Moving to an Apple Laptop
Moving to the Dark Side
Over the last year I have found that I have move more and more to becoming a Mac User up until in December 2007 I finally move from being a Windows user to being full Mac user when I bought my first MacBook Pro. I wanted to share the reason for moving to the Apple world and also share my thoughts on the software and hardware that I now use.
Why Move to a Mac?
In a word VISTA. After using Windows Vista for 9 months and after 9 months of the OS crashing the applications crashing I had finally had enough and decided I had to look at a different option. My first thought’s were to move back to XP this was stopped short when I found that I was unable to get Driver for my new HP Vista Laptop. This is when I decided to get away from Microsoft. I decided to move to Apple as I had already bought an iPod, iPhone and AppleTV in the last year, as I was more than happy with these 3 products it made sense to me to move to a Mac. After a lot of research into the software that I would have available and after a number of email’s with colleagues (thanks David and Doug) I decide to Sell my new HP laptop and buy my new MacBook Pro and I have never looked back.
What Laptop did I buy?
Here are the specs of the MacBook Pro I decided to go with
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
My Mac Experience
I found that Apple OSX Leopard software was very easy to use from day 1 even for someone who has been using Windows software for over 15 years however I did spend about an hour with a sales guy in the Apple store before I bought the Mac this give me a good basis to start to use the Mac from day 1. One of the reason’s I decided to buy the Mac in December was so I could get used to the OS over the Christmas Break but after a couple of days I was all but there the experience was very easy to get used to. There were a couple of web sites that I found very useful http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/ and http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/ as well as Google for finding the answers to specific questions.
What Software Am I Currently Using
After a couple of months of playing around with different software and trying different options here is what I am currently happy using and why.
VMware Fusion – This is a must for being able to run my on a day to day basis and be able to get access to my work environment. Unfortunately in the businesses world there will always be a need to run a windows PC not only did VMware Fusion allow me to do this but I have never had Windows XP running as well as I do on my Mac.
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac – For the same reason, as I would need access to a Windows PC I realized that I would always need to access Microsoft Office Documents after trying a number of different Options including Apples version and some free versions I decided on Office 2008 for the Mac mainly because of formatting problems that I had when going between different software.
Adium – In my opinion the best instant message application around not only did it give me access to all my personal message applications but it also works with sametime allowing be to have all my instant messages in one place. Adium also has a great transcript view for reviewing all conversations.
Firefox – Although Apples Safari is getting better I still prefer Firefox for web browsing.
Handbrake – Handbrake is a great tool for converting DVD’s to M4V or MP4 files this works great if like me you are an AppleTV user. The current version allows you to copy the 5.1 surround sound and lets up edit the Movie Chapter’s.
MetaX – This is a great tool that works along side Handbrake allowing you to insert Meta data into the converted Movie file, you can insert information like description, starts, cover art, show, season, episode, etc.
Skype – Still the best Video messaging app this is great for me to keep in touch with my family back in the UK.
The Verdict
Would I go back to a Microsoft OS? Never Never Never after 15 years of using Microsoft’s OS’s from windows 3.1 right up to Windows Vista I can say that the Mac OSX is by far the best OS I have ever used not only is it faster, I can boot up and have my app’s up and running with in a minuet of powering on, it is far more stable than any Microsoft OS I have ever used I am still amazed that I can open up a web browser at the start of the day and it is still running when I come to turn my Laptop off at the end of the day. Now when I go to use my wife’s XP laptop I am always finding that I am trying to do things the Mac way and not the Windows way as things are much easier this way. My advise to anyone in the market for a new Laptop or PC go to you closes Mac Store and have a play around with there software, yes they are more expensive but they are also a lot better to use.
