I never thought that the day would come that I would own an Apple product and then came the iPhone. I was reluctant at first to jump to the iPhone because I was in such a comfort zone w/ my Palm Treo and I had concerns as to how it was going to sync up w/ Microsoft Outlook (which I have been married to for as long as I can remember). Well, once I got the iPhone, needless to say, it revolutionized my life.
Fast forward about 6 months and I am hacking away during a client meeting on my “less than 2 year old” HP Tablet PC making notes and it just dies. Fortunately I was able to plug it in when I got back to the office to backup everything one more time before it died again, just sitting there, no one touching it. I called HP and got the run around about how they couldn’t just replace the motherboard for me, which I knew was the case, instead they were just going to send me out a new one, for $400 of course. Well, I almost did it, but then I got to thinking… All of my friends are moving toward the Mac, and for the most part I only see excitement in their eyes when they talk about their systems, and for me, well honestly it’s been the opposite. Nothing but heartache and despair on my end. So I decided to head to Best Buy to talk w/ an Apple professional who answered my questions (for almost an hour).
So, with the Rackspace conference coming up in a few days I decided to make the plunge and get a MacBook. Plus, I have another side venture that I have been working on that I needed a tax write off for so I dove in w/ both feet. I opted for the exact same model that my business partner Stephen had gotten about a year earlier since he had been very happy w/ his machine so far.
Well, I brought the machine home that night and didn’t even bother unpacking it, thinking to myself I would wake up in the morning and it would have all been a mistake and I could take the thing back and never tell anyone I almost went Mac. Well, long story short, I plugged it up the next day and downloaded a few programs that I had heard some friends talking about, one of these programs was Coda. I spent a little bit of time playing around w/ it and I have to tell you, I was determined to keep the machine after seeing it. It’s everything in a web development suite that a guy could want. And, honestly it’s not only Coda, there are several other applications that I have downloaded that I see a lot of potential in down the road. These are programs that I hadn’t ever seen before, it was like being at an all you can eat buffet with delicious foods from another country I had never heard of before. (had to use a food analogy, sorry.)
It’s not only the applications and programs that are available, it’s also about the hardware. With my tablet PC, and any PC I had ever owned for that matter, it’s always been about shutting down and waiting on the freaking thing to reboot itself. Well, w/ this MacBook, I just shut the lid when I am finished and open it when I am ready to use it. The reboot on it is very lightweight should I decide to do a shutdown too. No more embarrassing 5 minute waits while sitting in a client meeting to open OneNote.
In addition to the smooth operational aspects of the MacBook Pro, I also noted that the machine itself doesn’t get hot in my lap. With my old Tablet PC I literally could not hold it in my lap, it got hot enough I could iron my pants with them on. Ouch, yeah.
I am looking forward to familiarizing myself on this machine and learning a new OS, something I didn’t think would ever happen for me. I am normally very resistant to change, but in the case of the MacBook Pro, I am making an exception.
I too succumbed to the sexiness of the MacBook this past summer–I love it! Although I have zero idea how to manipulate the operating system the way I did in Windows. The good news is that it is so super stable that I never really have to know how. 🙂 Have fun!
I know what you mean. The thing for me though is that I still don't feel comfortable w/ it enough to make it an actual production or work machine just yet. I keep thinking I am going to gradually get the hang of it but right now I just stare at it like a Boat Captain in the Cockpit of an Airplane. haha.
I could strangle you for giving ever fruit-head in Little Rock something to crow about. Funny they all seem to miss how difficult the transition from Windows to Apple.
Anyways, thanks… traitor
LOL, man I really am liking this thing the more I use it. Dude, trust me, I was hoping I would get it home and it wouldn't work just as bad as you. Haha. 😉
Difficult transition?
My biggest problem was muscle memory. Win usage had me going to the right side of an application to close or minimize while it is left side on OSX.
I used to have to create a lot of PDF's. Once I figured out to hit print and select PDF from the print dialog box it beat the operation on Windows and it is native.
Family photos organized by date, tag, or facial recognition with light editing features. Ships with the machine.
Simple back-up system built-in and for less than $30 I can get software that will also clone my working drive into a bootable back-up. If you've had a hard drive to fail, a bootable external drive is gold.
I've gotten old and grumpy and have learned to appreciate not having to deal with the operating system. At one time I was dual booting my Mac with OSX and Ubuntu but I finally dumped the Ubuntu partition because I just wasn't using it.
I know exactly what you are talking about on the whole right side / left side thing. ha. I keep wanting to right click everything too. I am getting the hang of it more and more everyday, I wish that I would have made the move a while back now. haha.
Now you need to listen the MacCast. Some excellent content dealing with macs on that podcast.