Transfer from Windows PC to MAC

Someone i know has just got a Mac, which i know nothing about, but have to go and set up.
So need some answers to some basic questions.

1) What browser comes on Mac as default, what other browsers can be used.
2) What e-mail application comes on Mac as default, what others can be used.
3)How easy is it to Transfer Documents, E-Mails, Contacts, and Favourites from old Windows PC. And where do i go in MAC to see Windows PC. Assuming MAC can see shared folders on Windows PC.
4)What Antivirus/Malware protection is best to use on a Mac.

Windows PC is XP with SP3. Currently using Outlook Express and IE8.

As i said fairly simple questions, but having never used a Mac don't know my way around Menus/Windows to know precisely what i am doing.

1)safari by default and firefox and chrome work
2)i think its just called Mail or iMail or something not sure on 3rd party ones
3) its relatively easy it can see windows share instructions click here
4) apple claims macs are virus free but thats rong i no a few ppl whos had there macs totalled me included before i got rid of mine here's a list of anti viruses available click here

hope this helps in some way

Ash

Edited by acpsd775 (Thu 17-Mar-11 17:15:38)

The mail app is called Mail (or Mail.app) and is perfectly good for personal use (I use it for biz without issues).

There is not a single case of a OSX virus in the wild and very few trojans, all of which exploit bootleg software (although once a quarter Sophos tells us the world is ending).

Don't waste money on expensive and/ or intrusive AV software. You may want to grab ClamXav (http://www.clamxav.com/) and have it monitor the downloads folder and maybe mailboxes.

Do not let the user have an admin account as a day-to-day account. Do not enable root (it is disabled by default); if you user likes porn, then that's just a risk factor. Otherwise prudent behaviour is all that is needed.

Oh and disable the "Open 'Safe' files" option in Safari.

I'd second everything ian_c has said.

All the major browsers (with the notable exception of IE) have Mac versions, I use Opera.

When I switched from Windows (98SE !!) the only thing that took some getting used to was the single menu bar at the top for the foreground program, rather than each app having its own. They're easy machines to get used to, you shouldn't have much problem.

In reply to a post by TTEnt:

3)How easy is it to Transfer Documents,

Transferring documents is easy, but you may need to ensure that they can be read and edited on the Mac.

For a heavyweight user you might need to include MS Office for Mac. Free options for reading and saving MS Word and Excel are OpenOffice.org or NeoOffice, a Mac-specific version of it. The Apple iWork applications do a reasonable job of reading and saving in MS Office formats, and are cheap downloads from the App Store.

MS Word documents can be read in the built-in TextEdit application, but anything complicated can show up distorted.

Some Windows file formats are unreadable on the Mac, period. MS Publisher and VIsio are examples I am aware of.

Further to Alan's comments, if you need to read .docx format you will need the latest version of NeoOffice or Pages (an Apple product) - or Word, of course.

NeoOffice is excellent (if slow to launch) but struggles a tad with very large and complex docs (because of some work I am probably gonna have to bite the bullet and get Word and use for the first time since '04).

Ian, I bought Pages just for that reason - at about £12 from the App Store it is good value.

Yep - for all but complex docs the only issue that come up is the use of Calibri font. It's almost as if MS is trying the break interoperability!

Check on
http://www.macusersuk.org/
to see if there is a local Mac User Group - if there is you can get access to a range of knowledge and help.

Thanks to all the replies, gives me things to think about checking, when i set it up.
Will be doing this on Monday morning so will let you know how it goes and maybe back with other questions