Macbook...

[jaycee]

Originally Posted by jaycee

Open Office has excellent support for MO formats, and many others. http://www.notebookreview.com/defaul...ice+3.1+review I regularly use Open Office and save documents with .doc instead of .odt, .xls instead of .ods etc. (and, yes, it supports the XML formats too), because they're the more common formats.

I just realised - doesn't iWork also have decent format import/export?

[GypsyBlueEyes]

Originally Posted by louielouie2000

Most all programs on PC are available for Mac (not all, mind you). I am running the Microsoft Office suite on mine (I'd rather not have ANYTHING Microsoft on my computer, but unfortunately their software is the world standard). Unfortunately, you'll probably have to buy/download all of your programs again for Mac compatibility. Unless there's some secret I'm unaware of.

Thankfully compatibility isn't an issue with hardware. Things like cameras, printers, and such don't even require any software installation or driver installation on Macs. You just plug them in and the computer instantly recognizes them an they work. Easy as pie.

Thanks for the info

[jaycee]

Apple's finally refreshed their notebooks now - http://www.notebookreview.com/defaul...k+pro+2010+new. I'd still recommend buying the older versions though, as the performance gains are probably something along the lines of some applications opening in 5sec instead of 4sec, and others opening in 0.5sec instead of 0.4sec, if you know what I mean. I'm still not convinced by the power saving claims, but if you want to be sure, wait for the above site to do a proper review of the new units, and compare them to the reviews of the old line.
Remember, however, that I'm still an advocate of FOSS, and I consider OS X only a little better than W7 - OS X is UNIX based, and releases some of its source code as Darwin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_...ting_system%29), but still uses closed components and charges high premiums... heck, most FOSS projects are free of charge, because if developers charge for them, some smart cookies will usually buy the software, take the source code, recreate it, and legally redistribute it free of charge. Case in point - Red Hat Enterprise Linux vs. CentOS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CentOS).
Don't forget that plenty of open-source apps run on OS X if you'd still prefer it to a Linux distro, for example OpenOffice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org) and, of course, Mozilla Firefox (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Firefox).
And, no, I'm not preaching, I'm simply showing everyone the little-known alternatives. It's up to you to take the initiative and make the switch, but I'm always more than happy to help make it easier.

[Sahara]

I've been completely converted to Mac since I started using them in college and can't wait to get one of my own. I'm currently using a HP notebook and it's a little trouper though ... apart from a fried battery, there's no sign of it dying for a good while yet. When it does, though, I'll definitely be switching.

[Sahara]

Originally Posted by louielouie2000

This thing has amazing battery life, still runs like the day it was new, it's easy to use, compact, intuitive, no worrying about installing drivers, no worrying about viruses.

That's particularly impressive. There's nothing better than a brand new machine that just flies along.

[Sahara]

Sorry to bump, but can I ask for opinions on iWork versus Office for Mac? Are there compatibility issues?

[jaycee]

Here's an informative, if only slightly brief, review of iWork - http://www.cnet.com.au/apple-iwork-09-339294634.htm.
As far as I'm concerned, the choice isn't between iWork and MSO for Mac, but between iWork and OpenOffice - http://www.openoffice.org/. Of course OpenOffice is free, so you should try that first, and if it's not to your liking (I'd be surprised if it wasn't, as the interface is based on MSO 2003), try iWork. But I wouldn't bother with MSO for Mac. Irrespective of having to learn a new interface that, although rather pretty, is inefficient, it has various limitations - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microso...ac#Limitations.
All three office suites support .doc and .docx, although the defaults are different for each suite.
If it means anything, a friend of mine and die-hard Mac fan uses OpenOffice, and enthusiastically promotes its use.