Pondering Switching to Mac
This weekend has been a bit of an interesting experiment – I borrowed a 12″ MacBook Pro test machine from work to take Mac OS X for a spin. My personal machine is starting to show its age after five years, and I can’t say Vista is an especially appealing prospect. If I’m going to have to buy new hardware anyway, I figured I’d take the Mac for a spin (after coveting them at the Apple store for the better part of a year). Actually, now that I think about it, this is not entirely a new experience given that I owned a PowerBook 180 back in university.
After a weekend of playing around on it, I’m pretty impressed. The positives:
- Beautiful construction: The laptop body itself is solid as a rock. It’s sturdy and feels finished, especially compared the plastic of my Dell.
- Keyboard action: There’s something about the snappy spring of the keyboard that is simply satisfying.
- UNIX toolset: I admit it – the first thing I install on Windows is Cygwin. Not having to do that on Mac OS X is a nice value-add.
There are, however, some items that I find annoying. The behavior of windows is a pain; there is some inconsistency about how windows are opened that I find leave the impression of clutter (I’m a full-window man, all the time). I’m also suffering from some apprehension over applications. While most of my applications are either cross-platform or web-based, I can’t help but shake lingering concerns. I mean, Mac OS support is always a secondary concern for most software vendors – what if something really cool comes out, but it’s only available on Windows. Parallels and BootCamp ease this concern a bit, but not completely.
What I’m really curious about is what bugs people about the Mac. What are the features that irk you? What’s the stuff that really annoyed you after you switched to Mac OS X?
There are a couple things about Macs that irk me to this day.
1) The Finder. Same as it ever was since OS 9. Doesn’t remember window sizes and navigation is pokey (ie. no up directory button, instead you press Apple key and click title bar name to find higher elements. Plus is that this works in every app… or should at least…)
2) no apps? Come on, you are so fishing here for trolls.
I’ll bite …. the only thing you are really missing out on is games. Buy a Wii. Your dev environment is probably open source (works on all platforms) and the office apps (Adobe + MS) are all coming out shiny and new. There really are no *really cool* apps anymore. Anything that isn’t web based doesn’t fly anymore, but that is a topic for elsewhere.
3) unix toolset. mostly complete and if you install Fink you could pretty much run the usual gamut of Linux’y desktop stuff. Be careful that the unix’y tools know about the two fork file system that Macs have. Mostly all fixed in Tiger’s unix environment.
4) RAM tax. When you buy a MacBook you get 512MB as 2 x 256MB. Really annoying if you then upgrade to 2GB and have to e-bay your new RAM.
5) Size. the MacBook is not that much smaller than a MacBook Pro anymore. (btw, your 12″ MacBook Pro ? Where’d you get that one? They killed the 12″ in the intel transition)
6) Mighty Mouse. It gets dirt in the scroll button and you have to DISASSEMBLE the thing to clean it. Not fun. That said, I love the mouse…
7) AppleCare. If you buy a laptop, you buy AppleCare. Not an option. My iBook from 2001 (remember buying that one?) would have been less expensive if I had not cheaped out on the “insurance” plan. In general, buy AppleCare.
8) The fact that people that don’t use Macs come up and tell you about how they used to use a Mac and now they don’t but they wish they could if they weren’t so darn expensive….
9) Wait. OS 10.5 is coming. Make sure you get a laptop that can run it. I have found, totally off the cuff observation, that a new mid-end Mac is good for 3 or 4 major OS releases. Buy near the front of the curve for maximum consumer joy.
10) Don’t be such a spendthrift. Spend the extra 200$ and get a better computer that if you hate the OS you can always transform into a Windows laptop! 🙂 By the way, you will save this money in not having to buy Anti-virus software, a firewall, or any other anti-badguy software and in return you will get more CPU cycles back.
And I am done.
I bought a Mac Mini just over a year ago. Some things are easier and some things are harder. Having all the UNIX goodies available is a huge plus. There are a huge number of things available through Darwin Ports.
Some of the annoyances:
-Windows behaviour as you mentioned, especially when viewing PDF’s
-PPTP VPN client doesn’t handle DNS properly
-Operation of Home and End keys (although this can be fixed)
Some of the things I now can’t live without:
-Expose
-iPhoto
Must-have programs:
-Toast
-VLC
Some things that have impressed me:
-Ease of connection with digital cameras, mp3 players, etc.
-Integration between iLife programs
-Complete lack of spyware, adware and other crap
-No slow down over time
All in all, it would be tough to convince me to switch back. For the odd thing that comes up that I really need Windows for (like testing a lab for the course I teach) I use VirtualPC. I’ve also been meaning to look at Qemu which should do the same.
r.
Still trying hard to think about what I miss…
One thing is the inability to rename a file/folder while in a ‘Save as’ dialog. On the other hand, you gain the ability to drag a folder onto the same dialog and change your working directory.
While the benefits of switching are too many, one thing specific to a MacBook/MacBook Pro vs. a Dell/HP/IBM,etc is that you’ll never have to worry about your machine taking 4+ minutes or more to resume from sleep. Plus, you don’t have to worry about your machine becoming a fireball in your bag from failing to sleep.
Also, there is a wonderful world of small apps that are OS X only like PathFinder, Quicksilver, YouControl Desktops, and more that you won’t be able to live without.
Go for it! There is a shiny box with your name on it! You won’t be disappointed and the wait will be worse than staying up on Christmas Eve while your parents finish Santa’s work.
Lastly, as recommend before, when you do buy – get AppleCare. You’ll sleep easier and when Steve J introduces the self-levitating MacBook Pro next year, AppleCare will increase your eBay-value.