Get the Stuff Moved Over!

While applications that run on a PC won’t install and run on a Mac, files themselves are portable and need no conversion.

Migrations of most file types, including Microsoft Office files (.doc, .xls), are completely transparent, assuming in this case you have Office on your Mac. If you don’t, you’ll need to re-purchase the Mac version of Office because the version for Windows will not run on Macs unless you run it inside Virtual PC.

The same logic holds true with Adobe products’ files, like Illustrator and Photoshop, and also with Macromedia, Quark, Quicken and most other bi-platform software titles. Most appications function the same on Macs as they do on PCs, with some having minor differences.

File Migration in Practice

I recommend emailing files to yourself, if they’re under 10MB. Zip into one bundle first to save time. If they’re larger than 10MB, your best bet is a USB jump drive/flash drive, or burning CDR or DVR discs. Neither PCs nor Macs have much difficulty reading and writing these common formats.

Networking PC to Mac I’d save for situations where all other avenues prove impractical. I’d try to ferry data via external USB hard drive before a direct or network connection, but if you’re willing to try the machine-to-machine connection here’s the How To from Apple’s site:

1. Connect your Mac to your PC using a standard Ethernet cable.
2. Make sure that both computers are turned on.
3. In the Finder on your Mac, choose Connect to Server from the Go menu to open the window.
4. Type your PC’s network address in the Server Address text box using one of these formats:
   • smb://DNSname/ShareName
   • smb://IPaddress/ShareName
5. Click Connect.
6. Follow the onscreen instructions to enter your PC’s workgroup name, user name, password, and the volume or folder you wish to access.
7. Your PC volume should appear on your Mac Desktop.
8. Open the volume and drag and drop files directly from it to anywhere on your Mac.
9. When finished, drag your PC volume to the Trash to unmount it.

And here’s the networking How To from Apple.com:

1. Make sure that both computers are turned on and connected to the Internet.
2. In the Finder on your Mac, choose Connect to Server from the Go menu to open the window.
3. Type your PC’s network address in the Server Address text box using this format: smb://ServerName/ShareName, or select the name of your PC in this window (if it appears).
4. Click Connect.
5. Enter your PC’s workgroup name, your user name, and your password when prompted, then select the volume or folder you wish to access.
6. Your PC volume should appear on your Mac Desktop.
7. Open the volume and drag and drop files directly from it to anywhere on your Mac.
8. When finished, drag your PC volume to the Trash to unmount it.

Migrating Mail

I don’t have the 10 years it would take to go over every email migration/setup scenario, so I’ll give you links to Apple’s site for How to import email into Mail 2.0, Setting up Mail 2.0 and Transferring your address book from a Windows computer.

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Security

Out-of-the box security is one of the biggest advantages Macs have over Windows PCs. Turn on OS X’s firewalls for even greater security. You can lock the screen when the Mac sleeps. You can encrypt the hard drive. No extra software required.

Patches to the OS are easily downloaded from Apple, in the background if you prefer.

There are so few malevolent applications written for Macs its almost a simple matter of dismissing them altogether. But it does merit some explaination as to how Apple addresses the threat.

OS X applications do not automatically inherit the privileges of the account in which they are run, even when the user is an admin. [The following is a more accurate explaination, courtesy SteveAx.] Applications that run in user space have the same privileges as the user that they run under. Essentially, they run as you. You can see this in the Activity Monitor. The main difference between a default OS X setup and a default Windows XP setup is that the root user isn’t enabled on OS X and an Administrator in Windows (NT, 2K, XP) has more priviledges (almost = to root in OS X) than an Administrator in OS X.

Exploits on any system can gain superuser priviledges by using a vulnerability in a process that runs as a superuser.

Translation: applications can’t wreak havoc if they succumb to malware (virii etc.) of some type. While Microsoft is working to incorporate this in the next version of windows, OS X has had it since 2001.

Like any operating system, if you use a WiFi connection at home, you should encrypt your transmissions with WEP protocol, or best yet, WPA.

Hardware

Mac hardware is durable and good looking. This is perhaps Apple’s biggest advantage over Windows PCs. By comparison, Dell equipment is plasticky and cheap. And Dell makes the good stuff.

I’m especially fond of a 2002 iBook G3 600Mhz laptop my wife and I use as a backup machine. I’m typing on it right now as a matter of fact. My normal Mac is a G5, and it’s been nothing if not dependable. It’s fast, once having performed a find-and-replace on a sentence in over 700 text documents in under 10 seconds.

Additionally, the G5s are very easy to upgrade because there is quite a bit of room inside in which to work, and the parts are built to pull out. I put in two hard drives (one of the two replacing the original 160GB with a 400GB), four RAM sticks, and even an internal Bluetooth module. The BT module was technically a dealer installation part, but I found it to be pretty simple anyway. That’s how well Macs are designed.

Interface

You’ve been hearing about it since 1984: the Mac interface, the paradigm that all other GUIs aspire to.

OS X (released in 2001) certainly took the fork in the road from the classic Mac GUI, but I wouldn’t say it’s a lesser GUI by any stretch. I think OS X may get beat up on by Classic fans because it has dozens more dialog boxes, settings and preferences than Classic had, but then again we’re asking a lot more from our OSes than we were ten years ago.

Examples of tasks our Macs have now that they didn’t a decade ago are:

• syncing information, music, photos and now video with PDAs, phones, iPods, and digital cameras
• downloading, formatting and delivering music and video to our stereos and televisions; connecting to Bluetooth and WiFi devices
• and delivering video chats with people far away
• store our music collection, and play it, and act as a conduit for purchasing it, organizing it, and even sharing it, ditto with photos
• connect to many many more peripherals

Oh, and we’re asking our Macs to withstand malicious code and hackers while being connected to the Internet at all times.

Put all that into Classic, to even the playing field, and I guarantee the notalgic sheen of Classic would wear off quickly.
OS X 10.4 Tiger is clean, efficient, and about ten miles past Windows in the GUI race. Apps look similar to each other, and most importantly act similarly to each other — a great thing to those who are always learning how to use new applications.