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Convince A Windows User

L

lukeowen

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 1, 2006
30
0
Hey All
I have been a Windows user for most of my life, except for a short stint on Macs when I was very little. Now that I'm about to start my TEE(Tertiary Entrance Examination) my parents have agreed to put a bit of money towards buying a laptop, and I have my heart set on the Macbook Pro, but my parents, being Windows users, arn't so keen for me to get "this weird" thing (their words, not mine). I need your guys help to convince them (and me to some extent) that buying a Mac will be a good thing. Anything will do, from personal switching experiences, to why they are better. Anything that will convince them. Anything will be a great help.
Thanks,
Luke

P.S They are also worried about compatability with my school network, networking in general and compatability with Office so some stuff on that would be helpful.
 
Anything will do, from personal switching experiences, to why they are better. Anything that will convince them. Anything will be a great help.
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You can install Windows XP and it will run at full native speeds (its not emulated), giving you the ability to experiment with Mac OS X, and them the piece of mind that its definately compatible with everything you need it to be compatible with.

You can install both Mac OS X and Windows XP on the same machine at the same time so its not an either/or decision, you get both.
 
Take them to the Apple store and let them see it for them selves. Or just get the cash off them then just go and buy a mac.
 
Macer said:
Take them to the Apple store and let them see it for them selves. Or just get the cash off them then just go and buy a mac.
Click to expand...

Love it Macer. Im afraid thats not an option because I'd be grounded for life lol. And in regards to the Apple Store, I'm in a very remote part of Aus and I don't there is an Apple Store in Aus but I could be wrong
 
lukeowen said:
P.S They are also worried about compatability with my school network, networking in general and compatability with Office so some stuff on that would be helpful.
Click to expand...

Sounds like your parents still think we're in the MacOS 8 days :D

Pretty much every computer on the planet now uses TCP/IP including Macs. This means that they all talk. Macs come with a number of built-in components that means they can attach to networks and share away, including being able to share to and from Windows computers. Active Directory support is also built in. Despite what they may have been told in the past, Macs can use the Internet, and OSX is actually based on the same operating system the World Wide Web was first written on.

Microsoft Office document formats are the same for both the Mac and Windows versions. Outlook doesn't exist for the Mac, but Microsoft have included Entourage into their Mac version of Office, which is sort of a cross between full Outlook and Outlook Express. Entourage talks quite happily with mail servers running Microsoft Exchange software. If you're not using Exchange and just want regular e-mail, every Mac comes with a POP3/IMAP compatible mail client. You can send and recieve e-mails and no-one would ever know you were on a Mac.

Macs also have built-in Adobe PDF creation from any program, so even if you do find you're using a program that has no direct Windows equivalent, just create a PDF of the document and the recipient can read it in Acrobat Reader.

With regards to peripherals, since the world went USB it's not really an issue for anyone, Mac users included.

Take them down your local Mac supplier and ask the guys behind the counter. Most decent Windows software is available on Mac as well, and for those that aren't (e.g. Microsoft Visio) there is usually a compatible alternative (for that example, Omnigraffle Pro).
 
dynamicv said:
Sounds like your parents still think we're in the MacOS 8 days :D
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Dynamicv
My parents didn't even know Mac OS X existed till I told them about it lol and it hard for me because I haven't used them heavily so I can't do the best job at convincing them. In regards to my local Mac Supplier, my closest one is 1200kms away, so it would have to be an online purchese for me.
 
I'm not trying to be rude here but if you can't convince your parents what do you think we can do? Lets be honest there is nothing wrong with most Windows based notebooks, and most are a lot cheaper than the MacBook Pro you want. I guess you could try and get them to buy you a MacBook which is definitely one of the cheapest Core Duo (Centrino Duo) notebooks you can get. If that doesn't work and your parents are fully against it either save up your own cash or learn to live with it.
 
risc said:
I'm not trying to be rude here but if you can't convince your parents what do you think we can do?
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Don't worry bout sounding rude. It's cool. It's not that their against Macs it just they really have no idea what it is, what makes it unique or better or worse then windows. I suppose there more ignorent than anything.
 
lukeowen said:
Dynamicv
My parents didn't even know Mac OS X existed till I told them about it lol and it hard for me because I haven't used them heavily so I can't do the best job at convincing them. In regards to my local Mac Supplier, my closest one is 1200kms away, so it would have to be an online purchese for me.
Click to expand...

