Mac Users Identify Yourselves!

[buzz]

And here I just started another thread about Macs. Shows what I get for posting before I actually read the boards.

Mac user since 1988. Currently own a Rev1 B&W G3 that is still running peachy under 10.2.6. I use PCGen occasionally, and then things like Word and Excel for various gaming needs.

The only thing that makes me consider getting a PC is the fact that Hero Designer (for HERO/Champions), though written in Java, seems to run correctly on every Java-capable OS *except* for the Mac. Unfortunately Apple's implementation of 1.4.1 leaves something to be desired. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Panther will offer some improvements.

 

[buzz]

How is CrystalBall, anyway?

 

[Galastro]

How is CrystalBall, anyway?

I think it depends on what genre of D20 you play. All the classes, skills, feats, equipment for D&D is already in the application.

But I´m running a D20 Modern Campaign and I haven´t got the time and patience to create new tables for CrystalBall.

But it´s a nice, good looking program. I think it´s great that someone has developed a program just for Mac & D20.

 

[buzz]

But I´m running a D20 Modern Campaign and I haven´t got the time and patience to create new tables for CrystalBall.

Is it fairly user-extensible, then? That's something I found appealing about eTools, i.e., that the data is all XML. I'm glad that PCGen is planning to convert to XML as well.

 

[RyanL]

Hi folks. My PC is now experiencing it's death throes. I'm seriously considering buying a Powerbook. Any suggestions or caveats that you could give me would be appreciated. If you could recommend any must-have software or accessories, that would be great too. I guess I'm going to have to plunk down for a copy of MS Office, though my fiancee can get the student price so it's not too bad.

These days, my PC is mainly used for three things: my fiancee's school papers, general internet browsing, and connecting to the office via vpn for work. The first two shouldn't be a problem. It's doubtful anyone here happens to have experience with the Cisco VPN Client for MacOS X, but if you do, please chime in and let me know how it works. It probably would be wise to ask someone in the IT department about it.

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[dvvega]

Hi folks. My PC is now experiencing it's death throes. I'm seriously considering buying a Powerbook. Any suggestions or caveats that you could give me would be appreciated. If you could recommend any must-have software or accessories, that would be great too. I guess I'm going to have to plunk down for a copy of MS Office, though my fiancee can get the student price so it's not too bad.

These days, my PC is mainly used for three things: my fiancee's school papers, general internet browsing, and connecting to the office via vpn for work. The first two shouldn't be a problem. It's doubtful anyone here happens to have experience with the Cisco VPN Client for MacOS X, but if you do, please chime in and let me know how it works. It probably would be wise to ask someone in the IT department about it.

Thanks,
Ryan

Ryan,

a MAC powerbook is an awesome upgrade choice. I did it this year (never had a laptop before) and have not regretted it.

Most powerbooks will come with AppleWorks (which is just fine for most documents etc) however you may wish to purchase Microsoft Office. Don't think of it as Microsoft software however - it is a completely different beast.

If you really really need to run Windows software, Virtual PC is not a bad choice. When I bought my laptop I went through a complete process of "can I do this?" for my job (programmer/web development/etc). I can develop and test all websites in windows and mac environments on many browsers for example. I even programmed in Visual Basic under Virtual PC for a client. It was awesome. Of course I have a Powerbook G4 with 1 gig of memory, so speed for me was decent. This should allow you to go VPN to work if there is no MAC equivalent.

As for internet browsing, the Mac OS X comes with Internet Explorer (not supported by Microsoft anymore BTW) but you can get Safari (very good browser) or download Camino from mozilla.org (my current favourite for personal browsing).

An added bonus, if your fiance is a teacher of some kind (mine is) you can purchase the laptop at greatly reduced prices as well as office.

That should cover all your bases.

Regards,
David

 

[buzz]

It probably would be wise to ask someone in the IT department about it.

This is definitely important. If your IT department is unable or, as is often the case, unwilling to support Mac users, you're probably better off getting a PC (and this is a serious Mac nazi telling you this).

Truth be told, general browsing and writing Word documents is pretty much an identical experience on both platforms for the average user. Sure, I feel the MacOS is an overall superior experience, and the hardware is fantastic, but there's no point in getting a Mac just for the sake of getting a Mac if it's going to make life with your employer difficult.

That said, if your IT staff is cool and the VPN client does wat you need it to do, then by all means, join us Enlightened Folk.

 

[buzz]

Most powerbooks will come with AppleWorks (which is just fine for most documents etc) however you may wish to purchase Microsoft Office. Don't think of it as Microsoft software however - it is a completely different beast.

FYI, the PowerBook line does *not* come with AppleWorks. AppleWorks is only bundled with the iBook line. The PowerBooks come with MS Office v.X Test Drive, a trial version of Office.

You're definitely going to want to get Office. There is simply no substitute office suite for the Mac, unless you don't care about interoperability with the Windows world... which, of course, you *do*, especially seeing how many free RPG resources are in .xls and .doc format.

You're also going to want VirtualPC. Thankfully, you can now get MS Office Professional, which is Office + VirtualPC (as MS recently bought the company that makes VirtualPC).

As for browsers, yes IE Mac is no longer being actively developed; though, tecnically, it exists in the form of MSN for MacOS X, but if you don't use MSN, that's not much help. I use Safari (bundled with ALL macs now) 24-7 now, and I have few if any problems. If you do any online banking or bill-paying, you may want to make sure that your bank (or whatever) supports Mac browsers. Some companies are so deep into proprietary MS technologies that they use a lot of IE Windows-only technology (which totally defeats the purpose of the Web, but hey, welcome to Bill's world). You can probably get around this by running IE under VirtualPC, but it's something to consider.

 

[RyanL]

This is definitely important. If your IT department is unable or, as is often the case, unwilling to support Mac users, you're probably better off getting a PC (and this is a serious Mac nazi telling you this).

Oddly enough, our IT deptartment provides clients for Linux and Solaris, but there's no mention of Mac. I'm actually in the IT department, but I'm on the app development side so I have no sway.

Which leads me to another question, can you use the gnu tools to develop for OS X? Is there a free development IDE for OS X?

Most powerbooks will come with AppleWorks (which is just fine for most documents etc) however you may wish to purchase Microsoft Office. Don't think of it as Microsoft software however - it is a completely different beast.

Does Appleworks play nice with existing Word and Excel XP docs?

An added bonus, if your fiance is a teacher of some kind (mine is) you can purchase the laptop at greatly reduced prices as well as office.

She's a grad student, which I believe does qualify her for some sort of discount on the hardware (at least according to Apple's website). Here's hoping.

-Ryan

 

[buzz]

Which leads me to another question, can you use the gnu tools to develop for OS X? Is there a free development IDE for OS X?

Yes. Check out the following sites:
http://developer.apple.com/macosx/
http://www.apple.com/macosx/panther/xcode.html
http://www.apple.com/macosx/jaguar/unix.html
http://macdevcenter.com/

Since MacOS X is Unix-based, you've got tools like gcc and other 'nix goodies. The OS package also comes with developer tools that currently have a IDE called Project Builder. The Xcode mentioned in the link above is the new IDE rolling out with the next version.

Does Appleworks play nice with existing Word and Excel XP docs?

From what I've heard, *in general* it does, but it's not 100% perfect. If your finacee can get an academic discount on Office, I'd just go with that.

She's a grad student, which I believe does qualify her for some sort of discount on the hardware (at least according to Apple's website). Here's hoping.

http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/routingpage.html

As a student, she should qualify for discounts on Apple hardware. The discounts aren't huge, but any discount is a good discount.