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Apple Mac Switcher Ping!
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Posted on 08/04/2010 12:09:11 PM PDT by Swordmaker
On June 20th, I declared that I was going to try A Month of Mac. I took my Macbook Pro (an older model from about 18 months ago) up to Alaska, left my Lenovo x300 in Boulder, and went native Mac.
I’m typing this on my brand new spiffy MacBook Pro 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7 with 8GB RAM, with a 500GB solid state hard drive. I can’t figure out why I’ve been so stubborn about really switching to the Mac. This is a beautiful computer.
The key to this switch was that the native mac apps (Mail, iCal, and Address Book) sync seamlessly with Exchange. So I don’t have to deal with the abortion that is Entourage but at the same time I don’t have to mess around with our email server and impact everyone else in our organization. That’s sweet. I had a feeling this would work this time since it works flawlessly on my iPhone and iPad, and it did. The only thing missing is Tasks, but I started using Evernote instead which actually worked even better than the Outlook Task manager.
So – no Parallels or Fusion – I don’t even have a Windows image on this machine at this point. I didn’t use Windows a single time in the last month and now that I’ve rewired my brain for Mac shortcut keys I think it’d be a pretty amusing thing to watch.
I’ve found peace and happiness with iWork as a replacement for Microsoft Office – it’s more than adequate for what I do. MarsEdit is a spectacular blog post editor, Chrome works happily on the Mac as does Skype and TweetDeck, and Adium replaced Digsby. Pogoplug works just like it did before – all my files are where I want them to be. Best of all, my iPhone actually does what it’s supposed to with iTunes.
Did I say that this is a beautiful piece of hardware? Sleep mode – check. Flawless super high resolution screen – check. Super fast everything – check. Find a piece of software you want to play around with – download and run.
The most remarkable thing was the transfer of all my data, applications, and settings from my old MacBook Pro to my new MacBook Pro. I connected them by Firewire. I restarted my old MacBook and held down the T key. After the transfer started, I went and had a meeting for a hour. I came back and my new Mac was set up exactly like my old Mac. Perfect.
Ross – you owe me $100.
Brad Feld is a managing director at Foundry Group who lives in Boulder, Color\ado. He invests in software and Internet companies around the US, runs marathons and reads a lot.
An unusual post, folks rarely brag about contacting social diseases. Does your significat other know youare infected with apple cod rot?
Caddis the Younger
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
At nearly double the price, he’s welcome to it.
I’ll stick with Windows 7.
Did you get Jim’s memo?
Nothing wrong with Macs or Mac apps at all—the price point is a killer though. I can put together just as good a Windows machine as a given Mac for about 60% of the price.
I don’t doubt that OS X is “better” than W7 (I’m still running Vista x64 personally). It’s just not worth several hundred extra dollars to get the same performance.
}:-)4
500GB solid state drive? That costs more by itself than the base MBP.
Yep!
There is a REASON that PC Magazine once had MAC as their PC of the year.
Of course they took such a huge hit in emails and cancellations from their PC subscribers that they never did it again.... but... the stats haven’t changed.
Mac is still cheaper, and more effective than ANY comparable PC.
If the Mac wasnt so pricey more people would buy them. You can get a laptop for half the price and that is the determining factor for many people.
I wrote my thesis on a Mac, at the time it was the only computing platform that offered WYSIWYG equation editing. But when I went into industry there was not a Mac to be found. Fast forward 20 years and I look around the engineering building here ... and I still see no Macs.
I maintain it is not because they are not good machines, they clearly are ... they are priced 2x what they should be.
After 14 years of using both Mac (work) and PC (home), I opt for PC’s any time I need a new computer. Macs are nice, but I cannot see myself spending money on one. They’re just not that great.
Macs are really only worth the extra price tag for two reasons:
1. People who work in video editing/videography. Macs do excel in this area.
2. People who have too much money and want to let everyone know they can spend 2-300% more for their computer.
Macs do, overall, run a bit better in general, but not worth the price tag for just that. And if you want to play a game, you’re mostly stuck with, um, about nothing. Starcraft II and thats about it.
I’ve switched from windows to Ubuntu and love it - it just doesn’t get much spam, viruses, etc. (I guess it’s below the radar screen for vandals) I can leave it on for weeks at a time without rebooting. Most updates don’t require rebooting. And it’s got solid free apps for just about everything.
True, but the one thing you leave out is, the resale value of Macs. You can probably recoup at least 50% of the purchase price on resale even two or three years later, which of course you can apply to purchasing the latest and greatest model.
There's also the propretary hardware platform. No company in their right mind builds a mission critical infrastructure on a single source hardware platform.
My thought is to get a Mac Mini, and simply access it via my Windows 7-based laptop via VNC. Has anyone else done that, and would it be worth it?
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