Working with the Internet my entire adult life, I’ve mostly seen Macs as a source of irritation. I’ll be working on a website and the designer gives me a bunch of files without file extensions and I have to spend half an hour working out what application will load them, or I’ll be adding two days extra development time to a project as I debug the CSS so that the site will display on IE.
Actually the largest source of irritation is file endings. I co-write the B3ta Newsletter with my friend David Stevenson, a keen Mac user, and the endless ‘fixing the line endings’ and ‘removing the curly quotes’ as we exchange drafts on email has driven me to distraction.
And yet, two weeks ago, I bought a Mac. Why?
I needed a laptop for my wife to do a bit of email, as my other PC laptop is heavy, it’s often unavailable as I’ve left it in the office.
The secret reason was a bit more boys-toys: “working out how how to use a Mac will be something to geek out on over a dull weekend.”
Scooted about on eBay and found I could buy a 2005 12″ Powerbook at around £550. As these retail new at over £1000, it felt like a bargain.
And I’ll tell you something. Over the last two weeks I’ve fallen in love with my Mac, I’ve turned into a Mac bore. So I figure I’ll just get it over and done with quickly, and instead of winding up all my PC friends by phoning them up one by one, I’ll just write something and let them ignore it in one easy go.
Ten reasons I love my Mac
- The 12″ powerbook is so small I can carry it on the tube without my shoulder hurting.
- Battery life. I get 3 to 4 hrs, meaning I can actually use it for a solid bit of work without plugging it in. Unlike my Compaq which lasts about 1 hr before plaintively bleeping that it needs more juice.
- Having a Mac is like moving to America. Everything is basically the same as the UK, but assuming you can afford it, stuff just works better.
- Tight iLife / iWorks integration. I am so in love with it. For example:
- iPhoto. This weekend a friend and her baby popped over. I took a few snaps and dropped them into a slideshow complete with a Madonna backing track via iTunes. She thought I was a genius and couldn’t believe I’d managed to achieve all that whilst holding down a conversation about prams.
- Mac users are better looking. I took my wife to the Apple store so I could buy a laptop bag and she said, “Gosh. I should send my single friends here. They could pull.” As compared to the time I dragged her to the computer fair off Tottenham Crt Rd, “These people smell. Can we leave?”
- Built-in bluetooth. I transfered my photos off my phone with no faffing about, unlike my PC where I visited a shop, bought a USB dongle and then spent two hours fighting with passkeys trying to get everything to talk to each other.
- Talking point. Last week I was working in a new office full of PC users. Everyone wanted to come over and talk to the Mac user and see how life was different on the other side. It’s a bit like being the token gay in the office. Although as I use a PC at home, it’s probably more like being secretly bisexual.
- I was up and running within minutes. I thought I’d be all twat-fingered and not being able to get stuff to work. On the day my Mac turned-up, I managed to use it to build a quick messageboard / blog website for a friend. It wasn’t any easier, but the fact that it wasn’t any harder than normal means that there’s no reason not to use a Mac as the main tool of my trade.
- It’s so small and shiny.
Ten things that have annoyed me
- No # key. I had to Google to find out how to add a hash to a document. And yet Apple think that I need a § key? Who the hell needs that?
- Bouncy dock items. It’s like having a unruly child with Attention Deficit Disorder. Yes MSN, I can see you’ve managed to sign yourself out, but why do have to keep pestering me until I get clicky on your ass?
- Line endings. Gah. All my posts on Yahoo-groups appear to have random carriage returns placed halfway through sentences. It’s making my emails look retarded.
- Smug friends, who on telling them I really like my Mac, launch into a “I’ve been using a Mac since 1984. Windows is rubbish” zealotry.
- Right click! Yes I know Windows people laugh at Macs for the right click issue, and then Mac people go, “A-ha! But you can plug in a two button one if you like.” But I don’t want to plug in a second mouse – it’s a laptop – I’m currently typing this on my lap. Where would the mouse go? On my knee?
- That six months ago I didn’t tell my mum to buy one and she’s stuck with a PC which she finds tricky to use.
- Fn / Ctrl / Alt / Option / Windows – between the Mac and the PC there are five keys that work as shortcut modifiers. How on earth am I meant to switch between the two machines and know which ones to press? Cut and paste is the worst. On the PC it’s Ctrl C whilst the Mac it’s Apple C. And the Apple key is in the same place as the ALT key on the PC. Gah, it’s slowing me down. Roll on magic keyboards of the future with mini LCDs in each key.
