This is a post that’s been in the queue for about a month. I forgot about it until recently.
Over the past few weeks I’ve gotten a few question about the Mac, since I was the only one at the office that had one. Many of them think the Mac doesn’t crash. Many of them still think that their files won’t work. In general, just a bit of misinformation.
This is for you Windows users out there that might be a little curious about the Mac. The following observations are from my own experience. Your mileage may vary.
- Yes, Macs crash. Not as often as Windows, but they do.
- The Mac does not have a BSOD. Instead you get a Kernel Panic, and much less often. In 2 years, I’ve seen 2 on my Mac.
- Yes, applications of the Mac crash. Yes, just as often as they do on Windows.
- The Mac, just like your Windows machine, benefits from the occassional reboot.
- The Mac, unlike a Windows PC, works. Wifi works. Networking works. Plug and Play works.
- Just like the ad says, the Mac works out of the box. When I turned on the iMac for the first time, I ran through the initial set-up. Once Leopard was running, I started Garage Band and mixed a podcast.
- The Mac costs more. You definitely can’t go to Walmart and get one for $400. But, if you want to spend a week removing all of the software that is subsidizing the cost of that machine, go right ahead. If you want to compare a Mac to a PC based on price, then at least look at comparable equipment from Dell, HP or Lenovo.
- Anything you create on your PC you can open and edit on your Mac.
- The Mac is easier to use for most tasks. Some things that you can do on Windows easily, however, aren’t as easy on the Mac.
- The Mac will run Windows. You can install Windows directly so you can boot into Windows like you do now or you can install it virtually so it runs like a program on your desktop.
You have probably heard this a million times already, but if you are thinking about a new computer for home, you should take a few minutes to research the Mac. You can get them at BestBuy now, so you don’t have to be intimidated by the Apple Store snobs.
I’ve got more than a few things to get done today. I spent the better part of the week sitting on my hands for the most part and getting nothing done except for a few lackluster workouts.
Well, maybe that is not entirely correct. I did get a few things done this week.
- Got another website customer, and another possible is in the works.
- Created a new business card. Printing them next week.
- Upgraded the iMac to 4GB of RAM. All I can say is holy crap!
- Sent my resume out 5 times
- Gave serious thought towards getting serious about starting my own company
- Napped
- Made another video to test iMovie ‘09. More on this later.
- Made an episode of THCS. I need to order a new mixer bad.
- Spent more time that I care to admit on Facebook
I can tell you about this site, which is cool. It’s a site for an old time Hot Rod guy (like, one of the pioneers of the whole thing) with cool photos and some history. He recently passed away and his family wants to be able to post old articles and photos and all that. Perfect job for Wordpress. I’ll let you know when it’s done so you can check it out.
I also have changes coming to this site. I put together some really cool stuff when I was ‘at the job’ and one of them was the coda slider. I’m going to try to incorporate into this site for latest posts, portfolio snippets, video and a contact form on the home page. Watch for that.
Go watch the video. It’s funny. I might post it here, but I forgot to not cuss, so maybe not.
Hire me, Facebook Connect and the iMac.
I still haven’t completely wrapped my head around this concept, but now I have 2 Macs. And, I have data on one that I need on the other, and vice versa. That is how I discovered remembered that I have an Evernote account. It sure is coming in handy with to-do lists and the like.
One thing that I was amazed about was the simplicity that is known as networking 2 Macs. Turn them one, check a box and that’s it? Really? No opening the Network Panel and making sure the TCP/IP connections are the same? No making sure they are on the same subnet or in the same domain/workgroup? No duplicating user accounts? No multiple reboots? What what what?
For those of you not familiar, Windows machines, especially in a home environment, do not network that easily. Well, maybe with Vista, but I haven’t done that yet. Networking XP or Windows 2000 machines not in a domain (re: office) is a serious chore. Workgroup name has to match, users have to match, moon has to be in the correct phase, and you need the magic monkey. Way too much hassle and, frankly, it’s way to difficult.
Next up will be the actual synchronizing of my Macs. Address books, calendars and possibly docs. I hear good thing about Google Sync, so I’m probably going to try that. I would be interested in hearing thoughts about MobileMe however. While I don’t like the idea of having to depend on a service that costs me money every year, if it works, then that’s that.
Yea, this Mac thing is pretty cool. Glad I didn’t switch.
And today, I have a new Mac.
Yes, there is a new Mac on my desk
Yes, I bought a new iMac, the upper end 20″, and it’s a fine machine.
I know I have been complaining about Macs, mine in particular. But I have a feeling that those issues are because it’s a first gen MacBook and it is terribly underpowered for what I’ve been trying to do with it. I also think it might have a few port issues.
I even went so far as to price out a Dell system. Turns out the costs was about the same as this (granted for more machine), but I would have been stuck with Vista until Windows 7 comes out sometime in ‘10 (or so I’m hearing). And I have software for the mac that I own. Quite a bit too. I really didn’t feel like going through all of that again on the windows side.
If you haven’t had the chance to see a new iMac up close, it is really nice. The screen is very bright and crisp. While not HD, watching a DVD movie on it is completely acceptable. Even the sound from the built-in speakers isn’t horrible, on par with television speakers, maybe a little better.
I’m almost completely moved in and have already done a few things on it to break it in. So far, I can’t really tell how much faster than the MacBook it is, but I do know it feels faster.
Here are some thoughts.
Pro
- The screen is outstanding
- The config right out of the box is usable (2GB RAM, 320GB hard drive)
- I got an upgrade coupon for iLife ‘09 so it will only cost me $10 when it comes out.
- Whisper quiet. No, it’s quieter than that. Makes almost no noise
- New Apple Keyboard in the box
- It has 3 USB ports. Nice to have the extra.
- It drives my 20″ display no sweat
Con
- The screen is very shiny and refects pretty much everything. Worse than the gloss screen on the MacBook. It’s slightly distracting.
- New Mighty Mouse in the Box. I actually tried to use it. What a horrible little device that is.
- It seems to run pretty hot. I’ve read about this and it doesn’t cause any problems that I am aware of
- It only has 3 USB Ports. In the day where PC’s have as many as 10 on board USB ports (plus a card reader), this is really unacceptable.
I probably won’t do a full review, but I will say that even with those minor issues, it’s a great machine and I’m glad I bought it.
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