Making the switch II

Today's release of Windows Vista has me reflecting on my first few months of Mac ownership. No, this is not going to be a (assume conceited voice) "Macs are far superior to PC's" post. (College roomies: I know exactly which voice you assumed in your head when you read that sentence ;-) ) But Microsoft's new operating system got me to thinking about computers in general, and I remembered a while back promising a follow-up post about my experience with my new Mac after I'd had it for a while. So here it is.

I hate to be the glassy-eyed disciple, but I have to say that I love my Mac. Some of what I love about it is that it's a laptop, and some of what I love about it is that it's a newer, faster computer. That means any opinions I have about Macs in general are colored by these uncontrolled variables. That said, I am really happy with the Macintosh operating system and how well all of the parts integrate. For example, today I got an invitation as an .ics file via email, and when I opened iCal later today, the invitation had magically appeared there. Granted, I've never used a calendar program before, so this may not be as shocking as it seemed to me, but the way the Apple Mail and iCal talked to each other behind my back was pretty startling and cool.

Another thing I really like is how transparent the operating system is. It's a snap to open the Terminal and do things on the command line that in many cases have a 1:1 correspondence to tasks I could do with the various GUI utilities that came bundled with the OS, just with more options. I've been analyzing a lot of data lately, and I've really appreciated UNIX's tools for searching, chopping, and moving information in text files.

As for Mac's much-touted stability, I can say that I've had few problems with crashes and weird behavior. Most recently, I've had a frustrating experience with a new external hard drive that I got for backups. I accidentally unplugged the cable connecting the drive to the computer before ejecting it, which incapacitated the drive beyond the abilities of the disk utilities that came with the computer to repair. After a 24 hour cooling off period, the drive seems to be willing to cooperate again, but I'm going to be treating it gingerly until I can be sure that I can trust it. Other than that I've not had many odd behavior issues, although they have happened, most frequently when I've been using MS Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, I'm afraid. Speaking of PowerPoint, I just started using Apple's equivalent, Keynote. I actually like it a little better. Some of the things that I'm used to doing in PowerPoint aren't quite as easy with Keynote, but overall I think it's an easier to use program. I especially like how easy it makes lining up objects on a slide. It's amazing how a minor little feature like that can be so exciting. Of course, most people (probably including many Mac users) don't use Keynote. Fortunately, it has an export to PowerPoint feature so I don't have to worry too much about formatting issues when giving talks at conferences.

Speaking of compatibility, my main concern coming in to this purchase was that I be able to continue using Microsoft Access because that's where all of the data for my dissertation, as well as some of the code for analyzing those data, resides. The Boot Camp option wasn't really a viable one, because it requires you to reboot into Windows. The major limitations are 1) the Mac and Windows drive partitions can't communicate, and 2) you can't simultaneously use programs that require different operating systems. To the rescue comes Parallels, which is a really nifty program. It's basically a virtual machine for running Windows (or any number of other operating systems) on your Mac. The catch is that the Windows machine is self-contained and acts like a completely separate computer, so you can't seamlessly use Windows programs within OS X. But if you're running XP (and presumably Vista), it's relatively easy to set up shared folders that you can use to transfer files back and forth. Unfortunately, I only have a copy of Win98. File transfers can still be done, but I had to take a crash course in networking to figure out how to set it up. Now that it's set up, though, I've got a system I'm relatively happy with for working with Windows.

Some of the things that come with OS X I'm not too excited about. The Dashboard and its associated widgets I haven't found too useful except for maybe the calculator and the widget the tells me the weather in Stockholm. (It's cold there right now -- I probably didn't need a widget to tell me that.) [OK, so I promised I wouldn't use this post to criticize Microsoft, but how ridiculous is it that for Vista they completely ripped off the idea of widgets, then didn't even bother to hide the fact that they ripped them off by giving them the absurd name of "gadgets"?] I'm getting to tolerate iTunes, especially as I get to use it more, but I still miss MediaMonkey which was a much better database. And the Mac versions of some of my more commonly used programs like Word and Endnote are a little touchier than their Windows counterparts. But those are minor quibbles overall.

One side note on Mac culture: It seems that a MacBook is THE fashion accessory these days in San Francisco. Anne and I wanted to meet one day after work in the Mission, but our favorite coffee shop had been converted into a bike messenger bar, so we needed to find an alternative spot. We searched (Beau will appreciate this) on Yelp for coffee shops near 16th and Valencia. The place we found seemed like a reliable spot (I've since forgotten the name), although some of the reviewers were put off by the density of hipsters. We decided to ignore the warnings and meet there anyway -- we were going to a play nearby, and you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a hipster near that intersection. I got there first and settled into a comfy couch to do some work while I waited for Anne. When Anne plopped down next to me on the couch, she looked around and started chuckling. A couple Yelpers who had been most critical of the place had mentioned how you needed a Mac laptop to fit in there. Sitting on the couch across from me were two people working on Macs, and to Anne's right were two more. Probably eighty percent of the computer users in the coffee shop were using Macs, and probably ninety percent of the people were hipster tools. Who knew I was so fashion forward? Actually, as much as I hate to admit it, I do kind of like the cachet that comes with owning a Mac, but at that moment I was deeply embarrassed. I could almost smell a backlash building.

Well as you might guess from the length and tone of this post, I'm quite happy that I made the switch. Most of the things I was used to in the PC world have a (sometimes better quality) analogue in the Mac world, and I've been able to work around most of the things that don't. Having Parallels has made a world of difference, and if I ever get ahold of a copy of Windows XP, it might be even better. I won't say that I endorse switching for everyone -- it's a bit of work to learn a whole new operating system, even one that's pretty similar to (and easier to use than) Windows, and finding and setting up the software you need can create some headaches. But with only a few exceptions, I've been blissfully happy with this computer, and if that makes me a glassy-eyed disciple, well so be it.