, but what methods would I have for downloading new stuff?

2. Anti-Virus software: Would I have to get something new, or does the macbook come with its own anti virus software? I currently use AVG, and my desktop runs Avast.

3. Office work: Does the macbook come with a "Microsoft Office" analog for word processors and spreadsheets or do I have to purchase additional software, and will anything I do on that be readable by my office PC?

4. I gather that it comes with it's own Web browser, is there anything I should be looking out for or any major differences that I should be aware of?

Thanks for any help/info you guys might have.

[HotHotHeat]

1. Torrents are your friend. I use Transmission. It uses very little resources and keeps the downloads nicely organized.
2. Two years on a mac, and not a cent spent on anti-virus. OS X is truly incredibly...PC fanboys will dig up an article on OSX virus', but the fact of the matter is that it doesn't happen to 95% of the people on macs.
3. Two options here. Either buy MS Office 2008 for Mac, Student copy runs you about $199...Or get iWorks '08 for $79. Does everything office does. It opens and saves documents in .doc format for compatibility with MS Office. Office 2008 for mac is awesome too, but there's a bunch of bugs in the software mainly because it's a brand new platform.
4. Safari 3.1 is due out soon, it's supposed to be very quick...That's Apple's IE. You can also get a selection of other developer browsers...I'd imagine FireFox is the most popular among them, but Safari is great for most people's needs. No major differences really.

Hope that helps.

I'm not sure what the Apple website has standard for RAM in their macbooks right now, but for heavens sake don't upgrade the RAM from Apple...It's the biggest rip off known to man.

Other world computing (google it) has excellent RAM and HD upgrades for a fraction of the cost. I recently upgraded to 2 gb of ram for $49...Works awesome.

[llama64]

Originally Posted by Locke

Hey guys, I figured I'm bump this baby as I too am considering switching to Mac and, as CP is a veritable reservoire of information I figured I'd ask my questions here.

I'm looking at a macbook, nothing too insane mind you, but I want it for fairly general purposes.

1. Music and movies: I gather my iPod will sync up just fine, but what methods would I have for downloading new stuff?

2. Anti-Virus software: Would I have to get something new, or does the macbook come with its own anti virus software? I currently use AVG, and my desktop runs Avast.

3. Office work: Does the macbook come with a "Microsoft Office" analog for word processors and spreadsheets or do I have to purchase additional software, and will anything I do on that be readable by my office PC?

4. I gather that it comes with it's own Web browser, is there anything I should be looking out for or any major differences that I should be aware of?

Thanks for any help/info you guys might have.

1. I use Azureus on both the PC and Mac. Otherwise, iTunes and the iTunes music store will handle all your music needs. To play new formats (messed up xVid or DivX) you'll probably want VLC player.

2. No need for anti-virus software, yet. Same goes for anti-malware/spyware software. OSX doesn't have IE or MSN Messenger which are the two major doors for crap getting onto a Windows box. This doesn't mean it's impossible for you to get a virus... just highly improbable.

3. You'll want to buy MS Office if you want to do anything useful. iWork/NeoOffice is great if you are just handling basic documents for your self. If you are going to be handling stuff from work or wanted to transfer these documents around to other people, you'll need Office.

4. Safari is decent, but it lacks plug-ins. You'll probably want to use Firefox over it. I gave Safari a week of use before I ditched it. If you go for Firefox and you use it on a Windows box, you won't notice any difference between the two.

If you use a messenger program, look up Adium. Single best messenger program in existence!