PC to Mac as painlessly as possible

[So]

We've just moved the business over to iPhones and found them better than the previous Windows Phones.

At the risk of making too big a leap of faith, I am assuming that moving to Apple notebooks is going to be an equally successful swap (stop me someone if I am wrong).

We need to replace a Windows HP machine immediately. Is this going to be a good call? https://www.johnlewis.com/2017-apple-macbook-12-in...

Also, is there an easy way of transferring the Office files from the PC to the Mac and for them to work? Mosty Word, Powerpoint and Jpegs.

I am sure all this advice is available online, but I am time strapped and PHers are typically great at down to earth advice on such matters.

Thanks in advance.

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bhstewie said:

It depends what systems you need to use.

Printers, applications, anything that only comes as a Windows version etc.

Usually there's nothing truly insurmountable but you haven't really asked anything beyond can you open Office documents on a Mac to which the short answer is yes as Microsoft do Office for Mac (365 is probably the most viable way to get there).

Worst case you can dual boot (Bootcamp) or use a Windows VM (Virtual Box, Parallels, Fusion) for Windows stuff.

Yes, basically I am asking how we can use the Word files on the PC on a Mac.

So my question, refined, is: Is that Mac in my link any good, and how do we get fiies from the PC to the Mac and have them work immediately?

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seyre1972 said:

I’d suggest booking a visit with Apple business at your local Apple store to discuss your requirements/solution etc.

Office 365 is likely the best for cross platform compatability ( while you are in the process of transitioning)

Likewise moving documents into the 365 cloud/or use Apple services to transfer what you need across from the old machine (may be a charge for this). Or use your local IT consultant (probably a free consultation and maybe a days charge for setting you up)

Maybe list what other devices you have (printers/scanners/storage) and check their compatabilty (sure you don’t want to have to buy a new Printer/scanner just because you’re changing platform)

Well, we need to change the network printer anyway because we've just bough a Dell and its crap.

The business has very basic IT requirements. We don't use Visio or Acess.

[So]

deckster said:

craigjm said:

Visio isn’t available either. The ability to run a Mac as a business machine very much depends on your business

More than that, it depends on your people. If they are used to Windows, then moving them wholesale to Macs is going to cause a whole load of pain.

Neither MacOS nor Windows are better, they are just different. If you have a compelling reason to move over then great, do it. But if you don't, then - well, don't.

What exactly are you hoping to gain from the switch?

The reason is that iPhone hardware seems to work, whereas thee Windows stuff didn't.

I hate the later itterations of Windows. I have 8 on this machine and I run Classic Shell to make it vaguely usable. I also get continuous pop-ups wanting me to update to 8.1. It all seems a bit low rent. We've got 10 on one machine and I cannot make head nor tail of it.

I only have the phones to compare, but the Apple stuff seems to work whereas Windows generally doesn't amymore.

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craigjm said:

Apple stuff doesn’t “just work” as well as it used to

Maybe I am heading the wrong way, then. But the most recent HP noteebook with W10 we have is utter rubbsh.

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anonymous said:

[redacted]

It was about half the price of the Mac we're considering.

I have been finding Windows software increasingly buggy and non-intuitive. I've been using MS since the early 90s, it used to be quite user friendly and reliable. It doesn't seem to be anymore.

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deckster said:

Having said that, an irrational hatred of Windows is a perfectly valid reason to ditch the platform. Wanting new shiny stuff is equally good. Thinking that it will magically make life better is however unrealistic.

I would be perfecly happy with old, not very shiny, stuff that costs me nowt. But we need to change a machine and each Windows machine we've bought since Windows 7 has been crap.

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anonymous said:

[redacted]

I don't care about a fair comparison. I'd spend £5k on a machine that works, even if the MS machine is £1.

The last PC notebook we bought is only running what it came with and it is crap. I've even given it to my children to use, and they won't use it.

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dmsims said:

To the OP

you keep saying the HP you bought is rubbish

Which one is it and why is it rubbish ?

If you go MAC just bear in mind the hardware support can be tortuous in the extreme

It's not the machine itself, it's Windows. In my opinion, Windows stopped being user friendly once 8 arrived. 10 is better than 8 was, but it still seems to be a mess. Don't get me wrong, I don't think IOS is brilliant, but it does at least seem intuitive and generally things work, whereas MS stuff increasingly doesn't seem to.

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ZesPak said:

So said:

It's not the machine itself, it's Windows. In my opinion, Windows stopped being user friendly once 8 arrived. 10 is better than 8 was, but it still seems to be a mess. Don't get me wrong, I don't think IOS is brilliant, but it does at least seem intuitive and generally things work, whereas MS stuff increasingly doesn't seem to.

IOS is not OSX or MacOS, just like WP isn't windows 10.

Keep in mind that most people, either from school or home. are used to a windows environment. So however user unfriendly you think it is, a lot more people are used to it than MacOS.

