Well, the Mac went back...

[pugilato]

Well, to just bottom line it, I like my Mac better than I have liked any of the multiple PCs I have owned. I don't particularly care much (not anymore, anyway) of how things got to be this way, they are what they are. In my most humble opinion, I think that today, Mac products are better for me than PC products. Boing.

 

[joraft]

... I think that today, Mac products are better for me than PC products. Boing.

I think we're all lucky to have the choices we do.  [smile]

 

[pugilato]

indeed... I dont derive any income from either Apple or Microsoft, so I certainly dont feel compelled to enter discussions about one or the other.

 

[joraft]

indeed... I dont derive any income from either Apple or Microsoft, so I certainly dont feel compelled to enter discussions about one or the other.

And yet you did.  [big grin]

 

[justinmcf]

I bought my first PC (Dell) in 2000.
I bought my first imac PC in 2006.

I know nothing about computers in general. But I find the apple computers a lot easier to navigate than microsoft products.
I have recommended apple to other computer illiterates, like myself, because it is a very user friendly experience.

Looking forward to purchasing the ipad 99.

Justin.

 

[pugilato]

indeed... I dont derive any income from either Apple or Microsoft, so I certainly dont feel compelled to enter discussions about one or the other.

And yet you did.  [big grin]

I meant from now on...

 

[Jesse Cloud]

Not to get into the PC vs MAC battle, but an historical note on Xerox - I once met one of the early innovators in Ethernet over telephone wire (CAT 5).  Before CAT 5 ethernet cable was a huge orange bulky affair.  He said that he previously worked for Xerox who pretty much saw Ethernet as a way to connect printers and his manager told the team to stop working on it.  When they tried to convince him how great it would be, he said "If you really believe that, you ought to quit and start your own damned company."  Well, they did - and became rich.

 

[joraft]

Not to get into the PC vs MAC battle, but an historical note on Xerox - I once met one of the early innovators in Ethernet over telephone wire (CAT 5).  Before CAT 5 ethernet cable was a huge orange bulky affair.  He said that he previously worked for Xerox who pretty much saw Ethernet as a way to connect printers and his manager told the team to stop working on it.  When they tried to convince him how great it would be, he said "If you really believe that, you ought to quit and start your own damned company."  Well, they did - and became rich.

It's not a battle for me, Jesse, just some interesting history.  [smile]

The man you're talking about is Robert Metcalfe, who left PARC and founded 3Com Corporation in 1979 (with partners, Howard Charney, Bruce Borden, and Greg Shaw), and yes they all became very wealthy.
Bob was Chairman, CEO, division general manager, and vice president of engineering, sales, and marketing at 3Com until he left in 1990.

He was CEO of IDG's InfoWorld Publishing Company from 1992 to1995. And for eight years, he gave his opinions about the Internet and related issues in a weekly InfoWorld column. That was a column I never missed, the guy is brilliant.

Since 2001 Bob has been a General Partner at a venture capital firm in Waltham, Massachussets called Polaris Ventures.

3Com was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in April of 2010, was eventually completely absorbed into that company and no longer exists.

Important history or just computer trivia? You pick.  [smile]

 

[jjhomes]

your mac can run windows... check out parallels.com. 

I was told by Quickbooks that using the parallels I will still have problems.
Has anyone used the moneyworks programs?  They seem to be like quickbooks but for mac.  But I don't think they have a contractor edition.
Also, I found goldenseal by turtle soft.  This looks like it could be a good program.  Has anyone tried it?
My neighbor was telling me to just keep the pc and use quickbooks on it.  And send things via email to the mac.  Seems like more work to me.

 

[fidelfs]

If you want a simple one check Corona 3

from the corona tool:

What is Corona?
Corona is a a simple check register and powerful accounting tool.  

Corona provides a single-line entry check register and account chart features for the most basic cash-basis accounting.  Corona's check register features drag and drop item entry and reconcilement, an unpaid bills file, and a check printing drawer.  Corona works the Mac OS Address Book when printing checks and correspondence.

Corona also provides a powerful accounting tool with entry forms for invoices, folios, purchases and payroll.  All of the querying and reporting you expect from an accounting software is provided, from the check register's bank reconcilement, to trial balance and financial statements.  

What to expect with Corona:
You may have little or no setup considerations.  If you already know, or have an idea of, your account chart, enter your beginning bank balance and begin entering transactions.  Corona builds your account chart as you go. As the transactions you enter begin to fill Corona's journals, Corona makes their descriptions and account allocations available to you for subsequent entries.  Corona also builds a price list from the items you enter into sales, invoices and purchases.

