As others have pointed out, there is no risk in switching to a Mac,
as it can boot XP and Vista natively via Boot Camp, or you can
run Windows inside OS X as a virtual machine using Parallels,
VMware, VirtualBox, or other virtualization software. If it turns
out that you really don't like OS X (unlikely!), you can turn it into
a well-built Apple-branded Windows PC. I recall reading about
someone who did this on purpose, because they liked the
hardware better than the standard PC choices.
As for VPNs, I have not had any problems connecting to them,
neither the kinds directly supported by OS X nor the ones that
require connection client software like that Juno provides. And if
you need it, OS X also handles VNC connections very well, with
Macs OR PCs.
Macs will handle virtually all kinds of file types, though they may
need some third-party add-ons in the case of movie files. I
can't recall having problems with any other sort of file for
quite some time.
Some people (including Tom, who shouts FTFF every time the
issue is raised) have problems with the finder interface. It
has never bothered me very much, but I don't generally have
to do massive finder operations.
Personally, as someone who has experience in both worlds, I find
that on Macs, the OS just gets out of my way and lets me do my
work. On a Mac, dialog boxes seem almost always to be organized
in a way so that you can handle them with a minimum of distraction,
but in Windows seem to require more of your attention, disrupting
your flow (and there are more of them, too, it seems). In going
between OSes, your most immediate inconvenience will be the
difference between keyboard shortcuts. This bothered me for
a while until I finally spent some time consciously practicing the
key combinations on the different systems, so that I am now
much less likely to mix them up when I have to switch.
I was lucky enough that I got a multi-touch trackpad MacBook
when my old powerbook died (but not lucky enough to get
the multi-touch track+click-pad), and the multi-touch features
are extremely easy to learn and quite addictive. Now, any
other trackpad computer feels awkward and clumsy.
As for the learning curve, basic operation can be learned fairly
quickly and naturally, and the rest depends on the degree of
sophistication you need. A young cousin of mine is a junior
in the high school in the town her family just moved to, where
she was given a MacBook for the year with barely any training
on using it. She had only had experience with Windows before.
She came with her family for a holiday visit to my mother's house,
where we had a long session together with my Mac, and I'd say
she used OS X very naturally and capably. She even showed
me some stuff with GarageBand that I didn't know about. She
became a sincere convert to Macs very shortly after getting hers,
and won't even touch her Dad's slick new PC.
I am posting this with great reluctance. While I am truly wanting
legitimate
information, I know I am risking a lot of posturing in the PC vs.
Mac, MS
vs. the world camps, etc and would prefer to just get the straight
info
without all the politics, posturing, name-calling etc.
I have been a dedicated PC user since they came out. So has my wife.
Both of
our workplaces are fully and 100% PC and it is imperative that we
are able
to connect from home (VPNs etc) and more importantly to have our work
products at home be fully compatible with the products that are
coming out
of the hundreds of PCs that inhabit our professional careers and
workplaces.
And so our desktops and laptops at home are all PC and windows-based
(some
Vista, some XP pro).
Like many, I have always wanted a Mac. In fact when I was a young
'un in
academia I would have preferred my first computer to be a Mac but I
couldn't
afford it. I recognize that price differentials are not what they
used to be
so price per se is no longer an issue. Communicating with and being
compatible with 2 workplaces is however of utmost criticality.
So my questions relate to what is the real-world experience of Mac
users in
what is still a predominantly PC-world. I cannot afford an expensive
experiment of buying my first Mac and finding out that, while I may
love
what I can do with it at home, it causes me grief when trying to be
fully
and transparently compatible with work. Main applications that need
to be
seamlessly integrated are all of the MS office suite (esp. Outlook,
Word,
Excel and PowerPoint). Are the Mac versions of these REALLY
interchangeable
with the PC versions? Or do I need to run the a Mac in some sort of
PC-emulation mode? And if so, why bother, as in, do the benefits of
a Mac
disappear if you are not running it in some "native" mode.
In short, if I bit the bullet and went Mac, what will be the
advantages and
what will be the hurdles I will face in needing to stay fully
compatible and
connected to my PC-based world out there? And, while I am pretty
technically
savvy, I am not really in the mood for a long learning curve either
- how
truly "intuitive" and easy will it be to re-transfer what I do with
proficiency on my PCs and learn to do it on a Mac instead?
Many thanks for all constructive and impartial advice.
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