- You know what? I can’t find ten things that annoy me about the Mac. I’ve been racking my brains and there’s no more. In fact, I’m writing this within a web browser and I’ve just realised that there is a spellcheck built into Safari. How cool is that? Not only is it cool, it’s the same spellcheck that works in Textedit and Pages so any words I add to the dictionary are available in all aps. God damn it, I love my Mac. It’s giving me the horn.
End bit
So the question is… Do I replace my desktop with a Mac? Oh gawd, I really want to say yes, but I haven’t really got the spare cash at the moment, but every fiber in my body is going, “yes! never use a PC again. Windows is rubbish.”
And incase you’re wondering. No, my wife can’t have my lovely Mac. She can have the (actually much higher specced) PC laptop that’s currently sitting unloved on the floor.
But I’ll tell you something about this ‘switch’ business. Ex-smokers are always the most irritating type of non-smoker. Are ex-PC users the most boring type of Mac user? Er.. I suspect they are, so if you see me knocking about, remind me to shut up about Macs.
D/S said “Macs are overpriced, overdesigned, underpowered wastes of space. For the same money you can get a pc that walks all over it for power, runs the same or better software and is a whole lot more flexible. ”
While it’s hard to argue with an opinion, My MacBook Pro is the same Core Duo as in the current PC laptops. Feature for feature (ignoring PS2 and serial/parallel) it’s competitively priced. It looks a lot better. It also runs Mac OS X which, honestly is neither the same nor worse than Windows. Are PC laptops more flexible than Mac laptops? I don’t think so.
It’s okay, however that D/S doesn’t “get it”. There’s room for his sort in the world just as there’s room for Mac bigots. I don’t give a stuff what he uses to get his email and do his work. I only care about the tools I get to use. I want the best and for me there’s no comparison on Windows or Linux.
It’s a bit of a shame though that D/S thinks we Mac users are idiots. We have large amounts of disposable cash (evidently – we can afford Macs). We have tried Linux. We have tried Windows. We choose Macs because we like the way things are done. Don’t assume we’re idiots just because we don’t like the system you’re using. We don’t need herd-validation :)
I used to read C&VG when i was about 6 and even back then people just used the letters pages to bitch about who had the best computer or console.
Listen, everyone deep down knows its the Amstrad CPC, so stop it with these tiny penis comments, its a waste of the internet ;-)
Oh dear, more Win users saying macs are crap even though they don’t know how to use them. Here’s something I can’t quite believe but have been told by a PC using friend. He was trying to run a video in PPT over a projector but saw a black hole where the video belonged. The IS people told him that Windows can’t run video in a second monttor so he had to switch off the laptop display. My PB 12″ with a second monitor can run as many videos in either screen as I can fit (and it does, I ofter edit a slew of EyeTV videos at the same time). I think the most i’ve done is 4.
If this is true (and i still find it hard to believe), that’s enough for me to be able to say anyone claiming Windows is more powerful is on very thin ice. I’ve never met anyone who *knew how to use a mac* who claimed that Windows is more powerful. Usually they just had’nt bothered to find out how to do it. When they actually specified something particular, I can always tell them how to do it rather easily. More to the point, why bitch about it when either you don’t know what you’re talking about, or you do and you made your decision but then think you should lecture other people? jesus, some people really have time on their hands…
Amstrad CPC rocks the body that rocks the par-tay! ‘mon the Roland in the Caves!
Now you just need to start using Quicksilver. You’ll never be able to use a PC again!
I love the idea that something can be over-designed.
‘It looks good – must be crap. Looks ugly – must be powerful’.
I also find the idea of being a Windows advocate peculiar – it’s like being into the Ford Mondeo.
Apple-vs-CTRL : You can switch it, but I’ve found that I can now switch from Mac to PC without issues. I can understand the logic of the Apple key – Apple-C is a much easier combo than CRTL-C for your fingers.
Apple’s interesting hardware choices : For every failure, there is something they pioneered, like USB, FireWire, WiFi, axing the floppy disk, and indeed the whole layout of today’s laptops. With the monitor connectors they have switched to DVI now there is a standard for digital connections. I’d even say I’m with them on the one-button mouse, except I’ve always used one with a scroll-wheel and right-button – but it is a good influence on application designers. (I have some Windows apps where the main interface seems to be contextual menus).
PS – can I say that I actually have a degree in computer science, I know how to recompile a Unix kernel, so any ‘Windows machines are for real men’ type stuff does not wash with me. The idea that ‘Macs aren’t flexible’ is laughable – you can script it to your hearts content, in a variety of languages, then attach your script to a folder action, or stick a GUI on front with ease.
