To go Mac or not to go Mac

hanspiethanspiet
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
After 20 years of M$ Window I want to change to Mac or Linux.

I use my pc for



1. writing database applications with SQLServer, Oracle 9i and Acces as backend and Delphi as progr.language I am not attached to Delpy and SQLServer



2. M$ Office



3. Buying older dvd's and place the on a harddisk (including the ones with the latest protection schemes). I use AnyDVD and CloneDVD for this



4. Internet od course



Please can sombody evaluate the above and tell me if an Apple allows me to go with the tasks 1,2 and 3 and what additional stuff(tools, apps) I have to buy.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 16
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,326moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by HansPiet


    After 20 years of M$ Window I want to change to Mac or Linux.

    I use my pc for



    1. writing database applications with SQLServer, Oracle 9i and Acces as backend and Delphi as progr.language I am not attached to Delpy and SQLServer



    2. M$ Office



    3. Buying older dvd's and place the on a harddisk (including the ones with the latest protection schemes). I use AnyDVD and CloneDVD for this



    4. Internet od course



    Please can sombody evaluate the above and tell me if an Apple allows me to go with the tasks 1,2 and 3 and what additional stuff(tools, apps) I have to buy.



    Most of what you do is where Microsoft excels in OS lock-in. This means that if you move to Mac, you will likely have to run Windows anyway.



    There are options to look at like Parallels and Crossover. Crossover can run some apps without Windows but you'd be safer with Parallels at the moment but as I say, that basically runs Windows inside the Mac OS.



    You can run Windows directly on a Mac too so if you like the hardware then it's not a problem at all.
  • Reply 2 of 16
    flounderflounder Posts: 2,674member
    Well, I don't know about 1 and 4 but-----



    2. MS Office for mac



    3. Handbrake
  • Reply 3 of 16
    g_warreng_warren Posts: 713member
    The only problem I can see is with 1, and I don't know enough about this to comment.



    Internet is just dandy for mac users, MS Office will work perfectly on OSX, and Handbrake or Drive-In will satsify your DVD needs.
  • Reply 4 of 16
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Location France, near Spain? Oh, Andorra.. skiing cool!



    Oh and yeah, switch to a Mac, you can't go wrong. Get a 500GB Hard Drive, and if your ever get stuck (though I doubt you will) you can always intall Windows and Linux on your Mac, then you'll be set for the next 20 years, (sort of).
  • Reply 5 of 16
    hanspiethanspiet Posts: 6member
    Thanks for your remarks.

    Don't hesitate to post more.

    I do not know if filemaker could be an alternative.

    Anybody uses it for making database apps?
  • Reply 6 of 16
    trailmaster308trailmaster308 Posts: 699member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by HansPiet


    1. writing database applications with SQLServer, Oracle 9i and Acces as backend and Delphi as progr.language I am not attached to Delpy and SQLServer



    You would not want to try to write apps for MS SQLServer inside OS X. You can RDP to the server and use any tools that way, other wise I suggest booting into XP on the Mac.



    If you access Oracle DB through sqlplus backend then you could get away with some things, but there again, if your tools are M$ only you would want to boot directly into XP.
  • Reply 7 of 16
    hanspiethanspiet Posts: 6member
    @Ireland: Andorra is somewhat around the corner.

    @trailmaster.

    I was databasedeveloper and for clients you have to develop for the Windows OS. I am retired now but I still make database apps for my own use. I am a data(base) freak.

    MS SQLServer and Oracle is at this moment no longer required. However I need a some backend and I need a programming language to access the backend.

    I don't want MS Windows anymore as OS and I am prepared to buy new tools. I am not really interested in hardware as such
  • Reply 8 of 16
    turnwriteturnwrite Posts: 372member
    Get a Mac. Linux is hell. My friend has it as his sole desktop OS and is CONSTANTLY facing obstacles trying to perform the most minor tasks. There is no compatibility with anything and you have to download extra plugins and software in order to accomplish anything.



    Windows and Mac are about equal, but Linux is NOT meant for desktop use.
  • Reply 9 of 16
    fieldyfieldy Posts: 31member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by HansPiet


    @Ireland: Andorra is somewhat around the corner.

    @trailmaster.

    I was databasedeveloper and for clients you have to develop for the Windows OS. I am retired now but I still make database apps for my own use. I am a data(base) freak.

    MS SQLServer and Oracle is at this moment no longer required. However I need a some backend and I need a programming language to access the backend.

    I don't want MS Windows anymore as OS and I am prepared to buy new tools. I am not really interested in hardware as such



    In that case I would look at open source options like PostgreSQL or MySQL, although you can also run Oracle 10g on Mac OS X.
  • Reply 10 of 16
    hanspiethanspiet Posts: 6member
    @Fieldy

    MySQL is ok, thanks.

    But what language is available for Mac OS to build the userinterface (access to the data)
  • Reply 11 of 16
    fieldyfieldy Posts: 31member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by HansPiet


    @Fieldy

    MySQL is ok, thanks.

    But what language is available for Mac OS to build the userinterface (access to the data)



    Personally, I just build web based interfaces to MySQL using Ruby on Rails (Ruby), Django (Python) or Symphony (PHP) depending on the clients requirements, but I presume you can use Xcode to build a user interface and use Cocoa, Java, C or whatever other languages Xcode supports.
  • Reply 12 of 16
    hanspiethanspiet Posts: 6member
    @All

    Thanks guys, sufficient information to start with.

    Topic closed!?
  • Reply 13 of 16
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    MySQL is a good web db, since it is built for situations where there is a lot more reading than writing. Most db products that work for Linux also work on the Mac, so you have other options as well, but MySQL has the easiest installation. Just point and click.
  • Reply 14 of 16
    flounderflounder Posts: 2,674member
    Please keep us updated on how things go!
  • Reply 15 of 16
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    For No.3 also, you can use MacTheRipper [and FFMpegX if you like].
  • Reply 16 of 16
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by fieldy View Post


    Personally, I just build web based interfaces to MySQL using Ruby on Rails (Ruby), Django (Python) or Symphony (PHP) depending on the clients requirements, but I presume you can use Xcode to build a user interface and use Cocoa, Java, C or whatever other languages Xcode supports.



    And you could always use Java, where I work, they use J-Boss and it is really reliable.
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