To purchase the 8204WLMi or MacBook Pro... - Page 2

Haven't heard anything about the Mac, but then again I haven't frequented Mac forums. I do know that many Mac enthusiasts steer clear of first-generation models, because they're notorious for havin problems that miraculously disappear on subsequent revisions.

I'm in a relatively unique position. I bought my daughter the lower-spec'ed MacBook for her graduation (woe is me, I have to shake the system down and install some software before I give it to her), and I bought the 8204 for work (well, work bought it for me). I have the 8204 and haven't had enough woes with it to regret it, and will get a chance to compare with the MacBook around Mar 6 they say. Looking forward to it.

- Ed

It still amazes me that you guys can compare Apples to Acers without talking about the operating system or what you are going to use the computer for.

From my experience I can tell you that even the basic files like Word opens up much differently if it was created on a PC when sharing on a Mac. For an example an attorney gives me a file in Word that he redlined with changes and wants me to see and print the changes along with the redline. Majority of the time on a Mac you will never see this, just the final change without the redline. Without a printed sample I would never know if I was looking at something incomplete. The problem just doesn't end with Word but can get much more complex as the files become more involved. This problem works both ways too. You can do yourself a huge disservice by purchasing a Mac just based on specs without concern to how it will be used. Its bad enough that majority of new computer users have issues when sharing files or even working on the computer themselves but do not complicate things further by just jumping platforms all together.

I doubt that majority of us ever went to school to learn how to use a computer and trouble shoot issues. We learn from trial and error and help from a friend who has faced some issues beforehand. When getting a Mac realize that there will probably be less people to help you understand your computer even though its much more intuitive to use than a PC IMO.

while i doubt the macbooks will be 100% problem free, i doubt there will be any show stoppers. the centrino platform at the heart of the macbooks is not a new architecture. this is actually the .. 3rd or 4th generation albeit the first dual core offering.

that said, most problems will be software related and fixable via patches. reference the USB power issue that all core duo's have. this has been aknowleged by microsoft (and proven by anandtech.com to also effect single core offerings) as a software issue and not necissarily and inherent flaw in the hardware, at least not one that cant be worked around.

*edit* chaka, is this a microsoft word to iWork issue? or are you talking about a word document created on microsoft office for OS-X then shared to word/MS office on a XP machine? cross compatability with two different word processors has always had issues. i would like to know how MS office on OS-X and MS office on XP cohabitate though as i do plan on getting a macbook for my own personal use (read not corporate use)

It's funny but in all my years of running Macs (since 1994; System 7.1), I have only ever had file compatability problems with Word files. I can't think of any other cross-platform file type that has given me a problem.

dnkypnch, Since I do majority of my work on a Mac my example is when someone gives me a word file created on a PC then I open it on a Mac using Word for Mac OSX. Formatting and fonts are always the issue when doing this as well as the redline example I gave you. However I have not seen any outstanding errors when going from Mac Word to PC Word.

tasslehawf, I have encountered problems in Illustrator, Photoshop, Quark and all of the Microsoft families of office products such as Word, Excel, Powerpoint. I don't know what kind of work you do but in my business I get files from all walks of life, PC and Mac users. Even the Mac users will give me a file that will open up completely messed up on my end so adding a different platform will just further complicate things. If everyone in the world just embedded the fonts and saved everything as a PDF, then there wouldn't ever be an issue.