Mac Switch
I presented a ppt to a friend yesterday who congratulated me on finally making the switch to a Mac. We hadn’t seen each other in a while, and we both used to be closet Mac fans. In the past, we would frequently discuss the temptation to switch over. You know – really switching over. . . as in use a Mac for more than a home computer to edit photos of the kids. His comment reminded me of how long it had been since we had seen each other because I switched over about 8 months ago with unheard of ease.
When we finished our fundraising this past summer, my partners and I gathered for an off-site. One of the many topics of discussion was computing platform. We noticed that more and more of the entrepreneurs we were seeing presented on Macs. We strive to serve our customer (the entrepreneur) really well, so it made sense for us to consider this trend. After all, good entrepreneurs acutely understand how to get the most value out of a dollar, and the types of entrepreneurs that we spend time with are most at home ahead of a market. This was a great catalyst to check out the ramifications of a “switch.” I was up for the challenge and excited to try, as I have a long history with Apple products and great respect for their quality and design sense.
I purchased a MacBook 17″ in July, and our team thought it would be an interesting idea to document the switch on our blog. We assumed it would be a difficult process full of glitches, lost files, erroneous setup options, and other pitfalls resulting from the folly of attempting to use the Mac platform as a primary business machine. It would be a six month trial period, and we envisioned a series of posts to this blog discussing the shortcomings and surprises of the shift. First a post on adjusting to Entourage, then maybe another post about coping with the loss of the beloved right click.
Then a funny thing happened. I never posted on this topic. I switched over 8 months ago and never looked back. There was no pain (except a bad printer driver for our office printer). The Mac has performed every task imaginable for business and home computing effortlessly. It is faster, more powerful, better integrated, and significantly more stable than any PC I have ever owned, and I have owned quite a few. No adware, malware, or viruses. Support of any PC application through Parallels. Built-in video conferencing with iChatAv, which my partners and I use regularly. In fact, iChatAV now serves as our firm’s primary video conferencing system across coast running on two MacMinis. Talk about capital efficient: our weekly conference calls run over iChatAV and our standard IP network. My personal rave is that I have literally only rebooted the MacBook a handful of times in 8 months of ownership. Power management is exceptional. I open and close it throughout the day for days and days, months and months. It has never crashed, and certain features of OSX such as Spotlight change the way I compute.
I’ll leave it to the professionals (in this case Om, Liz and Katie) to analyze Vista vs. OSX and all of the ensuing choices for the business users, but yesterday’s meeting reminded me of how stable this choice has been. The Mac platform is a robust business OS. If you’re thinking about it, jump. You won’t miss rebooting.
Imagine the possibilities when you can hold all of this power in the palm of your hand. .
[...] Friday, February 9th, 2007 in Technology, Firefox, Computers Jon Callaghan has some thoughts on how easy it was for him to switch from a PC to a Mac. [...]
by The Firefox computer « Toni’s Garage
on February 9, 2007
I recently made the switch myself and have been blogging my experience on a daily basis. When I started I thought that I would be spending a big portion of time talking about issues that arose and how I overcame them. However, I’ve been happily surprised! Instead of writing about the short comings of OS X and my MacBook Pro, I’m able to write about fun things like peripherals, software, and how much I love my mac! The computers ability to wow me each day is a welcome feeling after years of Windows Woes. Here’s to Apple, I salute you!
by Nick Young
on February 11, 2007
Welcome to happiness dude! I made the switch just over two years ago and I’ve never looked back either. PC people don’t get how different using a Mac is and just blather on about it being a minority and software not working blah blah blah, but the truth is that if you give a Mac a chance you’ll find it changes the way you use computers (for the better).
Someone should start a company doing switcher loans – you rent a Mac of your choice for a month, if you like it you can buy it and keep it, otherwise you send it back or continue the rental until you’re happy. I bet very few would ever go back!
by andyk
on February 11, 2007
glad u made the switch ma man, i made the switch mainly for my music career. i needed stability and assurance that i know all my other mac-musicians had and kept telling me about.
The switch was the best thing i did… ever… it helped me get so much more organised, efficient and believe u me… my music is way better!!
http://www.prolifixx.com
come over!!
Dexx
by Dexx
on February 11, 2007
Congrats on such a smooth switch!
by Katie
on February 11, 2007
I too have had a few Mac’s.My latest is a core solo mac mini. Before that I had a Macbook. The Macbook was fine but did not have a PC cardslot which I needed for my work. So I purchased a Toshiba laptop.
