Need computer help.

[Lurking Dem]

caveat #1: I am an idiot. If it has to do with computers I'm probably worse than an idiot.

caveat #2: I'm a redhead.

I am sick of Bill Gates. I have had it. I have tried one operating system after another and each one seems buggier than the last.

The IT guys said, yeah, XP was awful but XPPro was okay so use that one. (Had already done 95, 98, NT, 2000) Put it on husband's computer - no problems. Put it on mine - nothing but. Backup utility does not run. Auto updates do not load. Reboot does not work unless you ask it twice. Had to reload stuff multiple times etc., etc.

I can manually copy everything over to disk (which will take, like, forever) and start from scratch which may or may not fix a number of these problems but will be a royal pain in the kiester.

I can go buy the G5 I've been drooling over and have a bunch of stuff I can no longer run which will also be a major pain in the kiester.

If there are critical things on my machine (Word docs, PainterClassic/Wacom tablet are the biggies) can I convert them somehow for the MAC?

Am I insane? Wait - don't answer that one.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

1. While I'm not an expert

I'm wondering if your hardware is capable of handling the software?
Do you have enough memory and all that stuff?
:)

[Lurking Dem]

2. I would think one could run

a small country on this thing. I have 256 MB, 1.70 GHz and I'm not a gamer.

[yella_dawg]

3. By modern standards, that ain't a lot

I'm running 2 X 2.2Ghz and 2.0 GB memory. 256MB is definitely not large. 1 GB minimum for a serious workstation.

It seems to me that WinBlows is lousy at handling flaky or mismatched hardware. All the diagnostics get a thumbs up, then the whole thing crashes. This is just a vague theory though. Try quadrupling the memory first.

[Lurking Dem]

4. It's kinda old, true.

But still!

Damn that G5 is purty!

[FlashHarry]

5. Buy the G5

Then go buy MS Word for Mac. Your should be able to access your files, no problem. The G5 is mind-numbingly fast, and it's run by OSX.2, which is darn-near crash proof. Hell, buy a dual-processor G4; you'll still be leaps ahead of the crowd...

On edit: I have an OSX G4 at work and a Wintel Laptop at home. My laptop is an HP with 356MB RAM, 1.2GHz (Celeron--puke) and Windows XP. I've had it for almost a year and it hasn't crashed once. It has recognized and installed every peripheral I've added without fail. The ONE time I had a problem (it wouldn't recognize the CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive), I used the system restore function and it's worked beautifully ever since. Compared to WIN98, XP is a dream.

[BigMcLargehuge]

6. Word and Painter Classic/Wacom for Mac

If you still have the driver installation disk for your Wacom tablet then you are already Mac compatible. They ship with both Mac and PC drivers as well as both Mac and PC versions of Painter classic.

I had to download a tiny OSX updater for my Wacom Graphire, I bought it years before OSX was even a pipe dream, and I use it ALL THE TIME.

As for Word docs. It depends on what sort of work docs you are using. If they are graphics/table intensive then you could certainly buy MS Office for OSX, but it's expensive as hell, needlessly so IMHO, which is why I don't have it.

Appleworks the stock standard productivity suite that comes installed (I believe, if not it's like 80 bucks in the box) can decode and display. save and format MS Word docs all the way through Office 2000/ Office XP. However, Appleworks sucks for creating/manipulating tables. If you're like me, and just do regular old writing then Appleworks will work for you and you can share docs between Windows and Mac environments.

Another option is to run a Windows emulator on the Mac. Virtual PC worked well enough (albeit S-L-O-W-L-Y) on my G3 350 Mhz iMac with Windows 98 as the operating system. I imagine that in a G5 you woundn't notice a big performance hit.

The benefit, simple, you can run all non-graphic intensive programs on the Mac. The con, they run kinda slow.

E-mail me with more questions if you have them. I use both so am familiar with the caveats of both.

[Lurking Dem]

7. Great info!

Thanks to EVERYONE!

I do have the Wacom disk. Somewhere. I have GOT to be the most disorganized person on the planet. Sometimes I feel like everything important I need to know is on a PostIt that has lost its adhesive.

My Word docs are simple so looks like I'll have no problems.

Now I just have to sell about a million tshirts although I think setting up a website might be easier on the G5 and I'll make some money off of that.