Last week we talked about some of the hardware costs associated with making the switch from frustrated Windows user to high-on-life Mac head. Now, on to software.

Traditionally, home computers have been used for internet access (web surfing, email and contact management, and chat), financial management (Quicken and tax preparation), and word processing (correspondence, family newsletters, and the like). The recent boom in digital media has expanded the home computer into a photo, video and music studio. Let’s look at each of these functions separately.

Internet. Whether your access is dial-up, DSL, or cable modem, setting up the Mac is a breeze. All Macs come with ethernet, and most broadband connections require zero configuration – just plug in the broadband modem, and you’re surfin’ immediately. Both AOL and MSN 8 offer Mac versions (AOL is bundled on all new Macs, MSN is not, for obvious reasons, but can be downloaded for free). Macs come loaded with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE), but once you use Apple’s user-intuitive Safari web browser (with pop-up window blocking, tabs, and page rendering speed that IE won’t have until the next version), you’ll never go back. Netscape runs great on Macs as well. The Mac’s Preview application reads .pdf files faster that Adobe’s reader, and both Windows Media Player and RealOne Player are free downloads.

What about email and chat? Mac OS X’s integrated Mail, Address Book, iCal (calendar) and iChat applications work seamlessly to keep you connected. You can import your Outlook Express mail and contacts onto your Mac. iChat gives you the option of audio and video chat as well, and you can keep your AIM user name.

Macs come with Quicken, and you can import your financial data into it easily. Major tax preparation applications are made for the Mac as well.

Word processing. Your PC didn’t come with MS Office installed, and neither will your Mac (Macs come with a 30-day MS Office demo - the Mac and Windows versions are very similar in feature set and interface). If you did spring for MS Office for your PC, how much of it did you really use? You probably used some templates for party invitations, an occasional business letter, or a fax letterhead. So, do you have to pony up another couple hundred dollars for the Mac version? No. AppleWorks (word processor, drawing, painting, spreadsheet, database, and presentation), bundled on every consumer Mac, can read and write Word and Excel files, and contains all the templates and clip art you’ll need.

What about your biggest investment in PC software - anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-spyware, anti-adware, firewall, and disk de-frag? With your Mac, you’re “free at last”. Total price? $0.

What software will you not be able to run? Cheapo games from the bargain bin at Best Buy. Stuff you picked up at garage sales, that you tried once, then realized they weren’t all that the box art made them out to be.

So, where do we stand on our “changing on the cheap” totals? From last week’s hardware discussion, we find a worse-case expenditure total of $40 for cables and memory card readers. Have we spent any money on software this week? Nope.

What about the Mac itself? This week Small Dog (an Apple online reseller at www.smalldog.com) is offering the entry-level 17” CRT eMac, with 1GB of RAM and a DVD burner, for $899.

You’re thinking, “he forgot to talk about digital media software”. Every Mac comes loaded with iLife, five best-of-breed applications to manage your photos, video and music. Next week, I’ll review Apple’s latest upgrade to the iLife suite. Don’t you just love a good segue?

© 2004 Peter F. Zimowski