Try the speedier Camino instead of Firefox (though I don't know - those perty Firefox widgets may not work in Camino).

Re point 6.

If you are looking for a two button mouse check out Targus. They produce a nice two button bluetooth mouse with a scroll wheel. Like Apple's BT mouse it has an on/off button and runs on 2 AAA batteries. The package even comes with a bluetooth USB dongle.

Since my PBG4 came with Bluetooth I just paired the mouse and got to work. My only criticism is that the batteries do not seem to last as long as in Apple's BT mouse. I get a few weeks of heavy (daily 8hr+ use) off a single set of batteries Energizer e2's seem to work well.

As a Mac user working with clients in large enterprises I have found that Microsoft keep the balance tipped in favor of the Windows platform through 2 key applications:

- MS-Project
- Visio

There are no applications that are file compatible with Visio or Project. Yes, some apps will read XML versions of project files but I maintain that there are no applications on the Mac that can read (or write) the native project and visio file formats. Until this changes Office for Mac will remain a critical tool but Virtual PC with Win2K and project/visio installed will be absolutely essential to operate in the corporate environment.

How many people actually run Project? In my experience most organizations have a few Project experts and nobody else wants anything to do with it. Too complex. I do miss my Visio, but again, how many people use it? I run into very few.

I hope Entourage gets a makeover for the next revision. In many ways it's much nicer than Outlook, but it falls flat on its face in some critical areas. As a project leader and manager, I need to have some powerful task views which Entourage fails to provide. Entourage's task list is extremely week. Also the contacts views are far behind Outlook, as is the contact searching.

In my markets I find Access to be much more of a stumbling block than Project. The fact that no two versions of Access are even particularly compatible with each other doesn't help the situation much.

And, oddly enough, Paradox is still widely used as the engine in a number of vertical market apps.


For a Visio-like program, consider OmniGraffle.

May be it is the fact that I work with IT groups and project managers that I bump in to Visio and Project more often than normal.

I also accept the point about Access but I find more people run databases in Excel than in Access.

Again it may be the type of clients we work with. If they have databases they tend to be in large Oracle systems and you can access the information using ODBC.

That's my client type too, but maybe they are smaller. I mostly work in under-1000 user environments. Actually these days I'm in much smaller environments as there's more money and less hassle there, but I digress.

I recently did a two-year gig launching a project management software product that runs under Outlook. It was rare for me to run into many MS Project users; that was one of our selling points, PM for non-Project users. I'm with Craig on the Access stuff too, but the good part is moving them to SQL is less painful.

Have you taken a look at
 

Group Organizer (formerly Consultant) from Chronos? It's a nice piece of work and might do your job where ms project fit before.

http://www.chronosnet.com/

There is also another nice app that is similar to visio ... trying to recall the name of it ..its been a while since I ran across it. I'm looking and will post a url when I find it.

On a general note, I would agree that the differences between windows and mac have closed over time. I have both and use both, they sit side by side on the desk. I see a computer as a tool that does a job, and windows is no different in that. Some things its suited to do better and I use it for that.

I think XP is by far the best windows version yet. Issues like driver installations which used to be a headache on NT4 are more or less non issues any longer. The endless hiding of settings hasn't changed, its obviously deliberate.

With a far bigger market and competition, prices for hardware are always less. For those on a tight budget, you can build a faster more hardware capable machine for windows with less outlay. More often than not, I do my drawing on the mac, send the file over to the pc and let it do the rendering work. Renders can take hours to complete. Because I can afford a faster machine, it does that part better, and I can keep drawing on the mac while its working.

To me, its always been a question of what fits best, what enables me to get my work done in the fewest steps, the greatest precision and the least hassle. In that sense, OS X has been a step backwards, and the gap has closed even further.

Here it is
 

Concept Draw

http://www.cs-odessa.com.ua/

I run across it when looking up CAD programs. They also have a group of related apps

http://www.conceptdraw.com/en/products/

I typed into google "switching from windows to mac" and came across this thread.

Very solid information.

Appreciate it

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned in this thread yet, but don't miss Apple's docs for switchers:
http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/

It should be noted that this thread may be a bit out of date. Hayne's provided link is much more apropos.