apple fanboy 6 months on
October 28th, 2008
I still can’t believe that I use a Mac sometimes. Even after owning one for 6 months. I was something I never, ever, thought I would do. I Always hated Macs.
I’ll start off by saying that, yes, it has crashed a few times, the occasional Kernel Panic, the odd application crash etc. However, these are rare, and have in no way dampened my new computing experience.
My last few months with windows were not great; repeating hard drive failures, regular almost-data-loses, monthly reinstalls, generally slow running speed resulting in nothing getting done quickly.
I had considered myself a bit of an expert on Windows, and as such it did take me about 3-4 weeks to fully adjust to the Mac. Starting with registering and customising preferences. Finding the applications – and discovering that they are now called ‘applications’ rather than programs – that did what I wanted was the hardest task, though after recommendations and many Google search results starting with “Best Mac Applications” it didn’t take too long.
And so down to real computing. Finally I was able to use able to use a computer without having to constantly worry about settings, preferences, registries, viruses, spyware, unwanted crap, awful performance, unresponsiveness, cluttered Start menu, taskbar, quicklaunch bar, massively cluttered Control Panel, that damned Windows folder in C:/ with endless amounts of unorganised crap. Run that never runs anything, Find which certainly never found anything of use and Help which only hindered.
Ignoring the fact that I sound like I’m being paid for this, but I can actually just do what I want without thinking about the workings of the operating system, and in general, things just work. Always switching seamlessly between applications, only crashing with over 100 firefox tabs open.
One thing I had always feared about laptops was the touchpad – or trackpad as Apple likes to refer to it – abd how awful I thought it would be without a mouse. Sometimes I forget to plug in my mouse for hours at at time. Truth is, the Mac Trackpad is amazing. Sometimes it’s even annoying to use the mouse – though makes some things easier to do.
So there was a minor incident 2 weeks ago, though only temporary. I brought it to the Genius Bar for a checkup. All fine. Subject to more Kernel Panics, some parts will be replaced.
On top of the usability of the Mac, there is the great Apple Community. Being such an important aspect of life, Apple is definitely no exception. So big infact that a documentary is being produced on just that. In many ways, it is a relgion of shiny relics. I’m a happy convert.
Oh and tha Ask Jack section of the Technology Guardian only ever has Windows issues.
