Most Users Simply Can’t Switch to a Mac

I call bullshit.

I’ve been mac since the dark days = when Jobs left.

I haven’t had an issue of windows people opening my word docs, or vice versa. I might not have enjoyed using it, but not any problems.

I no longer use Office, and am now using Apple’s office apps - pages, numbers, etc… and I’ve still not had an problems getting them to windows folks. Even when I use something like MacJournal to export to DOC - still no problems.

I don’t have this issue, I technically COULD swith to a mac without any issues… it is just the stupid outrageous price that catches me!! I would adore having a mac if I could afford it!

What about openoffice

Macs are very competitive in price with name-brand PCs such as Dell. In fact, the Mac Pro is the cheapest high-end Workstation you can buy - even if you built your own PC with generic parts.

If you cannot afford a Mac, you just don’t have a good enough job. The prices are hardly outrageous. I bought one as a starving college student in 1984 - saving $3500 over 3 years - chosing the Mac 128 over the IBM PC. 20 Macintoshes later, it is still the best computing system, period.

Anyone using a Mac should know that if you want to send documents to your PC-using colleagues, use the .doc format or .txt format - or better yet, the .pdf format. Yes, Microsoft is poor in compatibility in its .doc formats - even from version to version. But at least it will open. Then the user can change the formatting all they want.

The lack of clear interoperability with documents - particularly with formatting - is a very strong argument for standardizing on the OpenDocument format - which is already a world standard. Until Microsoft builds this format into its own applications, then it would be useful for everyone to use OpenOffice for true interoperability with documents - PC users, Mac users, Linux users, etc.

The problem was not Windows after reading the blog entry but rather the **** they loaded up on it.

This all comes back to PC companies RUINING their machines by loading all the extra garbage on them!

A girl I went to school with asked me to help her pick out a good machine for college under 1000. I picked out an HP. That was my mistake.

Within an hour of her getting the computer home she had a long list of things that would not work and blue screens at random times. I went back over to her house and checked out the PC. It wasn’t Windows… it was the garbage, 3rd party wireless managers and application managers, and trialware galore! They had 3 ANTIVIRUS TRIALS RUNNING!

I did a clean install of Windows Vista, put free anti-virus on there, and made sure the windows firewall and windows defender were both running. I installed her drivers and gave her the laptop back. She now loves it and has had zero issues with it since I “fixed it”

So my question to PC companies is why do they have to ruin a perfectly good machine. In HP’s defense the machine had plenty of power for what it was to be used for, and it looked very slick. Now if only they could load up JUST windows and the appropriate drivers when they sell their PC’s. I think they would have a lot more happy customers.

Also in HP’s defense I bought a similarly spec’d Gateway notebook and it also came with junk.

*sigh* if only these companies would not install so much trial-ware and bloat-ware on their machines…. Maybe they are part of the reason windows gets a bad-rap.

TheDub

I also agree that his response is kinda crappy. A document made in Windows can be opened in OS X and Linux. And vice versa in almost any scenario. Knowledge is power…

“I would adore having a mac if I could afford it!”

Brady, that was true once but isn’t now for what you’d get even over the first few months. Hardware, you can get cheaper on windows, but you’ll get less (check the specs), & software you’ll really start to save - compare ms office to iwork, the iLife updates, an that’s before considering ms & mac system updates.

I use both systems (have to for work reasons) but at home I save time, trouble and definitely money with my intel mac mini. Google switcher articles.

I would have to agree with part of what was said here - it is usually the Windows application failing to follow the specs that causes the problem, but really, this is just one more reason not to use the latest version of Office on a PC. Lets face it, every other application out there uses a common file format, so I have no day-to-day problems transferring files over to a Mac when I need to.

@Brady: these days, Macs are no more expensive than Dell, HP etc machines, if you can find one of the same high spec.

@Brady: Buy a second hand Mac if a new one is too expensive for you.

I tend to agree with jen. The only time I have had trouble opening files from my friends/family/colleagues from windows to mac is when the file was in some obscure proprietary format (rarely), or somehow the file got garbled by the MIME settings.

There are some issues that require a little patience to work around. I am like many with Windows at the office and Macs for the rest of my life, and have used macs since my IIcx. MOST of the time things like windows insisting on displaying a jpeg at actual pixel size automatically, or balking because of file extension names can often be avoided just by zipping things. Other times, like in my office situation, attachments above certain sizes are just shredded (firewall issues I’m sure). And overall, it seems Windows has always been just a LOT more finicky (at times, to the point of stupidity) in terms of dealing with non-windows generated files.

