Excel - Mac vs PC

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Black Swan

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Okay guys, holidays approaching. I NEED to buy myself a new laptop, I can’t take another year of this hunk of garbage. I’ve already decided I’m going super light, either Macbook Air 11/13, Sony Vaio X/Z, or equivalent Lenovo.
I mainly want it for consumer use (like stable Mac platform), but don’t wish to lose much Excel functionality (this pushes me to the PC’s).
Anyone have insight into viability of Excel in Mac for advanced use? How does Bootcamp work? Is Bootcamp stable, is it really the same as a PC? Does Bootcamp impact the stability of the Mac side of the system?
Thanks!
 
With bootcamp you create a separate OS, i,e one for mac and one for windows. I have been using windows on my macmini for quite sometimes and haven’t had any issues.
The downside however is that when you boot your computer you need to select either mac or windows (need to logg off if you are in mac to access windows).
I think there is some kind of software that allows you to switch back and forth between mac and windows without having to logg off. hope this helps.
 
Excel for Mac is like rubbing one out with a meat grinder
Exciting for the firs 2 seconds, than turns into a bloody mess
 
insensitive Wrote:
——————————————————-
> I think there is some kind of software that allows
> you to switch back and forth between mac and
> windows without having to logg off. hope this
> helps.
Parallels… you’ll never go back.
 
Macbook Air with Parallels is a good solution… the only problem is that you need to allocate a substantial portion of your hard drive to be a faux windows volume. Normally you’d just get a bigger hard drive and be done with it, but with the MacBook Air, you have to have a solid state drive, and large capacity SSDs are *very* expensive. They might not even offer one that is large enough, unless you swear off having a music and/or video library on the machine.
Most people are able to hold about maybe a month or so before deciding that maybe *just* one video or music collection is enough. Then it slowly grows.
Excel for mac is fine for doing budgets and things, and maybe even some basic financial modeling (like balance sheets and such), but you really will need the windows version to do any intensive financial work, and anything that involves VBA.
 
I’m a mac user.
I use windows for excel. Office for mac just plane sucks in my opinion.
Bring on 2011!
 
ChickenTikka Wrote:
——————————————————-
> I’m a mac user.
>
> I use windows for excel. Office for mac just
> plane sucks in my opinion.
>
> Bring on 2011!
Office 2011 came out in late October. Now I’m trying to see what users are saying.
 
I hate Excel on Mac…I have the Mac office version and VMWare fusion that I use to emulate windows and there I have installed office 2007…the worst point (beside performance as this is an emulation of windows) is the difference in the keyboard…once you are used to some key combination, it’s very hard to work without. Beside that the performance when using heavy macro is not perfect.
If you do not have real other usage then go for a PC…if you want nevertheless performance, nice design, expensive machine then go for a mac (with an bluetooth pc key board for example) you will find all the applications you need.
 
Ugh, I’ve failed to buy a laptop for 3 years now because I’m stuck in this very pickle.
 
Blackswan, I was in the same boat. I’m a mac fan and use an iMac at home, obviously a PC for work. I needed a laptop since my college one crapped the bed. Ultimately there was just too much risk in the Mac for me since I never actually got to experience excel in boot camp on a mac and excel for mac falt out stinks. I do a lot of modeling so it was crucual to me to have the PC feel with all the familiar keyboard shortcuts etc. I ended up going with an Asus ultra light ultra slim line all in and have to say I’m very pleased thus far with it and paid much less for it than I would have for a Mac. Hopefully I still feel the same in 3 years.
 