We have a couple of customers running Mac's nearly exclusively, both in the fashion industry. A lot of the users there are very unhappy about it because looking for software (financial for example) limits your options very very much. One of them eventually gave up and have windows installed on half of the machines.

Recently we've been searching for someone who makes it possible to visualize OLAP Cubes (a very common BI database model) on MacOS, something Excel does by default... not on Office for Mac though. We've come up short and the best thing we can suggest is just web interfaces. Which required a web server. Minimum requirements: IIS7 (windows server).

As above posters have said, for some businesses you might get it to work, but there's a good chance you'll be looking for all kinds of workarounds to avoid windows.

I've ran a MBP as my primary machine for a couple of years. Took me a month, then I installed Windows on it. After a year, I didn't boot in OSX once.
Tried the same with another machine running Ubuntu. Same futile exercise. Windows may be far from perfect but from my experience, for now, it's very hard to get rid of it.
Ironically, it feels like Microsoft is working hard to not needing windows. They are developing a lot of their software to be "omniplatform". This usually means you need a windows server (or Azure), and then run the web interfaces on whichever device you like. It's a step in the right direction, but in the end if you go that way MacOS is far from the user friendliest and logical choice, as ChromeOS would do.

Thanks this is helpful. I don't want to reinvent the wheel.

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I am wondering actually whether I can send off the laptop that we currently think we need to replace and have it "hotted up" a bit.

Anyone know how practical that is? It's a HP Mini 110-3737TU running W7.

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ZesPak said:

So said:

I am wondering actually whether I can send off the laptop that we currently think we need to replace and have it "hotted up" a bit.

Anyone know how practical that is? It's a HP Mini 110-3737TU running W7.

You must be kidding right?

You posted this:

So said:

I don't care about a fair comparison. I'd spend £5k on a machine that works, even if the MS machine is £1.
The last PC notebook we bought is only running what it came with and it is crap. I've even given it to my children to use, and they won't use it.

You bought a 200 gbp machine and would have thought it would have been plenty?
Don't bother, it's not worth it. Buy a 2k mac, awe over how much better it is than your windows machine and be happy spreading the "Windows is awful" word. You'll fit right in.

I'm out.

If you're going to be arsey, perhaps worth reading the thread.

The machine we need to replace isn't the one running W10 that I don't like. The little HP machine is a number of years old now and we were going to replace it because it's become slow.

Given what you appear to be saying is, "Mac isn't worth the aggro" "Windows isn't great but it's less aggro than Mac" I am considering whether we try to breathe life into the old machine and if it gives us 3 years we can worry about the Mac / Windows question another time.

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ZesPak said:

Limpet said:

In a non-graphic arts business scenario,

Even that is debatable. The only real factor here are the users.

Are Macs vs PCs different from iPhones vs Windows Phones in terms of user friendliness?

When we had Windows Phones (after 8 anyway) they never worked properly and were unstable. the iPhones we now have work 99.9% of the time, don't crash and do what we want.

I've not used Macs but my presumption is that they will be as reliable as iPhones.

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schmunk said:

So said:

ZesPak said:

Limpet said:

In a non-graphic arts business scenario,

Even that is debatable. The only real factor here are the users.

Are Macs vs PCs different from iPhones vs Windows Phones in terms of user friendliness?

When we had Windows Phones (after 8 anyway) they never worked properly and were unstable. the iPhones we now have work 99.9% of the time, don't crash and do what we want.

I've not used Macs but my presumption is that they will be as reliable as iPhones.

iPhones do have that double posting bug on the PH forums...

I'm getting double posting problems today and I am posting from a PC

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justinio said:

OP, I'm a bit confused.

You want to switch your business computers to Mac's, because you like your iPhone?

Is that about the size of it?

No, because I am finding Windows since 7 (XP really) crap, not intuitive and unreliable.

I would add that when I've had problems with Windows, support seems to be by way of an online community, which comes up with the correct answer about 50% of the time. When I had problems with a iPhone, I was able to speak to a UK based (at least that's how it sounded) support agent, who resolved my problem quickly and efficiently.

Now, I am being told above that Mac and iphone is different, but if the ethos is the same I anticipate that a Mac will do a better job for us.

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justinio said:

So said:

No, because I am finding Windows since 7 (XP really) crap, not intuitive and unreliable.

I would add that when I've had problems with Windows, support seems to be by way of an online community, which comes up with the correct answer about 50% of the time. When I had problems with a iPhone, I was able to speak to a UK based (at least that's how it sounded) support agent, who resolved my problem quickly and efficiently.

Now, I am being told above that Mac and iphone is different, but if the ethos is the same I anticipate that a Mac will do a better job for us.

Windows 10 is better than 7 or XP in just about every way.