I have used both PC and Mac here in Wollongong for my Chemistry degree and have found everything much easier with the Mac than the PC. Poor network protection in university colleges (face it, Unis suck at the internet) meant that every time I plugged my PC into the college network I was bombarded with viruseses, spyware, malware, adware, warehouses, old wares, every type of wares.

With my Mac I have been able to interface with the Uni network, do all my assignments (Chem's a pretty demanding degree technology wise and my Mac has been in use for the last year during the most demanding parts of the course) and participate in all online activities with zero configuration, zero hassle and zero worries about whether anything will stuff up on me.

With Pages and Keynote I have blitzed presentations, Keynote destroys PowerPoint for making presentations - although I do have Microsoft PowerPoint as part of the office:mac 2004 suite I prefer to use Keynote if I'm making a presentation.

Microsoft Office:mac 2004 is a great bit of kit, well ahead of it's Windows counterpart in features and ease of use, I can use Microsoft Word to record a lecture whilst typing my notes in a coherent style on a page that looks like a notebook and allows me to tag the lecture recording on-the-go so that when I'm at home studying I can click on a point and hear the lecturer describing what I'm reading. It also allows you to export the audio file and I can put them on my iPod when I'm travelling and need to do some revision.

Where abouts are you down here mate? There are quite a few Mac dealers around but since you mention you're what 1200k's away from one? Might be difficult to get to see one.

Basically, a Mac is a far more wise decision assuming that you won't be needing and really specialised PC software (CompSci, Engineering, Architecture etc often use some heavily specialised software which unfortunately is not available on the Mac) it will cost you a bit more up front but much, much less in the long run due to a lack of maintenance required - a PC connected at Uni is going to get buggered up, it's the truth, but a Mac generally won't, they just keep chugging away whilst the sky falls on everybody else. It will also cause you much less stress knowing that at least one thing you own will still be in good working order once you finish Uni. Unlike say, your liver.

Need any more questions? Fire away. I just handed in my last ever (fingers crossed, touch wood) Uni assignment and I feel good so I'm here to help.
 
You can install and run Windows XP.

That should be enough reason right there. Your parents will know you're within a familiar environment, while you can also enjoy yourself in OS X. :)
 
Remember also that a MacBook or MacBook Pro are the only laptops that will run BOTH OSX and Windows. Two for the price of one ;)
 
Chundles said:
Where abouts are you down here mate? There are quite a few Mac dealers around but since you mention you're what 1200k's away from one? Might be difficult to get to see one.
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I'm in Exmouth, Western Australia. We're a small 3,000 pop town, very remote, nice beaches though lol. Congrats on ya last assignment. It is the best feeling when ya hand in that last thing and then ya know ya got nothing else that need s to be down lol.

How much RAM would you reccomend for the MacBook Pro. Would 2gb be a bit of an overkill. Will they MBP last me a few years without being completely outdated, cause the $$ is a bit scarey for me anyway lol and if it would last me a while, would help convince my parents to "invest" lol .
 
lukeowen said:
I'm in Exmouth, Western Australia. We're a small 3,000 pop town, very remote, nice beaches though lol. Congrats on ya last assignment. It is the best feeling when ya hand in that last thing and then ya know ya got nothing else that need s to be down lol.

How much RAM would you reccomend for the MacBook Pro. Would 2gb be a bit of an overkill. Will they MBP last me a few years without being completely outdated, cause the $$ is a bit scarey for me anyway lol and if it would last me a while, would help convince my parents to "invest" lol .
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Yeah, I know where Exmouth is - you're right, if you're looking for Macs up that way you're pretty well farked.

A MacBook Pro, suitably equipped (1GB Ram would be a good starting point, if you can spring for the single SO-DIMM it gives you upgrade options in the future or you can go 2x512MB and move up to 1.5GB then 2GB in stages over time) will last you for a fair while, 3, 4 years probably more. My 1.2GHz iBook is coming up to it's second birthday and it's just as fast as when I bought it (more so as I added RAM - will be bumping it up to the full 1.25GB when 10.5 comes out). Barring massive hardware failure I could stretch this thing out for another year or so - the Intel machines whallop this one for grunt and should last a lot longer.

