system shock

[jazzfish]

I've been considering a number of lifestyleish changes for awhile now. I blame the hat. I've never thought of myself as a guy who wears a hat, and yet now I have one. (A black paper/straw trilby. I'm told it looks pretty decent.) The concept of wearing a hat is starting to grow on me.

Anyway, once I got a hat, other things started popping into my head. Some of them I'd been considering for awhile, some of them are brand-new. One was kind of shocking, honestly:

I'm thinking of going Mac.

Hear me out. There are a lot of things about Windows systems that I like but they mostly boil down to "I know how to get things done on Windows." My fingers know the keyboard shortcuts intuitively. When something goes wrong, I can find what I need to do to fix it; when something needs tweaking, I have a pretty good idea of where to look to tweak. Like with QWERTY, I accept that there's some inherent inefficiency in the system, but I'm not willing to switch because learning to overcome that inefficiency will take more time than the inefficiency itself.

But my next computer (coming in probably another year) is likely to be running Windows 7, with its ridiculous ribbon bars and general revamping of the user interface. Now, I've not actually used Win7, or Vista, for any length of time: just long enough to grumble at not being able to do things with the speed and finesse I'm used to. So I don't really know how much additional learning time there'll be, but there will definitely be some.

I don't game much anymore. Every so often I get inspired to pick up something oldish (Moonbase Commander is currently taunting me again), but mostly I satisfy my gaming urges elsewhere. For me the computer's for netsurfing and writing, in that order.

I know for a fact there are things that will minorly irritate me ("War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Backspace is delete.") and things that will irk me no end (learning the difference between option and apple, trying to right-click on things for a context menu). I understand that the interface, once you fully grok it, is an aesthetic triumph of form/function melding.

So tell me, o converts, and you who never knew another system: is this way for me? Or will it end in me throwing a thousand-dollar laptop through a window and rooting through sketchy websites for a copy of Windows XP?

(Things I am specifically not looking for: lengthy paeans to the awesomeness of the Way of Mac; diatribes about the horribilitude of Apple or Windows; exhortations to try Linux or any other OS.)

Comments

[chaobell]

I'm reasonably sure they actually do make a two-button McMouse, so there's that? :}

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Imo, Windows 7 is the best OS that MS has come out with to date--some really nice GUI improvements, and, I'm sure, some good backend changes as well.

I also like Mac OS X.* quite a bit--best OS that Apple has released, far superior to OS 9 or older.

In our house, we have an OS X desktop and Win7 laptop (Riss's), a Win7 desktop and XP laptop (mine), and an XP desktop (Tim's), all of which get regular use. :)

[mikailborg.livejournal.com]

The first thing I would point out is that when you buy a modern Mac, you don't have to abandon Windows. In fact, Mac hardware tends to run Windows better than many of the less-pricy PC laptops and desktops out there. Set up Boot Camp, or buy VMWare Fusion or Parallels, and have it all.

Starr is a budding Mac convert, mainly because of ease-of-maintenance issues. She is fine with Windows when it's working, which it isn't always on her Toshiba laptop; her next laptop will be a MacBook Pro with VMWare on it.

I'm currently using Windows XP every day at work and coming home to a Mac. I'm a conscientious objector in the platform wars. But I have the feeling that you might enjoy your Mac quite a lot, based on the needs you have outlined.

[mikailborg.livejournal.com]

Oh, I forgot. You won't have to unlearn right-click, either. Modern Apple mice have a right-click ability you can activate in the Control Panel, or you can do what I did and buy your favorite third-party mouse - they almost always work perfectly without any driver installs, and many have Mac software just in case.

On a Mac laptop, if you put two fingers down on the trackpad simultaneously and click with your thumb, the system decides it's a right-click. It may sound awkward, but I'm so used to doing it without thinking that I get frustrated on Windows laptops that don't support it. (Of course, they generally have an actual right-click button, so that's really my problem.)

[vond.net]

I think, if you have the money to buy a Mac, that you should. I find Mac OS to be a great "stay out of my way and let me work" OS, and I suspect you would too. The hardware is generally regarded as top-notch, so even if you can't adjust to OS X you can just buy a Windows 7 license and you've still got a very nice new machine to run it on.

That said, Windows 7 is nice, too. A lot of your complaints seem to be about Office 2007/2010, not Windows 7. A windows-based upgrade path might be to go to Windows 7 but use StarOffice, or Google Docs, or stick with an older Office version.

[rbandrews]

Not a lengthy diatribe, I promise!

I haven't actually used Office in years, so I dunno about any changes there, but I use OS X and Windows 7 simultaneously all day long. Windows 7 did fix a lot of the stuff that irritated me about Windows, by introducing a Mac-like dock, but it also added a bunch of other irritating things like windows hiding or becoming large unpredictably based on how you move them around. It's idiotic and Expose is much better.

The pointing device thing won't be an issue at all, assuming it's USB. If you get one of the "Pro" keyboards it'll have a delete key too (dunno about Mac Office, but it forward-deletes just fine in Emacs). And the key that is labeled "delete" is in the location, and of the shape, of a backspace key, and does a backspace. So it's pretty much the same key.

Let's see, what else... Flash sucks, Firefox sucks even harder. Chrome is a good browser on the Mac though. Option and Apple (which is now "command", which I dislike) are the same as alt and ctrl. Option is even labeled "alt" on my work laptop.