Your comparison of Apple Support (paid for) with a free online community support model is comparing apples with oranges. If you need support, why not sign up with a PC support company that will offer the same level of service as Apple.

Sounds like you've already made your mind up on the switch to Mac's. Nothing wrong with them really (if they do everything you want them to), and they do look nice.

I can't agree that 10 is better than 7 or XP, because when we ran XP we had none of the problems we've had with 8, 8.1 or 10. We're still running a couple of 7 machines and they are broadly OK. We're running Classic Shell on the 8 machines to make them vaguely usable.

Support - yes, I suppose we could pay for a support contract. However, when I called Apple re the iPhone fault it was a Sunday evening. I am not sure what we would need to pay for a 24/7 support contract for PCs.

[So]

julian64 said:

So said:

It's not the machine itself, it's Windows. In my opinion, Windows stopped being user friendly once 8 arrived. 10 is better than 8 was, but it still seems to be a mess. Don't get me wrong, I don't think IOS is brilliant, but it does at least seem intuitive and generally things work, whereas MS stuff increasingly doesn't seem to.

I think you need to get a grip of yourself. You hate windows, that's okay, lots of people do. But there was nothing wrong with windows. I've run a business that uses about fifty window machines over the last twenty years with everything from XP onwards, and now just about to swap to windows 10 from windows 7. It was always the same story, and I can predict who is going to have problems.

No one likes change
Despite replacing machines, operating systems and upgrades it was always the same people who suffered the majority of the problems.

By all means convert, but I think the money would be better spent on some IT training, and all I know about you is the comments you have made.

I've been from Windows 3.0 to Windows 10, via all the versions in between, and didn't have any problems to speak of until 8. You're about to do what I have already done (but skipping the very worst iterations of Windows) and you're telling me that it's me who is at fault?

Report back when you've switched to 10.

[So]

It’s done. I’ve bought a MacBook.

Of course I realise that this probably makes me a dunce, someone who should have worked harder at school, a remoaner, a left-hand thread, Betamax, Uri Geller.

But I don’t care.

As I handed over my card, I wept a tear of nostalgia as I remembered every Microsoft adware message urging me to upgrade for free from stware to stware.1

Having to find printer drivers because the thirteenth software update of the day took down the printer.

Viruses.

Marjorie from online support forum giving me completely incorrect information in boiler plate format.

Integration stopping working because Microsoft pulled one of its products without telling anyone either before or after, not even the support staff.

My first try of Windows 8.

I am going to miss Tiny Elvis though.

I look forward to a utopia of hassle-free computing and rolling out Macs globally.

And if you think I am going to give you bds the satisfaction of letting you know when it all goes wrong, you’ve got another think coming.

[So]

AJB88 said:

Next post will be telling everybody how much better his £1200 machine is than the previous £200 one.

£849 and £500 in point of fact, if you're referring to my last to computer purchases. The former being the Macbook, the latter being an HP W10 machine.

I started setting it up yesterday and so far it seems pretty simple. The security seems over the top, mind you.

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mikeiow said:

craigjm said:

So said:

As I handed over my card, I wept a tear of nostalgia as I remembered every Microsoft adware message urging me to upgrade for free from stware to stware.1

That doesn’t go away. My Mac is still nagging me to upgrade to high sierra

LOL: indeed, and I am resisting: nothing exciting beyond the El Cap release I'm on, although I know one day I will give in!
Interesting thread. I'm still none the wiser about what OP *needs* for his business machines, but if it is mostly regular Office stuff, O365 will work fine I imagine. I still have a Win7 virtual machine I spin up regularly to use my Quicken 2000 finance app (yes, haven't found anything yet as good for Mac despite looking!!). The VM sucks battery, so spin down after use!
Moved our house to Mac after years of Win pain: I agree Win7 was the last decent release: I am told Win10 is way better, but it was a day spent upgrading my daughters laptop (how many reboots??!) that led me to invest in replacing that final Windoze unit, and the house is a happier place!
For sure you can set yourself up a NAS, but I just use USB drives: got one each for the kids (kids? Now uni students!), make sure time machine is on and used (constant backups) & my days of IT support Chez Nous have reduced dramatically.
I remain convinced Apple are on a downward slide: I hate with a vengeance their desire to remove all ports in latest high end laptops - I use USB and hdmi many times each week, why make me carry dongles! - but they are still nicer machines to spend hours every day working with.
Apple kit does seem to last better too: I rarely see a windows user happy with their 2-3+ year old unit, whereas the same is not true for Apple.

Good luck!!

I have explained at least once what we need in the business, so RTFT

I agree with everything else you say.

I think a child test can be applied to this. When we bought a W10 machine specifically for the children to do their homework on, it lay dormant in a corner until I forced them to use it. As soon as the Macbook was spotted on the desk, little fingers were in there wanting to make things work, see how the features interacted etc. amid a general air of enthusiasm.