For anyone used to working with real computers (Unix servers) being able to use the same shell scripting and compilers is fantastic. (Ditto Linux of course).
Software : While Apple doesn’t have the volume of software of Windows, it has enough. There are several apps I can think of (TextMate, Xylescope) where Windows users are asking the developers for ports. Unfortunately, that’s a no can do, as the Win32 API is missing the features that makes it easy to develop these apps on OS X. WinFX will go a long way to closing the gap, but it will be a while before anyone releases Vista only apps, rather than Vista compatible.
I loved C&VG, subscribed since 1997 and switched to Edge around 2003, and you’re very right about that. In fact I’m now in my first year of doing Computer Games Programming (yay me) from being so inspired reading C&VG and Edge.
I love b3ta btw, yay for it it rox :)
“…whilst holding down a conversation about prams.”
You just got the thing and already you have to zap the PRAM?
Oh, wait, never mind… :)
Great post!
§ key: if you feel geeky, download Ukulele and make your own keyboard layout.
Line endings: maybe yahoo groups expects your browser to be using a super-wide monospace font in the text-entry field, displaying just a few words per line. Try making your window really narrow before you click “submit” (if the site has flexible textareas). Or select a user style sheet which puts a large monospace font into textaruas (monaco or courier).
Cheers.
You can get rid of all bouncy bounces by typing the following into the terminal:
defaults write com.apple.dock launchanim -bool no
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040423170608616
I’ve been using Macs exclusively for over ten years now for publishing, and my conclusion is that they are just the lesser of two evils. What annoys me is the whole Apple smug philosopy, with their ‘gorgeous’ monitors and all the advertising puffery and bullshit, and the wanky designs they keep coming up with which soon date and become obsolete and you have to buy the next model. I’d be happy with a big beige box that is expandable, not some design that overheats and craps out because function is secondary to form. Apple are a pack of arrogant lying bastards, one minute they tell you how good the PowerPC is, next they’re telling how great Intel is. Underneath it all the computers are just glorified PCs anyway. Who makes the groovy keyboard? Mitsumi. It all comes out of Taiwan anyway. I’d never use a Pc for my work but I hate Apple and all they stand for, and the pathetic way they market themselves with their slick campaigns and unsubstantiated claims of greatness. They are a bunch of arseholes and the copywriting on their website make me want to spew.
[...] And then there’s a great blog posting I came across, written by a software developer who was once a diehard PC user. He now fully admits he is one of those people who will bore you to death with his praise for the Mac. [...]
About the line ending issue: I only ever noticed it on Yahoo-groups. It must be a bug on their side. You should be fine with any other web form, if it’s a consolation.
Although Danny says we don’t need ‘herd validation’ I just spent 45 minutes reading every comment on this page so I could listen to all of the great things about macs.
I switched a little more than 2 years ago, and have loved it. It was the best fit for me since 99% of what I do doesn’t require a lightning fast computer. (It was really underpowered compared to Windows machines when I bought it.) What I wanted was a small laptop. And to buy a laptop of comparable size in the Windows world would cost me an arm and a leg, and have features I didn’t need or want.
So I bought a iBook G4 800Mhz.
I wanted bluetooth, so I had it added in when I ordered it. This was a life saver as I moved to England to live for 18 months shortly after buying it and was able to use my mobile to dial into one of the free dial-up services there to check my email.
What do I miss about PC’s? Just that my choice is limited for software and (shockingly) printers. There aren’t many programs for PC that I want to try, but there are some.
As for performance 2 years down the road? It’s just as fast as when I bought it, except for the slowly dying hard drive. I don’t run ever more complex anti-virus (though maybe I should) and I’m careful about what programs I run.
OSX was amazing considering I was using WinME (generally reputed among Windows Users to be the worst ever) before. As for OSX being an OS with training wheels (see Saotome), I say that just because an interface in intuitive doesn’t mean it’s simple. Just because you don’t have to custom configure every second device to keep your system from crashing doesn’t mean it’s not powerful. The options are there if you look, and you usually don’t need to look as far as Windows.
I’m expecting to buy a new computer sometime next year. Hopefully after OSX.5 and iLife ’07 are out so I don’t have to upgrade them separately. Probably a iMac. And I’ll porbably load XP on there too, to keep my options open. Which is now easier on a mac.
My how the world has changed.
Lambkin – you really should swallow your pride and prejudice (no, not the BBC mini-series) and try the Mac again. It’s a whole different animal from OS 9 days, and to be honest you just make yourself sound like a puerile idiot saying that there’s no software – a modern Mac can run a *much* wider gamut of software than any other machine out there (count ‘em: Mac OS X apps, generic Unix/Linux apps AND Windows apps).
