Considering a switch from PC to Apple--do I need new software licenses?

<p>I would like to hear from posters that, at some pt., made the switch from PC to Apple. Currently, I have licenses for Photoshop Elements 6 and Lightroom (PC). Can I install these on Apple (using Bootcamp--is this a user friendly process or is it cumbersome). Has anyone who made the switch chose to get Apples proprietary "Aperature 2" for post processing-- How does it compare<br>

I am growing increasingly weary of my Dell Inspiron 9300. Launching Photoshop or Noise Ninja from Lightroom takes what seems like forev-er! And I went to a digital photography workshop and the presenter was using a Mac Book Pro. The performance was literally in a class all by itself. The final straw that really got me considering a switch was when I got a 500GB Western Digital "MyBook" external HD for backing up. After hours of troubleshooting on WD's end (including sending me a new unit---the conclusion is that the Dell does NOT get along with this WD drive. I researched this extensively and have come to the conclusion that its a problem with this particular Dell model (thats what WD insists as well and from the forums on Dell.com it appears they are right)---At any rate, despite the fact that the Read/Write Delay errors are a known issue and well documented --to date there is NO reliable fix. The device has routinely crashed which required re-formatting (I did this about 5 times over the year)...I have finally given it up, packed it away with the hope that my NEXT computer will not have this problem. I am growing more concerned about not having a reliable "Back up" procedure..and coming close to getting the Apple. Any thoughts from those who made the switch would be very helpful.</p>

<p>Adobe has a process wherein you can sign a form stating you will no longer use the PC version and they will send you the Mac version (at least they did that for CS4...I suspect they will for other programs as well).<br>

I would suggest either changing to an Apple product with mac software or using a PC and keeping what you have. Boot camp (and all the other mac=pc programs) are just not up to the speed and task at hand.....and yes...that's just my humble opinion.<br>

I have used both systems off and on for a long time. There are days when I wish I had the PC back (Like trying to get an Epson R1800 to print with Mac Leopard!) and days when I wouldn't trade the Mac for anything (like trying to set up a sophisticated PC network!)...<br>

Good luck with whatever you choose. Happy to answer any other questions you might have if I can...</p>

<p>I switched from Windows to Mac about 18 months ago and did what Jack recommends--got the license for my Adobe software transferred to the Mac version. I couldn't see any sense in making the switch only to put myself back in a Windows environment. I have some recollection that you could only transfer to the current version of the software since you had to download the Mac version as part of the process. Users with older versions had to upgrade. If you call Adobe, they have a regular procedure for the transfer and can answer any questions.</p>

<p>I agree with Jack also that there are both pluses and minuses to both systems. On the whole I'm happy with the Mac but there are times when it can be just as frustrating as a PC. One of the big pluses of the Mac however is the Time Machine backup system. It is so simple and it just works, giving me an always updated backup of the entire system.</p>

<p>This might be an awkward time to make the switch. Apple has just rolled out a new operating system--OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), so any new Mac you buy will likely have the new OS. As you might expect, there are numerous reports of problems with drivers and some applications, although most things seem to be working okay. I'm sure it will all get straightened out in a short while, but I'm waiting a few months before upgrading my OS.</p>

<p>As in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: "You have chosen wisely." ;)<br>

If you run the applications in the Windows versions <em>on</em> the Mac, of course, you will NOT need a new license. However, if you want the full-tilt power of the Mac OS, then you will need new, Mac specific versions.</p>

<p>In most cases, you will have to buy the Mac versions, I am guessing, but it never hurts to ask, and for once it sounds like Adobe is acting kindly-like.</p>

<p>Eventually you will want Snow Leopard, but the old Leopard (10.5) is a superb OS in its own right and the new OS offers little additional utility except greater speed and even greater reliability (claimed, at least). If you buy a machine right now, it will probably come with 10.5, maybe with a coupon for upgrade. Even without a coupon, it's only $29, after all.</p>

<p>After my own experiences with MS where I spent 5 long years working on Windows, I have become more cautious like John, and now never install a new OS or "upgrade" in its first weeks out.....</p>

<p>Reverie:<br>

He rubs his chin and remembers the last automatic "maintenance" upgrade to Windows that he ran before he retired and left that OS forever that killed Omnipage Pro and disabled his scanner....</p>

<p>It might be worth looking at why you're having performance problems while running a couple or three large apps on your current machine. It could be that all you need is another internal drive ($50?) and perhaps another couple GB of RAM ($50?).<br /><br />That second internal drive can catch backups of your other files, and can off-load the swap space from the drive that's doing your other work. Just a thought. It can make a huge difference, for cheap.</p>

