My computer is really starting to show its age and for awhile now I have been thinking about what its replacement should be. That also has me thinking about Macs and making a change. I have been working with PCs for 20 years+, so it is a bit daunting to think about switching out of your comfort zone. At the same time, I have just about had it with all the various issues I have had with them, and the SOOO MANY hours spend trying to remedy, understand, and patch them up. Every error now just raises my blood pressure to new levels. I am really quite fed up with it all.
Perhaps some of my angst is due to trying to squeeze too much out of an aging machine and some of the allure too much due to Apple’s marketing machine. Both are likely factoring into the temptation. But since Mac’s can now run Windows – are they really the best of both worlds?
I am discovering a few sites that help people understand what is involved in such a change, things to prepare for, etc. I am not 100% certain I am going to Mac yet – maybe I just need a more up-to-date computer – but don’t think I am ready for Vista either. I need to understand how good Macs are for an occasional diversion to play some games I enjoy on the PC (Battlefield, Doom3, etc). I need to inventory all of my software and find out what has cross-platform licensing and available side-grades. Will it truly be more enjoyable to work with? I also plan on spending some time in a newly opened Apple store nearby. I know the whole Mac vs. PC thing can get as bad as Nikon vs. Canon – and perhaps it really ends up as a matter of personal preference.
I would really appreciate any tips or advice from those that have made this switch recently and what your experience has been. Is the grass truly greener?
Mark, to steal another marketing phrase: “Just Do It!”. I did about 3 months ago and now swear that I will never run Windows (as my primary OS) again. I use my MacBook for personal, photography, and business use. There are some applications that I need that don’t run on the Mac and for that I use a VM to run windows on the mac. It works great (BTW: I have been running VM’s for years and love that technology too).
Right now, I only have the laptop as Mac, and still use my (aging) windows workstation for photoshop processing. I haven’t been able to afford buying PS again for the Mac. The nice thing about the lightroom license is that is is for lightroom, independent of the OS! Hopefully more applications will take this route in the future.
For what you described, the mac will solve your biggest frustrations…it just works. I have to admit, as a business traveler, I do enjoy sitting down next to a PC user at the airport, opening up my MacBook, have it wake from sleep and be working in under 10 seconds. I get lots of envious and curious looks from the PC users. Thought be cautious of the latest OS release called Leapord, I’ve heard not good things and I’m waiting on switching over to it. And for your gaming needs, look into VMware Fusion to run windows…better support for graphics needs of games than Parallels (I run Parallels as Fusion wasn’t released yet when I got my Mac).
You can read more about my adventures on my business and technology blog. Feel free to drop me a line anytime if you need help, want advice or moral support of leaving your comfort zone…after a few months, you’ll be happy you left the zone, trust me!
Hi Mark. Came across your blog…great work. As a long time PC/Win user and recent convert to the “Cult of Mac” myself I really can’t recommend them enough. Yes, Apple has a great marketing machine and Macs are not perfect, but I think they reduce the amount of computer-related hassle enormously. The fact is that, though the interface looks similar to windows (or vice versa) at a macro level, when it comes to usability the Mac is much better. Most tasks are easier, I have had much better luck with printers, and the color management, always important to photographers, permeates the whole OS. You get color management not just in Photoshop or LR but when images are displayed in email and the web browser too, so it’s really consistent. I went through the whole exercise of figuring out which apps I use have Mac compatible versions, etc. Ended up the only app I couldn’t get for Mac was my Garmin GPS map program, and they are working on a Mac version now. The process to move all my data and relearn how to do tasks really wasn’t that bad and now I am so glad I did it. Just my 2 cents
As you pointed out yourself.
If there are some games that are not running on the Mac you can boot into windows. But a lot of games will run on the Mac and you can also try VMware or Parallel to run windows applications on it without leaving your Mac environment.
I’m not a Mac user, but since some people in my surroundings are converting to Apple, I’m looking into it myself and I’m tempting to switch. (but not yet).
Good luck with your choice and blog.
Thanks for the input. I really haven’t come across anyone who was sorry they made the switch. My biggest problem right now is figuring out how my email will transfer. It is not on my host, but all downloaded to my PC. This particular link looks promising: http://www.comeacross.info/2006/05/26/moving-email-from-a-pc-to-the-mac/ And I am pretty sure I will never get my slide scanner to work on a Mac. It is an old Polaroid SS4000 – which I doubt I could get to work even on a Windows Vista system. So I will likely have to get a different slide scanner, adding a bit more to the expense.
Mark, good question. I’ve absolutely got to upgrade soon myself. I’ll probably stay with windows but you hear a lot of great things about the Macs. You hear about how vista will absolutely dominate the market in four years and then you hear of apple’s plans. Who knows. When you make a decision let us know.
