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Week One on the Mac

March 24, 2006 at 19:09 | Print This Post Print This Post

It’s now coming to the end of my first week as an OS switcher, and it’s been a very good week. Things have happened quickly, but the more I use it, the more pleased I am with the MacBook Pro and OSX. When day 2 of the switch started earlier this week I thought I would be running the laptop and my desktop PC in tandem for a while, and so as my thoughts turned to sync issues I got busy installing Foldershare and the like to make sure the machines played well together. But a funny thing happened on the way to the Mac: I started exploring OSX software, and after a few early discoveries (thanks again to everyone who very generously left software tips in the comments or in my inbox - please keep them coming) began to truly understand why Mac fans are so dedicated to this box.

Macs are a joy to use. This machine is a profoundly compelling mixture of design and engineering creativity - software feels the way it should. Hardware is a pleasure to use. Put together, this system is smart, fast, beautiful, creative, and, particularly in the design of the software, relentless about challenging preconceived ideas about how software should work and what it should do. There is artistry here. And passion, too. This isn’t a computer - it’s a cult. Thank god.

So, after only a few days, it’s obvious to me now that I’m here to stay. And I’m no longer thinking of sync - now, the plan is migration.


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4 Responses to “Week One on the Mac”


  1. Dave Forde (1 comments.)
    March 25th, 2006 at 18:30

    Rob - As someone else who’s always been a PC guy; but not debating about switching, I’m curious as to what made you switch to a Mac? As great as technology is (snicker snicker), we’re often told to wait for ’second generation’ products as they’ll be stable, weren’t(aren’t) you the least bit concerned?

    Dave


  2. Rob Hyndman (317 comments.)
    March 25th, 2006 at 22:19

    Well, I waited for several weeks (= eternity?) after the MBP was announced, which really was an eternity because I’ve been ready to make the switch for a long time - long before the market was ready for a Mac notebook built on the next generation processor (whatever it was going to be). And the early reports on the box were good, save for some heat issues and spotty noise issues. So I felt pretty comfortably making that switch.

    As to why, well, that’s one for the “don’t get me started” department. But essentially, for a long time I’ve felt like I was using a hammer, when what I really needed was a violin. Oh, and I’d also grown tired of working for MS - which, based on the amount of time needed to maintain a Windows box, I’d begun to feel I do.

    I originally switched to Windows from Mac a long time ago because I had to - in Law school, everything was Windows, and even more so in practice. I was not happy making the change, but really had no choice. Now that I run my own practice, I have a choice. And this is the right choice for me. It’s not for everybody, of course, but it works for me.

    So far, it’s aces.


  3. Gabriel Mansour (1 comments.)
    March 26th, 2006 at 13:30

    I knew it would only be a matter of time before almost everyone becomes a Mac user. I’ve been wanting a MBP from the start but I’m a multimedia developer and since none of the Pro apps are unable to run on it yet, it wouldn’t really be that good of an investment for me right now, because if I do spend $2800(CDN) for one of these, I want to be able to do anything on it. I guess I’ll just have to stick with my G4 Powerbook for now..

    P.S.

    I’ve bought my Mesh ticket yesterday. I’m so excited. I can’t wait for the event. I’m sure it’ll be a blast!