Experts Weigh In - Looking for Real Windows Switch Tips
 

I am looking to switch my notebook from Windows XP to Mac OS X (new Macbook Pro). I'm testing out my ideas on a Mac Mini I have.

I am struggling to find a few key application replacements that work as elegantly as the XP versions. I could run Parallels for those, but because they're key to me, I'd rather not (defeats the purpose and beauty of the Mac).

Key Apps
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1) MS Outlook: I use this extensively. Email in it is nice, but I really use it for the contacts and calendar. I mix up my email use (because my email server is IMAP) between Outlook and Thunderbird, so I am flexible. Should I use Entourage (I'm trying not to use MS products where possible). I use a Treo 650 synced with Outlook. This works really well and the Treo is crucial to me.

2) Cloudmark Desktop: With Outlook, I use the Cloudmark (http://www.cloudmark.com/) spam filter. I've never used anything that works as well as this. It uses a community network and it never fails. Ever.

3) MS Office (Word and Excel, with a bit of Access): I have just about moved to OpenOffice, but I I'm not wild about the X11 implementation on OS X. Should I just get used to it or look at MS Office (I know that #1 is related, but I wanted to approach them separately to see if the answer is different).

4) Trillian: I am trying out Fire on my Mini. It's okay, but not as bullet-proof as Trillian. A few things missing are easy secure chatting with other Trillian users (for some reason most of the people I chat with are Trillian users) and amazingly Rendevous chatting with Trillian users doesn't work (Trillian to Trillian on Rendevous does).

5) eWallet: I use an eWallet software that syncs with my Palm so that I can have credit card, etc., securely stored on my PC and Palm in case of emergencies. http://www.iliumsoft.com/

Here's the software I'm going to run in Parallels (and I'm okay with that unless you have better ideas).
- MS Money Small Business. I just like it so much more than Quicken.
- Sophosoft Collegio. Very cool NCAA football software. But only used once in a while.
- MindJet Mindmapper. Great brainstorming tool. There is probably something for the Mac, but I'm pretty used to it.
- BreezeBrowser Pro. I'm bummed that I haven't found anything on the Mac yet that manageds IPTC tags directly on the files real time (not importing into a db like iPhoto). I would love to find something, but if I can't, I'll live with it.

So that it's obvious I'm excited about the switch, here's cool Mac software I found to replace Windows Software (do you think I'm on the right track):
A) NetNewsWire - replacing FeedDemon
B) FireFox - replacing same in Windows.
C) Phase One C1DSLR Photo software - replacing same in windows.
D) Google Earth - replacing same in Windows.
E) TextWrangler - replacing TextPad.
F) JAlbum - replacing same in Windows.
G) iTunes - replacing same in Windows.
J) Photoshop - replacing same in Windows.
K) Keepass - replacing same in Windows.
Z) Amazing Mac OS X (all of it including the Unix underpinnings) - bulldozing the Windoz OS.

One more question. I have a dock on my current Windows notebook, and love the speed of connection/disconnecting power, network, keyboard, mouse, display. Other than the obvious (bluetooth keyboard/mouse and wifi network), are there any good options to speed up the Mac connect/disconnect.

I'm excited, your help is appreciated.

Greg

1. Entourage is great. I like it a lot. The only failing is that tasks don't sync back to Exchange, but everything else does.

3. I use MS Office, and just haven't found the time to try others. It's very good, stable, works with all the documents from Windows machines.

4. I miss Trillian. Adium is the closest thing I've found. Still not as feature-rich, but very good, very stable.

5. Sigh. I use CodeWallet on my PPC. I have found no solution that works with the Mac. I thought I saw some wallet solutions for Palm that do work, but didn't pay much attention since I don't like Palm OS.

B) Try Camino. Firefox for Mac is pretty crappy, in my opinion, and not very Mac-like. Camino is a Mac-ified version of Firefox basically. Opera 9 is pretty good, might still be in beta though. And of course, Safari is an excellent browser. In fact I occasionally find things that won't work in Firefox/Camino but will work in Safari.

If you like OpenOffice but don't like the X11 bit, try NeoOffice which is the same but without the need for X11.

www.NeoOffice.org
Latest version 1.2.2 or you can pay to be an Alpha tester fro version 2
There is NOT an Intel version yet, susposed to be sometime this summer.

Thanks, unfortunately I have to wait until summer or so for Intel-machine compatible version (not just optimized, but they say it won't run). But that's really good to know.

Others, have input???????

If you are interested in Word processor only, I've heard good things about Abiword. Otherwise, you're stuck with OpenOffice until mid to late summer.

If you don't mind opensource software, give GIMP a try before paying for Photoshop.

I really like Smultron as my simple text or script editor. It has tabbed editing and you can save a project so that when you click on it, a bundle of files are opened at the same time, so that you don't have to open each file one by one. Another opensource software...

This is your opportunity to get away from Access and discover the world of FileMaker Pro :)

I know FileMaker quite well and love it. I'm a Mac guy from about 1985 to 1996. I'm glad to be coming back. Real happy with my Mini.

MS Access is going to be an issue of other people's databases. I'll probably just use OpenOffice for those situations or maybe Parallels.

Others, any suggestions on my top 5 (or anything) above?

Thanks,

Greg

how about wallet 2.5 for a ewallet replacement? It actually usese 448 blowfish and seems like it might fit your bill for an ewallet replacement. It is a universal binary already. Also maybe try spamsieve. Also look into bookendz as a possible source for a docking station.

