Converting from PC to MacBook... Questions

[DivideBYZero]

OK, please don't flame me if I ask what you consider to be a stupid question, but here's some background:

I'm in Enterprise System Management, work in the consultancy arm of a large software corporation. Prior to this I worked for a small Danish outfit where we used Mac a lot, but this was in the 'uncool' period, just before the original iMac was launched, so system 7/8... So anyway I'm just saying I am technically savvy, and have at least some history with Apple products, even if it's old as eff.

Anyhow, FFW to today and the Mrs now works at Apple Inc. (Europe) and has a healthy family discount on hardware. I've been in the market for a new lappy, around 13-15", light, great battery life, etc. Quick list of wants:

- 13-15" screen
- Video editing capability (i.e., powerful enough to cope with editing 1080P footage)
- Light gaming - We play AoE3 mostly on our laptops against each other, I understand this is available?
- Great battery life
- As light as possible

I know you can run windows on them, too, so I guess I'm not going to miss anything. One thing I will miss is the automated backup system I have with my Windows Home Server.

So, I guess my question is are there any posters that have made the switch? What were the pain points? And which MacBook do you suggest?

 

[jonesthewine]

switched a year ago...to a 13 inch MacBook Pro and love it. You can get the Air if weight is your primary concern, but you sacrifice the disc drive. if you need a disc drive get the smallest MBP...battery life is superb and the aluminum case looks & feels well crafted. You will acclimate quickly to OSX and for automated backup you can configure Time Machine as you like. The only pain points for me is file location, not quite as intuitive as a PC but easy enough to learn.

I still use PC's around the house, but the MBP is my primary machine and goes everywhere i go.

 

[Spicedaddy]

MacBook Pro 13" will be lighter by about 1lb, but I think it's still on Core 2 Duo while the 15" has Core i5 or i7.

To backup in OSX, just point Time Machine to a share on your WHS...

 

[DivideBYZero]

MacBook Pro 13" will be lighter by about 1lb, but I think it's still on Core 2 Duo while the 15" has Core i5 or i7.

To backup in OSX, just point Time Machine to a share on your WHS...

Ahh, now THAT is pretty sweet.

I do want i5 as a minimum, really.

 

[TheStu]

If you want Core i5, then you are looking at the MBP 15. 8+ hrs battery life, option for a 1680*1050 display, the finest trackpad you have ever used, and fairly light/thin for the specs.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Yeah, the Wife just got her MBP 15" when she started her new job, and I'm thinking about using her EPP discount to get something before Jan 1st when it resets.

Do you think there'll be a refresh of the 13" MBP before Dec?

 

[nerp]

MacBook Pro 13" will be lighter by about 1lb, but I think it's still on Core 2 Duo while the 15" has Core i5 or i7.

To backup in OSX, just point Time Machine to a share on your WHS...

How? Time machine seems to want to format my entire drive. That would destroy my 6tb drive extender volume. Time Machine won't let me point to a folder and just backup there. It wants full control of a HD and to format it the way it wants. Am I missing something here?

 

[TheStu]

How? Time machine seems to want to format my entire drive. That would destroy my 6tb drive extender volume. Time Machine won't let me point to a folder and just backup there. It wants full control of a HD and to format it the way it wants. Am I missing something here?

The partition does need to be HFS+, OS X cannot write to NTFS by default.

 

[nerp]

The partition does need to be HFS+, OS X cannot write to NTFS by default.

Then the WHS box needs a dedicated hard drive formatted to HFS+, which won't be recognizable in windows and the backups will not be accessible within the WHS console. So this isn't really a good solution.

 

[nerp]

I however have been tinkering with Parallels Desktop and think I might be able to configure the WHS console in the Windows 7 virtual machine to have just my important Mac data backed up. I won't have the full functionality of Time Machine but I can still have documents created on the Mac backed up on my redundant WHS pool.

 

[AtlantaBob]

The only pain points for me is file location, not quite as intuitive as a PC but easy enough to learn.

I agree with the others who say that Mac's are easy to get used to, but I have to say that with all of the craziness Windows has done to it's file system lately, I think Apple's approach to file system layout is much easier to grasp. Just my experience.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

I agree with the others who say that Mac's are easy to get used to, but I have to say that with all of the craziness Windows has done to it's file system lately, I think Apple's approach to file system layout is much easier to grasp. Just my experience.

You're talking about libraries aren't you? I think the biggest difference is the way applications are installed. I think that's one of the hardest transitional things.

 

[TheStu]

You're talking about libraries aren't you? I think the biggest difference is the way applications are installed. I think that's one of the hardest transitional things.

Well there is the installer method, which is just like Windows, and then the drag and drop method. And about 50% of the drag and drop ones have a link to the Applications folder in the DMG, so it isn't that bad.

 

[nerp]

In doing some research about getting Time Machine to work with WHS, I came across this:

http://www.xiotios.com/itimemachine.html

Anyone use it?

 

[TheStu]

You're talking about libraries aren't you? I think the biggest difference is the way applications are installed. I think that's one of the hardest transitional things.

That and the fact that there are 2 download folders. A dedicated one, and one in Documents that various programs will create or download to if you are no careful.

OS X had a similar problem with 10.4, there was no dedicated download folder, so usually things were downloaded to either the desktop or the Documents folder. With 10.5 they brought in a dedicated one, and very quickly, everyone got the memo. I am just not sure why WinDevs haven't gotten the memo yet.

 

[Narse]

In doing some research about getting Time Machine to work with WHS, I came across this:

http://www.xiotios.com/itimemachine.html

Anyone use it?

I use my WHS for TimeMachine, it works great, I had to do a command it terminal and it allowed TimeMachine to see network drives but that alone will not work. You also have to create a sparsebundle disk image and have it copied to the share you want time machine to use and copy it with certain rights. It took me a few hours to get it working. My method was a set here and there out of various other documents out on the web.

 

[AtlantaBob]

You're talking about libraries aren't you? I think the biggest difference is the way applications are installed. I think that's one of the hardest transitional things.

Yeup, I'm not a fan of the Windows 7 libraries. And I have to agree with you on the way applications are installed -- especially since there are a mix of "traditional" (i.e. Windows-based) installers, the Mac-way of dragging applications (which are all one file....) to the Application folder, and command-line installs are possible. That's a little different from the Microsoft way...

 

[nerp]

I use my WHS for TimeMachine, it works great, I had to do a command it terminal and it allowed TimeMachine to see network drives but that alone will not work. You also have to create a sparsebundle disk image and have it copied to the share you want time machine to use and copy it with certain rights. It took me a few hours to get it working. My method was a set here and there out of various other documents out on the web.

Damn. That sounds complicated. But I'll see if I can pull it out. A good step-by-step thread would make for a great resource since there are plenty of people like me with Windows setups at home with a macbook or imac thrown into the mix.

 

[nickbits]

the keyboard shortcuts being different is the biggest issue i have. i've remapped most of them to work like a pc but some don't seem to work.

 

[TheStu]

the keyboard shortcuts being different is the biggest issue i have. i've remapped most of them to work like a pc but some don't seem to work.

What kind of shortcuts aren't working?

 

[vbuggy]

I use and love WHS - and my HP's are even TM-capable out of the box. However I would really, really suggest using a local external drive for TM. It's just so much less painful than debugging TM (and ultimately starting from scratch again) when it's gone wrong with a networked drive, as it does so often. And above all don't bother with a Time Crapsule.

 

[nerp]

Yeah, good point, vbuggy. I might just get an external HD and format it and use it exclusively with Time Machine.