But all of these issues can be overcome by even moderate understanding of file handling characteristics of the two systems. Hardest things for me is having to take the extra time to create standalone attachments that are zipped for Mail.app so that inline graphics and other files just don’t show up as mime on the windows machine. Maddening that there still is ANY issue around this, but when you have as loose a development framework as Windows, combined with the garbage they port for OSX, that’s part of the problem.

I’m with you… stick with OSX app, and Office 2004 and leave that candy like interface alone.

Both Parallels and Fusion are brain-dead simple once installed. Even if this weren’t the case, there is always Boot Camp, which in effect completely turns your Mac into a Wibdows box (with all of its pluses and minuses).

I was also worried about Office compatibility to the point where I have Office 2007 Enterprise running under Fusion just in case (and to use Access), but every Office document I have ever gotten was able to be read by at least one of iWork and NeoOffice.

Both virtualization engines work brilliantly with Spaces - just run Windows full screen in its own desktop.

Since when has any computer for $1,000 been ‘top-of-the-line?’ There shouldn’t be any problem with .doc format on any OS. All the more reason why people should not buy computers from box stores.

Macs are as good or better than PC’s…

I’m not surprised… who knows what ancient version of ??? is running on the “ancient Dell.” And the most likely cause: Mac users are likely to be casual about putting the “.DOC” on the end of their filenames, making them a hassle for the uhhh, less technically adept Windows types.

i recently swithed to mac from about 7-8 years of windows, i’ve used windows 3.1, 95, 98, ME, 2003, XP, VISTA. they all suck, And since september 2007 i have a mac, tiger 10.4.8, and i’m so happy with it, that i could never change back to wondows, i have all the software i need equivalent to all the software i had for windows, and much more. I’m doing stuff with my mac, that i never could i can do on windows, Everything JUST WORKS. just works. is perfect.for me. and about office documents, i have office 2004, it is perfect copatible with office 2003 and other windows office sfotware, even open office. the software on mac are a lot better, nicer looking and more stable, i’m not saying they are perfect, but a LOOOT nicer than those on windows. OS X is the best. and chris, you better enjoy you mac pro, otherwise give it to me, i don’t mind:)).

well, i have a mac and pc (just came to macs almost two years ago). i have noticed that when i modify a word document using my mac (office 2003 or 04, i forget) that sometimes windows users have a problem opening the document. same with powerpoint. look, i don’t delve into all the “religious” wars that some mac and some pc folks love to continue fighting; i have no reason to slam one os more than the other. but from my experience, if i’m creating a document that i want to be certain can be opened on the first try, i will create that document using the pc version of word.

Been there, now switched to the other side.

The problem is with how the OS recognizes which file type is associated with which application. In Windows, it’s the file type ending after the dot (.doc, .txt etc.), in Mac OS X it’s something else. On the Mac, you can leave the ending off. Back when I was still on Windows, and got files from my boss on a Mac, I often had to guess which file type he sent me.

Of course, the Mac by now has a simple solution: If you use mail, there’s a simple switch labeled “Sending Windows friendly attachments”, which adds the file type ending if not present (and does some other changes).

The advice for any Mac user: Don’t ever turn this switch off, unless you’re absolutely, positively, 1000 per cent sure that the receiver is on a Mac also.

Just to make sure I am understood: You can open any file both on a Mac and on Windows (excluding exotic proprietary formats). I’ll do it all the time. I have less trouble on my Mac opening Office 2007 files as I had on Win XP with only Office 2003 installed.

The problem is simply that it is possible to send files from a Mac that Windows is unable to recognize when you double-click them. It is, unfortunately, still up to the Mac user to make sure that this does not happen.

There’s no such thing as a “Mac document” and a “Windows document” - what matters is the app with which you open it.

If you’re on a Mac, you have Quick Look anyway, so Word document viewing isn’t an issue. For editing Word documents, you can use Word, Pages, Writer, even TextEdit.

back to the issue of non openables - A lot of windows users are not aware of the resource file that is sent by email or from memory stick. Its the one preceeded by an underscore. Somehow it always clobbers the ‘real’ file when the Win user does the batch save-to-disk from email. Sometimes checking “windows friendly” does not prevent this happening. However when writing a CD for transfer the burning app ( Toast or Dragon burn does hide these properly.