3 posts tagged “osx”
Many months ago when I started this blog I'd just acquired a PowerMac G4 having rescued it from a skip, I installed OSX and started using it. I enjoyed the experience but the Mac quickly fell into disuse as I still had all of my regular apps, email, music, etc. on the PC. I couldn't have switched to the G4 as my PC was newer and more powerful and besides that I didn't really want to abandon the PC as a platform, until now.
In order to make traveling easier and provide me with a little more flexibility I decided to get a laptop, I thought this would be an ideal time to make a first serious step into the Mac world so I went to the Apple Store on Regent's Street (London), watched their "Switch at Six" talk and spoke with a few employees about the practicalities and after much deliberation I bought the 13.3" Macbook. Whilst the extra power of the Macbook Pro would be great I think the size makes it much less portable and when you start thinking about spending that much money on a laptop you might as well say "screw it" and buy an awesome desktop for the same money.
I've had it for a few weeks now and I'm enjoying it, I've found that I'm using the Internet much more for fun as I can sit in the living room with the TV on and talk to my flatmate at the same time, I also can just pick it up and take it out with me if I need to. I plan to clear some space on my desk so that I can run a cable to my 22" CRT to get a better experience for editing photos, etc. - but these are just benefits of having a laptop - so how am I finding the Mac?
Overall, it's been positive, I've had difficulty overcoming certain hurdles (lack of right mouse button, the fact I hate Preview) but in general I love some of the cool features such as: pressing F9 tiles all of your open applications and allows you to pick which one you want to use and F11 pushes all of your apps to the side of the screen so you can get access to your desktop. They're only little things and probably exist in Vista but that's one of my reasons for switching - based on everything I've heard to date I really don't want Vista and am getting fed up of being tied to Microsoft software so this is my first step towards application freedom. Now I barely use my PC and I'm wondering whether or not the Macbook will become my primary computer - time will tell I suppose.
Having had the Mac for a good few weeks now I thought it would be a good time to post my experiences back on the blog. Initially I still found the user interface confusing as OS9 is quite different from Windows, I also had my suspicions confirmed in that there is almost no application support for legacy operating systems. To get round this I decided to take the plunge and get a copy of OSX, this is a decision I do not regret in the slightest - it's great!
The install for OSX ran like a dream, though I'm not really sure how long it took as I was watching TV in the other room for the bulk of it. Once it was up and running I downloaded all the patches (being a Windows user this made me feel at home) then got hold of the latest version of Firefox so I could start using the Mac in earnest.
So far I've found it very enjoyable getting to know OSX, most things seem to be where you'd expect and I love that funny toolbar that pops up at the bottom for launching applications - much nicer than the Start Menu. I decided to make the Mac my primary web-surfing machine and have moved it into the living room, saving my PC for more hard-core use as well as my email (I'm currently tied-in to Outlook).
Every second I use OSX I am mentally comparing it to Windows and it's obviously way ahead of XP in terms of graphical niceties and general usability. That said, Vista is hot on it's heels and in honesty the whole Aero/Glass thing beats OSX's graphical style hands down, MS are clearly taking their cues from Apple and hoping to go one step further.
Of course, Apple will have a chance to bite back with Leopard so I'll keep watching that space and I'm sure Vista will usher-in a whole new world of security issues and bugs that need fixing - comments I've heard from Steve Gibson on the Security Now podcast have been quite alarming and I've stopped using my copy of Vista Beta 2 because of security concerns. That said, I will hopefully receive Vista RC1 soon but I'll try that one inside a virtual machine if I can.
On a final note I had a very helpful and friendly email conversation with a guy from my local Mac user group, if you're reading this - thanks, I may be in touch again once I've gotten to grips with things a bit more. Also, I still find the Mac press to be over-zealous and have resolved not to buy magazines any more (barring useful cover disks) - I'll get my news from the MacBreak Weekly podcast (yet another great podcast from TWiT.tv.
Until the other day, the last time I used a Mac was circa-1994 when I got my hands on a Macintosh IIsi and some variant of the Macintosh Classic. They belonged to my parent's employer who needed a bit of help with printing and other IT tasks and I was pretty good at figuring these things out. I enjoyed using the GUI, at the time my only PC was either an IBM XT or AT running DOS and a mouse was an object of desire way beyond the budget my pocket-money would stretch to.
I'm giving you this backgroun because the other day I had the chance to get a much more modern Power Mac G4 that was being thrown out of some offices near where I live. Obviously I jumped at the chance as it had been well over 10 years since I last used one and getting Mac skills back on my CV can only be a good thing. First impressions – I was underwhelmed. I must point out that this thing is running OS9 and not everybody’s darling OSX, this makes it very hard to get software that will run on it – Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, none of them have released browsers compatible with OS9 for quite a while. The main source of my disappointment is that it basically looks the same as it did back in the day, nothing really new or innovative seems to be there and I’m finding it pretty tricky to navigate. As a born-again noob I realise that things aren’t going to be plain sailing and I do need to invest some time to read tutorials and familiarise myself with the OS, what I don’t want to have to do though is go out an buy OSX to get some decent use out of it – from what I’ve seen though, there may be little option.
I also bought a copy of Mac Format magazine and one thing that shines out of it’s pages is the adoration Mac users pour on their systems, something that seems a little odd for a platform whose most recent innovation is that it can run Windows. I’m far from a Windows fanboy (why do you think I want to switch), it’s just that the realities of working in a commercial environment mean it’s the OS I am most familiar with – Mac users seem to be so absurdly protective of their environment that approaching it from an outsiders perspective seems quite tough. My next course of action is to go to the community and see if they can help, I mean websites, user groups, etc. I’ll post back if and when I get any further in my quest, stay tuned…
