I was going to reply to aeilkema's  'Enough is enough...' thread  but the reply box didn't come up for me, so at the risk of starting a possible war  I'm starting a new one.

I'm close to where aikelma is with being sick to frustrations with Pc's  and Windows at least.   Have been watching my brother with his new iMac and the way he can just click click and things work just like that, totally simplified and automated with such user-friendly functions that I'm  envious.  No install hassles, no drilling down through endless directories etc, no jumble of wires  behind the unit to untangle etc.  I am infact being totally persuaded to invest in the latest iMac with Snow Leopard and to hell with the cost.

What I'm wondering and asking Mac users to tell me is whether  I can expect problems using  Poser [right now Poser 7]  or the plug-ins I've bought till now which work with them.  How  many plug-in makers even bother making Mac versions?  I also have Carrara 8 pro and will want to use the LuxPose/Lux renderer. Also all my Photoshop plug-ins are  Windows and both Poser and Carrara are the Win versions 32's  and I  don't want to lay out for Mac versions again so I presume I'll also have to install windows in paralell to run them.  I know my bro had problems installing windows so I wonder if that is usual.

Any tip-offs as to problem areas and just rarity with these  and other popular  programs  would be highly appreciated before I  jump in.  Thanks :)

 Hi - i have mac and did own a pc for using poser utilities that were PC only, but I haven't turned the PC on in over a year so I ditched it.  the problem with having a windows partion or a PC networked to your lovely mac is that you might virus your mac.
Maybe if your photoshop is an older version you could get the mac version next of photoshop, and get poser 9 in mac when it comes out (well I think you get pc and mac with poser and also with vue anyway).
D3d does not make mac utilities but I have got mor cloth to work with  a program called winebottler. it does not need windows to run so does not have viruses.
I have got clother to work using crossover - again no windows installation needed and thus is safe.
I cannot get crossdressor to work on my mac.
wardrobe wizard has a mac version.
DS has a mac version but no dynamic clothing.

I don't have an imac as i like to be able to expand and add extra ram and lots of hard drives etc.  so I have a  mac pro.
Hope this helps.
BTW I read that other thread too and thought exactly the same thing.  I've had a mac for years, but only on the PC does one need to keep all the discs handy to reinstall everything all over again when problems occur.  It is very much simpler on a mac.
Love esther

You shouldn't have the problems when you use a Mac.
I've used one for years (the older one is 13 years old and still runs happily - if slowly compared with more modern versions and still has Poser 4 and Photoshop 6 on it).
Nowadays I use a G5 and am running PoserPro2010 on OS11.5.8 (Leopard) without problems.

The newer Macs have an intel chip and run "Snow Leopard" (OS 11.6). I haven't heard of any major problems with Poser and the newer Macs, but someone here may have more info. There were problems wth some apps when Snow Leopard first came out.

Please stop the troll !!!
 

Whats up with members running around calling other members a troll lately?  Seems to me the shoe fits on the other foot.

For the most part I do most things fine on my Mac. :)

This troll thanks you all for replying . :)   Estherau thanks for the details.  If you do not log on to the net with the windows side of things, are you still  as vulnerable to nasties ?   I have a few plugs of D3D, glad there are some workarounds.  I'll have to look around on the Mac forums for more info.

Seems not many Mac users are around here. Thanks again:)

Hi masha,
no nasties, as you call them, when using a Mac.
Checked the machine the other day using the symantec site security check - all clear and safe.
Don't know if a nasty might get through if you're running Windows on your Mac, though.

 maybe try without windows and see how you go?  I don' tneed it, but you will need to buy a mac photoshop.

It seems that some people just have to complain about any opinion or experience that doesn't agree with their own. Best ignored, I think.

I'm an iMac user at home, since 2006 (but still Windows XP at work out of necessity). I have the original 20-inch Intel Core Duo iMac with only 2GB memory. I have had very few issues with Poser since around version 7 SR3, and nothing major. I'm running Snow Leopard now, with Poser 8 and Pro 2010.

I've never used any anti-virus or anti-spam programs on my Mac, and don't ever intend to. It is intrinsically a more secure OS than Windows, as well as being less of a target for hackers. It needs less looking after, and is much more stable generally. Software updates are packaged and presented far better (in my professional experience and opinion) than the frequent and somewhat mysterious (to non-technical users) Microsoft updates I have to manage on client and server computers at work.

If you are talking about Poser Python script add-ons, I've only had one or two issues with such products, all now long since fixed. In general, any add-ons written in Poser Python should be platform independent. There used to be a problem with the different file path separator, but that was resolved with Poser 7 SR3 I think.

I do occasionally need to run a Windows program at home, and I use Parallels for this. The hosted Windows VM (Virtual Machine) is as much at risk from malware as a normal Windows PC, but any problems will only affect the Windows VM, not OS X.

 I bet winebottler or crossover would enable you to use many of those utilities that you need your PC for IsaoShi and then you wouldn't need windows maybe at all?

 TC you might consider getting a Mac Mini, which will cost you less than the iMac.  With the Mini you can use your PC monitor, USB mouse and keyboard.

 I think that lovely big shiny screen on the imac looks too good for most people to say no to.
Love esther

Great to  get all this info, I'm now looking at Mac Pro too.  How would networking go with pc win 7s for rendering animations?

 I have a mac pro, and before I gave away my PC it networked beautifully with my PC to mac pro but I did buy a software called DAVE which made read write between the drives normal.  the drives showed up on my mac as external drives and same when I looked on the PC I saw my mac disks.
I could run PC utilities on the mac via the network with no problem.
Love esther

 I am using an iMac now for a few Month and would never go back to PC / Windows.
As you said , it is all such fuss.

