Mac Questions
2008
July
12
Thanks for all your advice on the announcement post. Here are some questions I have run into in this process:
- For school and work I definitely have to get the Office Suite. How would you recommend doing this? iWork? MS Office for Mac? NeoOffice? OpenOffice.org?
- How necessary is a dual boot option through Parallels, Boot Camp, or VMware? I don’t want to spend money on getting XP or Vista if it isn’t all that necessary.
- Is AppleCare Protection worth the $250?
- Where can you get the best value for a carrying case? Or is a hard case a good way to go?
- A lot of you are saying 4 GBs of RAM is the way to go…how many of you disagree? I really want to cut every corner I can to save money.
- Is there a choice on type of screen? I’ve heard about a glossy screen and a matt screen.
Thanks for your help everyone!
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Tyler Braun.
1. I would get MS Office for Mac. That way you can be sure to be compatible with PC users. Plus there is virtually no learning curve.
2. I have never used any Virtual PC software. I don’t really see a need for it…
3. GET APPLECARE. Period.
4. The STM cases are great for macbooks. But this is more personal preference.
5. Go 2GB if you need to save money. But 4GB is nice.
6. I think they only offer the glossy screen now. I may be wrong. I like glossy.
1.Try Academic Super Store –you’ll get a student discount.
2.Don’t wast your money
3.Absolutely…my mother board died within the first year–they took care of it no probelm!
4.I have a softcase from Best Buy–a padded envelope–works well
5.Get as much as you can afford. I have 2 GB and I’m ok–could be faster, but it’s ok.
6. I don’t know
I am sure there will be some great suggestions, but here are mine
1. Like Vin said, you already know MS office and it is universal. iWork could manage, but you may run into some compatibility issues with others on MS Office. Going web based is cool, but a little more limited if access is not available when you need it.
2. Don’t deal with any dual boot systems. You don’t need it. Your going Mac anyway, just stay there.
3. Apple care is worth it, but it is like any care program. You may use it, you may not. i have no Apple care on our 3 computers. all are 2 years or older and I have had no issues or reasons to have used Apple care.
4. STM is great, there are lots of good resources. I bought mine at a local Apple store. i love it. The other I really like if you want it more for school are the Timbuk2 bags. they are more expensive, but more of a system for office/school use. i love this one http://www.timbuk2.com/tb2/products/laptop/blogger
5. If you are going to go video and audio…heavily, get 4. But Ram is easy to add and a lot cheaper aftermarket than buying originally grom Mac. i would go 2g and see how it goes.I have 2g on my Macbook and I run ProTools, After Effects and Final Cut Pro. A touch slow with After Effects, but still solid.
6. The general idea with Glossy is that it makes everything look better. If you were a heavy graphics or video editor, you would edit on the Matte and then preview on the Glossy. The matter is more critical, but the glossy will look far better. With the gloss comes some glare and more fingerprints, but it is a worthy trad off.
I’ll come out of the woodwork on this one and comment. I found your blog a while back but don’t remember where. I went to Fox and know Rose, and am good friends with her friends Luke and April.
Anyway, my advice…
1. MacOffice is great, but not absolutely necessary. I actually like iWork much better for design and layout and Keynote for presentations, but it’s not transferable, although there is an “Export as Word doc” option, but it loses some of the iWork features in the export. I’ve actually gone to running both iWork and Office, but it’s overkill.
There are a ton of great freeware options out there, like OpenOffice, my brother runs OpenOffice on both of his Macs and swears by it, but it does take a bit to get the hang of it. I use Gimp, which is a freeware Photoshop and it works great.
2. Don’t dual boot. I have a friend that got bootcamp thinking she would need it, but never uses it.
3. I would get Applecare. I didn’t get it and have a had a few problems that would have been covered in Applecare that aren’t covered for me now, so, even if you don’t use it I think it’s worth it.
4. I would agree with Brent on the Timbuk2 bags. They’re great, but can be spendy. They easily make the best commuter bags out there, and it sounds like you’ll be doing more of that, so I think that would be the way to go. Check them out online and they carry them at REI.
5. Don’t have an opinion on the 4G Ram… but bigger is always better right? I mean, we are in America.
6. There is a choice, but stay with glossy. That is unless you are planning on getting into graphic design and need to be very precise on the colors you use, other than that everything looks better with the glossy.
Cheers.
Thanks for the help guys! Great thoughts.
Tyler, I’ve been using Mac since it started. Here are my thoughts.
1. Always buy your software (and hardware) through educational institutions if you can. You save as much as 75%.
2. Never used the dual boot option.
3. I’ve had probably eight Macs and usually owned them for an average of four years. If a Mac breaks it is usually because you did it or the problem will show up in the first year and its covered under warranty. I’ve never bought AppleCare.
4. Get a soft case that fits in something else.
5. RAM is cheap. Buy as much as you can afford.
6. I personally don’t like the glossy screen.
Do I even bother answering. You have lots good advice already but I still will:
1. I’m a fan of lightweight (Google Docs). I’m a fan of cheap: Open Office. Neither have a learning curve. GD is online so it’s lightweight and you can save space for necessary items. If I didn’t need certain things for work, I would have gone with Open Office. Free and wonderful. It’ll read virtually any and all formats. But Office should be cheap. I have a couple connections for discounts if you need them. I only paid $30 for my copy.
2. No way.
3. Absolutely buy AppleCare.
4. I bought a nifty Neo Case. I wanted a neoprene sleeve that I could throw in my courier bag and it has handles if I want to rock solo. Plus I can fully open the computer still in the case so it’s a nice protectant for it.
5. Yes. Buy Ram at Newegg or something and install it yourself. Two screws on the bottom of your ‘puter. Ram is good. Go 4GB
6. Matte. I hate glossy.
Hey Tyler.
1. MS Office. It’s standard, it’s what everybody uses…might as well be compatible, right?
2. Trust me, once you go Mac, you won’t go back. Don’t waste your money on a dual boot system.
3. Applecare, to me, is like any other kind of insurance. You may never use it, and if not, yay, your technology didn’t freak out. But if you DO need it, you’ll be glad you have it.
4. No idea, I have an iMac. I’d need a suitcase to cart that thing around.
5. I’d look into the options of adding RAM after the fact. It would be way way WAY cheaper to get 2GB and add 2 more later. But see if it’s an option. On my iMac, I can’t add ram beyond what I purchased. Having said that, I think I have 4GB and it’s great.
6. I don’t think you have a choice anymore between matte and glossy. As someone who uses her screen to do photo correcting and graphic-intensive work, I prefer the matte. You don’t get accurate color with glossy. BUT…that’s my profession. Therefore, glossy is a fine choice if you’re not matching skin tones and Pantones and whatnot.
Huzzah. Welcome to the iFold, my little lamb.
You might try this instead of Office:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/unix_open_source/neooffice.html
Its open source..
I’m not a proponent of maximmum amounts of RAM. You’ll do fine with 2gb or whatever comes at no extra charge.
1. I think it is a little much to ask for an office suite. Given the church financial situation i think you should just be happy sharing an office with Jay.
2. Definitely Boot Camp. You could use a little muscle and although I’m sure it will be difficult, you will feel better in the long run.
3. no
4. Until you build up your strength I would go with the soft case as to not strain yourself
5. I’m glad you asked this question……
6. Glossy- then you can look at yourself and work at the same time.
Glad I could help.
I think Jill’s answers are the best!! LOL.