After some thinking, and MacWorld, I finally pulled the trigger and bought myself a MacBook Pro (17 inch) from Apple (excuse the lack of unboxing photos).
Using it these past few days, I see why people always respond with “Mac’s just work” when asked what is so great about these machines. Coming from 12 years of using Windows (not exclusively - I did work at Apple for a stretch, and I use Ubuntu as well) it seems like Microsoft is more concerned about the OEM’s & channels & VARs & corporate customer’s users first and then individual end user second. But Apple seem to care more about you, the individual user, first, right from the start. I believe that is why things “just work”. Remember the hassle of trying to install an application you downloaded from the web onto your PC? Well, on a Mac you just download the file, open the it up and drag the file icon into your Applications folder and you are done - it just works.
I had written some reasons why I purchased a Mac, but it was coming across more as a list of excuses. Let me just say that I am tired of Windows letting me down and I’m not going to spend more money to let Vista do the same (also, see the latest Mac vs. PC commercial - funny because it’s true). And for those that think it, I didn’t buy this to be cool(er). I wanted something new and reliable and stable, and it seems like I found it.
February 6th, 2007 at 7:06 am
Congratulations! After buying my MacBook back in May, I don’t think I will ever purchase another PC. With Boot Camp and/or Parallels, why would I ever need to? I have a decent PC machine sitting here in my office, unplugged, and unused since before we moved. Kinda sad.
But, be careful, my PC habits had me tinkering with settings “under the hood” of the Mac when I first got it and I ended up with a very unstable machine that kernel panicked constantly. However, simply booting off the install disc and letting it do it’s magic fixed everything and I’ve never had another kernel panic since.
Also, if you haven’t yet done so, get at least 2GB of RAM. It runs so much better, especially when using Photoshop CS2 (or any resource intensive app) under Rosetta.
February 6th, 2007 at 9:59 am
Congratulations!
I have a 12″ PowerBook G4 and just love it to bits.
Talking about Vista, the BBC has an article of an early user experience: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/the.....gates.html
February 6th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Yup, I am making sure I don’t try to work with anything under the hood.
I have the 2 gigs, but I don’t have PS CS2. If I do get my hands on it, I don’t see a reason to use my old PC, ever.
Thanks for the link, swissfondue
February 6th, 2007 at 11:46 am
What about the backlighting evenness of the screen. Is there a bright stripe at the bottom of the screen?
February 6th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
hmm… I haven’t had any problems with the screen.
February 6th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Breaking old Windows habits was the toughest part of the first month of switching for me. I had to keep reminding myself that it was different. A different machine, designed in a different manner, with different type of user in mind. Different, different, different.
Mostly it was because I was making things too hard.
Sad example: I spent an hour trying to find the menu-option or the button, or the keystroke (cursing the lack of right-click the whole time) trying to figure out how to copy a track out of iTunes without having to manually dig through it’s database on the hard drive (the way I had done it the two previous times I wanted to retrieve a track) before I finally realized that drag-and-drop to the desktop worked.
February 6th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
It is going to take me a while to learn all the short cuts, that’s for sure. I get annoyed every time I hit cmd + H because I keep thinking I quit the application.
February 7th, 2007 at 12:21 am
Welcome home Julio!
You will find a world of support here in Mac land.
February 7th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Thanks, Hance