As for the modifier key ‘problem’ – it’s Windows that’s being lame here I’m afraid. What on EARTH does that Windows key actually DO anyway ? Does anyone ever use it ? Try using opening a unix shell on Windows and keep on using the same CTRL-C combo for cutting text. Oh, sorry, that breaks the unix process ! No such problem on a Mac – Command-C is reserved for cutting text, and works the same in ALL applications. CTRL-C is, well, CTRL-C – something entirely different.
As for the # issue: it’s no harder to type Alt-3 then it is to type Shift-3. Ok, it would help if that key were labelled. Now, can someone please tell me how to type a é or an ä or a û on a PC ? On a Mac, that’s simply Alt-e e, Alt-u a, and Alt-I u respectively. Takes – ooh – moments.
Right clicking – on a laptop, the CTRL key is as close to your fingers as the trackpad button: it’s no harder to CTRL-click for right click than to actually find and click on the right click part of the trackpad button (if it has one). There are 3rd party additions that allow a click-hold to generate a right click too.
DJ’s comment reminds me of another truth about Mac users (apart from the fact – backup up by research – that they are higher earners on average than PC users):
Mac users have CHOSEN to use the Mac: all Mac users have used Windows, but have made a conscious decision to use the Mac. Considering that it’s been proven that Mac users are on average higher earners, and better educated, than PC users, that says to me that these are people who KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING.
Most Windows users have never used a Mac: therefore they have not made a conscious decision to use the PC; they are not making a choice, as they have never tried the alternatives.
Note: posting to, or even reading this blog, immediately disqualifies you from the ‘Most Windows Users’ category !
I recently had my brother and father get computers (Wintels) and connecting to the internet. I also regret not suggesting they get Macs. I wouldn’t have to deal with constantly running anti-virus and anti-spyware programs because something “funny” happened or some spyware is on their machine. I wouldn’t have them wondering if the firewall warnings that keep coming up can be dismissed or what they should do.
Rob, one word: ‘Parallels’. This program (or Apple’s BootCamp) let you run Windows on your mac (either at the same time, or one at a time). Go ahead, replace that pesky windows desktop. That is what I did and I haven’t looked back.
Want to know the #1 secret about Macs? Open the Chess app (or turn speakable items on), hold down the mic key (esc on mine) and say “tell me a joke”
I was reading this page in NetNewsWire and accidentally closed the window. NetNewsWire does have a history and I couldn’t remember how I got here, so I googled “Beadlehanded” Bingo, straight in!
BTW, the reason I lost the page: I went to look at the WAMP link above. On a similar vein, have you seem MAMP, truly a most wonderful Mac app deserving at big “It Rocks!” nod.
Useful for anyone developing web sites using a Mac.
PS: Right click=Control key – you get used to it.
Oliver Said:
“Mac closes the most important applications out of boredom”
Wuh? Uuuhhhh. no.
“Mac has that really annoying ‘Eject’ button on the keyboard, forcing you to buy another Mac keyboard”
No, just hit and hold F12. Do some research…
I used to wonder why Mac users were so damn smug. I bought an iMac three years ago and now I completely understand. And am now unbearably smug. In three years this iMac has crashed exactly once. I shut it down about once every six weeks when I leave home for several days. I will never purchase another PC. Ever.
I’ve never owned a pc, my first computer was an ibook and now i’m using a power mac. Unfortunatly my pc friends think that i can help them with their computer problems sometimes, but when faced with that florid windows gui its like going from a rational place into the land of puzzles. I try not to go there too oftain. It leaves me with the impression that windows was designed with the idea that the end user must be an idiot which ironically ends up making it harder to get anything done. Also i’ve never encountered a pc which was noticably faster than my old ibook except when it came to playing games (isn’t that what the playstation is for). Only quibble with macs is when it comes to getting the printer to work properly.
one of us! one of us!
welcome, to quote b3ta, you’ll never leave.
Teh best thing is the two fingered scroll on the track pad FACT
I’m a web developer and I can’t seem to find a better combo of software for documentation, prototyping, design, and coding/development than Mac OS X. I get all the traditional apps I need, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver (a pig, but necessary). Built in things like digital color meter and colorsync are a huge help. There’s excellent shareware I use all the time, like OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner. Everything can print to PDF. BBEdit is a fantastic text editor, and TextMate is an excellent alternative. Both integrate seamlessly with the Unix layer, and there I have all the traditional tools: CVS, perl, ruby, php, mysql, yadda yadda yadda. Plus, the OS is super stable, the hardware looks and feels great, everything just *works*. Hot-plugging monitors, fast wake from sleep, drag and drop disc burning, drag and drop installs. Tons of little things I don’t notice until I switch over to my PC.
