I’m a convert.

I’ve made the decision to switch to an Apple Macbook Pro after more than 12 years as a PC advocate. I have several reasons for the switch, which I will go into below. But first let me mention that I am not new to using Macs. I’ve been using them regularly since 2000 and have been a computer tech supporting Mac and PC for the last 5 years. I was troubleshooting Macs before OSX was even released. I edited my first two documentaries on a Mac. So this isn’t a new thing. But even with all that exposure to Apple, I still preferred working on a PC for most of the things I did.

But I’ve been thinking about switching to a Mac ever since they started using the intel chips and it’s been possible to run Windows and OSX on the same computer (and now at the same time). I use some applications that Apple makes that aren’t available on the PC, so having the ability to have the best of both worlds is a huge selling point for me. But even then, I wasn’t convinced until this summer, when I was troubleshooting computers at the Santa Fe Workshops for both students and staff, that Apple’s Slogan, “It just works” actually proved to be based in reality.

Most of the photographers that came through had Macs, so I was helping them with various issues but most were easy to resolve and were the result of the user not knowing something. So I just showed them and they were on the way. But when the rare PC user came to me with a problem, I spent so much time dealing with those problems that I realized it just wasn’t worth it to fight with Windows anymore. I mean it is really silly stuff that should work but doesn’t.

Here’s some examples I dealt with on my PC that frustrated me. Jump drives wouldn’t show up until I restarted. Ejecting jump drives or USB hard drives never worked, I got the “The device is busy, try again later” error everytime. Well I don’t care if the device is busy! I’m done with it, so make it unbusy! I had a built in SD card reader on my Dell that I could never get to work. My Dell laptop worked fine if I put it into standby, but my work computer could never ‘wake up’ properly. I usually ended up having to restart the thing. Windows sometimes would do an update that was required and without asking me, would restart my computer without saving the things I had open. This happened a lot.

I know enough about Windows that usually I was able to figure out the daily problems and solve them, but for people who aren’t good with computers, I know that fighting with Windows everyday to even do the simplest things can make somebody hate their life.

I installed Vista for a short time on my work Mac, and it ran fine, but I didn’t see anything that would drastically reduce the amount of problems that Windows has. And even I was confused by the various versions of Windows Vista. I think there is like 5 different flavors, how is the average consumer going to be able to deal with that? They just want a computer that works with the least amount begging/praying/violence…

But there was one major reason I chose to make the switch. My job needed me to run 4 or 5 digital slideshows per week with an audience in the hundreds, so mistakes couldn’t happen. I had to trust my equipment fully. I couldn’t have random errors or drivers that start malfunctioning for no reason at the worst possible time. I got to thinking about it and I just couldn’t trust a PC to give me flawless performance. I trusted my Macbook Pro to the extent which you can trust a computer. That’s not to say I didn’t have problems. I had to send a brand new Macbook Pro back to the shop for repair because it didn’t like having a secondary monitor attached. I had multiple system crashes and software failures during shows, but overall, it worked out really well. Most of the time it does do the things you ask it to do without throwing a fit.

So, call me a hypocrite or a traitor or a fanboy or an elitist, call me whatever you want. Am I forever shunning Windows from my life? No, I’m going to have XP installed using VMware and I’m going to be able to jump into a 100% functional version of windows with one click of the mouse and then jump back to OSX with another click. How cool is that?

Anyway, here some things I like about the my Macbook Pro.

The Ipod works better with mac.
Built in camera and microphone
software has less problems
most photographers seem to use macs
“it just works”, not always, but usually
magnetic power cord
light up keyboard
touchpad features (two finger click/scroll)
Block level cloning
6 pin firewire port
dual boot or fast user switching
made from aluminum and not plastic so it’s tough
I like how the system volume icon shows up on screen during adjustments

Here are some things I don’t like about my Macbook Pro:

not super fond of the overall design
The metal casing gets WAY too hot
keyboard is too far from the edge of laptop
keyboard is a little weird to type on
no backspace key (incredibly annoying)
screen doesn’t fold back flat
the super annoying glow light that gets brighter and dimmer when the computer is asleep
OS install software is model specific

The picture above is my Macbook Pro as it sits on the operating table during surgery. I put a new 320 gig hard drive in it and maxed out the ram. Now, I’m currently working on the software side to get it set up the way I want. (jeez, I really need to clean that screen!)

The picture below is of my friend and former coworker Chris as he is working on my computer. He’s an amazing support specialist and has taught me much of what I know about computers and solving computer problems. I owe him a great deal of thanks. Just FYI, he’s a recent convert too!