Sick of my MacBook - how to migrate from Mac to Windows

[james_tigerwoods]

I've got an Intel MacBook and I've had enough of it (I'm about ready to pitch it out of a fast moving car) - it's not that intuitive and it, frankly, drives me (and the OH) mad. I'm going to buy a Windows 7 laptop and migrate everything from the Mac to that.

However, Does anyone know how to migrate the Mac Mail (I'm not sure if it's part of iLife or not) to a Windows mail program?

I do, however, know how utterly horrendous it'll be to migrate from iPhoto to, well, anything else - does anyone here have a thought about easing that?

Thanks

JTW

[Rico]

Don't bother.

Bootcamp -> Windows 7

Then keep trying OSX as no-one I know has gone back after trying a mac (unintentional rhyme...)

[james_tigerwoods]

Rico said:

Don't bother.

Bootcamp -> Windows 7

Then keep trying OSX as no-one I know has gone back after trying a mac (unintentional rhyme...)

In that case, I may be the first - I've had it 2 years and I'm just not thrilled with it. Doesn't help that my work laptop's a Windows OS and I use that all the time.

[Ordinary_Chap]

james_tigerwoods said:

Rico said:

Don't bother.

Bootcamp -> Windows 7

Then keep trying OSX as no-one I know has gone back after trying a mac (unintentional rhyme...)

In that case, I may be the first - I've had it 2 years and I'm just not thrilled with it. Doesn't help that my work laptop's a Windows OS and I use that all the time.

Oh I know plenty of people who've gone back over to Windows.

The bootcamp solution is the one I'd suggest too. I gather Apple have just today officially started providing support for Windows 7.

Windows 7 is bloody great too, although I have Apple machines and don't mind OSX at all.

Edited by Ordinary_Chap on Wednesday 20th January 14:40

[james_tigerwoods]

What's the battery life like with BootCamp though? I can get 4 hours on the Macbook....

I don't actually need anything fancy and I'm tempted by an Inspiron 1545 which I can get, new, from Dell, for £276

[randlemarcus]

james_tigerwoods said:

What's the battery life like with BootCamp though? I can get 4 hours on the Macbook....

I don't actually need anything fancy and I'm tempted by an Inspiron 1545 which I can get, new, from Dell, for £276

I'd be tempted to buy you that in return for the Mac

As regards data transfer, I'd have thought that even the most "mac" of apps will hold the basic e.g. jpg files in clear, and at worst you'd lose the metadata. Might be worth considering a move to Cloud systems, e.g. Picasa etc, so the next desktop move isnt such a PITA.

PS Can you move things like custom dictionaries so tricksy words like Ambiwlans arent flagged

[james_tigerwoods]

randlemarcus said:

james_tigerwoods said:

What's the battery life like with BootCamp though? I can get 4 hours on the Macbook....

I don't actually need anything fancy and I'm tempted by an Inspiron 1545 which I can get, new, from Dell, for £276

I'd be tempted to buy you that in return for the Mac

As regards data transfer, I'd have thought that even the most "mac" of apps will hold the basic e.g. jpg files in clear, and at worst you'd lose the metadata. Might be worth considering a move to Cloud systems, e.g. Picasa etc, so the next desktop move isnt such a PITA.

PS Can you move things like custom dictionaries so tricksy words like Ambiwlans arent flagged

Funnily enough, I have someone interested in the MacBook already, I'm just not sure how much to ask for it (Intel MacBook, 2Gb RAM, DVD/RW, etc) - As long as I get at least enough to replace the Macbook, that'll do me.

[ad551]

james_tigerwoods said:

I've got an Intel MacBook and I've had enough of it (I'm about ready to pitch it out of a fast moving car) - it's not that intuitive and it, frankly, drives me (and the OH) mad. I'm going to buy a Windows 7 laptop and migrate everything from the Mac to that.

However, Does anyone know how to migrate the Mac Mail (I'm not sure if it's part of iLife or not) to a Windows mail program?

I do, however, know how utterly horrendous it'll be to migrate from iPhoto to, well, anything else - does anyone here have a thought about easing that?

Thanks

JTW

Sorry it didn't work out

To migrate from Mac Mail should be fairly painless - unless anyone knows a better way, I'd install Thunderbird on the Mac, import your messages into it, copy the messages from Thunderbird onto an external HD, then install Thunderbird on your new PC and put the messages in there.

iPhoto will be easy to migrate from I think. It doesn't store the photos in any proprietary format. See here: http://bigappleliving.blogspot.com/2008/10/export-...

[james_tigerwoods]

ad551 said:

james_tigerwoods said:

I've got an Intel MacBook and I've had enough of it (I'm about ready to pitch it out of a fast moving car) - it's not that intuitive and it, frankly, drives me (and the OH) mad. I'm going to buy a Windows 7 laptop and migrate everything from the Mac to that.

However, Does anyone know how to migrate the Mac Mail (I'm not sure if it's part of iLife or not) to a Windows mail program?

I do, however, know how utterly horrendous it'll be to migrate from iPhoto to, well, anything else - does anyone here have a thought about easing that?

Thanks

JTW

Sorry it didn't work out

To migrate from Mac Mail should be fairly painless - unless anyone knows a better way, I'd install Thunderbird on the Mac, import your messages into it, copy the messages from Thunderbird onto an external HD, then install Thunderbird on your new PC and put the messages in there.

iPhoto will be easy to migrate from I think. It doesn't store the photos in any proprietary format. See here: http://bigappleliving.blogspot.com/2008/10/export-...