And then I get home, and I’m loading photos or recording music, and it’s just all so easy. It stays out of the way. Sure, you pay a premium for that stay-out-of-your-face-ness. For me, it’s totally worth it.
I’ve been wanting to switch for some time, but my bread-and-butter as a developer is Microsoft’s .Net Framework which I use to develop websites & windows apps, so i’m tied to using a PC. Might get a Mac desktop and install windows though …
As for good design – its there for PCs if you want it, I bought a widescreen Sony Vaio laptop last year and looks gorgeous (and is to date problem-free), I could’ve bought a similar spec Acer laptop which would have looked ugly. The choice is endless (and if you are brave you can just build your own!)
btw – I dont want to start a flame war on .Net – I also know PHP and Perl, but I CHOOSE to use ASP.Net because I know it inside-out, I have upgraded to Visual Studio 2005 and love it, best software i own
Lambkin says “no damn software”.
Bwaaaaahaaaahaaaaaa. Troll.
New feature just added to MacBook Pro 17″, put 2 fingers on the trackpad whilst clicking gives a right click.
For fucks sake, people choose a machine depending on what they want out of it and what they need to do. They weigh up the pros and cons and make allowances in order to fill their requirements. We ALL give up something in order to gain something else no matter what we use, cos there ain’t no such thing as a pc/mac/box that’ll fufill 100% of the requirements of 100% of the people. Maybe you’ll get a few people who will try the other choices and discover it is better for them, but to assume everyone who still uses you old choice is unenlightened is pretty fucking condescending, no matter what your preference is. (e.g saying mac users don’t get enough apps or pcs users have to put up with lots of crashing.)
Get rud of the official MSN client and try Adium, it has, among many very nice things, an option to bounce (or not) for any event.
btw that wasn’t aimed at the original posting, which was very funny. I’m talking about the 90s flaming war going on in the comments.
My PC hasn’t locked up using normal software as far as I can remember (although it has happened when I’ve tried to do something stupid with drivers, or when I’ve installed faulty or buggy software like alpha versions). I can keep it on for weeks if I want to (and would if not for the electricity bill) without a problem. My antivirus software minds it’s own business and does its job without my involvement. So does my hardware firewall. Everything runs nice, smooth and fast, and has done so since I installed the system when I got a new harddrive two years ago. Photoshop, Imageready, Firefox, all the other software and games that I use daily all work perfectly.
I can understand that someone would choose a Mac if all you want to do is work, but I just keep wondering why everyone seems to have had all these problems with their PC’s when I haven’t had serious problems since the windows 98 days….
I can’t be the only person in the world who knows how to use a PC running windows XP without messing up?
If you just use common sense (like, not running suspect homemade 1337 H4Xx0R!!11oneoneone software that you got from “some guy’s” homepage), and don’t happen to be a total idiot, a PC can work just fine.
I can’t find one single reason for switching to Mac. And don’t even try with “but they look soooo nice”, because you can get a PC case made from effin’ mahogany if you want to.
For laptops look at shaky’s post…
The problem must be that people don’t stick to doing what they’re supposed to with PC’s…
Ok, so I was thinking about getting a laptop as I’m currently trying to make my life as portable as possible. I want a computer I can put in a backpack and take around the world with me.
My PC has recently decided to sulk and has been stuck in 4 bit colour mode for the last 2 weeks, with occasional teasing glimpses of semi-stable full colour once in a while. It is nearly 5 years old after all, and about due for an overhaul anyway.
Then I read this page.
Put the three things together, and I’ve just bought my first Mac laptop on eBay tonight. How long before the smugness sets in?
Aaaah, I look after 30 odd mac Minis all linked together running a strange multi-media concept called Threshold. I love em. The rest of my network is all windows. I very tempted to put together a solution to upgrade the whole network to mac sjust for the hell of it. Problem before was specialist apps that were PC only. Now there is Boot Camp. Hmmmm, will find time one day and get an new intel mac and have some fun . Oh, I use a lovely Mighty mouse, right clicks beautifully and the scroll button feels like a nipple. How distracting is that on a day to day basis.
No platform is perfection and I personally don’t care what people use, (unless I’m asked to fix them by someone I don’t really like, then it’s a case of “I’m really a _______ user, sorry.”)
