Before I went on my vacation to Jamaica, I was getting my laptop ready to take with me. Because I have an on-line business, I need to be able to answer emails, and check for orders… I also decided to download and install Thunderbird – my email program of choice – gave up on Outlook and Outlook express a long time ago.
So anyway, a few days before the vacation I think I got a virus on my laptop. The next time I tried to start it, it would go through the start up procedure and then get in an endless loop. I had decided to take it to my computer repair place which is 4 miles away in the hopes that they could fix it. In the meantime, I scrounged around for the windows cd. On a lark – I thought I could reinstall/repair windows myself. What would it hurt? If it didn’t work, I could still take it to the repair place. Voila – my repair worked.
Now down to biz – installed Thunderbird, set up my email accounts and we were in biz. For the trip, I had full access to the internet at my Jamaica hotel, and even a safe in the room to store my laptop when we were out of the room. Everything worked well.
So why Apple?
This was the 3rd time, my laptop had crashed in the last 2 years. It is 5 years old – longer than I normally like to keep a computer – as time goes by – things get faster, and smaller, and I like to take advantage of the new technology.
I had toyed with the idea of getting an Apple when we decided to axe the old clunky pc and opt for a new wide screen laptop for the office. But DH is the one who uses that the most – and has a problem with change – I didn’t see him relearning the computer software of an Apple with out a real struggle.
Also I use Quickbooks (2006) with a software download package that gets my orders from my shopping cart and transfers them directly into Quickbooks. Getting an apple laptop for the office meant upgrading my Quickbooks – and the transfer software is no longer supported, so would not be able to transfer it over to Apple. I really like the download software and am reluctant to try something different!
I also used a number of software packages – some of which do not have an Apple version.
In the meantime, I have switched to using Dreamweaver on my small older laptop, as well as some other software that does have an Apple version. I think I was slowly weaning myself off of windows apps in the event that I took the plunge.
When I came home from my vacation – the 2nd thing out of my mouth (the first being, Hi Honey – I missed you) was I’m buying an apple.
There is only 1 apple store in our area. We live in Suffolk – the only one is in MacArthur Mall in Norfolk – a 35-40 minute drive in good weather. I was going to go today – Sunday – but DH suggested I go yesterday. Called the store up and found out I could have a one-to-one session to figure out what I wanted. Made an appt for 3pm yesterday, and headed out.
I took my laptop sleeve with me – as I wanted a laptop that was the same size as mine. 3 reasons why – the space on my desk in the living room, where I use my current older laptop – is limited in size. The desk is large, but there’s stuff on the desk – some of it I use to work with.
The laptop sleeve is just the right size for a small laptop when I travel. That laptop sleeve+laptop fits nicely in the tote that I bought to carry it, as a carry on bag.
I also wanted a laptop that didn’t have a wide screen. When testing my web pages, I want to see that what I have designed fits into a smaller screen, without having to scroll – for those visitors who still use an older computer.
What started out as an hour session turned into 2. We talked size of laptop, functions, software, and everything else I can mention that I use for my business. What did I get? A 13 inch mac pro. I bought a new external hard drive that uses a fast port instead of a usb port , a wireless mouse (that uses Bluetooth) – again, no usp port.
I signed up for classes. Hey I haven’t gone to classes in years, and I love to learn new things. Since the Apple is so different from windows and I’ve been using windows since the the dawn of time (hehe), this will be a new experience and I decided I was going to enjoy it!
So what was DH’s comment when I got home? He said, just be sure to get all your classes done before we start selling produce in mid May – boy do I have a lot of learning to do in the next 2 1/2 months.
More later!
Sandi
You have my congratulations on converting to the Mac. Of course, you will need to make some adjustments, but the experience and the change is well worth it. The majority of people who converted to the Mac have no regrets. Apple’s consumer satisfaction is the highest in the computer industry.
The Mac and Windows OS are similar, but many of the work arounds which you learned to get your tasks done on the PC are unnecessary. It will take a month or two before you stop trying to do things in a Windows fashion. The Mac user experience is more intuitive, but that doesn’t matter, because you have learned some counter productive actions.
All I can say is to tough it out. The time will come when the Mac no longer feels hard or confusing to you, then it will be easy and intuitive and finally, it will be fun, Sooner or later, you’ll be forced to use a friend’s’ PC and you will say to yourself afterwards, “God, this is awful!” Eventually, you will become a carefree Mac user who trusts that Apple’s OS isn’t going to sabotage you. It lets you get your work done and doesn’t get in your way all the time.
Small business owners who have convert their offices to Macs report that their employees are 20% more efficient. Partly, because they stop having to constantly fiddle with the computer. Macs rarely break or have problems. We Mac users don’t have Virus’, worms, adware and spyware, either. We have the same risks of Trojan Horses, Spam and Phishing attacks as a PC owner, but most of the attacks just fizzle on us.
That MacBook Pro, you brought, is about 10% faster than a PC, at the same processor speed, for most applications except games. That is because Apple throttles back the Graphics Processor Unit to conserve battery life. When Apple turns on the 64 bit kernel, by default, later this year, then applications will get even faster because Snow Leopard has a better utilization of the Intel hardware than Windows or Leopard 10.5. When Mac apps get upgraded to Grand Central Dispatch and OpenCL, then they will become 200 to 1200% faster.
Some software, that you are accustomed to, is not available on the Mac, but there are often Mac native substitutes which out perform PC software. There are plenty of applications for the Mac OS and more, PC only, programs are cross coded every day. If necessary, you can run Windows in BootCamp for those one or two apps which haven’t been coded for the Mac yet.
The ILife and iWorks software is quite good for as little as they costs you.
There is plenty for you to learn or unlearn on your Mac, but that can be fun, too, Many PC owners are quite timid about trying anything new on their machines, because that have been punished for experimenting.
The Mac encourages you to try things out or to test function by using them. The Mac OS will always warn you if you are getting into an area which has dangers. You will be forced to type in your password. Don’t take this lightly; think it out before you give permission.
The MacOS tries to protect the new people, but we have very powerful computers these days. The Mac users base has its Power Users, too, who demand a means to bypass the protections built into the operating system. Mostly, you will never want to bypass those protections, but you can if you want. The Mac OS will protect you from harm, but nothing is fool proof.
Lean back and have fun with this. Sometimes, you will feel uncertain, but it will work out. It’s good that you are taking the classes. Once you get some experience, you will start to appreciate the good work which Apple has done. Besides, Those MacBook Pros are sure pretty, aren’t they?
I use both Apple and Windows, and feel people should choose the best tool for their use.
My wife has that same laptop. For the first couple weeks she was frustrated with the touchpad. Now you she has trouble using the trackpad on my Dell, missing the gestures.
Once you get over the learning curve (there is one) you will love it.
Welcome and congratulations!