Returning from the cult of mac.

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samdouglas

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Topic # 105950 14-Jul-2012 21:48

so ive hidden my imac in the spare room and I am embarking on upgrading my 'games pc' to make it my main computer.... so have just bought an SSD and gonna upgrade to i5/i7 and bump up the Ram...in preparation for windows 8. (I also need to run some Virtual Machines for work etc).

So question is - any suggestions for best tools to replicate some of the stuff i did exclusively on the mac?

For example:

- all my photos are in iphoto (20+ gig). what are the best alternatives? assuming picasa is the tool of choice for organizing photos? and can it upload it flickr pro account too?

- all my home movies i shoot with my Hx9v are in 1080p avchd-60fps or mp4 30fps and are in imovie... any suggestions for windows tools to keep them organized and be able to edit and share them with family?

- music - currently using itunes but would prefer storing my music on my NAS (where i have all my MKVs etc) and just stream to the computers so i dont have multiple copies... any better tools for doing this?

- videos - is VLC still the player of choice for mkvs etc?

Also - having not used windows much the past few years - any 'must have' tools/apps? ive got microsoft security essentials, rainmeter, chrome and a few games and not much else.

Thanks in advance!

Sambo

gzt

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Reply # 655748 14-Jul-2012 23:32

If you don't mind me asking - what is the equivalent of RainMeter for the Mac?

khull

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Reply # 655749 14-Jul-2012 23:38

Not intending to disrespect but you'd be one of the few handful of people I've come across to move the other way. Do keep us updated with your journey.

billgates

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Reply # 655762 15-Jul-2012 24:00

With Windows 8, the Photos hub has built in integration with facebook, skydrive and flickr so you will be able to add/stream your photos to any of these services.

You can edit your home movies using Windows live movie maker.

VLC is prob th best but the built in video player in Windows 8 plays most formats fine and is very minimalistic when it comes to UI.

Even the built in music hub will let you add/point to your NAS to add the music library.

IE10 is really good in Windows 8. MSE/Defender is built into Windows 8 so no need to download it seprately.

I am using bitlocker (built in encryption) and the keys are automatically stored in my skydrive account since I use microsoft account (windows live id) to login into windows 8 which stores my booksmarks, browsing history and few other personal settings on the cloud so when I login into any other windows 8 machine anywhere in the world , my personal settings stay with me.

Since you use a NAS, also enable file history in windows 8 which will keep multiple versions of your personal files as a backup in your NAS (think timenachine).

Do whatever you want to do man.

nakedmolerat

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Reply # 655765 15-Jul-2012 00:05

khull: Not intending to disrespect but you'd be one of the few handful of people I've come across to move the other way. Do keep us updated with your journey.

I moved back to windows 2 years ago after windows 7 release.

Reading reviews on windows 8, i dont think there is any reason to back to Mac. I left windows because of Vista.

samdouglas

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Reply # 655895 15-Jul-2012 11:02

khull: Not intending to disrespect but you'd be one of the few handful of people I've come across to move the other way. Do keep us updated with your journey.

Haha no disrespect. we still Have a MacBook air, ipad and two iPhone 4/4s so I'm not totally going cold turkey :p

I love the Mac os - I don't like the inability to upgrade hardware and don't like desktops having laptop components - like 2 year old laptop video cards in the iMacs. Also don't like paying twice as much for older hardware.

If the experiment fails I will just go back to using the iMac for everything but games and VMs - just like having my main computer, ps3 and work laptop all sharing one monitor - keeps the desk tidy ;)

Behodar

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Reply # 655898 15-Jul-2012 11:06

samdouglas: I love the Mac os - I don't like the inability to upgrade hardware and don't like desktops having laptop components - like 2 year old laptop video cards in the iMacs. Also don't like paying twice as much for older hardware.

It's trivial to install OS X on generic hardware these days ;)

samdouglas

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Reply # 655908 15-Jul-2012 11:15

Yeah I'm currently running lion in a VM, testing it for a bit before I dual boot :)

mattwnz

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Reply # 655961 15-Jul-2012 13:36

I know more and more people moving from mac to windows, mainly because you can customise hardware easier, and it is cheaper. I just hope windows 8 won't cause them to switch back again, as out of the box it isn't as good as windows 7 for a desktop workstation.

Ragnor

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Reply # 656094 15-Jul-2012 18:48

samdouglas:

Also - having not used windows much the past few years - any 'must have' tools/apps? ive got microsoft security essentials, rainmeter, chrome and a few games and not much else.

7zip - File compression (zip, rar etc)
ExtractNow - Multiple extractor
Notepad++ or Notepad2 - Notepad replacement
Paint.NET - Image editor
Handbrake - Video transcoding/encoding
Thunderbird - Decent deskop email client
Media Player Classic HC or VLC - Media player
SumatraPDF - PDF reader
Virtual CloneDrive - Virtual dvd/cd for iso's etc
MalwareBytes - Anti malware scanner
Macrium Relfect Free - Disk imaging/backup
ImgBurn - dvd/cd burning
Songbird - music/media player

macuser

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Reply # 656111 15-Jul-2012 19:25

I went back to windows after 5 years on mac, the performance per dollar for windows is just so much better!

stevenz

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Reply # 657540 18-Jul-2012 11:43

I've gone back to Win7 because my old macbook was getting a bit _too_ old, and the price of buying a new system was just too high given that I could build a system with similar specs to a MacPro for about 2/3 of the price of a Macbook Pro.

Now, I'd happily put OS X on it but unfortunately it's an Ivy Bridge system which is currently a massive pain to get OS X running on, and it looks like I'd be stuck with 10.7 which is an awful OS. 10.6 is rather nice.

On the upside, running Windows means I can play decent games. On the downside, I lose access to a not insignificant investment in OS X applications.

Photos: I like the Picasa tool.

Movie organising: No clever suggestions sorry. I organise things in folders and let Plex deal with it.

Music: Media Monkey - Similar to iTunes but much more versatile.

Movies: VLC is pretty much where it's at unless you want a full client like XBMC or Plex.

@KnightNZ

Behodar

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Reply # 657568 18-Jul-2012 12:25

10.8 supports Ivy natively and fixes many of the main grizzles with 10.7. BridgeHelper gets 10.7.4 up and running on an Ivy machine.