But it’s very funny seeing the long diatribes of Windows users defending their prejudices!
There’s the blanket statements of absolutes: “I’m sorry, Macs are a joke. I said so.”
The stereotypes: “All Mac users are gay.”
The condescension: “Macs are just shiny toys. That’s all there is to it.”
The appeal to conformity: “Everyone uses Windows. Why go against the flow.”
The frustration: “I tried using a Mac once, but it didn’t have a right button and I couldn’t use it.”
The denial: “Windows viruses and spyware? What viruses? What spyware? I’ve been using Windows since version 3.11 in 1993 and I’ve never seen one.”
The boasts of technical proficiency: “I’ve been running Windows XP since when it was called Windows 2000 without the Fisher-Price skin, and I’ve never ever had to restart!”
The anecdotes: “My friend’s sister’s mother-in-law has a crappy iMac and has to restart it every 15 mins. It’s a joke.”
The bigotry: “Mac users are smug morons. I wish they’d all die.”
And that was only in the first 10 posts!
Mine arrived a couple of hours ago. They really are TEH SEX! Connecting to my home wireless network was a piece of piss. I turn on the Mac, it says “do you want to connect to XXXX network?”, and I click yes. How painless is that?
Yeah, I can see a bit of getting used to where all the new buttons are and all that, but in just my first hour I am already in love. Oh my, but widgets are too much fun.
If Macs could do spreadsheets and dbases better they would kick ass. unfortunately as normal office zygotes are stuck with ‘em
A gamer with a mac is equal to a VCR with no porn videos.
Macs work well. More poaer to you for using them!
my question is – how many people try out a PC and swear they’ll never use a Mac again?
I wanna Mac
I don’t suppose anyone would give me one…
I’m deprived, been on windows my whole life!
(well It’s worth a try!)
Re: right-clicking mice/trackpads
I’m SOOOOooooo sick of hearing this complaint about Macs. I’m a longtime PC user who understands the desire, nay, NEED for right-clicking on PCs… damn, you need it a hundred times a day. So, of course, if you’re a PC user and you look at a Mac, you just assume that you are going to need it a similar amount and that its asinine that it isn’t included on the Mac. I dare say that it even takes a certain amount of time using a Mac to let go of it… but guess what… after a month or so, you’ll forget all about it because – gasp – the OS was *designed* for one mouse button. I probably go a month at a time between needing a “right” click on a Mac, and when I do its a simple matter of pressing CTRL and clicking… the new MacBooks make it even easier allowing you to just place a second finger on the trackpad and clicking. Really, you’ll wonder why you were making such a fuss in a few months.
I may be only 12 but I do know a bit about pcs and macs, im a mac user now beacuse I make movies and music etc etc but if you like the windows keyboard get an adaptor, usb on 1 end and ps/2 on the other, thats what im using right now.And if that has not persuaded you to switch fully,the new intel macs (doo-doo-da-dee) can run windows with a free app called boot camp just install boot camp (download from the apple site of google it) and have a windows install disk at the ready.
*macs are shiny*
I am only converting to Macs to get rid of the crapy windows. I am happy in wasting $500, just to forget the existence of windows.
Everytime I use a Mac I do SOMETHING wrong, I can’t quite put my finger on it, but everytime I use one, I manage to crash it. Much to the horror of the person who owns it, or, the next person in work to try to use it.
I’m a Mac user from the states and have truly enjoyed reading this blog. I love my Macs, and pass them down to my kids and grand-kids when I upgrade. This is my 10th upgrade since 1988, and I’ve run out of grand-kids, as the older ones are buying their own these days!
Thanks for the fun read. I’ve learned a lot of words I didn’t know before!
Mac on, my friends!
Just to piss in the fire a little bit about some of your Mac advantages, there… having bought myself a brand new HP-Compaq tablet notebook back in about february-march time this year.
1/ Lightness / ability to carry about. This brother has it in spades. Same 12″ 1024×768 screen, but it weighs about as much as an average 200 page A4 refill pad. Not the lightest, but even my weedy geek arms are able to comfortably hold it up to look at things around eye level, or to use the pen with it in tablet mode. Toting it around is nothing. My lunch weighs about as much, if i bring a half litre bottle of water.
2/ Battery life. The work time I get out of this thing with what appears to be a ludicrously small battery (the ancient Nokia 100-series mobiles given to the On Call staff in my former medical workplace had bigger ones) is nothing short of incredible. All hail centrino. It seems to average about 9 watts power drain in word processing / web browsing mode, which is comfortably over 5 hours off a fully charged 47Wh battery. That’s WITH wireless internet turned on, by the way.
