Switchng from Windows to Mac

[PaulieWalnuts]

Time to see if the grass is greener.

I'm trying to plan for changes I'll need to make. For people who have switched what are some lessons learned?

I've already found a few things. External drives will need to be reformatted. I'll need to get a new backup NAS server. New MS Office. What else related to photography or in general?

[Jo Ann Snover]

You won't need to reformat your external drives. Paragon's NTFS for Mac lets you write to as well as read from NTFS disks. Parallels desktop will let you run Windows in a window so you can run any apps you can't get on the Mac. It'll help during the transition, but I don't use it any more.

I switched in 2008 and it was very easy. I had used Macs from 1984 through 1990 or so, then Windows through to 2008. We do have several Windows PCs at home so I have access to them if I need them, but generally it's just being tech support for the kids or testing out web sites to be sure all's well on the other platform.

Adobe's perpetual licenses can't be used on a different platform - unlike Corel Painter, for example, where you have a license and can use it on whichever platform you wish. If you're using CC versions, I don't know whether they've changed.

I used Microsoft Office and Outlook for a long time after the transition, but now don't use Outlook any more and have Excel for my earnings spreadsheet and Word gets a very occasional outing.

It's a pretty easy transition, but there's always an unsettled feeling during a transition while you get used to the new environment and get up to speed with it. If you love IE for a browser, Parallels Desktop will get more use than if you're already using Chrome or Firefox

[Beppe Grillo]

As says Jo Ann you don't need to reformat your drives, Mac Os will see them with Paragon's NTFS http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/
But consider that for Mac it is always better to use drives formatted in Extended Mac Os (journaled).
So I think it is worth to be done.
But it is a format that you cannot read under Windows unless you use HFS+ for Windows http://www.paragon-software.com/home/hfs-windows/

Personally I use Mac from 1984 (and Apple ][ some years before)
I have rarely used a PC under Windows, but I have Windows 7 virtualized with VMware Fusion that I prefer to Parallels Desktop.
At the Level of system I prefer (a lot) Mac, but it is a question of habit I think.
Using the programs doesn't make a lot of difference, as once launched they work in the same way on both systems, and most of the "modern" software will generate files readable under both systems.

I hate the fonts management on Mac (but I have seen that under Windows it can be worse�)
If you use a lot of fonts you'd better use some good fonts manager as Suitcase or Font Explorer (I prefer the second).

You can continue to use windows, with some virtualization software (Parallels, VMware, etc), in this way you will have the possibility to use both the system at the same time.
You can also boot under Windows with Bootcamp https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1461, and you Mac will be a perfect Windows machine (I have read somewhere that the Mac is the best machine to run windows )

_______
You can find useful infos here:
https://www.apple.com/support/macbasics/

_______
A personal consideration.
If you are not absolutely sure that you want to spend money in an iMac or a MacBook Pro you can take a Mac Mini. In this way you will have the possibility to continue to use your monitor, your keyboard, your mouse.
A Mac Mini with 8 or 16 GB RAM will run Lightroom and Photoshop without problem.
If you take a Mac Mini buy it with the minimum of RAM (4 GB) and buy the extra RAM to some site as Crucial or OWC (Apple branded RAM cost a lot of more� for nothing more)

[stockphotoeurope]

NAS usually use a Linux based o.s. internally, and are completely independent from your pc or mac, and easily accessible from all major o.s.

Lightroom's DVD comes with setup files for both Windows and Mac, which is great.

You won't be able to use any recent version of the CorelDraw suite, which is not an issue for most people but would be a major issue for me.

Your mouse will miss a button.

All those animations / transparent toolbars / glossy buttons and similar useless bells and whistles are as irritating as their recent Windows counterpart but in Windows at least are easily removed to go back to a more sober interface. Hope it's the same for Mac.

[Beppe Grillo]

Your mouse will miss a button.

All those animations / transparent toolbars / glossy buttons and similar useless bells and whistles are as irritating as their recent Windows counterpart but in Windows at least are easily removed to go back to a more sober interface. Hope it's the same for Mac.

You will not miss a button. You will just not see it�
But you don't look at your mouse when you use it, so it will not make any difference.
And I you don't like the Mac mouse you can use almost any other mouse you like (as I did)

Yes you can remove the sounds on Mac (they are not a lot btw)

[oxman]

The best thing is no more virus issues!!. Some programs like Quickbooks are more robust on PC but overall, not many issues. I love the MAC world and have used both for many years.

