I have an opportunity to pick up a macbook pro at a decent price, but I am wondering if this is inviting major headaches, since my primary computer is a PC running Vista 64. I would be using the macbook for on the road downloading and review, no major editing. Probably would just stick a copy of Photoshop elements on it for this purpose.
I'm computer savy, previous job description included sys admin duties, but I have near zero experience with mac's (not since my beloved mac plus so many years ago).
So what kind of headaches am I inviting by going down this road (beside the obvious need for new software)?
Please, no PC vs. Mac wars, just want some feedback about the potential problems with networking, software, other unforseen issues.

I'd go for it! I did sometime back and now find my myself "mildly frustrated" by two operating systems.....

The application issue may be problematic; if you are running Lightroom, there is no problem installing as a 2nd copy on your MacBook. Photoshop is licensed by platform. I'm personally using Open Office on my Mac and with no issues.

Finally, Macs make *great* windows machines via bootcamp. I'm currently on the edge of either purchasing an ultra portable MBP 13" or Dell - 2 issues are making me hesitate:

Gloss Display + possible 6bit panel on the MBP
Crappy build quality (at least compared to Mac) of the Dell

I wouldn't pick a computer with an unfamiliar operating system for road work. You could install Windows on it as a safety net.

I'm currently battling with a dying Dell laptop, hence the possible switch to a macbook pro. Plus I had a chance to play with the 13" macbook pro the other day, sweet machine, despite the glossy screen. I've always liked apple hardware, and the OS, it's just the cost...

I'm confused... you can get it at a good price, which is why you're considering it, and you like the hardware and OS -- but now it's the cost, which .. was ... good?!?

Other costs? There are not many that are necessary, except for separate software licenses for PS.

I use Mac OS X, WinXP and Linux every day (both at work and home).

If you are computer savvy, comfortable with learning a handful of new tools, you can pick up user-level Mac in a matter of a few days -- probably easier than picking up a new camera. But I would agree with rcannonp, that grabbing an unfamiliar OS for road work is a considerable risk. Intel Mac's run Windows just fine (OK, my one expression of severe bias... naw, I'll let it pass. If *all* you do is run Windows, then I think you are overpaying for the Mac HW, and can probably get solidly-built, road-worthy Windows laptops for less.)

Biggest downside to having Mac and PC is the tendency to end up with external disks that cannot be read by the PC (Mac can read FAT32, etc, but PC cannot read HFS+ filesystem, which is the default format for Mac), or cannot boot the Mac (HFS+, generally less of an issue unless you're a serious Mac hacker).

Email may be another sore point -- do you need access to email while on the road?

Networking, printing and such are generally little/no effort to configure on Mac: My Mac can routinely find hidden, protected WiFi networks without my doing anything (but initial config of 802.1X security can be challenging). Printing is a manual setup step, but shared network printers are auto-detected. Shared filesystems w/ Linux/Unix can be painful, but PC networks are discovered w/ little/no config. Fact is, an awful lot of Mac "just works."

You may end up installing several additional Mac packages to get a number of "normal" utilities: NeoOffice for spreadsheet & better word processor, etc. Mac is lacking some obvious user software.

Both my Mac Pro and my MacBook Pro dual boot to either OSX or Vista 64bit. It is the best of both worlds running OS specific software and not having to purchase cross platform upgrades.

There is no downside to this setup, BootCamp is not emulation software so you are not running a compromised version of Windows.

Actually, the forthcoming 'snow leopard' OS X will have full Exchange support

http://www.apple.com/macosx/exchange.html

I have heard of BootCamp, but assumed it was emulation software. So you are seeing good performance running Vista 64 on the macbook pro. I'm impressed. What would you suggest for minumum ram for that setup? Or do you do a complete reboot of the system, so no dual OS's running at the same time?

Regarding external disks and file system problems, I assume if I have external disks formated NTFS the Mac will not read those files if I plug directly into the usb port, but it would if it was shared across the network?

I would recommend at least 4 gigs of ram on the MacBook Pro to take advantage of Vista 64's ability to utilize all of the system ram. If you are booted into the Vista partition of the MacBook hard drive it will read and write to an external hard drive formatted NTFS. If you are booted into OSX it will not.

As I described you have 2 totally independent operating systems on one computer. Because of this you cannot run them simultaneously. Saving common files on a usb flash drive allows you to transfer files between the operating systems.

Major Headaches? No. Major wondering about whether to ditch Windows completely? Yes.

I too currently work with a Macbook Pro (2008 15" for the non-glare screen) when travelling (or doing lots of other things) and a PC workstation at home. Using VMware on the Macbook gives me better Windows XP than the old Dell laptop, which my daughter now uses for games and browsing, for those applications like QuickBooks or MS Word, for when Open Office doesn't handle a client's Word document. VMware also allows me to move back and forth between OSX and Windows without a restart.