3/ Built in bluetooth… yep… I got that. It’s still a pain in the knickers to make it work, but it’s there.
4/ I try to keep myself looking dapper and smelling sweet if possible :) And the unit itself is, despite being a bit grey, quite cute and shiny (it’s sparkly granite grey)
5/ It just fired up and went, no arsing about. The keyboard is one of the best i’ve used outside of desktops. I rarely have any problems with it; the small recurring niggles have been squashed after a short exchange with HP customer support (though i haven’t personal experience, apple’s CS has been reported to be a bit… fractious… before). Plus I know windows like the crack in my arse, and between touchpad OR touchstick taps, “special zones”, and the built in buttons, I have a full 3-button-plus-wheel simulation.
I probably would miss iPhoto etc if I’d ever use them, but I’m happy with my life the way it is without that superficial stuff in it. I take some photos. I show my friends. Some get printed. A few are uploaded to MSN Spaces. Life carries on.
My bonus card for this little beauty is that, for starters, it’s a tablet – I can fold it up and have it basically turn into a slightly thick slab taking up minimal space in the world, and still do all the usual mousy (and some keyboard) things with it, plus a load of coolio Wacom style stuff. Plus it has a 2 year warranty, and as I crossed the dark side to get it from PC World (easter sales), it came with a deck of freebies. Finally, in power saving mode (OK, it’s down to 800 from 1733mhz, but that’s actually still enough for XP to run very smoothly thanks to it’s half decent graphics chip), it’s absolutely and beautifully silent.
So, I paid £800 for it to your £550… that £250 was money well splurged I think. :-) It’s actually REPLACED my desktop… a big, noisy critter that when I look back at it, was just wasting space and electricity and giving me tinnitus – and wasting work time, as the dust it collected and the heat it put out caused a lot of instability issues. I’ve kept it’s keyboard, mouse and monitor, to make myself a dual-screen workstation with the addition of a PS2-USB converter, but the system box is now gathering dust in a cupboard. The external DVD writer doesn’t add a great deal of clutter on the surprisingly few occasions it gets used.
See, you don’t necessarily have to go to Mac to get the shinyness. You just have to look around more. Simply because most PC manufacturers have bought into the odd “bigger is better – give it a 17 inch widescreen already!” idea doesn’t mean they all have. In fact most have something small and sweet in their range, even *shudder* Dell have a mini Inspiron (for a horrendous price). I’d steer away from the Vaios though, unless you really need something you can fit in the inside pocket of a generously tailored suit jacket. The battery life is alarmingly good, but the keyboards are just far too reminiscent of the ZX81, thanks to their thin-ness and miniscule size, and that’ll really cramp your style.
All the same, I hope your Mac continues to give you lots of computing joy for years to come, and you can overcome the Beadle-hand issues from the shortcut keys. Peace :)
Incidentally, i’m not a total Mac virgin. Between school music lessons, university labs and the odd friend owning one, I’ve experienced bits of OS 6 (7?) through X … I can take it or leave it really. It certainly didn’t really feel any quicker or easier to use, wasn’t free of crashes, and some of the stuff it did drove me completely nuts – such as effectively having to close a program twice to completely get rid of it. I wouldn’t say it’s worse than windows, but it certainly doesn’t seem a great deal better, as as Windows is what I know inside out from picking it up around 1993/94 (having been an Atari GEM head previously), I’ll stick with that to avoid a sticky transition period.
And I like having more buttons on my mouse. I’m not a one-fingered alien, and being able to hit right click for a shortcut menu without having to bother the keyboard (particularly if i might be doing something else with it at the time – e.g. using Ctrl to actually select multiple files), use middle-click to activate special features in browsers, the scroll wheel to go up and down without the vertical scroller or the arrow keys etc really really helps get more done in less time. Having to piss about with keyboard keys (PARTICULARLY with a tablet mode of work, e.g. walking around checking stuff off) or hunt about for menus and scrollbars loses a lot of time and accuracy. Even the tablet pen has a “right click” button on the side of it, and the “eraser” end simulates middle click (or something).
Final points regarding things people have said up there.
Re: Connecting to wireless network being easy with Mac…:
Me sets up wireless router in house. Me turns on laptop and presses the button that enables previously useless built-in wifi circuit. Wintel laptop + Windows XP effortless finds and logs onto network. I am browsing internet less than a minute later. I later find out it is able to pull the same trick in my grandmother’s flat, as one of her upstairs neighbours has wifi also.