You can find amazing deals on ebay now for Mac Pro towers loaded since many early adopters are dumping their systems for the new Mac Pro coming out in December. Lots of mixed reviews on that one. I think Ivy and Cook have gone off-leash and ruined the Mac Pro concept with lame iMac mentality.

Yesterday I bought a Apple Mac Pro 2.66GHz 12-Core 32GB/512GB SSD/4TB HDD/Radeon HD 6870 for under $3416 shipped. It cost $8000 six months ago! 

[cathyslife]

Regarding adobe software, you used to be able to call support and switch the license from pc to mac, but it was a few years ago that i did it, so not sure about it now. Maybe worth a call before buying anything new?


Welcome to mac. Once you get over the initial shock and find your way around, i think you will find many plusses.

[gillian vann]

oh there are many things you'll dislike for a while: going to the "wrong" side to close windows. Hitting that "x" that just closes but not quits a program. The DEL key if you don't have a full keyboard.  i still use a 2button mouse and have all the right-click functions.

You'll love: the simplicity and clean look. Finder is wonderful.

You may hate: Outlook and Mail. I hated them both, switched between them both for a few months, yelling at them both. Settled into Mail eventually.

I never liked Windows but used it for a number of years before switching back to Mac, and it took me 4 months to fully get used to it. I can't stand using Windows now, and am totally lost. be patient and know that it will be worth it.

[sharpshot]

I'd dump windows and mac and go with linux

[Mantis]

I have been a windows user since day one, but purchased an I mac last weekend.  One of the things that is different is keyboard short cuts.  For example, even though I loaded MS office MAC I no longer hit F2 to edit a cell.  It's ctl U now.  I have no way to credte DVD/CD's without purchasing another external drive to do so, and if you have any software to load that requires a disc you need to buy an external CD/DVD drive.  I ended up switching over because I am slowly getting into video and needed a system that delivers excellent results, so I also got Final Cut Pro.  The learning curve is not too bad, their help icon is very useful and so far I have been able to find what I need on a simple Google search if I couldn't find it in the software.  Also, terminology between Windows and Mac is different in some cases but not to hard to figure out. 

Once more thing.  Make sure to authorize your I Mac for Itunes or you won't be able to download much

Yesterday I realized that Apple's hook strategy is working.  I have two Ipads, and Iphone, an Itouch, an Ipod and now and I Mac.  Holy cow.

[Ron]

Yesterday I realized that Apple's hook strategy is working.  I have two Ipads, and Iphone, an Itouch, an Ipod and now and I Mac.  Holy cow.

Thats the exact reason I am not touching Apple products

[luissantos84]

Yesterday I realized that Apple's hook strategy is working.  I have two Ipads, and Iphone, an Itouch, an Ipod and now and I Mac.  Holy cow.

you just don't know what to do with all the money

[gigidread]

I'd dump windows and mac and go with linux

Yeah! 

[PaulieWalnuts]

Great information! Thanks for all of the detailed responses. Doesn't sound like as big of a jump as I thought.

[PaulieWalnuts]

I'd dump windows and mac and go with linux

I like Linux. Great for techies which I actually am one. But I'm trying to get away from wasting time fiddling with technology and technology problems and spend more time on creative production.

[PaulieWalnuts]

Yesterday I realized that Apple's hook strategy is working.  I have two Ipads, and Iphone, an Itouch, an Ipod and now and I Mac.  Holy cow.

Yep. I've been a Microsoftie for a long time. I got my first Apple product, an Iphone5, a year ago. Awesome product, excellent support, zero aggravation. Looks like the hooks are in. A Macbook Pro and AppleTV are next on the shopping list.

[Shelma1]

Welcome to the cult of Apple. You're going to be very happy here.

[Perry]

Yesterday I realized that Apple's hook strategy is working.  I have two Ipads, and Iphone, an Itouch, an Ipod and now and I Mac.  Holy cow.

