Once you’ve gone Mac you’ll never go back … or so the saying goes. I’ve been a PC guy for many years, decades in fact.
My life started with my first PC, an IBM Clone XT with 640KB of RAM an 5 1/4″ floppy drive, 10MB hard disk and a 16 color EGA screen. It was the best thing in the world back in the 80s.
Over the years there have been numerous PCs in my life. I’m quite well versed in PC hardware with each of my upgrades being an evolutionary upgrade of an existing machine. I’ve bought branded desktops and I’ve bought components. In my previous life working as an IT professional I’ve used every brand of laptop know to man whilst working in the finance and telecommunications industries. I’ve worked with numerous brands of Desktops and I’ve worked with Microsoft Windows in all its incarnations as well as nearly ever flavour of UNIX and I’ve also used Mac desktops. So there was no fear of the unknown.
So the time had come around once again to replace my laptop. My trusty ASUS was due for retirement (or rather handed over to my wife to use as the worlds most over specc’d laptop for web browsing and email) so I was in the market for a new laptop. I did the rounds, I looked at a variety of manufacturers including Lenovo, Asus, HP, Gigabyte, Dell, Toshiba as well as Apple.
In the end after testing out a variety of laptops, comparing specifications, comparing bang for bung charts and reading reviews I made my choice. I bought a new Macbook Pro 15″ Retina.
So why buy an Apple Mac after years and years of being a PC man?
Well its simple. I wanted a good clear screen, it had to be 15″ screen, 16GB+ RAM, 512GB of SSD, Wireless 802.11ac, I wanted something that was a good weight and size, with a good clean finish, minimal exposed components on the side rear and top of the laptop body and excellent battery life. The Macbook Pro embodied all that I was after which no other laptop did. Price aside it was a simple choice.
I’m now coming up to 5 days on the Macbook Pro. I’ve moved over my Creative Cloud subscription, installed all my apps. Migrated my LR catalog. Setup Time Machine and I’m editing photographs, making blog posts, writing invoices and generally back to being productive.
My favourite parts of the Mac experience so far
- Battery life – when I’m web browsing and website designing and getting 6 hours+ from a full battery thats impressive.
- Magsafe power connector – what a dream. This is what all laptops should have. I’ve had to repair a number of previous laptops due to damage to power sockets. And I’ve already caught a power cable on my foot and didn’t pull my laptop off the table as the connector disconnected safely. (Yes the change has paid for itself already)
- OS X – it has so many great features (though i do fear more iOS gimmicks are coming over to OS X)
- Automator – I’ve written a few Automator workflows already. Mainly for handling media from my Atomos Ninja. Whilst its not the most intuitive tool by any means it can get the job done.
- Track pad. So many new gestures to learn, but Im getting there and they make navigating easier.
My least favourite parts of the new Mac experience so far
- Finder – After years of working with Windows File Mangler now known as Explorer I find using Finder to be the biggest usability frustration of OS X.
- I think Apple has a lot to learn from Microsoft with regards to full screen, maximise and minimising windows and docking windows to left and right. Microsoft got this right. Apple in their latest WWDC has slated this will change in OS X Yosemite.
- The built in Mail App crashed way too many times when setting up my IMAP email accounts but seems to have settled. Its on notice!
- Keyboard shortcuts. Command+ left/right arrow takes you to the start/end of line. Option+left/right arrow takes to the previous/next word. The next key across Control+Left/Right Arrow takes you to the next full screen app. Logically where one place that short cut. Needless to say when navigating through this blog post to correct typos etc has me switching between full screen apps rather than between sections of text in WordPress.
- the looming notion in the back of my mind that I cannot upgrade the SSD in this laptop… yet… C’mon Other World Computing make it happen!
So once you’ve gone Mac you’ll never go back … is it true? Well it was pretty darn easy to jump over to the land of Apple, so I envisage I could just as easily go back to the land of PC. But would I give up the comfort and safety of a Magsafe charger connection, awesome battery life, OS X and the finish on the Macbook Pro?
At this point its a’ No’.