Stuff you'll probably like: Expose, iTunes not sucking (apparently it does on Windows?), the laptop goes to sleep and wakes up instantly, so you just close it instead of rebooting, there's a real command prompt and copy/paste works on it (seriously, even Windows 7 still has that broken cmd shit).

Stuff you'll probably hate: having a laptop that looks exactly like every other laptop on the planet, the fact that as soon as you get used to it they'll release another one and you'll subconsciously start to think yours is old and sucky even though a week prior you loved it.

Oh yeah, and if you are annoyed by alt+tab working differently, then prepare to be annoyed. But, you can fix it with this.

In general, the Mac ecosystem is fewer apps, and they cost more, but they're much much better made. Companies tend to put more effort into making really elegant programs for OSX, compared to just throwing out random crap for Windows. It's that, more than any differences in the OSes themselves, that makes me prefer the Mac at this point. Although I do like that it's Unix, since I'm more used to Unix, I trust that I can fix it.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

I have been a mac person since the second mac-in-the-box SE (um... when I was maybe in 3rd grade?) and a mac laptop user since those came out, and grauwulf who has gone the pc building route previously got a macbook the last time he needed a computer as somewhat of a research project on why I liked the things so much. Anyway, he is a very complete convert, and absolutely loves the gestures stuff-- also he's plugged in a standard issue usb keyboard, so aside from the occasional trying to figure out what the option key maps to when I'm trying to tell him how to do an accent mark, he hasn't had much in the way of difficulty with keyboard mapping either. I suspect you would find a few differences, but a lot of the keyboard shortcuts are actually pretty similar.

One caveat-- I am very much not a fan of the tech staff in the Tysons apple store (the sales people I've talked to are fine, but the only times I took things in for the mac geniuses to look at I've had frustrating to extremely bad experiences-- both of these were with an older laptop, though.)

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

I am not a good source on this one. I've never seen the appeal of apple products, don't like the interface, all that. But I find it interesting to note that Steve and Bill seem to have experienced an ego swap over the past few years.

[plumbob78.insanejournal.com (from livejournal.com)]

I have a windows desktop PC and an aluminum unibody MacBook, and I almost always opt to use the Mac, unless it's right before I leave for work or right before I go to bed (because the desktop always stays on). If I ever get another desktop it will probably be a Mac. Like you, I don't game much anymore. I use my computer for the internet, the little writing I do, music, and photos. The Mac does all of these just great. And it's also a beautiful machine. That's what got me set on the MacBook to begin with. Only laptop keyboard I tried that didn't feel flimsy.

[jameshroberts.livejournal.com]

I got one for the built-in Linux functionality. No more running Cygwin in order to force Windows into letting me do basic things like ssh, X forwarding, or shell scripting. Also I've gotten used to Linux commands and trying to do anything in DOS syntax just makes me want to hurt myself.

But that's not a feature you're interested in, so it's hardly a selling point for you. The battery life is nice. Touch-pad took some getting used to, but I like it now.

[antikate.livejournal.com]

If writing is one of your main activities, here is the #1, A+, super-duper reason to go Mac:

Scrivener (http://www.literatureandlatte.com/index.html)

Best writing program EVER.

[candle.livejournal.com]

As the unbeliever:

1. I hatehatehate the trackpad == mouse button of the current MBPros.
2. I've had really lousy luck with Apple batteries - 4 MBPros in my care; 4 flat out dead (as in bulging, completely failed) batteries plus one negligible charge one. To their credit, they covered 3 of them with the extended warranty (unlike Dell), but the fact they're no longer user servicable means you're without your computer for several days).
3. I have a hard time switching between OS X quirks and Windows/Linux GUIs (that are close enough together to be the same to me at this point, at least compared to OS X). Because I _must_ work with Windows for work, I find it easiest to stick to that standard. If I could go 100% OS X, I might acclimate to it, but that's not an option.
4. OS X performance sucks compared to Windows or Linux. From what I gather, a lot of it has to do with memory management. What I do know is that I spend an awful lot of time staring a spinning beach balls or unresponsive systems doing the same thing that W2K shrugged off on similar hardware.
5. I don't need Steve Jobs to tell me how I WILL use my computer.
6. I like cheap - the computer I'm typing this on is 12.1 inches, lightweight, runs Windows 7, dual core, and cost me $340. That leaves me with more money for travel and lenses.

YMMV.

[playing-tragic.livejournal.com]

Late to the discussion. Other than an Amiga 500, I've solely owed Macs. I do use a Windows based machine at work. Computer systems have evolved (devolved?) into a sort of religion and it's difficult to have a friendly religious discussion between any two or more "true" believers. =)

Not a "geek" so can't speak knowledgeably on the different systems. But as a computer user, I have always feel intuitively more comfortable on a Mac. (The Windows ribbon bar and the circle thingy annoy me.) To turn an old sales slogan of theirs on its ear - Macs think like me. Though I will admit, there seem to be fewer differences between Windows and Mac today then in the late '80s and early '90s. But using a Mac has always been less frustrating for me.

The option/command (previously apple) keys don't fluster me at all when I move from work to home computing. They're close enough my fingers seem to auto adjust/adapt without any conscious thought or effort but then I'm even-handed so somethings may come easier to me than others? You can do right click thiings with a Mac mouse now. You just have to enable the function.