Thats the exact reason I am not touching Apple products

But they sync so well together (I have a Mac Mini, iMac, Macbook, iPad and iPhone

[bunhill]

go with linux

For Photographers today the software is more important than the computer. Most photographers are going to either be running Lightroom or Aperture. Probably also some version of Photoshop - although the day when I eliminate that from my setup is definitely drawing closer. And then it's down to the plugins and extensions - VSCO, Nik etc.

None of that stuff runs on Linux in any sort of sensible way. And good luck calibrating your monitor.

Android is Linux. I can see a day when the choice for many photographers will be between IOS and Android. But not quite yet.

[Lucadp]

I'd dump windows and mac and go with linux

another linux (debian) user here, but i'm a 3d guy, not a photographer, and i don't need adobe products for my work, so the switch was easy
I've used osx for a couple of year (2010/2012), great os, stable and reliable, you can't go wrong.

[sharpshot]

go with linux

For Photographers today the software is more important than the computer. Most photographers are going to either be running Lightroom or Aperture. Probably also some version of Photoshop - although the day when I eliminate that from my setup is definitely drawing closer. And then it's down to the plugins and extensions - VSCO, Nik etc.

None of that stuff runs on Linux in any sort of sensible way. And good luck calibrating your monitor.

Android is Linux. I can see a day when the choice for many photographers will be between IOS and Android. But not quite yet.

I had no problems with Photoshop Elements using wine but I dumped it, as the GIMP does all I need.  Monitor calibration is easy.  I use ColorHug, cheap and easy to use to get a profile.  I use dispcalGUI to load it.

[cathyslife]

I just got a new imac at work last week. It came with mountain lion installed and i should have stayed there awhile. I upgraded to mavericks and now i cant use one of my two extra monitors (usb). The display link software has gone as far as it can go, they are saying, and the fix now has to come from apple. So if you get something loaded with mt lion, you might consider staying there for awhile if using multiple monitors. I am still using cs5 and everything seems ok for the most part but i have gotten a couple hangs and had to reboot.

[Sulio]

New MS Office.

You dont need the MS office, with Mac OS you get TextEdit application which reads and writes MS Word text file formats. Also with Mac you get iWork package, Mac version of other office applications eg. Exel = Numbers, Power Point = Keynote etc etc...
Other way Open source application Open Office can be efficient replacement for MS office too. 

[PaulieWalnuts]

I just got a new imac at work last week. It came with mountain lion installed and i should have stayed there awhile. I upgraded to mavericks and now i cant use one of my two extra monitors (usb). The display link software has gone as far as it can go, they are saying, and the fix now has to come from apple. So if you get something loaded with mt lion, you might consider staying there for awhile if using multiple monitors. I am still using cs5 and everything seems ok for the most part but i have gotten a couple hangs and had to reboot.

Good to know thanks.

[PaulieWalnuts]

New MS Office.

You dont need the MS office, with Mac OS you get TextEdit application which reads and writes MS Word text file formats. Also with Mac you get iWork package, Mac version of other office applications eg. Exel = Numbers, Power Point = Keynote etc etc...
Other way Open source application Open Office can be efficient replacement for MS office too.

'
I pretty heavily use Office products and am not familiar with iWork. Maybe I'll give it a try before picking up Office.

[Ginosphotos]

I switched to Mac 4 years ago and I wish I could have done it before. I bought several iMac 27" with the best possible features and Ram for my studio and couldn't be happier. I lost several PCs due to viruses in the past. There are many advantages that will become obvious the more you use Apple products. Other than the fact they work fast and better, the greatest advantage is that you don't ever need to calibrate the monitors. When I used PCs, I used to calibrate all my monitors once a week and the colors never worked to my satisfaction. Using Macs, you never have to worry about that.

[elvinstar]

The best thing is no more virus issues!!

Don't believe the hype!! That's not true and hasn't been for some time. (link)

[Beppe Grillo]

Don't believe the hype!! That's not true and hasn't been for some time. (link)

Since 1984 you can count about 40 viruses on Mac - and most of them are not viruses but not very aggressive trojans.

According to Symantec, in 2008 viruses on Windows were 1,122,311

I agree with you: Don't believe the hype!!

[Mantis]

I switched to Mac 4 years ago and I wish I could have done it before. I bought several iMac 27" with the best possible features and Ram for my studio and couldn't be happier. I lost several PCs due to viruses in the past. There are many advantages that will become obvious the more you use Apple products. Other than the fact they work fast and better, the greatest advantage is that you don't ever need to calibrate the monitors. When I used PCs, I used to calibrate all my monitors once a week and the colors never worked to my satisfaction. Using Macs, you never have to worry about that.

