What began over 20 years ago with my first PC running different MS-DOS versions, and then continued with various desktops and laptops I owned that ran different versions of Windows (3.0, 3.1, 3.5, 95, 98, ME, 2000, NT, XP — I have not tried Vista and probably won’t) has now come to a complete end.
I am happy to say that our house is now fully Apple friendly & running on Mac OS. I started this migration process a few month ago by equipping our living room with a Mac Mini that serves as a media center (running boxee). Shortly after that, I switched my work laptop from an IBM Notebook to a MacBook Pro and improved my productivity so much. And a few days ago, after the house’s PC was about to completely die and required to much administration, I decided to replace it with a Mac.
So, here it is, a new Mac Mini connected to a Logitech cordless Wave keyboard mouse combo and a ViewSonic 19″ LCD. What a great way to start 2009.
traitor
its true that apple's software requires less maintenance, but dont you find yourself with limited options? (software-wise)
i like the stability, the hardware. still havent got used to the simple interface.
perhaps its trauma from 20 years ago, when i first had to decide between pc & mac.
mac had a better hardware… but less options… the gap is narrowing down, but why limit yarself?
Not really. For home use 90% of the time is spent in the browser (web surfing, Gmail, Google Docs). Add iLife and a few utils and you are pretty much covered.
There are tons of apps for Mac (check out versiontracker.com) and I was able to find utilities (freeware/shareware) that are comparable in functionality and sometimes even better than what I used to run on a PC (I will probably post the list at some point). There are a few apps for the PC that I still miss – Picasa (and not just because it was originally an Idealab company
) and SnagIt which is the best screen grabber and quick photo editor. I also used to use Microsoft Money and now need to switch to Quicken which I hope will be easy.
The Mac is so much friendly for my type of work – I often install new software to try out new services, and then need to uninstall. Doing it on a PC has a terrible impact on the disk, registry and overall performance. On a Mac – installing and uninstalling is much simpler and complete.
BTW, weren't you the Unix guy a few years ago?
If you continue to evolve, you may discover linux. You'll find that the Mac OS is simply a port of linux, made proprietary by apple against the open source agreement that governs the use of linux. In other words, you've bought a product that is free to the linux community from another M$ style west coast con artist.
If Linux setup/admin would be as simple as Mac OS, and if the UI would be as intuitive, then I might go for a Linux machine. But I still need to find a PC that is as little in its size as a Mac Mini.
Hello there, I am interested into jumping to Mac Mini, how does the Viewsonic Display handles the colors in comparison with mac's own monitors/integrated? do you feel a change?
oh and about Linux… well you are going to be suffering, if you think that Mac doesn't have support for some great applications it's gona be hell in Linux…
I have never made that comparison.
I have never made that comparison.