Great atmospheric shot. I’ve got some slides from the Smokies that are mindblowing. I’ve been a fan of your photography a long time having your site saved in my favorites a long time before I started blogging. Thanks for the inspiration!
Boyd, thanks so much for the comments, I am glad to have an artist as yourself as a visitor also!
Hello Mark. Love the photography!! I myself am a photographer and when I came across your site…wow. Anyways, reading the blog here I see your trying to figure out if your going to switch to Mac. I “used” to be a PC/Windows person for quite a while. I had a Windows XP machine untill the power supply decided to have a BBQ party with the interior electronics. So after a little while with no machine…I was off to Future Shop one day (up here in Canada) and saw the latest iMac on sale. Nice 24 inch display to say the least. Well I broke down and bought it. Awesome machine and with the 24 inch flat screen display editing and viewing digital photography has deffinately made it easier. The idea of using both Windows and the Mac OS made me buy it as well. I’m still learning the OS still after almost a year but I will NEVER return to the PC environment. I recommend a Mac as it does seem to be better at the graphics editing than a PC. I loaded a vesion of XP on it too so that in the case of playing games, I can. You use a program called “Boot Camp” to partition the Hard Disk to load Windows and you can even get another program called “Parallels” I think it’s called to run both Windows and the Mac OS at the same time. Otherwise using Boot Camp you have to restart when you want to go into Windows. I did find that programs cost a little more for loading onto Mac but well, I think in the end it’s still worth it. Nothing like getting the ol’ “Confirm or Deny” dialogue window in Vista for it’s security system. Anyways not sure if this helps or not but if you want to ask specific questions (if you have not already bought a machine) I would be glad to help as much as I can. Keep up the awesome work and thanks for the inspiration!
Benjamin – thanks for the kind words. Funny thing – the most common words I see from Mac converts is…. ‘never again…’
I am sure more specifics will come up along the way, thanks for the offer. It does seem there are a few options to choose from in booting or using Windows.
For sure. Although I have never heard of VM but when talking to a Future Shop rep he did mention that Parallels is not good for gaming as the memory sharing for both Windows and Mac OS is quite large. He recommended to me if I wanted to play Windows games I should boot into Windows fully and play in there. At least you get the best of both worlds when you can dual-boot.
) I use Windos XP with Mac OS X Tiger. I will not load Vista on my machine as Vista has a “problem” with using too much RAM. Takes around 1 GB of RAM just to boot up a Vista machine. 
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I will be interested in reading about what you decide Mark. I have pondered the same thing myself recently. The biggest drawback seems to be the cost. I am always surprised at how much more a similarly spec-ed top of the line Mac cost compared to a PC.
Ron, I am pretty sure I will be getting a MacPro desktop, but a few things are holding me back right now.
1) They are supposed to be updating these desktops with the latest Intel chips very soon
2) Waiting for the software and printer makers to catch up to Leopard – seems Epson still needs to update all of their drivers.
3) Need to decide what to do with my slide scanner – will not work on mac.
4) I finally got my ancient PC stabilized it seems, not many blue screens in the past days – knock wood.
Hi Mark, I am a recent Mac convert my self, and I thought I would share my thoughts on the matter.
In response to your last post, yes, it is reliably rumored that Apple will release new MacPro’s shortly (my money is that the announcement will come at the Macworld conference in January). These new MacPro’s should be significantly more powerful then the current generation, and you will be kicking your self a month from now if you buy a MacPro today.
Additionally, you can save a very substantial amount of money by purchasing third party RAM for the MacPro and installing it your self that having it preinstalled by Apple. It is a very easy task (open case, insert RAM stick in slot, close case), and you can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars, depending on how much RAM you buy. For example, Apple charges $699 to upgrade to 4 GB of RAM, and $1,699 to upgrade to 8 GB, but you can buy these name brand 1 GB sticks for $60 each. If you ordered the MacPro with the default 1 GB of RAM, you could upgrade to 4 GB for $180 or 8 GB for $420!
Although it seems you have made the decision to switch (yay for you!), I would just like to reiterate what the other posters have said. I love my MacBook Pro and will never switch back to a PC. I find the interface much more pleasing and easy to use. It feels like more time has been put into little things then with Windows, which is a nice touch. Also, don’t let people scare you about Leopard. I upgraded to it on the release date and have never been happier. I have experienced none of the problems I have seen reported. Just make sure to check if your programs are compatible. I use Photoshop CS3 and it runs fine under Leopard, but I believe Adobe has said that they do not support anything prior to CS3 on Leopard.
For gaming, you’ll need a MacBook Pro, preferably with 256 MB graphics card.
I’m using a 12″ PowerBook for daily computing needs and to edit home movies with Final Cut Express and enjoying the experience very much (even though Leopard still has some irritating bugs).