Is Mac for me?

[Mactobe]

Howdy all,

I have 3 dead X86 Pcs littering my study and am typing this on a Sony Vaio laptop that is on the way out. My needs are

C++ compiler and a simple IDE such as Bloodshed etc
Compatibilty with a Speedtouch USB DSL modem.
Microsoft Office (very important, at least Excel and ideally Access).
Does Oracle 8i run on the Mac?
Any decent flightsims? (I am studying for my PPL and can justify it
)

My ipod is the first piece of apple hardware I have used since the 80s. I really like the look of the 20in iMac but hope it doesn't scratch as easily as my beloved iPod, if you look at the damned thing too hard it gets a new scratch. However the design does offer a high WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor).

 

[katie ta achoo]

A mac is a good way to go.
If you still need the windows part, you could just run virtual PC.

The iMac doesn't scratch as easily if memory serves me right. (I totally don't go to the apple store and mess with the computers and then leave...) And in what situations would it be open to scratchings? you aren't carrying it everywhere like your iPod, and it is sitting on a desk up and away from everything.

Everyone I know (or heard of) switching from windows to mac LOOOOVES the mac. I hope you eventually get yours and will subsequently enjoy it!

 

[Chaszmyr]

I don't know what Microsoft Access is, and therefore don't think it's available on Mac, but for all of your other needs you should be good to go.

 

[Sutekidane]

No, the imac g5 doesn't get scratched up through normal use, and cleaning. I highly recommend the newer models, they seem really good. As for everything else, I dunno.

 

[grapes911]

Your usb modem worries me. You'll have to check for drivers.

 

[xwk88]

access

this one I'm sure is not out for mac and according to microsoft will not be. but there is a similar one called FileMaker I haven't used it but was told it's really good so if you think about switching look in to filemaker.see if it's ritgh for you.

 

[Cheese]

My wife is the sole reason I bought my first Apple computer, She said it "looks nice in the house!", but I didn't care as long as I could get her to let me buy a machine that I could use to get online. within 10 minutes, I was convinced that I will never go back to MS anything. (never say never, as in, unless Gates bought all of Apple or something ridiculous like that) I know there will be a small "un-learning curve", since there is so much work needed to be done by windows users in order to simply get their wintel machine to perform. I never get viruses, never crash, never have to do disk maintenence such as scandisk or defrag, seldom feel that I am waiting for my machine so I can work. It is truly capable of letting me "work at the speed of thought"! As for MS Office, it is my understanding that a popular PC magazine rated the Mac version of MS Office very high, in fact they said, as I remember, "Office runs even better on a Mac than it does on a peecee!". I feel certain that any of the programs in the PC version of Office are available to Mac users. I don't run VPC, I seldom feel the need to buy any apps. I simply use my Mac the way Cupertino intended ... which is constantly and running everything out of the box as it were. My day job is in a total windows environment where HP/COMPAQ/DELL thrive and flourish, much to my dismay as I see constant examples of time bieng wasted and productivity going down the tubes. Much could be saved in a Mac utopia, but even there I found a glimmer of hope. I noticed that one of our sister companies in Europe has a web page that was made on a Mac! I haven't used any Flightsims, but am told there are several that are simply unequalled. Check Versiontracker, I dunno. I also question the USB modem. Does it have an Ethernet jack? If so, maybe you could connect to your new iMac by Ethernet and free up the USB port for your iPod! I don't think Oracle runs on Apple computers without Linux or VPC, but my personal experience with Oracle was underwhelmingly less than shiny. I guess that it is my humble perspective to put my computer usage to this simple test. "If I can't do it with my iMac, do I need to do it at all?" I hope your new iMac arrives very soon, and we want to see pictures!

 

[Nermal]

Apple has a C++ development environment called Xcode, which uses the standard gcc compiler. A Mac version of Office is available (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage) but unfortunately lacks Access. There is definitely a Mac version of Oracle, but I don't know whether it's 8i.

 

[Kelmon]

OK, here's what I know...

C++ compiler and a simple IDE such as Bloodshed etc

Xcode 2 comes with Tiger and includes gcc4 plus associated IDE. I'm a Java-man myself so I can't comment on how well this works for C++ but it looks pretty good. Hell, the new Xcode 2 will, apparently, produce UML diagrams of you code, so that's a plus for me.

Compatibilty with a Speedtouch USB DSL modem.

Seems to vary by model from what I can tell. I have a USB/Ethernet SpeedTouch 530 that is Mac-compatible and certainly some of the USB-only models claim Mac compatability. That said I've some that aren't so definitely one to check on the SpeedTouch web site, I think.

Microsoft Office (very important, at least Excel and ideally Access).

MS provides Office 2004 for OS X which is, by and large, a great suite of applications and includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage (sort of Outlook). I prefer Mac Office 2004 to PC Office 2003 (mostly due to the formatting palette) but the performance isn't great and it does lack Access. Additionally, Office 2004 seems to be more tailored to the personal/small office users rather than the enterprise, particularly when you look at the supplied templates. I guess MS reckons they have a strangle-hold on the corporate world and didn't think Office 2004 would be used there. Still, Offce 2004 includes most of the bells and whistles of Office 2003, including things like SmartTags.

As noted by others, there are alternatives to Access, such as FileMaker, which appears to be a reasonably priced bit of kit from which you could probably import your existing Access databases. However, I don't think FileMaker ships with a native Access driver so you might need a 3rd Party one. Best to check.

Does Oracle 8i run on the Mac?

I don't think so. Oracle, as far as I am aware, only just started to support the Mac by releasing 10g for OS X, so I don't think 8i is going to be available (although I could be wrong). However, while you can download the 10g version for free for development usage, it appears that it is only available for Mac OS X Server. I've not tried downloading it to see if it will run on plain vanilla OS X but the requirements page wasn't a good omen.

Depending on your database requirements, MySQL might be sufficient for you but if it has to be Oracle (or support stuff like stored procedures) then I think you'll have trouble.

Any decent flightsims? (I am studying for my PPL and can justify it)

No idea on this one. It's been many years since I've played a flight simulator (Fleet Defender on a 486 was the last one) so I can't say if any of these are decent, but try this Flight Sim 2004 Roundup. Personally, I'm more into blowing **** up and started playing stuff like Tie Fighter rather than Falcon or MS Flight Simulator...

 

[Mactobe]

Thanks everyone! I appreciate it!