Lightroom is fine going back and forth between the platforms except for a few minor UI differences, such as using the Mac version not allowing use of the up arrow to move from the top to the bottom of a keyword list. Except for exports through Photoshop, which as previously noted is platform dependent, to insert the semi-visible copyright notices in images for my web galleries, and not having enough internal drives to hold my image libraries, I'd be willing to work off the Macbook connected to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse.

My only real problems now are trying to find the money to get a new Mac Pro to replace the PC workstation, and wondering whether to submit that Letter of Software Destruction Adobe requires before you can get the upgrade price instead of paying full retail to get CS4.

Having recently made the switch from PC to Mac, I think the Mac OS will not remain unfamiliar to you for long. Just use it for a few weeks before taking it on the road for the first time and you'll be fine. Also, the Apple telephone tech support is second to none in my experience. Each operating system has its idiosyncrasies. Neither Windows or Mac are perfect, and both will crash from time to time. Networking with a Mac, even cross platform, is as painless as it gets.

You have not said what you do for a living. If you are a full time photographer, and you purchase a MacBook Pro, I'll bet you switch completely to Mac before long. I've looked at your web site, and your images are very nice. You are certainly a serious photographer, even if it is not your full time occupation. I'm guessing that your obvious passion for photography will move you in the Mac direction regardless of your occupation. In my case, because I publish and sell a business related software program that runs only on Windows, I must continue to use Windows for that purpose. I have found that Windows runs just as well, if not better on my Mac with Parallels than it did on my Dell. Other than my own software product, the only thing I still use on Windows are Outlook for email, QuickBooks for bookkeeping, and Act for contact management. In my opinion there simply isn't an email program that runs on the Mac OS that is comparable to Outlook, although Entourage runs close. Unfortunately, Act is not available in a Mac version, and I am too used to it to find another application. I do all of my Internet surfing on the Mac, thus virtually no worries about viruses, etc.

The Mac OS is very fast, especially compared to Vista. Windows XP runs okay, but it is now an old technology that will be on its way out after the release of Windows 7. So even if you stick with Windows, a new unfamiliar operating system is likely in your near future.

I do all of my photo work on the Mac OS. Virtually no learning curve was involved with the switch, and now all the screen shots in almost any tutorial match what I see. Allow plenty of time to get a cross platform license exchange for Photoshop if you decide to go that route. Cross platform exchange customer service is a real weak spot for Adobe.

Last but not least, there is no denying the cool factor. I never had a customer tell me they were jealous of my Dell laptop. Aside from my flat screen HDTV and my Drexel Heritage meat pounder, (don't ask) my MacBook Pro is the only thing I have that my kids would like to take at the earliest opportunity.

Good luck.

John

I did a bridge in Netware to allow file sharing between PC's and Mac's in 1990. Not sure what you are running for software, but the technical is pretty easy as long as the application uses a common file format internally.

I use both PC and Mac. Personally - no real difference or preference. But when I like to build networks or play with technical details, it is easier to get access to detail level technical tools on the PC (software services, disk management, etc.)

The Mac trys to make certain things easy by "hiding" the complexity. So it requires a few more tools to get into the software architectures instead of using high level API's when you want access.

I've been using other people's Mac's for quite a while. Actually, I took some Photoshop classes using them, and use both platforms routinely.

I recently bought a 24" Snow Leopoard iMac though, currently running CS4 in Parallels 4 (for now). This is my imaging machine and it's pretty good at it, even with the Parallels printer and scanner setup hassles (tip: only use one VM in window mode, and give it 1MB or less).

My trusty T60 is having display problems, after 3 years. I don't like any Apple laptops, never have. They need a durable, road worthy version but still haven't built one. Why? Until the ATI display driver starting going south, and the LCD getting dim and yellow, I've never had a real problem running XP on it and I abuse the crap out of it.

So I'm in a bit of a conundrum. There's some imaging tools I use that only run on Windows, and there's some filters I like that only run on the Mac. So I really need both. Also, all my business software is on the T60 and I've used Office on the Mac just enough to know it really sucks on OSX (any version).

Basically, my only choice is to replace the LCD and video card on the Thinkpad, and maintain 2 different versions of Photoshop.

But I sure do like OSX 10.6, and my Datacolor puck does a pretty good job of dealing with the glossy screen of the iMac. My trusty T60 is dying a slow, graceful death, but I just can't get my head around using a MacBook or a MacBook Pro as a durable and trusty road machine for both location work, and to run my business with too.

But I digress. The main problem I'm having now is getting the T60 on my Lan so I can move files back and forth much easier. I'm up late right now trying to do just that, again, and nothing seems to work. I've done it before with older versions of OSX but can't get anything happening with Snow Leopard yet. Frustrating. Any links to current resources would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Kevin

PS: anybody want to see an image of a Mighty Mouse after smashing it with a hammer? 2nd worst idea Apple's had since the round mouse on the original iMac. I got a Microsoft 5000 Bluetooth mouse to replace it and it's really, really nice.

I used nothing but a PC for decades, and bought a Mac book pro... with no problems.

My PC is so old and slow I will fling it when I get a desk Mac.