<p>I somewhat agree with Matt. Performance is not a matter of Window vs. Mac OS. or Dell vs. Mac. Your Inspiron 9300 is a DOG compared to today’s standards. Just because your poodle is too old to bark is no reason to buy a cat. Software is getting bigger and more demanding. Just the anti-virus software needed to surf the web safely consumes most of the CPU power on a machine like yours. If you get a machine with dual or quad processor your problems are solved (for now). You’ll run into the same performance problems with your new Mac as you begin to load software and upgrades.<br>

To further Matt's comments, you didn't say how much memory you have on your machine. You need at least 1.5GB of ram to get those applications to do anything. They may say minimun memory is 512MB or 1GB, but they are lying.</p>

<p>Here’s a link to cpu benchmarks. Your processor ranks about 600 to 700 places from the top.</p>

<p>http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php</p>

<p>Jerry beat me to it. The Inspiron 9300 is technology from 2005, whereas the Mac in the workshop was probably latest stuff. So you may be comparing apples to oranges (no pun intended). My experience has always been that Macs and PCs with comparable specs will almost always have the same performance -- that is, if the specs are the same on CPU, amount RAM, RAM speed, video card speed, video RAM, etc. I don't mean to go negative on Mac folks, but often, people who claim Mac superiority are comparing Macs designed specifically for graphics work to PCs designed for more mundane stuff like spreadsheets and databases. A properly configured PC can do both very well.</p>

<p>Will</p>

<p>I do not regret the switch to Mac one bit, but speed was not the reason. Modern hardware on either platform will be much faster than your old laptop. However my almost three year old MacBook Pro is still as fast as the day I bought it. The Windows machines I have used seemed to get slower with time, requiring a fresh install of the OS to get that new machine feeling.<br>

You will not regret a switch to Mac. The hardware is excellent, as is the OS is great.<br>

Porting the Photoshop license was painless, but I did need to upgrade to the latest version.</p>

<p>i enjoyed reading these thoughts and it confirmed a lot of what i already suspected. was thinking of switching to apple to replace my now more than three year old compaq laptop. i'm still undecided about it. i'll probably go with apple, but i must say it really bugs me that it costs more than twice as much.</p>

<p>Another thing that those considering upgrading may want to consider is getting a desktop computer or mini-tower rather than a laptop. You already have a laptop to take on the road and surf at starbucks. But if your serious about doing heavy graphics, you can get a the latest quad core processor, 8 or more gigabytes memory, terabyte hard drives and other goodies for your home office/studio for the price or maybe less than a laptop with a dual core processor.</p>

<p>Any laptop be it Apple, Dell, or Lenovo can’t compete with a mini tower running Intel Quad core Extreme or Quad core I7 processors. Just the fact of the size of NEF files is a good reason to get terabyte hard drives. And you probably won't have to upgrade again in a couple years.</p>

<p>It's sort of like P&S vs. DLSR.</p>

<p>Thanks to all for the replies. I especially enjoyed the diversity of the responses. I ended up immediately following the clarification from Matt/Will and Jerry regarding the characterization of my problem as a more of a performance issue rather than a brand issue. I don't need to be reminded that I have dated technology with my Inspiron 9300--I know that. As long as what I have is competent 90% of the time---I am satisfied...and I am not the type to run off and by the latest and greatest every 2-3 years. (that goes for camera bodies as well). My benchmark is usually 5 yrs for laptops...At any rate, I am stuck with the CPU I got..but I did discover today (thanks again Matt) that there is a 1GB memory card now available for my 9300 and since I have two card slots (with factory installed 512K's) I can effectively DOUBLE my RAM for under 50 bucks. Just ordered them now at MemoryStore.com. Also, in a last ditch effort to track down the aforementioned WD external hard drive issue I found a Hotfix at Microsofts support site that addresses the USB problem (vis a vis delayed read/write failed errors)...so between these two "enhancements" I hope I can ride a little longer with the Dell. Really, it doesn't do a bad job (for me)...I shoot with a Nikon D50 and D2H, and so my file sizes are very reasonable. I only shoot RAW with the D2H for heinous lighting environments like indoor sports---so all in all I hope I'll see a noticable improvement. I also like Jerry's suggestion about investigating the value of moving to a desktop or tower config when my perceived "time is up"...and I'm ready to upgrade. </p>

<p>Craig,<br />If you only had 512MB you will see a big performance boost. That may satisfy you. Those applications and jpegs need a lot of memory. 512MB won't cut it. I found to get those photo editing programs to run smoothly I need at least 1.5GB memory. <br />Other tips (all just my opinions): If you haven’t run defrag on you pc lately, some people go for years and never run it, do so. Your files may be busted up into little pieces spread all over you hard drive and thus taking longer to load. A bigger hard drive will not affect performance unless you have 95% of you current hard drive used.<br />Also, if you surf the web with your laptop be sure to get some anti-virus software. If you don’t have anti-virus software, your pc (and back-ups) ARE infected with viruses, trogons, worms, etc... And your pc is going tick, tick, tick… until KABOOM. As I mentioned before, the real-time protection will eat up most of your processing power, but you generally turn it off while working with the photo editing programs.<br /><br /></p>

