Buying a Mac...need experienced Advice

[jasonb]

Alright folks as said in one of my earlier threads my laptop is an ex-parot...wait i mean a dead computer. As such my wonderful parents have gone the extra mile by saying they will purchase me a Mac + Final Cut Studio + any other software i think ill need.

Ive speced out one of the new mac book pros i want and its going pretty well but the software is really getting to me. I want to be frugile but also get exactly what i want. For personal use ill need a version of Micrsoft Office (IE word, excel, powerpoint, etc.) but for some reason i remember there being semi free versions of this for the Mac or atleast chaper versions of it.

I just need a hand if anyone knows of cheaper ways to do get this sort of software, or perhaps free. I know Amazon but im not really willing to get used software, sorry im frugile....not secondhand.

[computoman]

www.neooffice.org
www.openoffice.org
http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/
unbuntu linux

[davmoo]

my wonderful parents have gone the extra mile by saying they will purchase me a Mac + Final Cut Studio + any other software i think ill need.

Would your parents want to adopt another son? I'm potty trained, I can eat with a fork, I can do my own laundry, and I have my own car...

[fishtoprecords]

For personal use ill need a version of Micrsoft Office

No one "needs" M$ Office. Google Docs works for many, Open Office is free and does all of the stuff that normal folks use Office for. Office has 42 trillion features that no one knows about, can use, or needs. Office should be the Wikipedia definition of bloatware.

[davmoo]

No one "needs" M$ Office.

Yes, some of us do. I have some seriously complex Excel spreadsheets that span multiple workbooks that not even one single non-Microsoft package can get correct. I've tried them all, and I got tired of having to fight with them to get what I wanted.

Microsoft puts out a lot of drek. But there are a few things that Microsoft puts out that are second to none. And Office would be one of those. I'm not saying Office is necessary to everyone, and I'm not saying that everyone will see a need to pay the price Microsoft charges. But there are more than a few of us that buy Office because it does what we want and it does it right while the alternatives can't, not because we just blindly fall for Office.

[rabidbadger]

Your new mac should come with a one month trial of iWork. A very nice, word processor, spreadsheet, slideshow package, give that a shot and see if it fits your needs. Then maybe shell out for Office if iWork doesn't fill your needs.

[tokenuser]

Yes, some of us do. I have some seriously complex Excel spreadsheets that span multiple workbooks that not even one single non-Microsoft package can get correct. I've tried them all, and I got tired of having to fight with them to get what I wanted.

Microsoft puts out a lot of drek. But there are a few things that Microsoft puts out that are second to none. And Office would be one of those. I'm not saying Office is necessary to everyone, and I'm not saying that everyone will see a need to pay the price Microsoft charges. But there are more than a few of us that buy Office because it does what we want and it does it right while the alternatives can't, not because we just blindly fall for Office.Ditto. I have both an XP based laptop (employer provided) with MS Office, and a MB (personal machine - development use) with OpenOffice.

For Word, its a wash. I can do what I need to do in either - but there are some formatting inconsistencies.
For Excel, OpenOffice has improved, but its still not as robust as a spreadsheet application.
For Powerpoint, OpenOffice is actually pretty good.

Having said that, I am considering getting iWorks for my new venture. It is a nice intermediary between the downscaled functionality in OpenOffice, and the bloat/price of Office.

If you need MS Access or Visio (two tools I need as well) - the Mac version of Office doesn't have it. There are alternatives, but thats something to consider as well.

Google Docs ... seriously? No.

Now - something to consider is student/academic pricing. MS Office is a great deal at academic rates, and if you need a Macbook, an academic discount is about all you will ever get out of Apple.

[rabidbadger]

yeah, def check academic pricing, even if you are not in school, family can get one machine a year if they work for a school of some sort, usually.