It's a bit early for a Uni entrance exam isn't it? Aren't they normally in November at the end of the school year? Wacky westralians.....
 
I could share my changeover story, but it would likely sound the same as everyone else's, so I'll spare you. Let's just say that I've got both a PC and a Mac, and after using the Mac, I don't think I could ever justify spending money on a PC again, when I could spend it on a Mac instead. The quality is just much higher, and it's a much better investment for the money.
Good luck!

-Colin
 
Tee

Chundles said:
It's a bit early for a Uni entrance exam isn't it? Aren't they normally in November at the end of the school year? Wacky westralians.....
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I exaggerated a bit lol. There about october over here I think. But cause I'm so isolated over here, our school computers arn't the best and I think about 25-50% percent of our mark for the year comes from our assignments and exams during the year and the rest is made up from the final exam. This isn't my final Year 12 TEE Exam I'm only in Yr 11 but the results from our TEE subjects in Yr 11 decides what we are able to do in Yr 12. I dont get it either. I'm originally from VIC and was brought up on the VCE, not TEE so its still kinda foriegn to me lol. Anyway I got a bit of topic lol.

Do you know what MSN Messenger for OS X is like. I use it pretty heavily. Will it work with iSight.

This might be my last post for tonight cause i got school tomoz and need some sleep lol
 
lukeowen said:
I exaggerated a bit lol. There about october over here I think. But cause I'm so isolated over here, our school computers arn't the best and I think about 25-50% percent of our mark for the year comes from our assignments and exams during the year and the rest is made up from the final exam. This isn't my final Year 12 TEE Exam I'm only in Yr 11 but the results from our TEE subjects in Yr 11 decides what we are able to do in Yr 12. I dont get it either. I'm originally from VIC and was brought up on the VCE, not TEE so its still kinda foriegn to me lol. Anyway I got a bit of topic lol.

Do you know what MSN Messenger for OS X is like. I use it pretty heavily. Will it work with iSight.

This might be my last post for tonight cause i got school tomoz and need some sleep lol
Click to expand...

Hmm, well, for one it's called Microsoft Messenger on the Mac platform and basically it works if all you want to do is text chat. Video/audio doesn't work on Messenger:mac because Microsoft won't build it in. There are a few alternatives, a lot of us use Adium because it combines Messenger, ICQ, AIM etc into one client and has a much nicer interface. You'll have to do a search for IM clients on here for more info. I don't really need much more than text chatting so I use Messenger because all my friends use it.

iChat is good but for a proper video chat you need a fast broadband connection (I swear I'll scream if you can get broadband up there on the edge of the earth and I can't in a city of nearly 300,000 an hour south of Sydney ;) ) and the other person needs to be using iChat as well or some version of AIM/Jabber. Not. Bloody. Likely. Especially not down here.

Sorry, but the sad state of Messenger on the Mac is a real bugbear of mine. MS have promised new versions but the last release was a corporate-based update and brought very little new to the program. I hope soon to see a fully Universal version of Messenger with some proper feature parity with MSN Messenger on Windows or even Live Messenger (MSN Messenger 8).

OK, so other than no audio/video on Messenger (I use Skype for audio) everything else is very, very good.
 
Where I live, I'm seriously only one village away from the chief southern commander of the IRA, I'm sure if you want a knee capping can be arranged for a nominal sum, that should provide enough reason to get you a macbook :D
 
lukeowen said:
Dynamicv
My parents didn't even know Mac OS X existed till I told them about it lol and it hard for me because I haven't used them heavily so I can't do the best job at convincing them. In regards to my local Mac Supplier, my closest one is 1200kms away, so it would have to be an online purchese for me.
Click to expand...

Does that include university computer store mac suppliers?
 
not to Hijack but lets say I have windows and OS X....and I want to run windows will I still get the full power out of my computer? and vise versa?
 
BigMacUser said:
not to Hijack but lets say I have windows and OS X....and I want to run windows will I still get the full power out of my computer? and vise versa?
Click to expand...

Yes. The two OSs don't run at the same time if you're using Bootcamp, you choose one or the other when you boot up. Both OSs run at full speed.
 
AWESOME!....That just made me fall in love with my MBP even more then I already was...even tho I havent got it yet! :)
 
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