Can you elaborate as to why? I just purchased the newest Spyder system for my IMac, ran it and it looks fine. BUT...the Imac color profile did too.  It was poppier than the Spyder profile.  And do you select Imac or SRGB or Adobe as the color space? I also didn't see an option within the Apple software to select color temp (6500 @ 2.2) so that bothered me.  It's one of the reasons I got the Spyder.

[Beppe Grillo]

I switched to Mac 4 years ago and I wish I could have done it before. I bought several iMac 27" with the best possible features and Ram for my studio and couldn't be happier. I lost several PCs due to viruses in the past. There are many advantages that will become obvious the more you use Apple products. Other than the fact they work fast and better, the greatest advantage is that you don't ever need to calibrate the monitors. When I used PCs, I used to calibrate all my monitors once a week and the colors never worked to my satisfaction. Using Macs, you never have to worry about that.

The Apple monitors are through the worst that I have used.
If you want a good monitor use an Eizo, some good Dell Ultrasharp, or equivalent

[luissantos84]

I switched to Mac 4 years ago and I wish I could have done it before. I bought several iMac 27" with the best possible features and Ram for my studio and couldn't be happier. I lost several PCs due to viruses in the past. There are many advantages that will become obvious the more you use Apple products. Other than the fact they work fast and better, the greatest advantage is that you don't ever need to calibrate the monitors. When I used PCs, I used to calibrate all my monitors once a week and the colors never worked to my satisfaction. Using Macs, you never have to worry about that.

The Apple monitors are through the worst that I have used.
If you want a good monitor use an Eizo, some good Dell Ultrasharp, or equivalent

never had any of those but I keep on hearing that Apple (iMac) kicks ass in terms of colors, contrast, calibration, this and that, weird that you consider them the worst you have tried

[nailiaschwarz]

I switched to Mac 4 years ago and I wish I could have done it before. I bought several iMac 27" with the best possible features and Ram for my studio and couldn't be happier. I lost several PCs due to viruses in the past. There are many advantages that will become obvious the more you use Apple products. Other than the fact they work fast and better, the greatest advantage is that you don't ever need to calibrate the monitors. When I used PCs, I used to calibrate all my monitors once a week and the colors never worked to my satisfaction. Using Macs, you never have to worry about that.

The Apple monitors are through the worst that I have used.
If you want a good monitor use an Eizo, some good Dell Ultrasharp, or equivalent

never had any of those but I keep on hearing that Apple (iMac) kicks ass in terms of colors, contrast, calibration, this and that, weird that you consider them the worst you have tried

Maybe he tried them some time ago ? The current (2013 model) 27" iMac Monitors are pretty good (not the Thunderbolt Display!), they greatly reduced the reflections, and with a little color calibration they have very good color rendition. I would always recommend them, the next better thing will be a SpectraView, Eizo CG Series or similar.

[nailiaschwarz]

If you get yourself an iMac, I recommend to use this software:

http://www.basiccolor.de/basiccolor-display-5-en/

It works with almost all Sensors (Spyder, i1) and will give you full auto calibration of color temperature, brightness and gamma on an iMac, and it works with all Professional (Hardware calibration) Monitors too.

[Beppe Grillo]

I switched to Mac 4 years ago and I wish I could have done it before. I bought several iMac 27" with the best possible features and Ram for my studio and couldn't be happier. I lost several PCs due to viruses in the past. There are many advantages that will become obvious the more you use Apple products. Other than the fact they work fast and better, the greatest advantage is that you don't ever need to calibrate the monitors. When I used PCs, I used to calibrate all my monitors once a week and the colors never worked to my satisfaction. Using Macs, you never have to worry about that.

