Switching to Mac...have I got this right?

[Lani]

I am getting seriously close to switching to Mac, more specifically an iMac, 24in....either the 2.93GHz or the 3.06GHz ( not sure if the latter is worth the extra dollars?), and am working out how to get around software issues.
Please let me know if this correct.... can I partition the hard drive to run windows with CS3 on it as I only have the windows education version, avoiding internet access to avoid viruses etc, and then install Lightroom (which is multi platform) on the other partition as I will be using that more.

Another question is as to whether iWork is worth it?

[Calxoddity]

Lani,
Take the 2.93GHz model and spend the difference on something useful like an external HDD or bigger internal disk or tweaked card or something - you won't notice the difference in processor speed in real life.

Have a look at OpenOffice for Mac - if you like this you won't need to spend the $$ buying iWorks. I downloaded the iWorks demo version but was perfectly happy with OpenOffice so didn't buy iWorks - but you may prefer it - personal preference.

I don't use CS3 or Lightroom, so can't really comment there - I understand your license can cross platforms, but it may not apply to EDU or Academic version. Ditto for advice on dual booting - I migrated completely to avoid the hassle of dual boot or worrying about two operating systems and everything worked the way it should.

What else are you running? Have you checked the migration path for your existing data?

Regards,
Calx

[Lani]

Thanks for your reply, Calx,


Take the 2.93GHz model and spend the difference on something useful like an external HDD or bigger internal disk or tweaked card or something - you won't notice the difference in processor speed in real life.

Good to know, quite a few dollars difference.

Have a look at OpenOffice for Mac - if you like this you won't need to spend the $$ buying iWorks. I downloaded the iWorks demo version but was perfectly happy with OpenOffice so didn't buy iWorks - but you may prefer it - personal preference.

I don't use office that much, just the odd publisher document really so I wasn't keen to buy a whole program just for that, so I'll check out open office, thanx

I don't use CS3 or Lightroom, so can't really comment there - I understand your license can cross platforms, but it may not apply to EDU or Academic version. Ditto for advice on dual booting - I migrated completely to avoid the hassle of dual boot or worrying about two operating systems and everything worked the way it should.

Ok, lightroom is no a problem but I will investigate further with adobe re CS3. I would prefer to do the same as you and migrate completely, it's just that software is so damn expensive.

What else are you running? Have you checked the migration path for your existing data?

I mostly use the PC for photography related stuff, so I have a few plug-ins for CS3 I will need to check, but other than that, nothing else I can't use Michael's PC for if I desperately need to.



My other question is how have you found getting your screen calibrated to match print output. I understand you can get a program to reduce the screen brightness, but does that diminish how good it looks as it is.... the glossy 24 in is one of the big draw cards for me. , but I am dreading having colour management issues. I use a Spyder3pro to calibrate my current screen.

[MarkW]

Lani
Your going to have problems if you try to use multiple systems from a single source (the images). You cant read from both systems at the same time. Yes you can partition and run windows from that partition and that would be done using bootcamp (comes with the operating system), but then you can only get files from that partition. I dont believe that anything stored on the Mac partition will be accessible.

The same will also go for using a virtual machine system like Fusion or Parallels, once inside the virtual machine its ver difficult to read any of the other softwre as it must be windows compatible and within the "sandbox".

In the end if you cant reasonably change to all Mac software I would be considering staying with a PC format system. In actual fact I think the benefits of going Mac just wont exist on a Mac using Windows in either a Bootcamp or virtual machine situation. One of Macs biggest pluses is the use of 16 bit systems with reverts to 8 bit when you use the windows interface.

[mcdesign]

Get as much RAM as you can Lani, I have 4 GB and love it, I believe that you can get even more, I myself wouldn't complicate things by partitioning the HD to run Windows, no point in getting a Mac to my mind, I run two external HD's one as backup and one for my data keeping the main HD free for maximum runnung speed, Time Machine, the backup program is wonderful, just set it up an forget it! I just wish that the iMac had more firewire ports it only has two, one 400 & one 800.

