[Farmgirl22]

I just spent a fair amount of time reading through all the previous posts that I could, and haven't seen this anywhere yet, so I'm going to ask. Hopefully I don't sound too stupid.

I'm buying a MacBook Pro as soon as my financial aid comes in. I've never owned a MAC before, and have limited (technical) knowledge of a PC, even though I've played around with my PC for years. I've always been used to the Windows platform, and am unsure of what the platform is called for the new Macs (Mac OSX???). Is it recommended to buy WinXP for a Mac? Or should I stick with whatever comes on it, and just get used to it? I'll have plenty of time to play with it before I really have to start "using" it, so I'm not too concerned about that.

And if I were to put WinXP on the Mac, would it make the computer more susceptible to viruses? I've heard that a lot of Microsoft programs (i.e. internet explorer) open up your computer to viruses. And also, would that mean that I could just use the PC version of all software, or would I still have to buy the Mac-based version? I'm guessing they will prolly go over all of this with me when I actually put the order through, but in case they don't, I wanted to make sure I knew.

Oh yeah, if I were to avoid putting WinXP on my Mac, and just used the normal platform...am I going to have to install new "kernels" and "service packs" and whatnot all the time? It seems like my "BigFix" is always giving me the little warning pages about how I need to download this or that to fix something that microsoft "forgot" (and it always sounds so dire...."Excel will let someone hack your computer" or something like that, how could someone hack into my computer via Excel anyway???!!!), not to mention the automatic updates that are constantly making me restart my computer....it seems like I have to restart three times a week usually at an inconvienient time or else I get this little pop-up window that keeps telling me to restart....GRRRR!!!! Sorry, I was ranting....I'm finished now.

[VegasACF]

Originally Posted by Farmgirl22

I just spent a fair amount of time reading through all the previous posts that I could, and haven't seen this anywhere yet, so I'm going to ask. Hopefully I don't sound too stupid.

Everyone's learning begins somewhere. Fear not.

Originally Posted by Farmgirl22

I'm buying a MacBook Pro as soon as my financial aid comes in. I've never owned a MAC before, and have limited (technical) knowledge of a PC, even though I've played around with my PC for years. I've always been used to the Windows platform, and am unsure of what the platform is called for the new Macs (Mac OSX???).

Yes, the standard operating system for a Mac is the Mac OS. Your computer will come with Mac OS X pre-installed.

Originally Posted by Farmgirl22

Is it recommended to buy WinXP for a Mac? Or should I stick with whatever comes on it, and just get used to it? I'll have plenty of time to play with it before I really have to start "using" it, so I'm not too concerned about that.

I'm using both OSes on my MacBook Pro, and am proficient with both. There are some things that one platform may do better than the other. If you know WinXP and are more comfortable with it then you might lean towards installing it on a partition on your drive (you'll need to download BootCamp from Apple's web site if you do this before the next Mac OS is released (it's called Leopard, the current is named Tiger)). The instructions for installation and set-up of WinXP is easy to follow, and fairly fool-proof.

If you have lots of WinXP-compatible software already this may also sway you towards installing WinXP, as Mac versions of software are different form WinXP versions. For example, Office 2003 for WinXP will not run in the MacOS, and vice versa.

Originally Posted by Farmgirl22

And if I were to put WinXP on the Mac, would it make the computer more susceptible to viruses? I've heard that a lot of Microsoft programs (i.e. internet explorer) open up your computer to viruses.

There are more instances of malware (the collective term for viruses, worms, spyware and the like) in the world that infect WinXP, simply because it's a bigger target. That does not mean that a Mac is "safe". You should run virus protection software on any computer that is connected to the outside world through any means (other than an electrical cable). That includes disks from other people, Internet access, email, et cetera.

Originally Posted by Farmgirl22

And also, would that mean that I could just use the PC version of all software, or would I still have to buy the Mac-based version? I'm guessing they will prolly go over all of this with me when I actually put the order through, but in case they don't, I wanted to make sure I knew.

You will be able to use WinXP versions of software if you install WinXP. I sort of covered this above. If it's at all not clear please let me/us know and we'll go into greater detail.

Originally Posted by Farmgirl22

Oh yeah, if I were to avoid putting WinXP on my Mac, and just used the normal platform...am I going to have to install new "kernels" and "service packs" and whatnot all the time? It seems like my "BigFix" is always giving me the little warning pages about how I need to download this or that to fix something that microsoft "forgot" (and it always sounds so dire...."Excel will let someone hack your computer" or something like that, how could someone hack into my computer via Excel anyway???!!!), not to mention the automatic updates that are constantly making me restart my computer....it seems like I have to restart three times a week usually at an inconvienient time or else I get this little pop-up window that keeps telling me to restart....GRRRR!!!! Sorry, I was ranting....I'm finished now.

There will be periodic updates available for the Mac OS as well as other pieces of software you run, just like on the Windows side--that's just the nature of the beast. They will not self-install, and generally will not take over your computer forcing you to restart unless you tell it to. If you do have to restart the process is pretty quick on a MacBook Pro.

Let us know if you have further questions or concerns or just need to rant.

[Farmgirl22]

Thank you very much VegasACF, I think you pretty well summed up all of my questions. I'm still torn about whether or not to use WinXP or Mac OSX....I suppose that I will give Mac OSX a try, and if I just don't like the way it's set up, then I'll switch to WinXP. Because, as I said, I have until January before I really have to use it for school. Thanks again!!

[macdudenj]

vegasacf coverded just about everything you need to know. here is the link for understanding what bootcamp is and what it does. it covers installation and the FAQ for bootcamp.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303572

the download link for bootcamp is on the same page

[Yankee Rose]

Hi Farmgirl22 - you won't be disappointed by "switching".

If I were you, I'd hold off a few weeks if you can. The Merom chips were announced Monday (upgraded Core 2 Duo) and Apple is rumored to be soon implementing them in their MBP line:

http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/08/30/merom/index.php