The Apple monitors are through the worst that I have used.
If you want a good monitor use an Eizo, some good Dell Ultrasharp, or equivalent

never had any of those but I keep on hearing that Apple (iMac) kicks ass in terms of colors, contrast, calibration, this and that, weird that you consider them the worst you have tried

How can a shiny monitor (almost a mirror when you have dark of black images) be good for color correction? 
The iMac monitor is over contrasted and over saturated, this leads you to contrast and saturate your images less than what they should be to get a good result for print.
The iMac monitor is not a monitor for a professional photographer or a professional color corrector.
Even with a good calibration you will always have a bad��� mirror

You cannot compare the iMac monitor with a $ 500 Dell Ultrasharp.
And of course you cannot compare it with a $3000 Eizo

[nailiaschwarz]

As I said, the current imac monitors are MUCH less shiny.

If you eliminate light sources in your back, you have no problems.

If used right, and calibrated, they will produce very good color. So yes, they can be used for professional work. Maybe just not by you

[EmberMike]

The Apple monitors are through the worst that I have used.
If you want a good monitor use an Eizo, some good Dell Ultrasharp, or equivalent

I agree. I had 2 iMacs and hated both of those screens. I could never get them calibrated right. When I upgraded my system a couple of years ago I went with a Mac Pro so I could pick my own display.

Your mouse will miss a button.

I can't believe this tired old 1-button mouse complaint is still around. When was this ever an issue? USB multi-button mice have been around forever. Not out of the box with Macs in the past but when did anyone ever stick with the boxed mouse anyway? Even in my Windows days I would switch to a good Logitech mouse or something other than the junk the Windows PCs came with.

[Beppe Grillo]

As I said, the current imac monitors are MUCH less shiny.

If you eliminate light sources in your back, you have no problems.

If used right, and calibrated, they will produce very good color. So yes, they can be used for professional work. Maybe just not by you

Good
I have not had the occasion to use seriously the new iMacs, so in fact I cannot say nothing about it.
I was telling about previous series, as you have understood.
The fact is that when you begin to work on a monitor of the level of the Eizo (or Barco� RIP) it is difficult to turn back.

[nailiaschwarz]

The Apple monitors are through the worst that I have used.
If you want a good monitor use an Eizo, some good Dell Ultrasharp, or equivalent

I agree. I had 2 iMacs and hated both of those screens. When I upgraded my system a couple of years ago I went with w Mac Pro so I could pick my own display.

Mike, the new iMac displays are much better. The old ones were really just mirrors with additional display function The new ones are a big improvement - still not ideal, and I prefer external matte monitors too.

[nailiaschwarz]

As I said, the current imac monitors are MUCH less shiny.

If you eliminate light sources in your back, you have no problems.

If used right, and calibrated, they will produce very good color. So yes, they can be used for professional work. Maybe just not by you

Good
I have not had the occasion to use seriously the new iMacs, so in fact I cannot say nothing about it.
I was telling about previous series, as you have understood.
The fact is that when you begin to work on a monitor of the level of the Eizo (or Barco� RIP) it is difficult to turn back.

I know what you mean I just exchanged my old iMac with the 'mirror screen' this year - I have an NEC SpectraView too, and the new iMac Monitor is really close to it it terms of color rendition. I do my own prints on a iPF6100 with my own color profiles, and get great results.

[PaulieWalnuts]

Update to the original post. Thanks for all the help. I picked up a refurbished Macbook Pro to see how things go.

Overall it's been great so far. Macbook Pro is built great. Nice quality. Track-pad is fantastic. And so far after a month everything just works. No crashing. No errors. No frustration. All software has installed without problems. Printer connected and worked like magic. On Windows this was a trip to the printer website to download and install the driver software and deal with whatever problems came up. Makes me wonder why I didn't pick up a Mac to try years ago.

The negative stuff that I've found has been pretty minor.

I did end up buying Paragon. Not sure why Mac can read NTFS drives fine but not write to them without third party software. I found that Mac has built in ability to write to NTFS but it's disabled and requires a hack to enable but it's "not supported" by Apple. Odd.

I bought MS Office for Mac. I actually like the interface better but it's a version behind Windows.  There seems to be a lot of missing features compared to Windows. And the PST file import didn't import nicely in the Mac version. Folders are messed up, Calendar and reminders are off, etc. I hate to say it but this doesn't surprise me because as a Microsoft product user for a long time I've just come to accept that this kind of stuff is normal.

I ended up buying the $10 p/m Creative Cloud subscription for Photoshop and Lightroom. Lightroom is cross-platform but Photoshop CS5 isn't. I found out that Adobe allows platform transfers but only on current Photoshop versions which is CS6. So I would have needed to drop $200 to upgrade to CS6 which is already an old version. Not a big fan of the cloud stuff but not much of an alternative.

