Wow, my first post from a MacPro.. I am kinda teary eyed 🙂 I am still in the process of migrating data and files from my PC and am quite happy with my decision thus far There are some statements from Mac users on various things where it ultimately comes down to “It just works.” I have to say I have had a few of those experiences so far It is pretty obvious that a lot of attention has been given to the entire experience by Apple The first time you turn the computer on you are presented with a little video show saying “welcome” in about 20 different languages in front of a little light show It’s not a big deal, but that small human touch that is nice to see Those small touches are everywhere, and I am seeing that they all add up to the complete experience.
- Networking. : Home networks can always be a somewhat tempermental beast to deal with (or at least what I am used to) But I hooked my Mac up and was quite pleased to see it was automatically seeing the shared folders and drives I had been using with my PC No special settings, no configuring or fiddling – I plugged in the cable and it worked It made it easy to start copying some files over through the network.
- Dell Printer! I have a Dell Color laser printer that is also on the network, and the Mac didn’t see this right away Dell actually makes a Mac driver for this particular printer (!) – so all it took was to download it, figure out how to “unStuff” a “StuffIt” file, and it installed complete with a icon that is a graphic of the actual printer, not a generic one.
- Adobe Lightroom. : I have Adobe Lightroom up and running, and my image catalog already transferred That also was quite easy One nice thing about Lightroom is that it already has cross-platform licensing So I simply downloaded the Mac trial version, and entered my previous serial number from my “PC version.” Sweet! I was also able to copy my database over and all my presets I did encounter one problem with the PC folder names for the previews – they transferred over as a single file to the Mac instead of a folder Have to figure that one out yet.
- Email : This one had me a bit nervous on transferring my old email over It was a combination of old email from Outlook Express, imported into Thunderbird, the program I have been using for the past few years Well, Thunderbird has a Mac version, and I noticed the Mac Mail application has a menu item for Import from Thunderbird Sweet again! I copied my Thunderbird profile folders over to my Mac, ran Thunderbird for Mac just to see if it imported – it did! Then a run of Mail – and it imported all the Thunderbird email no problem So I will probably end up ditching Thunderbird and using the Mac Mail app since it seems to be integrated with a few other programs within OS X.
- Don’t shut me down, only sleep : One of the more dramatic differences are startup/shutdown times versus what I am used to on PCs Everything I have read state it is a rare occasion to actually need to reboot a Mac Most of the time it just sleeps This means it is nearly instant on / instant off I grew fond of that real quick .
. I am still finding my way around OS X Leopard and trying to adjust to the Mac way of doing things – from determining what programs are running to the unbelievably easy process of installing new applications “Drag icon to applications folder” are the instructions you see a lot because that is usually all there is to installing a new program As mentioned in the comments of “Part 2” – the mouse is certainly different I like the little magic ball for scrolling more than a scroll wheel, but hate the right clicking experience of this thing I think Mighty Mouse’s days are numbered.All-in-all a pretty good experience so far No technostress.. it has actually been quite fun.
Hey Mark,
I’m sure you’ll love it more and more. They really are a great product, great service, and your coolness factor just elevated several hundred points. Play guitar, own a mac and shoot nikon: – you should run for president. 🙂
Cheers
Carl
It sounds like Christmas morning all over again, glad you are enjoying it Mark 🙂
Hey Mark,
Glad you hear your switch is going well!
Hey Mark, its always fun having a new toy, sounds like things are going as you hoped.
Glad you’re having a good experience. Macs really are just better in so many ways.
I don’t call it as “WinBLOWS” for nothing.
Sean, I actually like the new MacPro keyboard a lot. I was a bit skeptical at first because it is so minimalistic, but after typing on it, I found out I was wrong to have any doubts. Quite comfortable, and I am able to type quite fast.
I didn’t upgrade my PC that often, perhaps once every two/three generations of processors – so the MacPro life cycle wlll definitely be OK I think.
Mark, glad to hear you are having a positive experience w/ your new Mac. They are very user friendly for photographer’s needs.
Mike
I have been using macs for a long time, and I have to say that I have always found the mouse and keyboard the really lacking part of the experience (except for the iBook/Macbook keyboards and trackpads, which are very nice). The one place I use Microsoft products on my Mac is for the keyboard and mouse experience (I submit that the Intellimouse Explorer Optical is perhaps the most intuitive and fastest to use mouse ever made).
The downsode, of course, is that the more expensive Mac machines lengthen the cycle between buying new machines–my iBook G4 is showing its age using Lightroom, but has to hold on longer than a comparable Dell would have to based on price.
You can now say “Life Is Good”, … and mean it! 🙂
I made the move about 6 years ago, and have been proud of myself ever since!!
My workplace has a lot of Macophiles and I’ve been tempted on several occasions. It’s encouraging to hear your switchover is going so well.
Very interesting Mark. Glad to hear the change over is going so smoothly. Maybe the next computer I buy will be a Mac.