Corona's main window features a sidebar for selecting journals for transaction entries, descriptions and data queries.  The transactions list in the main window always displays a journal's previously saved transactions.  Names from the journal's transactions are listed in the sidebar when clicking the disclosure triangle of the Descriptions section.  Empty transaction entry forms are displayed when clicking an Edit button, or pre-filled when dragging a name from the descriptions list and dropping it anywhere on the transactions list.

All of Corona’s entry windows provide dynamic popup selectors for choosing names and accounts, autocompletion, expandable views with adjustable font size, and online help. Corona works with all international date formats in the Date & Time control panel.

The invoice entry form creates printable invoices, accounting for sales tax, and includes a timer for time billing purposes.  Items may be dragged from a dynamic price list and dropped on Corona's invoice window to enter products and their prices.  The price list also has an option for importing saved price lists from disk.

Corona uses the Mac OS Address Book in an efficiently designed window.  Corona also lets you turn this preference off to use Corona's original addresses index.  Both are useful for selecting names for invoices, writing letters and creating email.  

The receipts entry form is useful for recording cash sales reports and cash paid out, or recognizing collections prior to depositing them.

The general form entry is useful for entering beginning trial balances, adjusting entries and monthly summary entries.

The purchase entry form is similar to the invoice entry form.  The addresses index and price list are available for use with purchase entry forms.

Full-featured payroll accounting stores tax rates, employee data, and payroll transactions. It produces reports for employees, monthly posting entries, quarterly tax reports, annual W-2 reports, and payroll advices to accompany employee paychecks.  

Corona features:
- bird's-eye view of transaction data
- editable chart of accounts
- drag and drop transaction entry
- autocompletion support
- entry for deposits and checks
- check and paycheck printing
- invoices and folios entry
- integrates with OS Address Book
- receipts form entry
- general form entry
- purchase form entry
- payroll accounting
- sales tax accounting
- bank reconcilement
- sort transactions
- find transactions
- query with reports
- complete financial reports

 

[atomicmike]

I was told by Quickbooks that using the parallels I will still have problems.
Has anyone used the moneyworks programs?  They seem to be like quickbooks but for mac.  But I don't think they have a contractor edition.
Also, I found goldenseal by turtle soft.  This looks like it could be a good program.  Has anyone tried it?
My neighbor was telling me to just keep the pc and use quickbooks on it.  And send things via email to the mac.  Seems like more work to me.

If this is for a business, and you have an accountant, you'll want to make sure that your accountant is also on board with whatever accounting software you select. QuickBooks runs fine under Parallels for me, but I'm also not a very heavy user of it, so maybe I just haven't run into those problems yet. Though to be honest, I don't know many people who don't have some level of problems with QuickBooks.

One other option to consider would be QuickBooks Online. You only need a web browser to access it, so it shouldn't matter if you're using Mac or PC.

- Mike

 

[jjhomes]

I am also thinking of using MoneyWorks.  This will replace Quickbooks.  However it is not an estimating program like goldenseal.  And I think I would rather use something that is already set up.

 

[pugilato]

I was told by Quickbooks that using the parallels I will still have problems.
Has anyone used the moneyworks programs?  They seem to be like quickbooks but for mac.  But I don't think they have a contractor edition.
Also, I found goldenseal by turtle soft.  This looks like it could be a good program.  Has anyone tried it?
My neighbor was telling me to just keep the pc and use quickbooks on it.  And send things via email to the mac.  Seems like more work to me.

If this is for a business, and you have an accountant, you'll want to make sure that your accountant is also on board with whatever accounting software you select. QuickBooks runs fine under Parallels for me, but I'm also not a very heavy user of it, so maybe I just haven't run into those problems yet. Though to be honest, I don't know many people who don't have some level of problems with QuickBooks.

One other option to consider would be QuickBooks Online. You only need a web browser to access it, so it shouldn't matter if you're using Mac or PC.

- Mike

I used to run Quicken under Parallels on my Mac... the hard drive crashed and have not been able to get an inexpensive version of Windows.