In my experience, Macs have a longer cycle before needing to be replaced. I replace my Macs about once every three years on average. My PCs tend to need replacing every two years. This justifies about a 50% price premium in my book (ok, maybe a wee bit less after time value of money). Add on top of that that I don’t have to replace a bunch of software I’m used to using and that they just tend to work better (like working in an organized library as opposed to a disorganized one), and I am comfortable that the premium is money well spent.
There are basically only three issues I have with Macs that make them sometimes inconvenient:
1) Excel for Mac is just not like Excel for Windows, and I need Excel for Windows for a lot of financial stuff. So I have Parallels, as well as a cheap windows netbook for those situations.
2) Outlook is not available for mac (maybe it is in Office 2011). Not a biggie, but sometimes I have to sync with a work environment.
3) Sometimes there is software (like @Risk or something) that only runs on Windows.
Otherwise I’m happy.
 
So for you guys that know here is the question. Why not get the mac and put windows on it and use excel. Is that still different?
JW cuz ive always wanted the Air.
 
Ski2Much Wrote:
——————————————————-
> So for you guys that know here is the question.
> Why not get the mac and put windows on it and use
> excel. Is that still different?
>
> JW cuz ive always wanted the Air.
Read Bchad’s earlier post in this thread about memory constraints
 
I think Ski was asking about just wiping the MacOS completely and run Windows on the mac hardware in order to take advantage of the Air’s light form factor.
If you don’t want MacOS at all and just want the Mac hardware, I think that would probably work. I’m not exactly sure how you set up Boot Camp without having a Mac partition, but I’m pretty sure it can be done.
Windows OS does take more disk space to run than MacOS, IIRC, but if you don’t need a MacOS partition, you should have enough space.
 
bchadwick Wrote:
——————————————————-
> I think Ski was asking about just wiping the MacOS
> completely and run Windows on the mac hardware in
> order to take advantage of the Air’s light form
> factor.
>
> If you don’t want MacOS at all and just want the
> Mac hardware, I think that would probably work.
> I’m not exactly sure how you set up Boot Camp
> without having a Mac partition, but I’m pretty
> sure it can be done.
>
> Windows OS does take more disk space to run than
> MacOS, IIRC, but if you don’t need a MacOS
> partition, you should have enough space.
If you just want a fast light machine, look at the Sony Vaio and Lenovo models I mentioned in the origional post. They’re at least as light, similar profiles, in some cases thinner. Honestly, I don’t think the hardware is that different between the two, my attraction to MAC would definitely be the more resilient OS
 
Black Swan Wrote:
——————————————————-
> bchadwick Wrote:
> ————————————————–
> —–
> > I think Ski was asking about just wiping the
> MacOS
> > completely and run Windows on the mac hardware
> in
> > order to take advantage of the Air’s light form
> > factor.
>
> If you just want a fast light machine, look at the
> Sony Vaio and Lenovo models I mentioned in the
> origional post. They’re at least as light,
> similar profiles, in some cases thinner.
> Honestly, I don’t think the hardware is that
> different between the two, my attraction to MAC
> would definitely be the more resilient OS
Bchadwick- ya i was.
BS- I was just looking at the resale on craigslist and the air’s really seem to hold their value better and i was just thinking throw windows only on there and boom, your set. Just thinking aloud and didnt know if that was a viable option (using only windows with excel)
But yes i have seen the Sonys advertised and they are sweet also, id consider either one of them.
 
My experience with the Sony Vaios is that they tend to fall apart after about 15 months of daily use. The main problem was the hardware holding itself together. Admittedly, the last time I owned a Vaio was a long time ago, and after the second one did the same thing, I decided no more ultralight Vaios for me.
For solidity, I liked the Dell lattitude line, but they weren’t all that light.
I currently have an Acer 1410 Netbook that I use for windows and travel (b/c it’s way cheaper to replace than a mac). It’s decent and does the trick, but isn’t going to win any speed contests. I have a MacBook Pro 15” unibody that I do most of my work on.
If I were to get a new laptop today, I would probably go for a MacBook Air 13”. It is light and feels fairly sturdy (though I wonder how it handles accidental drops).
 
Thanks bchad, I’m leaning towards the air with excel 2011 for mac. Then wipe my current laptop and load windows 7 / 2007 suite for heavier excel work from the apt.
 
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