Do you need a multi-user contacts-and-calendar system, or just for you alone? I presume you're well aware of the built-in iCal and Address Book in OS X, so my guess is that you want a multi-user solution. You said you were quite familiar with FileMaker, so my advice would be to built calendar-and-contacts in FileMaker. It's cross-platform, multi-user, and can transfer its data to other apps. Contacts is effortlessly easy, and for calendaring solutions there are several templates/modules available if you poke around for them (or you can build your own, if you aren't intimidated by IsValid() and the various date functions).

More Email/Contact Details
 

That's a great question. I should have been more specific.

Today, I don't need multi-user (I'm not connecting to an exchange server).

I probably (for no good reason) have a bias towards one application for address book, calendar, and mail. However, if they work well together, that could be unimportant.

Here are the key things I do.

Crucial:
1) Sync to Treo 650 (contacts with multiple addresses and appointments).
2) Manage one contact list (I don't want to have a contact list and an email contact list). I think with Mail and Address Book this works, I think with Thunderbird and Address Book, it wouldn't.
3) Sync calendar to Yahoo Mail.

Would be nice:
A) Invite people to meetings via email. Can iCal do this to non-iCal (probably most likely Outlook Users).

If I need multi-user, it'll probably be to connect to Exchange, at that point, I'd have to use MS Office, but let's not focus on that.

Greg

Looks cool, unfortunately, it doesn't sync with the Palm Treo.

Greg

Would this software help with the Treo? I haven't used either, just heard of it.

Do note that some reviews of Office for OS X say that the OS X version is better than the Windows version.

Yeah, based on what I'm hearing and reading, I might end up with Office (Entourage) and Missing Sync. Good feedback.

Thanks,

Greg

For calendaring I use Airset, it's easier to use a web-based app for me because I can access it from any machine and I don't have to worry about friends/family compatibility issues. I believe you can import from Outlook but I haven't tested it.

As for brainstorming I like notebook and I hear good things about OmniGiraffe.

Gimp is OK but Photoshop rules. Lightroom is promising, beta is free to try.
To store passwords I use Pastor which is very good (donationware).

I thought you had tried these and found them lacking, or needed workgroup support. If not, then definitely try them. Entourage is a single window, but its mail/calendar/contacts are no more integrated than Mail/iCal/Address Book. It really works well. In addition, the integration of the Apple apps with the OS and browser give you other benefits which you lose if you use Entourage.

My girlfriend uses both; Entourage for work-related and the Apple apps for personal. I don't like to segment my life that way, so I only use Entourage.

What I found lacking in the Mac-installed products is compatibility with things like sending invitations to non-Mac users, syncing with Yahoo Calendar (has anyone done that). And some discussion that they don't sync well with the Palm, although I still have to try it and don't buy that there will be a problem with that.

Greg

Somehow I had missed your first post. I'm pretty happy with Firefox, what am I missing by not running Camino. One thing I love is that I still use multiple machines (and will continue to) and I can sync my bookmarks between my PCs and my Mac using bookmark FTP syncing.

I'll definitely look at Adium.

Yeah, I'll really miss eWallet. It's not for web passwords (I use KeePass for that), it's for ID information and credit card information (in case I ever lose my wallet). I really want something that syncs between computer and Palm.

Greg

I don't have a mental inventory of the differences between Camino and Firefox, all I can think of is the Mac "services" menu. This includes spell check, clipping, etc. Check it out. Some things are useful and it's one of those unique productivity boosters of the Mac. In general I just found that Firefox doesn't have the good look and feel of the Mac, but that's certainly just personal preference. I'd suggest trying it. And I'm 90% certain that the bookmarks will sync using your method, but there are also sync utilities to keep bookmarks working between Safari, IE, Firefox, etc. I don't use bookmarks other than what fits in the toolbar, so I don't have a lot of direct experience or recommendations on those.

I had never noticed that iCal events don't work in Windows. That's certainly a drawback.

FileMaker Mobile (a PalmOS / Windows Mobile native app) will sync with regular FileMaker so if your contacts db was in FileMaker you could sync with your Treo as long as you aren't committed to using a different contact manager in Treo.

I've never used yahoo mail, gmail, hotmail, or any of those other freebie mail thingies, so I haven't a clue as to what's involved with an external app synching up with any of them. ::rereads post:: ?? you want the CALENDAR to synch with yahoo mail ?? What does one do with a calendar that integrates with an email program or vice versa? You want it should send emails out to everyone born on Tuesday the 11th to wish them a happy birthday? Sorry, probably something obvious I'm just not getting. Anyway, if the calendaring program was in FileMaker and you simply wanted it to integrate with a plain-vanilla email program like Mail or Eudora or Thunderbird, that would be possible.

Oh, and if you want calendar, email, and contacts all in one system, you can do it all in FileMaker if you shell out for the POP3it and SMTPit plugins. Let FileMaker be your email program :) Then everything's under one hat.

Pretty sure I don't want to use FileMaker to sync contacts (that can definitely be done with other apps), but it could be perfect to replace eWallet, thanks.

I mean to say Yahoo Calendar. It's so that a few people I work with can see when I'm busy, etc.

Greg

Camino is better on Macs, but if you do any web work you will still prefer Firefox, the extensions are too valuable to trade.

SplashID?
 

SplashID is a pretty good encrypted e-wallet. V4. is out for Palm/Win with Mac OS X version due soon. I have liked using V3 of the desktop app with OS X (and have no experience using it with Win).

You could use it in your Win virtual machine until the OS X V4 is released. V4 looks to be free for owners of a Palm/Win V4 license.