cold turkey or dual boot - a New Year poll

By ray h, 31 December, 2012

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps
I have been avidly reading the site for a month or so and can't thank the AppleVis team enough. David's post on OS and Windows commands is invaluable. I am, however, curious about how many people have gone cold turkey to the Mac, how many dual boot so they can use some Windows programs, and how many still live in both the PC and Mac worlds. I consider myself a fairly tech savvy person and I'm a heavy computer user. I'd like to go totally Mac, but I can't come close to matching the word processing capability of Word in windoes and, without accessibility for Office on the Mac or significant improvements in Pages, I will probably end up dual booting (or running Windows in a virtual machine on the Mac). Interested to see if others will reply and how they balance between PC and Mac. Happy New Year to all and to AppleVis.

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Comments

By Carlos Alonso on Wednesday, December 26, 2012 - 04:15

Hi, I am another new Mac user (got my Mac mini a couple of days ago) - after searching around it sounds like if you need to use MS Office you can't totally divorce windows yet since you can install it in OSX but is not accessible to VoiceOver, I've also read that Pages is very accessible but Numbers is not so there is no full alternative for screen reader users. Other than dual-boot through boot camp sounds like we can run windows on the Mac running in virtual mode under Parallels or VMWare so that's another alternative. I have a ways to go before I get proficient with VoiceOver but so far I am pretty pleased with the mini (I7 quad with a fusion drive and 16gb - it is super snappy) - I'll probably install Windows in virtual mode but will try to do all my personal stuff on the OSX sie until I get used to it, still have to work with a PC at work. I'm interested in what other users are doing running Windows on the MAC as well as what they're doing whith productivity (office software).

By Typical Janner on Wednesday, December 26, 2012 - 04:15

Having recently bought my first Mac, I have a theory that the longer you have been using Windows, the more difficult it is to make a clean break.

Creating a bootcamp partition was one of the very first things that I did. Not for any accessibility reasons, but because of the years of knowledge and experience that I've got invested in Windows software. I'm not claiming to be an expert on Windows, but I am an expert in knowing what works for my circumstances and needs.

That's in sharp contrast to the Mac, where even the most basic task usually still requires a visit to Google. And as for knowing which is the best application to use ... well, it's just gentler on my old brain cells to simply switch to the Bootcamp partition (smile).

I'm actually typing this from the Bootcamp partition. Not because there is a good reason. I could do it just as easily and quickly on OS X. But, for now, Bootcamp is very much my 'comfort blanket' (smile).

Hi all, what a good topic to discuss. When my last laptop crapped out for the last time, I didn't want to deal with the company again. So I started looking around for a new one. every Windows laptop I saw I wasn't "hooked", into anything it was selling me. Plus the prices were just to high for what I wanted in one, like bluetooth, whereas the other one, had a hard drive that was larger then what a competitor was selling. I finally took theplunge and grabbed a Mac. I've never been happier, and I put windows on that Mac. I had to replace the Mac, reasons I won't go into, but since I have I haven't looked back at windows once. I don't miss to much about it,I'm happy with Pages as a screen reading solution to using a word processor. If you always have windows to fall back on, it's my theory that you won't really try hard to learn a new OS because if you getto frustrated, a few minutes later, you're back in the comfort zone. maybe I'll put windows onhere, maybe not. All in all, I will never dislike windows but until I have to, I'm not using it.

My own situation here is different. My mac experience started in 2007 when I got a macbook as something to try out. When I first began working with the OS, I was trying to find programs that would be suitable for mac users. The virtualisation technology of fusion was great for running windows and I did so for 4 months or so. I then began finding that I needed it less and less, began really studying this OS X and getting in to it. I've been cold turkey now for 5 years and love it. This house is all mac/ipad/iphone/ipad mini/ipod and soon to be apple TV. My partner being sighted was a great reason to get in to macs because she's an artist and likes using all the fancy software. She'd already used macs a good deal. That's my story though, if you are prepared to put the time in and don't need any of the more advanced word processing stuff, go for it and attempt to stick to OS X. VO is mature enough now to impress many folks I think. Sorry for the rambling, I just can't get enough apple kit.

The only time I'm logged in to widows ever is to reply to a message a prof sends me on web campus as they are not bothering to make that feature work on safari yet, or to do a post on get satisfaction, but Yeah I think I'm only on windows now about once a month. I've used numbers to create spreadsheets for the business I ran for a few months for billing purposes and it has a long way to go but it is very much usable if you are willing to take the time and learn it, slowly of corse.

By Signaltonoise on Wednesday, December 26, 2012 - 04:15

While I'll admit that the Mac OS X and IOS have a long way to go in productivity apps like Word, Excel, and Powerpoint on both platforms I've gone cold turkey. I must explain I do have a little bit of vision but I use VoiceOver and a braille display connected at all times. The best word processor I've found is Nisus Writer Express for writing documents such as papers for school. The trick to using the application is to use the menus for things like headers and those type things. I love my macbook pro because I'm studying to be an sound engineer and I decided I needed to learn the mac for my career so, that's why I switched and I won't switch back.

By Fleet on Wednesday, December 26, 2012 - 04:15

I am a grad student and I like to use reference management software called Zotero. I can only add web articles to Zotero through Safari on Mac, but I can only generate a bibliography in the Windows application for Zotero. When I'm doing research, I tend to run VMWare Fusion and pop between Mac OS with Voiceover and Windows with NVDA. I will even go ahead and select text in Mac OS to drop into whatever outline or paper I'm working on in Office with Windows. I'm also still reliant on Windows for Kurzweil 1000, which is hands-down the best studying and notetaking app I've ever used; and Powerpoint, which is unfortunately part of my academic life until iWork gets its accessibility act together.

By Maria on Wednesday, December 26, 2012 - 04:15

Hi. I mainly use the mac even for a lot of the word processing stuff. I don't own a copy of office so have to do stuff I strictly need to do in office at TAFE (college). I decided to go the virtual machine route as I pretty much only use windows to figure out how to explain things to my student who uses windows or to play some games e.g. the play room and use a voice chat site that isn't compatible with mac yet. I prepare my documents in pages, iText express, or text edit and when I am at TAFE I do what I need to do which usually isn't a whole lot. Don't do much with spread sheets so I haven't checked out numbers yet. I love iTunes on the mac and love the fact that voiceover rarely goes silent like some other screen readers can tend to do. I did put my windows machine away when I was trying to learn how to do things on the mac. I hope this has helped.