Check with Adobe to see if you can migrate Photoshop, they might do it for the education version. iWorks seems to be pretty good if you need to do documents or Powerpoint type presentations, to me it works better than the Microsoft Word and Powerpoint (they are very slow on a Mac) and intergrates with all the iLife software. I transfered all of a friends PC files across to her new iMac without much trouble, just sent them from the PC to a memory stick then put them in files created on the iMac, the only thing that doesn't transfer well is emails, best to print out the ones you need or re-send them to yourself. If I can help in any way just yell! Margaret

[DanNG]

Calibration of the glossy imac 24 is a big talking point on forums... the screen tends to display images with more contrast and saturation... (look fantastic on the monitor) but make it a bit more difficult to match to print.

Brightness will be the main issue, the plugin you mentioned that dims the monitor does effect the luminance curve negatively.. so I would try using your Spyder software to get a decent result to begin with.

If that fails.. I recommend ColorEyes by www.intergrated-color.com, its the best calibrating software solution for the imac,, it allows direct proper control of the screen brightness.. works quite well - I have calibrated a few 24inch imacs with this. You can download a demo from their site to try beforehand.. and it works with the Spyder.

Good luck with the switch, Apple have video tutorials on their site for functions inside mac os x, which are quite helpful. Say goodbye to de-fragging, un-install and reformatting.

[mcdesign]

Calibration of the glossy imac 24 is a big talking point on forums... the screen tends to display images with more contrast and saturation... (look fantastic on the monitor) but make it a bit more difficult to match to print.


If that fails.. I recommend ColorEyes by www.intergrated-color.com, its the best calibrating software solution for the imac,, it allows direct proper control of the screen brightness.. works quite well - I have calibrated a few 24inch imacs with this. You can download a demo from their site to try beforehand.. and it works with the Spyder.

Good luck with the switch, Apple have video tutorials on their site for functions inside mac os x, which are quite helpful. Say goodbye to de-fragging, un-install and reformatting.

In the end I bought a ViewSonic monitor as I found the screen too glossy. I tried the Coloureyes, the original demo worked perfectly but when buying the software (in conjunction with the Spyder2express) it did really bad things to my screen, flashes blue all the time, very alarming, could never get to the bottom of it. Any ideas Dan? Margaret

[Calxoddity]

Lani,
Here's a link re the calibration guide that I posted earlier:
http://www.ausphotography.net.au/for...ad.php?t=25322

Good Luck - ask for any other stuff as well.

[DanNG]

In the end I bought a ViewSonic monitor as I found the screen too glossy. I tried the Coloureyes, the original demo worked perfectly but when buying the software (in conjunction with the Spyder2express) it did really bad things to my screen, flashes blue all the time, very alarming, could never get to the bottom of it. Any ideas Dan? Margaret

Flashes blue? That sounds like a hardware issue more than software... I would try a reformat (eating my own words there ).. does it flash blue without any calibration software installed?

[Lani]

Thanks so much for your help guys and gals, I am going to do a bit more research before I finally decide, as the screen calibration and matching to print is my major concern. I have only just sorted it out with my current setup... many grey hairs and a heap of ink and paper later. You've convinced me that if I make the switch, it is better to do it with a complete platform change, makes sense really....as that is one of the major attractions.

[mcdesign]

Flashes blue? That sounds like a hardware issue more than software... I would try a reformat (eating my own words there ).. does it flash blue without any calibration software installed?

No Dan, it is fine without the ColorEyes software, the first version I had was great no problem, I had a lot of discussion with the producers of the software but never did get it resolved. No other problems with my computer at all, I have never had this problem with anything else. I have now deleted all of the software components, expensive result. Margaret

[MarkW]

Lani
As I've mentioned in other switching threads (PC to Mac) you can get the equivalent or more likely better built and resourced software for the Mac than the PC but you have to search for it, will take large amounts of time looking for and going through all the various demos to determine which is the best for your need. But it is out there - and it is highly likely to be more expensive than the PC equivalent.