It too has performed very well. I would say I keep my laptop protected and in good care. So viruses have never been a problem. I think Apple and Microsoft make very good software and the only reason Mac has not faced many malware problems is lack of interest from the hacker community. Apple computers have gained some market share, but not to the amount I thought they would. Especially with their popular itunes and iPod. I have always recomended Mac’s to anyone who want to surf the web and send email.My feeling is that Apple missed their big chance over and over again to get the new computer buyer hooked on Mac. Because they fail to offer a inexpensive computer system. I know they do have the mini.But they offer that only as a stand alone computer.Why not offer a keyboard,mouse and monitor and sell it for $700.Profit would not really figure into that cost but they would get more buyer’s that may buy ipod’s
Airports and software.As long as Dell can offer a new computer user a good computer for $500. Apple will not attract new computer buyer’s with their $1100 iMac’s.
by John Scott
on February 11, 2007
[...] A Mac Switcher Story Filed under: Uncategorized — recar @ 1:08 pm A Mac Switcher Story I purchased a MacBook [and I was planning] to document the switch on our blog. We assumed it would be a difficult process full of glitches, lost files, erroneous setup options, and other pitfalls… Then a funny thing happened. I never posted on this topic. I switched over 8 months ago and never looked back. There was no pain.[news][entertainment][technology][apple] [...]
by A Mac Switcher Story « News Coctail
on February 11, 2007
I agree completely. I’m an entrepreneur too, and have been using Windows for about 15 years as my desktop. We run Linux (Slackware) on all of our server platforms – and very happily.
I’ve tried many flavors of linux on the Desktop, but always came back to Windows because X11 is just a little too rough around the edges. I want a professional desktop, not a hobby.
I’d never really considered a Mac, but then my mother told me she wanted a computer. The thought of supporting a Windows machine for her (and keeping it clean from Malware) made me cringe, so I took a leap of faith, and trusted the “no viruses, no adware, no malware” promise that is the Mac. I bought her one, and since I’d never used a Mac before, I took a day off to help her set it up on a wireless wifi in her house.
Having set-up many, many windows machines (and Linux too) on all types of networks, I was prepared for a few problems and to have to learn the Mac’s brand of networking. To my amazement there were no problems at all. It was honestly the easiest set-up I’ve ever experienced. I was done in five minutes.
OS-X is a first-class GUI on top of real, fully functional UNIX. If Windows makes X11 on Linux seem like someone’s amateur hobby, OSX makes windows seem like a garage band compared to Pink Floyd.
In just a few hours of using the machine, I was sold. That evening I ordered a Mac Pro for my office. I also got the 30 inch cinema display (2560×1600 pixels). The Windows computer had been using dual 20 inch monitors 1600×1200 pixels each).
After a couple of days, I realized I’d never be using the old PC again. So I installed another graphics card in the Mac and put the one 20 inch monitor on each side of the bog 30 incher, but I rotated them to vertical format – so now my total desktop is 4960 x 1600 pixels, and the Max supports this natively without any special hardware or special software. Talk about increasing my productivity!
Not only that, with Parallels I was able to install windows XP and Windows 2000 simultaneously. I also installed Linux on a Virtual Machine (But that’s redundant, since OSX is a kind of BSD Unix), Then I installed X11 natively on the Mac and I’m running my X-windows applications too.
So, to my total amazement, I’m running Mac programs, Windows XP and 2000 programs, Linux and X11 all simultaneously on one computer and one screen! And if that’s not enough, the UI is cleaner and faster than any I’ve ever used.
It gets better. I showed it to my server sysadmin, let him play with it for a while. Now I don’t need a UNIX guy and a Windows guy. The UNIX guy can do everything on the Mac. Afterall, under the GUI, it’s pure UNIX. Powerful!
We’re now in the process of swapping out ALL our Windows machines for Macs. Especially since the biggest selling points for Vista are the exact same selling points as for XP, 2000 and Windows 98 before that- namely, more secure and easier to use. I suspect that the next version of Windows will have the same points- more secure than Vista! Hey world, I’m off that bandwagon. From now on, I’m a Mac user on the desktop (And still dedicated to Linux for my back-office servers.)
The next thing I did was call my stock broker. I sold all my MS stock and bought AAPL. I think Apple is set to steal market share from MS in a big way.
– Ron Toms
President, http://www.RLT.com, Inc.
by Ron Toms
on February 11, 2007
I’m thinking of switching over to a Mac as I need a laptop for my college computing course so I’m thinking the Macbook. And from whatever I read on the internet there’s been no bad news yet.
The one thing that put me off was not having Windows as most software runs on it but then I found out about Boot Camp (Wouldn’t use it, Too much restarting) and then I found out about Parallels, Wow! Running Windows -inside- OS X? And it’s fast!
I’ll hopefully be making the switch next month some time, And Ron Toms that was a good story and i’m glad to hear your getting along fine! ;D
by Stolencheese
on October 4, 2007
[...] with 25 comments Jon Callaghan has some thoughts on how easy it was for him to switch from a PC to a Mac. [...]
by The Firefox computer « toni.org
on October 26, 2008
Have a go with & Preserve your iPad for Free! -> http://bit.ly/cFBuis
by Charlie Cipcic
on April 6, 2010