Other than that I'm just getting used to finding keyboard functions I'm used to using in Windows.

Just ordered an Ipad and AppleTV.

[wordplanet]

You'll be very happy that you made the switch.

When I switched to a Mac several years ago, I contacted Adobe and they let me get the Mac version of the Creative Suite at the update price, rather than having to purchase it new. That was way back when CS 3 was the newest version, but I guess now with creative cloud they'd no longer give you that option? I do believe you can have CC on two computers and that could be one Mac and one PC if that works for you while you make the transition.
 
Edit:

Guess I misread your last post - at $10/month CC seems like a better deal than the upgrade to the older CS6, so glad that worked out for you. If you're staying with your old PC as well as the Mac, you should be able to put CC on both.

[Beppe Grillo]

Congratulation PaulieWalnuts!

You made a good investment!

I bought an iBook in 2004.
After 10 years this old computer still work perfectly and continuously.
It is slow for Photoshop and Lightroom, but still very good for mail, web, office, etc.
It never gaves me the minimal problem, it is always on (24/7/30/12) never crashed (in 10 years I have had only one Kernel Panic)�

All my other Macs still start, from the first one that I bought in 1984�
The only problem I have had wit a Mac was a defective graphic card on an MacBook Pro 2008.

Be happy and welcome in the Mac family!

[Uncle Pete]

80% of the computers in the world run Windows or some Microsoft system, under 8% run some Mac OS. If you were targeting computers with a virus, which platform would you attack? End of argument.

It's not immunity it's lack of interest. "600,000 Macs, most of them in the United States and Canada, were infected by Flashback" That's not immunity.

Update: http://blogs.computerworld.com/malware-and-vulnerabilities/21810/does-latest-mac-malware-attack-show-windows-8-more-secure-mac-os-x

"All this is why the latest Mac security hole should surprise no one except the Mac lovers who refuse to admit the truth -- Mac OS X, like every other operating system, is vulnerable to attack. And there are plenty of security researchers who think it's less secure than Windows."

I thought the iMac display was stunning and crisp and clean when I used one. The computer was fast and I loved it. I have somewhere around ten functioning, in use, Windows OS computers right now and I'm not dumping them all because I like the display on the Mac better.

Reason #2 I don't have the urge to spend a couple or few thousand dollars to make everything I own obsolete and start buying all new software on top of that.

The best thing is no more virus issues!!

Don't believe the hype!! That's not true and hasn't been for some time. (link)

[bunhill]

If you were targeting computers with a virus, which platform would you attack?

Android.

[Lodimup]

The grass is definitely greener but not that much greener . Still, you won't regret switching. The only thing to watch out for is upgrading. You'll be spending a lot of $$ getting newer machine since you cannot upgrade most components in a mac.

My mid 2011 27" 2.7GHz i5 is still going strong.

[nailiaschwarz]

The grass is definitely greener but not that much greener . Still, you won't regret switching. The only thing to watch out for is upgrading. You'll be spending a lot of $$ getting newer machine since you cannot upgrade most components in a mac.

My mid 2011 27" 2.7GHz i5 is still going strong.

Unlike with old PCs, you still get good money for used Apples. I upgrade every 3 years, and get about 50% of the original price when I sell 'old' iMac/MacBook Pros. 

[Beppe Grillo]

80% of the computers in the world run Windows or some Microsoft system, under 8% run some Mac OS. If you were targeting computers with a virus, which platform would you attack? End of argument.

It's not immunity it's lack of interest. "600,000 Macs, most of them in the United States and Canada, were infected by Flashback" That's not immunity.

Update: http://blogs.computerworld.com/malware-and-vulnerabilities/21810/does-latest-mac-malware-attack-show-windows-8-more-secure-mac-os-x

"All this is why the latest Mac security hole should surprise no one except the Mac lovers who refuse to admit the truth -- Mac OS X, like every other operating system, is vulnerable to attack. And there are plenty of security researchers who think it's less secure than Windows."

I thought the iMac display was stunning and crisp and clean when I used one. The computer was fast and I loved it. I have somewhere around ten functioning, in use, Windows OS computers right now and I'm not dumping them all because I like the display on the Mac better.