Re: People choosing what’s best for them AND MS Word running better in OSX. Err, no it doesn’t. This actually reminded me that in the run-up to buying this miniature beast, I DID check out the MacBooks in Comet, and then finally wandered into a full-on Apple Shop so I could have a proper play with one. Including office applications. I wasn’t impressed, especially after looking at the price, and walked out again. For starters, it can’t do full-screen, which I occasionally like to use so I can see the whole page AND edit it at once (something I got used to simply to have readable full-page-width text when previously using a VGA-resolution laptop and a *1994* version of Word – 12 years later and Apple still doesn’t have the option). Several other features were also missing or at least hard to find, but that was the killer for me, especially as the interface unavoidably chowed a lot of screen area.
Accented characters in Windows? OK, I’ll accept it’s more difficult, but it doesn’t take long to learn the Alt+nnnn codes for the (very) few you need to use; acute accents are simply Alt Gr + the appropriate letter (for UK keyboards); and MS Word, maybe even windows itself? also offer a piss easy method of character composition (vs the already fairly simple method of using Character Map or Insert Symbol)… can’t call it to mind right now as I don’t have to use it like ever, but it’s something like “press the letter you want accented, then AltGr or Ctrl-Alt plus the punctuation symbol key that most resembles the accent”… e.g. A plus the colon key gives you umlaut-A, O plus 6 gives you an O with a little hat on it, etc. A bit easier to use than the apple method of typing in the modified sound it produces (which i sure as hell WOULDNT remember)
Viruses, slowdown and all. Funnily enough my own personal computers don’t suffer from this much. Maybe because I use half decent (yet totally free) antivirus software and protection utils rather than the lobotomised shit that is supplied with most machines – and requires payment to use after six months – or pirated, badly, and never updated, by the average user. And I don’t act like a putz with my PC. Anything that’s going to be installed is vetted, and deleted if it’s no good or invades the system, rather than sitting there to clog everything up forever more. On the other hand, I’m forever having to “repair” the PCs of various family members who more or less take a virtual shit all over the operating system every other time they go online and download some shiny toolbar or instant messenger add-on. For these guys, I WOULD reccomend a mac, assuming that macintosh itself is immune from this idiocy.
After all it’s not just the OS but the way that you use it. You could have the nicest car in the world, but it’ll still be a wreck after three years if you abuse it and never service it (old Mac users – remember having to “rebuild” the desktop?). Whilst the VW Polo I had for my first car was twelve when I first had it, fifteen when I sold it, and a lovely ride, if a little slow and short on luxuries – mostly surviving that long because it was looked after.
I think in my life I’ve had to deal with a grand total of about six virus events. One on my own PC when I first connected to the internet and didn’t know about all the security stuff, and my first AV package picked up something thankfully benign. Four others on other people’s machines (two each from usual suspects who also suffer from a lot of slow running etc…). One on the Atari from a dodgy floppy.
Multimedia and creativity applications, etc. I don’t know about you, but the PC seems to be swimming in the bastards. I used to do a lot of messing about with audio and video at university – all of it through a fairly modest 850mhz Duron *PC*. This laptop came supplied with more free trials of art, video, etc software than I knew what to do with (mainly because of the built-in graphics tablet that offers similar functionality to one of those $2000 wacom jobs with the built in LCD… hmm!), and that only got worse when I installed the copy of Nero that came with the DVD writer. I’ve got all this brilliant stuff that’s offering to turn my home videos into sumptuously laid out DVDs at the connection of a USB 2.0 lead, a click of a button and the insertion of a blank +R disc, but no time to actually make the content or watch it once it’s burnt. On the odd occasion I have the free time it’s almost exclusively spent in living many experiences and taking some photos to look at in my old age, rather than endlessly reliving a smaller number of them and boring everyone stiff with them.
(Maybe the Mac users lapping this stuff up have empty enough lives and heads to be able to properly enjoy the experience? :D)
But … for all that, the idea of it being an easy way of getting some kind of Linux-like OS in my life without a great deal of hassle (even if it IS BSD-based and a bit crippled) is a bit inviting. One to bear in mind if I feel like giving linux a serious bash in future. Y’know. If I find a compelling reason to.
PS I’m currently grinding through an ECDL course online… do current Macs and their browsers support Authorware? I don’t know either way. But if they don’t, that’s one lifestyle enhancing thing I’d be short of. Also as far as I’ve heard, Mac Opera poops on Safari from a height… guess what browser I’m using on my PC :)
(ahem, apart from for the ECDL that is – the player only works in IE or oldskool Navigator, in PC land, because authorware is just a touch out of date compared to flash)