I have all my Runtimes on an external drive so can use them with no problem on my iMac.

Switched in 2007, Poser on last years aluminum 24" iMac, no difficulties here.

I WILL tell you that there is only one thing I miss about Windows that I haven't been able to replicate on the Mac: single click when you hover on an icon. I miss it but not a deal breaker when you look at the rest of the package. Also, you should be aware that Mac hardware tends to run a generation behind "comparable" PC hardware, but I think that's an advantage: because the hardware is "proven" it is more predictable.. 

(sigh, here we go again) the primary strength of Mac OSX is that underneath its GUI runs UNIX, an industrial strength operating system under continuous development for 40 years with an emphasis on security. As a result, it is very stable and mostly invulnerable to viruses, spyware and the like. I crash the web browser from time to time but I have never been able to crash the system - and I have tried. I can give you a link right now that will kill Windows in 15 seconds, which has no effect on a Mac.

PC users like to tinker, upgrade and customize. Nothing wrong with that - except when devices don't play nice together. Because Mac hardware and software are "co-develeloped" the experience is harmonious and hassle free. The following statement will be difficult to comprehend: I spent ZERO time doing system maintenance. I haven't restarted my system in 24 days, 7 hours and 23 minutes. There is no such thing a "defragging hard drives", and it was mind-boggling at first: what do I do will all this free time? I can do art!!!!

I contacted Smith-Micro to let them know I changed platforms, I connected to the Runtime I already had and I was up and running in a few minutes. But many of the utilities are not available for the Mac. My two thoughts on this:

(1) Since I had fewer tools to work with, I got really good with Photoshop fast. Maybe not as convenient, but now I can do anything I want.

(2) this is a long shot, but if you can convince developers to give you the source code, you can recomplie for Mac OSX using tools provided with every Mac sold (xCode).

I'm not going to tell you to get a Mac but my experience has been pleasurable so far.

Attached Link: http://winebottler.kronenberg.org/

 oh - you don't need windows for this winebottler or crossover to work. It's not at all like parallels.
Love esther

just to agree - skip parallels (OS X) and use crossover.app to emulate windows without actually
installing vista on mac.

p.s. "troll" reference may have been caused by fears that this would become an ill-mannered
thread about OS X vs. windows, e.g. which is worse.  however, OP just wanted to know if
switching could be accomplished smoothly.

I use WIndows at work by necessity and a Mac at home by choice. I've been a Mac user since long before iPod and iPhone etc. brought so many PC users over to the Mac side. There is much less disdain for Macs these days on the part of the Windows crowd, and Apple's mass-market success with the "i" products and their online music and app stores have a lot to do with that.

As far as Poser, I have not experienced the video-related problems reported by PC users, though the general bugs and design flaws are just as frustrating for both sides. For either PC or Mac, you need loads of RAM and the more processors the better.

The biggest drawback for Mac users (and not only for Poser) is so many vendors of software, utilities and scripts make their products for PC only. But this is getting better as more Windows users, including developers, expand their horizons. Netherworks, for example, has started making their python-driven products for both PCs and Macs.

Brilliant!.  I'm just about sold.  I mainly recall reading users complain that most Poser-DS   Mac versions of any add-ons are made available so much later - if at all- than pc ones.
So that gives me pause but  I'm reading up on the crossover and winebottler apps too, thanks esther and MN :)    I have a beautiful HP 28" monitor which is less than a year old which I plan to couple with the Mac, though I just read of a couple of ppl in a Mac user group who had probs with setting up in a dual capacity -they just mirrored instead of spreading the desktop.

This was just what I needed, thank you all  so much :)

 I've hooked up my second monitor to my mac pro making my desktop area much bigger (it was the monitor that I used with the PC that I got rid of) and both my  monitors work. I want a 3rd monitor though (wacom cintiq graphic tablet) so I have just bought a special dual link DVI adapter cable, but I haven't tried it yet.
Anyway with two monitors I now have the main poser display on one and the controls on the other.
Love esther

Quote - Brilliant!.  I'm just about sold.  I mainly recall reading users complain that most Poser-DS   Mac versions of any add-ons are made available so much later - if at all- than pc ones.
So that gives me pause but  I'm reading up on the crossover and winebottler apps too, thanks esther and MN :)    I have a beautiful HP 28" monitor which is less than a year old which I plan to couple with the Mac, though I just read of a couple of ppl in a Mac user group who had probs with setting up in a dual capacity -they just mirrored instead of spreading the desktop.

This was just what I needed, thank you all  so much :)

For what it's worth...  I have a 21.5" iMac with another 22" monitor connected to it.  Works fine.  You might need to get an adapter so you can plug it in.  If you do, buy the Apple one.  I had a 'dynex' one that didn't work, and on the forums other people complained about the same problem.

I used PCs at work for many years, the 3-finger salute was a daily occurrence.

I purchased a Mac Mini and am running Snow Leopard and Poser 7.

Life is good  : )

 iirc there was a fairly widespread Mac virus...back in 1996 or so.

 i'm not so sure.  I've only really heard of ones where you had to log in as a root user.  there was an illegal copy of photoshop going around at one stage (and it didn't even have photoshop) but it told people to log in as a root user and thus made their puter vulnerable to the attack that was disguised as an application.

 I tried antivirus software once in the past (very briefly) when there were rumours of a virus, but then I found it interfered with some of my software, and everyone else said it wasn't needed.  I haven't run any antivirus software for many many years.

Quote -  iirc there was a fairly widespread Mac virus...back in 1996 or so.

Totally different operating system to OS X.