[X4U] Mac Equivalents of Windows apps (was Re: Apple's move to Intel chips)

[Judi Sohn]

On 6/10/05, Timothy Luoma <lists at tntluoma.com> wrote:

> At the risk of derailing any of the myriad of threads about Intel vs
> PPC....
> 
> What apps / types of apps are you thinking about?
> 
> The only thing I haven't found a replacement for is ACT (calendar +
> contact management).  Mac has them, but nothing as good.
> 

I used to think the exact same thing. I lived solely in the Mac world
for a really long time, thinking that I had everything I needed and
could ever want. But I feel like the country mouse who moved in to the
city and now could never look back. There's a *very* big world outside
the fence, believe me.

There are a few choices in most software categories on the Mac
side...but when you have 10 different applications (at least) on the
Windows side to choose from, you can pick the application that best
meets your needs rather than settling on the one that has most of the
features you want or need, but not all.

Let's see off the top of my head...on my PC I have a secure toolbar
that works in IE or Firefox (Roboform) that automatically recognizes
the site I'm on and if I've filled in any web forms (username,
password, codes, etc.) a button pops up that I can push that will fill
in those fields. I've tried every equivalent on the Mac, can't get
close. There's also a PocketPC version so my passwords are all with me
(and secure) and backed up. Trillian is way better than any
multi-protocol chat client on the Mac. All of the money management and
business tools are better on the PC. Better choices in backup software
(although I ended up settling on Retrospect). Intuit software is a
complete joke on the Mac. If you need software for a certain small
market, odds are you're going to find it only available for PC. And
because of the competition PC software is usually cheaper.

Please don't get me wrong...this isn't meant to put down the Mac. I
love my Mac, always will. But there are certain things where the PC
excels and software selection is one of them. Apple's move to Intel
may correct this shortcoming, and for that I'm thrilled.

> 
> 
> > And that doesn't even count all the stuff that runs off of web
> > browsers that require Windows with no way to run in a Mac browser.
> 
> I must be strange, because I don't run into many sites at all that
> require IE.  In fact, in a year with Mac I can think of less than a
> handful of times that's come up.
>

I'm not necessarily talking about casual surfing. For example, I have
a contract with the state of Connecticut to maintain an agency website
and the CMS is IE-only, Windows only. Other websites such as
bluemountain.com or avery.com have add-in components that are Windows
only. Just little things that as a Mac-only user you are conditioned
to ignore or work around but if you can use them, it makes things just
a little bit easier.

Oh, and printer drivers for the PC absolutely blow away Mac OS X ones
(I'm thinking of Epson and HP). This is one area that suffered greatly
in the transition from OS 9 to OS X and it still hasn't caught up.

-- 
Judi Sohn, judi at momathome.com
Mom at Home Design, http://www.momathome.com
AIM: JudiS217