<p>I just checked out the spec’s and pricing on Apple Macs. It’s been a few years since I’ve even bothered look at a Mac. What made a Mac a Mac was the Motorola Processor – No Intel here. But what I just found was they have Intel processors now and Nvidia graphics adapters. IT’S JUST ANOTHER DELL IN A PRETTY WHITE CASE.</p>

<p>ps. Craig I misread your last message. So you have 1gb and upgrading to 2gb memory. That will do something for you.</p>

<p>Jerry, you could run Windows directly on a Mac, but very few want to. It's the OS, probably the best UNIX operating system ever. And if you love command-line interfaces like the ones I grew up with, then Terminal is only a click away.</p>

<p>Apple lost the PC/Apple war. They lost so.... badly. I can not think of any other defeat that matches that. Long gone the Motorola processor and their proprietary graphic adapter. Let us offer a solemn eulogy to Macintosh. Coming up next Apple’s version of Microsoft Windows 7.<br>

I offer my humble resects to those reliving the glory of the long dead Apple era.<br>

</p>

 

<p>To get back to the original question... if you switch, you'll need a new license for Photoshop, the Lightroom DVD will load on either platform. As far as mac vs pc, I got a mac in 4/84, it came out in 1/84, and loved it until it drove me crazy and I switched to a pc. I was happy for quite some time until the pc made me nuts and recently I got a MacPro tower with lots of drives and lots of RAM. I did the platfrm switch with Adobe relatively easily and just reloaded Lightroom from the DVD. I'm happy as a clam... for now.<br>

Good luck.<br>

Eric</p>

<p>Jerry = Troll</p>

<p>Windows 7 ? ? ? ? LOL</p>

<p>Jerry, you are wrong on two accounts:<br>

1. What makes a Mac a Mac is not the processor. It is the OS.<br>

2. Apple did not lose the idealogical war with the PC. Apple actually won! This is proven by how Windows XP, Vista and the coming Windows 7 is designed--->ala Mac OS.<br>

If Apple lost anything, it was the financial war...their greed caused them to lose massive market share. Regardless of that, the Mac is the best PC in the world, both from a hardware standpoint, reliability standpoint, user interface and OS standpoint too.<br>

PS. I'm a Vista User.</p>

<p>Dan.<br>

Ok, your saying there's their's nothing unique or special about Mac hardware and it's just a PC running a modified version of unix. I'll agree with that.</p>

>>> If Apple lost anything, it was the financial war...<P>

 

Oh, I dunno about that... <P>

 

 

$31 billion in the bank, with no debt. Owns 69% of the US paid online music market and 25% of the US music market

when you include CDs (which Apple doesn't participate in). And their retail stores have been a huge success; their 5th Ave NYC store alone did something around $350+ million in sales with business metrics exceeding other retail stores.<P>

 

Nothing was lost...

<p >Come on guys, I’m waiting for somebody to say: "Apple won the PC/Mac war by switching to Intel processors, nVidia graphic adapters, and adopting the PC open architecture model."</p>

<p>I only repeat (my LOL, of previously) that anyone who would hold up Windows 7 as an example of "leading edge" in computer operating systems has simply been stunted in their growth by playing too long in the same sandbox. I suppose the "triumph" of Microsloth is demonstrated by the now universally loved and admired MS-DOS, which is where MS was before the Mac came along. And that one, itself, started out as "Dirty DOS"- a copy of DR-DOS. We can also see how innovative MS has been in the current dominance of the Zune and other MS innovations.<br>

The Athenians were "defeated" by the Spartans, but we do not base most of our present Western culture on the latter.</p>

<p>LOL, I say.</p>

<p>"IT’S JUST ANOTHER DELL IN A PRETTY WHITE CASE."</p>

<p>The difference is that Apple uses higher quality components.</p>

<p>JDM, It too late to kick the sandbox squatters out of the PC sandbox.<br /><br />Robert, I'll admit apple makes quality equipment. Not many companies do the burn-ins and final testing before packing the pc in the box like Apple maybe IBM/Lenovo does, but that's all. As far as components go, are you saying there is a better quality of Intel Core 2 processors, nVidia and ATI graphic adapters, and Seagate hard drives that nobody else gets? I do not have new Mac to tear apart, but my guess there’s somebody’s else’s name on the motherboard too. You may have PCs mixed up with cars of the 70’s. I was not discussing quality of PC manufactures, but the death of the Macintosh. Apple is a good quality manufacturer, but they are using generic components now.<br>

ps. Thank Bob, I was hoping somebody would say something like that.</p>