The major exception to this is an Australian suitable financials package as good as quicken. If you can live without it good - if you cant then use a virtual machine like VMWare "Fusion" . The latter is the only reason I still have windows in a sandbox.

[Lani]

Lani
As I've mentioned in other switching threads (PC to Mac) you can get the equivalent or more likely better built and resourced software for the Mac than the PC but you have to search for it, will take large amounts of time looking for and going through all the various demos to determine which is the best for your need. But it is out there - and it is highly likely to be more expensive than the PC equivalent.

The major exception to this is an Australian suitable financials package as good as quicken. If you can live without it good - if you cant then use a virtual machine like VMWare "Fusion" . The latter is the only reason I still have windows in a sandbox.

Thanks Mark,
its really only Photoshop etc that I use, so it's just working around that atm. Michael, (hubby) is sticking with PC, so any other programs I may need that I wouldn't be using at the same time I can still run on his. I was just curious about the possibility of partitioning the drive but seems that is not a very practical solution.
It does seem that everything Mac is a tad more expensive.

[DanNG]

maybe a new mac mini with a 23inch matte apple cinema display is another option worth considering?

[MarkW]

Thanks Mark,
its really only Photoshop etc that I use, so it's just working around that atm. Michael, (hubby) is sticking with PC, so any other programs I may need that I wouldn't be using at the same time I can still run on his.

For Hubby's PC see if you can get a copy of MacDrive 7 from MediaFour. What this will do is allow portable hardrives which are Mac formatted (don't bother if you use FAT32 format only) to be read on the PC. The programme wont allow both system formats to be available at the same time but does allow you to down load any data from Mac to a folder on the PC. You need to remember to reboot the system back into PC mode once any transfer has taken place.

Personally I no longer use it as the Mac is now fully optimsed with all the software apps that I need - until some new must have comes along and the PC has been relugated to take home business work which generally only needs MS Office and an internet connection.

[Calxoddity]

maybe a new mac mini with a 23inch matte apple cinema display is another option worth considering?

Maybe - until you see how much an optioned-up Mini ends up costing before you add in the monitor, the keyboard, the mouse.... and you still don't have the grunt of the iMac and never will. It's do-able, but not necessarily desirable...

[BLWNHR]

Concentrating strictly on the processor (I don't know enough about Mac's to comment on anything else). What processor is the 3.06 C2D? I've looked and looked and can't find which one it is (there are three 3GHz intel chips).

All the 3GHz chips have a higher bus speed and a lot more cache so this processor would be noticably faster when running CPU heavy programs.

See if you can work out which chip it is from here: http://processorfinder.intel.com/Lis...558&SearchKey=

[Calxoddity]

The iMac CPU might not appear on the list. When the 2008 iMacs came out there was much conjecture as to what exactly the CPU was, as it didn't match any of the CPUs on Intel's list at the time. If I recall correctly, it was a slightly overclocked Intel mobile CPU, initially thought to have been an early release of the Santa Rosa (??) chip die, but was later believed to be an enhanced version of the current model for Apple's use.

Sorry for the lack of detail here - I think either Ars Technica or Macworld had something on it. Anyhow, once I bought the 2.8GHz iMac, it all became pretty academic - there wasn't much of a difference between the 2.8 and 3.06 - certainly not enough to justify the price premium.

Regards,
Calx

[davwhite]

Hi Lani, I have the 24' Imac and it is fantastic, no pc problems here. Where are my error 404 messages gone???
Get an external hard drive. I have a Lacie and Time machine just backs up every hour and deletes what it doesn't need any more, fantastic.
Put Boot Camp or similar on and you will be able to run windows side by side with your mac.
Do it and you will not look back