 

[u812]

After much much trial, testing, checking, frustration and ultimately, disappointment, I returned the Imac back to Apple.
A few thoughts to share about my decision as well as Apple. As mentioned in my original threads about PC vs Apple, my needs are relatively modest; efficient cruising of the Net, basic Excel, be able to easily log onto my Citrix based warehouse site.  Excellent customer service, the ability to  speak to a real live person, or bring it into any Apple store for repair, high quality materials, attention to design, stable pricing and many positive comments from MAC  owners heavily influenced me. Good  graphics and the fact that the MACS are not as plagued by viruses as the  PCs were also pluses. There are more reasons, but you get the point.
Anyhow, after losing Internet connections - while my other PCs didn't, and the absolute inability to properly connect to Citrix; this after a whole bunch of fixes with Citrix were tried and failed, finalized my decision to return the Imac and get a PC. I did give some thought to  placing Windows 7 on the Mac and using a program called Parallels or Bootcamp? to enable my MAC  to run Citrix...and Excel, but just wasn't willing to pump out more $$$$ and time into it. I didn't buy a MAC to run a PC.  Also, I was availing myself of Apple's One to One program; but really using that to learn how to use the Mac's features - features that I knew how to use on  the PC, but had to relearn the Mac's version.

Having said all that, I would say that Apple's products are higher quality - the screen's resolution igher than HDTV, the mouse and pad are aluminum, not plastic, etc., etc. and their customer service and support  are leagues ahead of any others - Dell, HP, etc. BTW, went to the  HP website to check their computers out, called the Customer service 800 number and got routed to a HP call center in the Philippines - welcome to the PC world.
I later reluctantly went to Best Buy, spoke to a fairly knowledgeable young salesperson and bought a HP. I say reluctantly, because as also mentioned in my previous post, what I bought for $850.00 yesterday, will be around $650.00 in 3 months and unavailable in 6 months.
So, at the end of the day, the Mac just did  not work for me and had to go back. Shame, better machine, better customer service - all the things I highly regard, but again, just wasn't cutting it for me. Maybe one day though....

Bob

I got so frustrated with windows that I got sucked in by all of the Mac hype and plunked down $2700 for a Mac.
After all the flash and bling the frustration of performance and proprietary software sets in.
I felt like I had handcuffs on, it won't let you do things a PC will period. Apple decides what it will allow you to do.
I found the same thing with My I phone. I'm done with Apple.
My daughter loves mac's so I gave it to her and bought a PC for a third of the price with windows7 pro 64.
Mucho better.

 

[yankee]

Been using iMac since 2008 with quick books Mac 2008, upgraded to lion and upgraded to quickbooks Mac 2011 couple weeks ago, never had any issues and so far so good with lion and quick books 2011

 

[Dog6bravo]

Bob,

One question, did you try to access Citrix with Safari?

Leon

 

[fdengel]

I got so frustrated with windows that I got sucked in by all of the Mac hype and plunked down $2700 for a Mac.
After all the flash and bling the frustration of performance and proprietary software sets in.

This is highly uninformed, and I'm led to wonder if you did ANY research or asked for help before giving up on this, or if this entire story was completely made-up...

Mac OS X is built on a UNIX platform; the kernel is open-source, and there is a wide range of open-source UNIX/Linux software that runs on it.  Apple does have a proprietary GUI interface, but the APIs are completely open, so anyone who knows how can install the developer tools and write software for it -- I've done it.

Windows is built on a closed-source platform.  While there is a collection of open-source software that runs on it, many of the projects have to fight to get their predominantly UNIX-oriented code base to work with the platform, and often it doesn't work as well, or isn't nearly as fast.

Windows is FAR more "proprietary" than Mac OS X.

I felt like I had handcuffs on, it won't let you do things a PC will period. Apple decides what it will allow you to do.

It lets you do MORE than a "PC" will.  If you install VMWare, Parallels, or Boot Camp, you can even install Windows on it (assuming you still have a license of such) if you really want to put up with the more "proprietary" Windows software -- but you can't (legally) run Mac software under Windows.

Apple does NOT lock you in to a proprietary software ecosystem with Macs -- only with the iDevices (which is why I refuse to buy an iPad).

My daughter loves mac's so I gave it to her and bought a PC for a third of the price with windows7 pro 64.
Mucho better.

Better for her...

 

[Bob Marino]

Bob,

One question, did you try to access Citrix with Safari?

Leon

Yes I sure did!

Bob

 

[fidelfs]

It looks like safari 5.1 has issues with citrix runing in 32 bits, i heard some people fixed the problem changing safari to run as 64 bit.

 

[Ken Nagrod]

It looks like safari 5.1 has issues with citrix runing in 32 bits, i heard some people fixed the problem changing safari to run as 64 bit.

Now Bob can buy the Mac he always wanted.  [big grin]