Just my 2 cents... I just bought a Macbook Pro 15" and got a free IPod touch with my purchase for a back to school offer that Apple has (actually I spent an extra $200 to get the 32GB Ipod touch and got a $300.00 rebate back, but well worth it). I opted to go for the MacBook Pro after my old Sony VAIO just couldn't handle the operations of GIS, Adobe photoshop, and other memory intensive operations. That notebook was 4.5 years old, so I'm pretty happy with the amount of use I got with it. It has taken some transitioning to get used to working with a Mac, and the computer itself comes installed with some applications and I think some online applications are available through the Apple website that can help to make the transition from a PC to a Mac easier. I have yet to partition the hard drive which was what I was planning on doing so I could install XP (perhaps the 64-bit version so I can have access to the extra RAM in the MacBook) so I can run particular programs that can not be run on a Mac, including ArcGIS, ERDAS, Pathfinder Office for Trimble GPS's, and EDRISI (obviously Mac's can not do this). The great thing about the Mac is that if you can get the OSx and XP running I think you are golden, because you can do some pretty cool stuff with editing photos, videos, and such that are easier to do on a Mac than on a PC (another reason I got it) and you can do GIS and other stuff (with the PC OS). The only thing to be aware of, is that if you partition your hard drive for XP you need to keep up with the anti-virus software and protect your computer.
I would also recommend visiting a Mac Store, reading as much as you can online, and of course reading the opinions of people on this and other listservers. I would say though, that the employees at the Mac store were very helpful with questions I had and tried to answer them the best they knew how. Also helpful, is if you have other friends who use Mac as they can help you transition too. I'm planning on doing all of my upgrades when I get back to school, since I am currently on an internship. I bought my Mac Book Pro in Virginia at a Mac Store for a pretty steep price, but looking back on it, I think it was a good investment, my VAIO was steep too, but it lasted 4.5 years and I'm hoping this Mac will do that or more. I was originally going to just get the MacBook, but the video card and other features in the MacBook Pro where for me. You just gotta make a decision on what you want and what you don't want, weight them out, and go for either one, it took me some time and a lot of comparisons to come down to my decision. Hope that helps out some. Also, I heard Windows has officially stopped selling Windows XP, but there are avenues of getting XP if you need it. http://www.pcworld.ca/news/article/9853b173c0a800060058871f78388129/pg0.htm That's just an article on a petition, but does offer some insight into XP not being sold anymore. Also, I've heard that windows is working on a new OS, probably due to come out sometime in a couple of years or sooner, called Midori: http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2008/08/04/new-peeks-at-a-post-windows-future/ But I have no clue where that is going. Anyways, I've hoped I helped out in some sort. In summary, get a Mac, partition the hard drive, and put XP (if you can get it) to run your Windows Programs. My opinion is that you should try to make yourself flexible with learning how to work with both OS's (Macs and PCs), they both have issues, I'm sure, but they are well worth it. Just stay away from Vista! Arvind Arvind A.R. Bhuta, M.S. Doctoral Student Geospatial and Environmental Analysis Program College of Natural Resources Virginia Tech > Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:40:57 -0700 > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] moving from a PC to a Mac??? > To: [email protected] > > Don't forget that with a Mac you can also partition it to run either Windows > or OS X and it usually runs Vista/Windows better than the PC's do. I just > switched to a MacBook Pro after 20+years of PCs and thus far I'm very happy > with the switch. I don't have the partition and I can still access most of my > PC files without any conversions. However, there's a lot of software (GIS > particularly) that's designed for PC's. You'd have to run a partition to gain > access to it. Fortunately I still have a PC with XP on it to run GIS and a > few other apps that aren't ported to the Mac. > > It would take some transitioning to get used to the different file structures > and the Mac quirks, but a lot of the stuff is really easy to use, much more > so than Windows/Office. > > Just my 2 cents, > > Tim > > > Dr. Tim Baker > Forestry and Natural Resources > College of the Redwoods > 7351 Tompkins Hill Rd > Eureka, CA 95501 > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news on behalf of Wirt > Atmar > Sent: Mon 8/11/2008 7:55 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] moving from a PC to a Mac??? > > Bill writes: > > > Scott is right, Vista is a good reason to move to a Mac. However I might > > point out that PC makers are beginning to offer XP again. The high end Sony > > Vaios actually come with both, including an optional "downgrade" from Vista > > to XP, and I suspect that by the end of the year most suppliers will be > > offering XP. > > > > So all is not lost. A PC with XP is a useful machine, a PC with Vista is > > nothing but a headache. > > Yesterday I would have written the same thing. We only have one Vista machine > here, a Dell Vostro 200 I bought with Vista simply to see how well it works. I > bought the machine with 512 MB, more memory than we have in any of our other > machines, but it worked like a dog. The machine was so bad that no one would > use > it. > > After thinking about it a little while, I decided that there was an excellent > chance the machine was merely memory limited, so I ordered a 1GB memory module > from Dell. It arrived yesterday and I installed it this morning. > > All of a sudden, things that either didn't work before or worked very poorly > simply sail along at good speed now. The little Vista machine may now be our > best PC (and we have a lot of Macs, Windows 98x's, Me's and XP's as well). > > Dell recommends that you put 2GB in your PC when running Vista. I no longer > think that they're merely trying to sell you additional memory. My machine now > has 1.5GB in it, and I'm really quite pleased with it after a day's worth of > use. I too would now recommend 2GB of memory, especially given how little it > costs nowadays. > > Wirt Atmar _________________________________________________________________ Your PC, mobile phone, and online services work together like never before. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/108587394/direct/01/
