Right in the middle of all the chaos of moving, my computer crashed hard. Luckily I have a little netbook, which I’ve been using ever since. Although great for vacations, the netbook is not a great full-time computer. What a nuisance. That particular Dell laptop had originally crashed after only six months of use. I had set it aside and gotten another one. The second laptop crashed while I was on the farm so I pulled out the original one, re-formatted it and started using it again; six months later, another hard crash. After many years of owning Dells, I decided I wasn’t getting another one but where to go now?
Although I’ve always had PCs, I’d been contemplating getting a Mac for a long time. They are significantly more expensive than their PC counterparts but oh the mystique. Aren’t Macs just cooler than PCs? Their recent series of clever commercials certainly seems to suggest so. Being a gadget person, I was always curious. One of the networks I used to administer was about half Mac/half PC so I had a little experience with them but not enough to be able to judge. Were they really better? At this point better, or at least more dependable was something in which I was ready to invest.
I started doing my research and was amused to discover the firestorm raging between Mac and PC people. It turns out this is a very controversial and acrimonious topic! People do love to get worked up. I also read a lot of reviews and they were all positive on the subject of the new-ish 13" MacBook Pro, including one, which called it a nearly perfect laptop. That sounded pretty good to me.
I emailed a couple of friends who are stalwart Mac people including one who has worked for Apple for a long time. I got some good advice and decided to bite the bullet. My new toy should be here tomorrow and I’m all atwitter with excitement. I hope I love it as much as the Mac people say I will. I hope the switch isn’t so overwhelmingly frustrating that I regret my choice. At nearly twice the price of a comparable PC laptop, that would be unfortunate.
I don’t know what’s going on over at Dell but they certainly are to blame for driving me to the dark side. Plus there are those cookies…. (When do you get those exactly?).
I’ll let you know what I think. In the meantime, what about you? Are you a Mac person or a PC person? (Dare I ask?)
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7 comments:
I am a PC, but not because I think it's superios to Mac. It's because I work for a software company and the software requires Microsoft OS.
My son has a Mac and loves it; so maybe after retirement I'll switch.
Thanks for sharing this process. In your research, how long do Macs last compared to PC's? DS is graduating in June and would like a Mac, but I was reluctant to pay the extra $$$.
Please keep us posted! As a diehard PC person (I think many writers are), I tried my hand at a MAC once, in a class, and was wildly disoriented. I've stuck with Dell laptops as well (and bemoaned my assorted crashes in my writing over the past months).
Of course, when your fingers are totally used to navigating one sort of keyboard and shortcuts, and you've been using one sort of system for well over a decade, there's enormous appeal in continuing to do so.
I'll be interested to hear how your foray into new territory goes. Tired of the crashes, but these fingers do the walking, even when I'm nearly sleep walking. . .
The new Mac came today, one day early. So far so good! It hooked right up to my network and the applications that I need in order to work installed with no problem.
@RTC - That's a tough one because it depends what you do with your system. Obviously the Mac people will say the system is trouble-free and will last forever. I'm sure Dell would say the same thing about their systems. Is you son used to working on a PC? Whether or not it's worth it to pay the high cost remains to be seen!
@BLW - I'll be sure and keep everyone in the loop. I'm excited! As I said I do have some experience with them but I still remember how awkward and frustrating it was the first time I sat down in front of one and tried to do some simple thing and couldn't figure out how to do it!
I live and die by keyboard shortcuts, so when I switched a few months ago I picked up the new ones pretty quickly. But I use a windows computer at work, and I find my poor fingers getting confused all the time now. Haha! (And I keep trying to do the two-fingered trackpad scroll at work!)
Have had a Mac Book Pro the last couple of months and I must say, it never hangs or do any funny stuff like a windows based system would...smooth sailing so far...but the way, I hoped you used a Discover Card to buy it from Apple.com cos you get 5% rebates!
I'm a Mac convert after many years of PCing. It takes longer to get used to the change than you expect, but after a while you wonder why you didn't do this sooner.
And if you live near an Apple store, the service is awesome! The keyboard shortcut issue, as Leah mentions, is a challenge, because they're different. Also, if you use a lot of Word shortcuts and you imagine you can rebuild them in Word for Mac with macros...think again. A lot of the Word keyboard commands are Mac system commands! So you take your chances if you replace them. That's the one thing I really dislike: pointing and clicking, a huge waste of time and tooth-grinder.
Otherwise, my iMac, which is getting a little gray and hoary in its old age, works well, hardly ever crashes (note that doesn't mean "never"), and is almost trouble-free. The MacBook I got to replace the Great Desert University's loaner Dell after Canning Day is really a neat machine! That Dell was a pain in the tuchus.
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