The road to Macdom

by Dennis Howlett on September 25, 2007

There has been some speculation that Apple could use its recently found iPod and iPhone success to drive sales of its computers into business. I’ve no insight into that though the impression I get is Apple has no ambitions in that regard. Even so, it is interesting to watch long time Windows users make the switch and then report the experience.

The most recent convert is Craig Cmehil. Craig’s day job is as an evangelist for SAPs developer community. He does a lot of development work in Second Life and likes to see what he can do with new technology like Zoho in the context of SAP systems. You don’t get much geekier than that. In a recent Tweet, Craig said:

@oracletechnet congrats on the Mac decision I’ve a hard time even thinking of working on my Windows machine now and that’s just a few days.

In mentioning @oracletechnet Craig is referring to Justin Kestelyn who runs Oracle’s Technical Network community. I reckon Justin is even geekier than Craig.

IBM’er and confirmed Windows fan Luis Suarez has made the move. He Tweets:

I’m not a Mac fanboy, but I’ve got to acknowledge the user experience is on to another level. Gotta try it, mate. You’ll see

I also recall Hugh MacLeod saying something about him using a MacBook these days. He used to be a big Tablet PC user (and may still be.)

It can’t all be a case of following the crowd. These folk are super smart and cynical when the occasion demands. They’re not easily persuaded yet the experience seems consistent. It reflects mine. Would I go back to Windows? Never say never but when I read other folk like Andy Piper (another IBM’er) approaching a re-installation of Windows XP with some trepidation, the answer must be no:

From Twitter: About to tackle a reinstall of WinXP Home for a neighbour. Sigh.
Six hours later: Got XP SP2 on, now waiting for various other things to download and install… patch patch patch… might leave this overnight.

Just to complete this wee tale, I’ve recently installed a pair of Airport Extreme network base stations and an Airport Express network extension to create a ‘long reach’ wireless network at our house. The install was easier than anything I’ve ever done in the past. I come from a background of cabling up Novell Netware networks back in the late 1980s. I have experience of network setup pain.

The one downside with Apple kit is the running temperature. I’m sure that ‘running hot’ will be welcome in the winter but I can’t for the life of me understand why every Apple computing device (and Apple TV) assume I want to fry eggs on them.

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  • Since we seem to have focussed in on the issue of my neighbours' PC... I didn't waste more than an hour or so trying to "clean" the machine before taking it into custody (carrying it downstairs!) and going for a reinstall. Fact is that it did still take an entire evening to reinstall; patch; apply SP2; repatch; apply IE 7, WMP 11, etc; repatch... and of course install the basics like Firefox, Flash, Java, etc. Oh, and there was indeed the effort to recover personal data onto an external drive that I could then restore it later.

    Again, I'll be interested to see what happens with Leopard. I'm assuming that the upgrade will be fairly straightforward. I like the fact that OS X can easily backup an entire OS image to another device, and then I can choose what to boot from... something that I've had to use something like PartitionMagic to achieve under XP in the past.
  • As owner of a Microsft Certified Partner firm in the UK, we have long had an affinity with using Microsoft software and Operatig Systems. With more of my time being focussed on video and audio, I too am thinking of making the switch to a Mac Book Pro.

    A major factor is the excellent quality of the audio and built in webcam which completely kicks the ass out of any windows webcam quality I have seen. Combine that with Quick Time Pro only supporting a small number of Windows webcams for recording (if anyone finds the list of windows webcams supported by QTP, let me know) and the fact that there really isn't video recording software that good for the PC and you have a good reason to buy a MBP.

    I've had conversations with Microsoft staff that now use Macs and run Paralells. So it seems there is a switch happening and Microsoft should beware. Especially given the network compatibility issues with Vista, a MBP is probably just as compatible as a Vista PC.

    On the point of Andy stuggling with the XP re-installation. I saw the tweet come in when Andy said he was helping a neighbour de-virus his XP PC. At the time, I suggested Andy should not bother trying to remove the virus and just re-install. This is by far the fastest way. Andy wasted an evening try to fix rather than re-install immediately.

    For me, I can format and re-install XP and my basic software setup in a couple of hours. This is often very painful for home users that regularly haven't got anything backed-up and usually have lots of sotware they don't want to loose or haven't got the CD to re-install.

    Formatting and re-installng is a cleansing experience and best left to a saturday afternoon with a glass of wine. Use a seperate hard drive for all your data files and get into the habit of never saving anyhing on the C drive. This will speed things up and make life alot easier.
  • I switched in February, and you're right, I wouldn't look back. The XP incident you refer to here was the result of some neighbourhood tech support where I was fixed someone else's borked machine... mind you, after that experience, I wouldn't mind if I never have to go near the XP install sequence again. I assume Leopard will be an easier proposition.

    There appears to have been a wave of switching in the last 6 months or so - Luis is just one of my colleagues who has made the change.
  • Justin Kestelyn
    Leopard 10.5's baked-in Bootcamp is really the deal maker for me. Just waitin' to pull the trigger when this is in the wild.
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