A purchase list for a corporate executive / manager to move from Windows to Mac
I recently moved from Windows to Mac and am posting a full list of all you need to buy to make yourself as productive on Mac as you were on Windows. Hopefully, this will allow you to make a more informed call on if you want to make the change. Also, you will avoid the pain and confusion I went thru when I moved from Windows to Mac.
The list is in the order of perceived severity of what you will need. In other words, things at top of this list are required more than things at the bottom. Here goes:
- Apple MacBookor Apple MacBook Air . Macbook Air is much lighter and more sexy looking but more expensive.
- I also highly recommend reading thru the short book:- Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual. This book has a nice listing where you can just lookup by Windows action (for example, copy text) and find its mac equivalent. Please do skim thru this book. It will save you many hours later.
- If you give presentations or use an external monitor, you will also need a Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter. This is required because Apple laptops do not come with a way to connect with standard VGA.
- If you end communicate with a lot of other people who use Windows, then you will also need Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. This is also required if you have an Exchange-shared calendar or contact list etc. Built-in apple alternatives (iCal etc) will probably not cut it for you.
- One big concern for all users is how to move their current mail, addressbook and calendering information from Windows to the new Mac. This little company makes an excellent $10 utility that saved many frustrated hours for me (and, since then, for my friends). [Of course, if all your data is inside Exchange - and not on your local machine - then you may be okay]
- You should also continue to use your current laptop mouse with your new macbook. Not having a "normal" multi-button mouse is a big source of confusion in many new migrations.
- If you use Outlook tasks a lot, and you are looking for a powerful Mac alternative, you might consider Things or Omnifocus.
- You might also need Parallels Desktop, if you want to continue runinng Windows for certain applications.