I'm rather gutted too as I like how the Macbook looks, but it's been a frustrating time working with it - photo printing just doesn't work from iPhoto and that has just been the last straw.

I'll miss the long battery life though....

[mcflurry]

Why not put windows onto the mac?
The cost is then for an OS, rather than a new pee cee

[sawman]

james_tigerwoods said:

but it's been a frustrating time working with it - photo printing just doesn't work from iPhoto and that has just been the last straw.

Maybe you should look at your printer with suspicion, I have been printing photos from iphoto for years, and found it pretty neat. Although, i currently have a HP printer and found that it all worked alot sweeter with the canon I had before.

Edited by sawman on Wednesday 20th January 14:37

[AB]

Which Macbook is it?

Which processor? How old? HDD size? Black or White?

[james_tigerwoods]

mcflurry said:

Why not put windows onto the mac?
The cost is then for an OS, rather than a new pee cee

That is an option, but it'd be an effort/drag.

AB said:

Which Macbook is it?

Which processor? How old? HDD size? Black or White?

I don't want to be accused of "touting it out" - However, it's 2 years old, Intel 2.16 Dual core (I think it's the 2.16), 2Gb RAM, 160Gb disk in white.

sawman said:

james_tigerwoods said:

but it's been a frustrating time working with it - photo printing just doesn't work from iPhoto and that has just been the last straw.

Maybe you should look at your printer with suspicion, I have been printing photos from iphoto for years, and found it pretty neat. Although, i currently have a HP printer and found that it all worked alot sweeter with the canon I had before.

The printer works fine from my Windows laptop - in iPhoto what I see isn't what's printed out. The printouts are grey and cold in comparison, the "fix" is to ramp up all the colour options and overexpose the photo to get it to print out fine.

I will do a little more checking as I did a "snapfish" print and the photos have come back fine, so it might be a Mac driver problem.

The issue really is that it's always been an effort, nay a drag, to print from the Macbook instead of a simple pointy clicky job.

[va1o]

Seriousley - just put Windows on it. Apple released a BootCamp update yesturday for Windows 7 so it should work fine. IMO your much better of doing that than selling it cheaply and getting a cheap underpowered Dell. I use Windows on my Mac a lot for work purposes and havent really had any issues.

[james_tigerwoods]

va1o said:

Seriousley - just put Windows on it. Apple released a BootCamp update yesturday for Windows 7 so it should work fine. IMO your much better of doing that than selling it cheaply and getting a cheap underpowered Dell. I use Windows on my Mac a lot for work purposes and havent really had any issues.

I might yet, but still not convinced I want to spend the day or two pissing about with it.

The Dell machine has a better spec than the Mac - more memory (3Gb), bigger disk (250gb), bigger screen and a 64bit processor.

[jamieboy]

james_tigerwoods said:

I might yet, but still not convinced I want to spend the day or two pissing about with it.

Installing bootcamp really isn't a hassle at all. But once you get bootcamp installed, there are still a couple of niggles - no # key being the biggest pain for me. Yes, there's a workaround, but I'd rather not need one.

It's easy to get caught up in the "mac is better, because everyone says it's better" hype, but it really comes down to personal preference in the end.

[AB]

james_tigerwoods said:

va1o said:

Seriousley - just put Windows on it. Apple released a BootCamp update yesturday for Windows 7 so it should work fine. IMO your much better of doing that than selling it cheaply and getting a cheap underpowered Dell. I use Windows on my Mac a lot for work purposes and havent really had any issues.

I might yet, but still not convinced I want to spend the day or two pissing about with it.

The Dell machine has a better spec than the Mac - more memory (3Gb), bigger disk (250gb), bigger screen and a 64bit processor.

You'll get more for the Mac than you will need to spend to buy the other Windows machine I would have thought.

[james_tigerwoods]

AB said:

james_tigerwoods said:

va1o said:

Seriousley - just put Windows on it. Apple released a BootCamp update yesturday for Windows 7 so it should work fine. IMO your much better of doing that than selling it cheaply and getting a cheap underpowered Dell. I use Windows on my Mac a lot for work purposes and havent really had any issues.

I might yet, but still not convinced I want to spend the day or two pissing about with it.

The Dell machine has a better spec than the Mac - more memory (3Gb), bigger disk (250gb), bigger screen and a 64bit processor.

You'll get more for the Mac than you will need to spend to buy the other Windows machine I would have thought.

As I can get the Windows laptop for not a lot - I would hope to get a decent amount for the Macbook - I am, of course, not going to put it on eBay....

Problem is that I don't know what to ask for it - I'll use eBay for that

Edited by james_tigerwoods on Wednesday 20th January 15:41

[james_tigerwoods]

jamieboy said:

james_tigerwoods said:

I might yet, but still not convinced I want to spend the day or two pissing about with it.

Installing bootcamp really isn't a hassle at all. But once you get bootcamp installed, there are still a couple of niggles - no # key being the biggest pain for me. Yes, there's a workaround, but I'd rather not need one.

It's easy to get caught up in the "mac is better, because everyone says it's better" hype, but it really comes down to personal preference in the end.

I've given the Macbook 2 years of trying - I think that's a fair amount of time to get used to it.

[va1o]

james_tigerwoods said:

I might yet, but still not convinced I want to spend the day or two pissing about with it.

It won't take you as long as it would to remove all the junk that comes pre-installed on Dells.

james_tigerwoods said:

The Dell machine has a better spec than the Mac - more memory (3Gb), bigger disk (250gb), bigger screen and a 64bit processor.

Hmm I'd be surprised if the CPU was better.