It's been a year since I took the plunge and bought a Mac. At that time, given the money involved (Powerbooks are pretty expensive, you can buy 2 decent windows laptops for the same price as one Powerbook G4!) and the fact that I only used windows in my home computer, it's probably the bravest thing I ever did. Now I look back and see it as the smartest thing I ever did.
Ofcourse, I didn't wake up one morning and decide that I should shift to a Mac. Last year marked 10 years since I started using computers. Until I came to England I always thought there were only 2 major operating systems. Windows and UNIX. For 10 years I only used machines with windows running on them, right from MS-DOS version 6 to Windows XP SP2. I came to England for my Software Engineering degree and on my first day of the degree, I was introduced to Linux. At the time, I never saw anything like it before. Things looked very complicated, the normal start button was missing and the taskbar was filled with weird buttons and it just didn't look right. But it didn't take me long to notice the response time of this strange OS. It was amazingly fast, something not very common in windows machines.
Konqueror (same as windows explorer) opened files and directories so smoothly; I couldn't understand why people use windows; this was far better! After some more time and much more fiddling with this new OS, I realised it's only a work machine. There are not many media players or games or any other fun software for Linux. Even the ones that are there are not as good as the ones u get on Windows. Linux is strictly business, no hanky panky. Which is good of course…. if u are a robot. I did love the idea of a machine whose response time was excellent, but then again, I also need the machine to play my songs and videos. I can't be working all the time! So I decided not to install Linux on my home machine.
Whenever I was in University, I only used the Linux machines, even if I had to just browse websites or send emails because I could use windows all I wanted at home. Soon enough, I started getting irritated with my home computer. Windows explorer would take ages to open a folder which had just 5 files in them, most of the time the computer would command me what to do instead of the other way round, restarting and system hangs which where normal before became unbearable. The last nail on the coffin was the different 'brands' of viruses' u get for windows. There must be a million of them. Worms, Trojan horses, ad-wares, or maybe windows itself is one of them. And to top that up, you have to install anti-virus and firewall software to eliminate viruses and stop them from coming in. But not only are these just not good enough, they also take a lot precious CPU cycles and thus bring an already suffering computer to a complete halt. This happened to me February last year and I almost threw it out of the window out of frustration. But of course, being a fulltime student I couldn't afford doing so and however slow it maybe, I still had to do my work on it.
It was about that time, when I popped into the Apple store in Regent Street in London. I was just roaming around and thought to check out what Apple is selling. What I saw was incredible. There where laptops and computers all over the place. Free for anyone to use them. Browse the net, check your emails, or simply try to understand what makes Mac the worlds most advanced operating system. You could do anything. My first experience was not as weird as seeing Linux for the first time. This system had the same response time of Linux (ok… not same… but hell lot better than windows) and it looked better. Much better! It seemed to me that a candy crazy person has designed the GUI, it looked so glossy and so futuristic. Almost everything was animated. When programs start u would have a really cool high quality icon bouncing on bottom of the screen, when u minimize a window it acts like a genie and disappears to the bottom of the screen, the screen and GUI was more easy on the eyes, it was incredible.
Next thing to do was to find out how easy it is to use it. Didn't take me long. Within an hour I was using it as if I'm using a cousin of my windows machine…. Only that this cousin is like a million times faster. The computer was already loaded up with iTunes, there where a lot of freeware programs to see movies. However…. There are not as many games for Mac's as there are for Windows.…
Many people argue with me saying, "Joel, what's the point of a Mac… u don't get many games and even the ones that are there, are much better in windows!". What can anybody say to this…? Except that… well… they definitely have got a point…. But that's not the end of the story… There is something like PS2 or Xbox 360 to play games. Argue all you want, but end of the day you have to agree that games are much better on games consoles rather than on your computer. More people have a 29inch flat screen TV, compared to a few people who own a 19inch monitor; you can play with your games console right from the comforts of your sofa rather that use the dodgy chair by your computer desk which u got from Argos; and did I mention the graphics quality? Have I made my point? I think so … yes!
Back to the main topic…. How easy is it to use a Mac? Let me put it this way… Say suppose you buy a television from Sony and use it for couple of years. Then you decide you need a newer TV and you get offered a very nice offer for a Toshiba. You are used to the format of the remote control and of Sony and therefore you find the new Toshiba remote a bit irritating. Its natural! Many people think of Mac as a hard to handle OS. But it really isn't! It's just different! Remember the first day you sat on a computer? Didn't things look complicated then? Moving to Mac will be the same... The start wont be easy… but you will get used to it…
Finally… you are definitely going to say… "Joel… it took me ages to learn how to use a computer… and your suggesting start over?" To which my answer is going to be… yes. And a BIG YES. Why? For the fundamental reasons I mentioned earlier on! Speed! No Viruses! You command the computer what to do and what not to do! And there's more good news… Apple recently announced the arrival of Boot-Camp. This new program enables you to use Windows XP (Yes WINDOWS) under any Intel based Apple Computers without compromising performance. When running Windows, Windows will operate as if it's running on any other machine (like those you get from Dell or Acer) and when you run Mac … life is as usual. Although these two operating systems run on the same computer, they do not share viruses and don't interfere with one another. When starting the computer, you get the option to start either Mac or Windows. You cannot have both running at the same time. So now you can enjoy the power of Mac and the… well, options of windows…
I know I said finally earlier, but now it's the final-finally… the reason many people shy away from buying a computer from apple… a very important reason as a matter of fact…. It all comes down to money. Apple's hardware has been ridiculously expensive. As I said earlier, you will get two decent laptops for the price of one powerbook! But when saying decent, I'm talking about an Intel Celeron M machine with 128 MB memory a DVD-CDRW roughly around 40GB of hard-disk space. But top of the range laptops do cost roughly the same as a powerbook. And when you buy a powerbook, along with other necessary stuff you get a DVD writer, built-in Bluetooth, built-in wireless, a lot of free usefull software like a photo-organiser, an address book, isync a program to synchronize data between your computer and you mobile phone or PDA. And if you buy the new MacBook Pro you also get a built-in camera and a remote control, so u can use it to view your movies or play songs from the sofa! But if your wallet does not allow you to withdraw that much money, Mac Mini is a very good option. Of course it is not a laptop, but a very good 'desktop' computer. Calling Mac Mini a desktop computer is weird. Just because of the size and the amount of stuff jammed into it! The new Mac Mini's got a Dual Core Intel chip, can accommodate a hard-disk of 120GB, 2 Gig Memory and has got built in wireless and Bluetooth. Incredible… It should be called a micro- Power Desktop or something.
So… Have I convinced you why u should use a Mac?
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