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NT-So I Made the Switch


JohnH

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No, not back to ATX from Drake.

After lots of pressure from friends and acquaintances who are dedicated Mac users, I make the plunge into the Mac world. Guess it was inevitable since I love the iPad and iPhone so much. Ordered a MacBook Pro with retina display and all the trimmings. Any Mac users on this forum who want to give me any advice before I jump in with both feet?

I expect my office will be all Mac by the time Win XP phases out in April, unless I have to keep one PC dedicated to tax prep. Still not sure about how all that will work, but the PC tap dance is getting a little tiresome to me.

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There are windows emulators for Mac, but I'm so new to this arena that I don't know if it would be efficient or reliable to use one for tax prep. The tax software question will definitely be on the agenda for next year. A cloud-based program might be the answer, while still keeping a PC in the office as backup for times if internet is down.

I'm really not sure how this is all going to play out. But I do know that all my other stuff (Word, Excel, etc) runs fine or even better on the Mac, so it appears that the tax prep side of the equation is the only major issue with will have to be resolved by next tax season. In any event, I'm looking forward to less vulnerability to viruses and less hassle overall that what is happening with the PC's.

A computer is nothing more than a tool, and the same is true for software. They are a means to an end, not the end itself. Sometimes it's easy to forget that trying to be a technology expert is at the end of the day a useless distraction from our main focus as accountants & tax preparers.

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I've been using Mac since 1987. I bought my first PC when I started doing taxes - the year AFTER ATX stopped making a Mac version. I use my Mac for all my personal / home uses & the PC for work. (Makes it easy to track business use on PC = 100%.)

However when traveling it is sometimes easier to just take one computer. So I have VMWare Fusion to run the tax stuff. When I used it last year, I was running TaxWise and it worked fine - actually better than on my real PC.

When running the emulation make sure you have enough RAM. The first time I tried it (in 2010?) I was using a different emulator and had 3 or 4 Gigs of ram. The software ran but VERY slowly. It took 30 minutes to start the emulator, open the tax program, print one 1040 to .pdf, and shut down the emulator. I then upgraded to 8 Gig of ram and now it runs without any noticible slowdown.

You may want to look into doing a separate backup of the PC files. The Mac sees your PC emulation as one giant file. So making one minor change on a PC file would require the whole emulation file (psuedo hard disk) to be backed up. I've just backed up my changes to a thumb drive so I can move them back to my PC later.

The only tax software I am aware of for Mac is TaxExact. 2013 is the first year for the Mac version.

If you have other Mac questions, I'll be happy to try to help.

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Thanks Kea.

This is exactly why I posted.

This is a MacBook Pro with retina display, 16GB RAM, 256 GB PCIe-Based Flash storage.

I will remember the second backup.

As soon as I get comfortable with the MacBook, desktop will be next, hopefully during early March. Im still trying to decide whether to go with the mini-Mac for the initial desktop unit.

I will be asking you questions after it arrives next week.

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Happy to help. I'm running a 2.26 MacBook that I purchased in 2010. Currently 8 Gig ram, 1TB hard drive, OS 10.6.8. Nowhere near as fancy as yours, but does everything I need.

The Mac Mini is a good unit. I have my dad's old Mini that he bought a few years before he passed away (2009). It still runs, but I really haven't used it much since I prefer laptops. There was a time when I kept up on all the models but not anymore.

(And I have an iPod Touch, iPhone & iPad, too. So I might be able to help with iTunes backups, but might have more questions for you as you become the better expert.)

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Not sure I follow the math. It would be foolish to compare the cost of a desktop to a laptop - that would skew the data. My research showed I would pay about 1/3 more between a PC and a Mac when comparing apples to apples. This laptop cost me about $2,400 delivered, with taxes paid. A comparable PC laptop seemed to be about $1,900 delivered & taxes paid, which fits the pattern. I haven't run the numbers on the desktops yet, but I'm betting the ratio is the same.

As for software, my tax prep software, Excel/Word, and Quickbooks make up anout 75% of what I do. My other big application is a toss-up between Keynote and Power Point, but I have a strong preference tor Keynote, so the Mac was way ahead of the game in that department already. The majority of my other software consists of iPad apps.

Each of us has different needs, but for me the premium for the Mac seems to be shrinking. Especially since I won't have to be spending all that extra money and wasted time on virus protection.

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Not sure I follow the math. It would be foolish to compare the cost of a desktop to a laptop - that would skew the data. My research showed I would pay about 1/3 more between a PC and a Mac when comparing apples to apples. This laptop cost me about $2,400 delivered, with taxes paid. A comparable PC laptop seemed to be about $1,900 delivered & taxes paid, which fits the pattern. I haven't run the numbers on the desktops yet, but I'm betting the ratio is the same.

As for software, my tax prep software, Excel/Word, and Quickbooks make up anout 75% of what I do. My other big application is a toss-up between Keynote and Power Point, but I have a strong preference tor Keynote, so the Mac was way ahead of the game in that department already. The majority of my other software consists of iPad apps.

Each of us has different needs, but for me the premium for the Mac seems to be shrinking. Especially since I won't have to be spending all that extra money and wasted time on virus protection.

You need to find a different supplier.

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Mac user in the house!!! Ask me anything related to running Windows or how to set it up.

MAS

Good to know - thanks for replying.

I think you and Kea will be able to provide some relevant answers to some real questions after I get the Mac out of the box next week.

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FWIW my Macs have tended to cost more than my PCs, but they also tend to last longer. Granted they are for different purposes. I tend to replace my Macs when there have been enough technological advances that my old one becomes obsolete. I tend replace my PCs when they stop working (or my new tax software requires an upgrade).

It is true that there is more software available for the PC than the Mac. But I've had very few cases where I couldn't get what I needed / wanted for the Mac.

OK, I do have one gripe about Mac laptops - no numeric keypad. Yes, I have a USB one to plug in but it's kinda awkward when typing on my lap.

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Have to hand it to those people at Apple Computer. They know how to create loyalty by providing a great product and super service. The MacBook arrived today - a day earlier than projected. (always smart to under-promise and over-deliver). Took the computer out of the box, read the note that the battery is already fully charged, and took about 20 minutes to set it up. After making the internet connection, I was reading email and am now posting to this forum on it. The quality is obvious in the construction and in the performance. I think this changeover is going to be fun.

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So here is my first question. I bought Office for Mac, so I'm able to do word processing and excel seamlessly between the Mac and PC without an emulator. At this point, I'm not planning to prepare tax returns on the Mac book so there's no need to enable it to run my tax software. (That will change when I buy the desktop Mac mini, but only for that machine)

Bottom line is I don't see any reason to install a PC emulator on the MacBook . The really good emulators seem to require a lot of memory, so I'm not sure I want to commit large chunks of

Memory to that task. Am I missing something in this approach?

BTW, on another note the Magic Mouse is truly revolutionary. One of the coolest things I've ever seen for any computer.

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If I get a client with a Mac running QuickBooks, I tell them to buy a PC or take a hike. When my ipod died I installed a free music player on my android instead of send Apple hundreds of my hard-earned $$$ for another ipod, and I not only like it better, it sounds better than my ipod ever did.

I used to have 3 devices in my car: phone, gps and ipod. Now I just have one device that does all three and they're integrated so the music pauses when a call comes in.

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If you're not running a program that is PC only (ie tax software and perhaps a few others), there is no need for an emulator.

The only other programs I've run into that are not Mac friendly are the Savings Bond Wizard and Quicken. Quicken now only make a "basic" version for Mac, but their old one (2007?) still works fine. I don't use Quickbooks so I can't speak to any compatibility issues.

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