Reason #2 I don't have the urge to spend a couple or few thousand dollars to make everything I own obsolete and start buying all new software on top of that.

The best thing is no more virus issues!!

Don't believe the hype!! That's not true and hasn't been for some time. (link)

Java for Mac is not an Apple product, it is an Oracle one�

Java is useless for 99.9% of the users.
You have just to disable it unless you are part of the 0.1% needing it.

[stocked]

I switched from Mac to Windows around 2000 and I'm happy since when ;-)
But I do like my iPad 

[Uncle Pete]

AH for me that's good. I'm running free Windows computers that people dumped (some for being possessed and crap) Lots of spare parts. BUT, you are 100% correct. Macs hold value better and for a longer time. Latest that I think I've finished is a 2006 Sony Vaio. Removed Windows 7, installed XP. Pentium 4 dual 3GHz processor. 2GB memory (the max) I'd love to have the original install disks because of the dual layer DVD and some of the included video editing software.

Also I need to confess, if I had the money, I'd have a nice big iMac sitting on the desk for editing photos, video and audio and everything else. The old PCs can handle surfing the web and storage, just fine.

But free is good too. 

Unlike with old PCs, you still get good money for used Apples. I upgrade every 3 years, and get about 50% of the original price when I sell 'old' iMac/MacBook Pros.

[Uncle Pete]

Nice dodge attempt and avoiding the whole subject and point: "All this is why the latest Mac security hole should surprise no one except the Mac lovers who refuse to admit the truth -- Mac OS X, like every other operating system, is vulnerable to attack. And there are plenty of security researchers who think it's less secure than Windows."

That's a quote, not from me. And you start in about Java and removing it?     

Check out the underlined part.

Java for Mac is not an Apple product, it is an Oracle one�

Java is useless for 99.9% of the users.
You have just to disable it unless you are part of the 0.1% needing it.

[Beppe Grillo]

.

[bunhill]

Nice dodge attempt and avoiding the whole subject and point: "All this is why the latest Mac security hole should surprise no one except the Mac lovers who refuse to admit the truth -- Mac OS X, like every other operating system, is vulnerable to attack. And there are plenty of security researchers who think it's less secure than Windows."

That's a quote, not from me. And you start in about Java and removing it?     

Check out the underlined part.

Java for Mac is not an Apple product, it is an Oracle one�

Java is useless for 99.9% of the users.
You have just to disable it unless you are part of the 0.1% needing it.

Modern OS X disables Java if it is not being used. By default. Switch it back on - and it gets switched off again automatically if it is not being used. Unfortunately many Adobe products still require Java to be installed. Bizarrely. Personally I think that the day is drawing closer when we will no longer need Adobe (but I guess that is a different thread).

Safari does a neat thing with browser plugs-ins e.g. Flash. They are off by default. You authorise them on a per site basis. So, for example, I have Flash enabled only for Alamy because Manage Images requires it. Flash is also periodically switched off to save battery power. Safari also blocks 3rd party cookies by default. It blocks out of date browser plug-ins.

OS X users are certainly subject to the same stupid javascript pop-up exploits as Windows users (e.g. - the bogus FBI ransomware thing). Defeating this is as simple as Safari -> Reset Safari. OS X includes built in protection against real malware (which you would need to deliberately try to install). Better still (and this is great for anyone who looks after a computer perhaps for someone else) Gatekeeper lets you set the machine such that only programs from the Apple OS X app store can be installed.

It would be tempting fate and silly to claim that OS X and Unix variants in general are definitely more secure than Windows. But it is certainly true that they have tended to be so far. That is definitely partly down to Windows representing a bigger target. It is also because Unix has always been much more about one tool per job - where as Windows was very much about a daft vision of integration even back to the days of OLE, Active X and scriptable software. They deliberately built a system of bits in which one thing could, in theory, be controlled from another. Though my experience on a team producing Windows software back then was that it nearly always crashed anyhow. I always felt much more at home in a Unix environment.

(I can happily build computers. I soldered one together in 1981 with a Radio Ham friend - you could not buy motherboards ready made in those days. Today I could build a machine which would run OS X - if I wanted to. But I Jonny Ive makes nicer computers and I deplore clutter and top posting).