It's The Little Things: Reverting to Mac

Right on! Good move!

Stowe, if possible, keep a record of your experiences with the transition. I'm particularly interested in what goes well and what doesn't, or is confusing. These experiences point out the tacit and unspoken assumptions that systems embody, as well as those that we users hold. And it's data we need to have in order to improve our interactions with machines (and each other).

Welcome back. I did the same thing last spring, after a 8 year hiatus- dual 500 G4 as my everyday workstation, Thinkpad 600x as my test/review/travel machine. After the initial novelty of OS X had worn off, I find that much of the time there really isn't much of a difference between the user experience aspect of either OS. That's sure to get me flamed but it's the truth. Now if I had a G5 and the 30" LCD...

I made the switch in 2000. So I've gone through the OS9 OSX conversion as well. My machine at work is a Dell windows laptop. My personal machines are a Cube and a G4 12" Powerbook. I've appreciated the reliability of the Macs; so much so that I now no longer use my work machine for anything except my work email connection.

Congratualtions. Like you I have decided that the Windows PC at home is now just a lab system for reviewing PC specific software and hardware. My iBook is where the real stuff of life is handled.

It's where I write my articles, mamage my web site, edit video, manage my digital photo collection and sync my iPod with music and various podcasts.

I've written a little bit at my site about switching. It's at http://www.thepdaguy.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=153.

I have just persuaded a friend to make the switch - but I had forgotten one thing.

If you buy a new PC, it will invariably have something like MS Works, maybe even MS Office bundled (at least that's how it works in the UK). Mac's don't.

Thus, I get an email from my friend yesterday, expressing pleasure at every aspect of the gorgeous new iMac - except for the fact that he can't do anything with all his transferred spreadsheets without spending yet more money on software!

My mistake rather than his - I should have thought of that. But the focus of the iMac bundle on home-based 'creativity' has rather sidelined the business applications, and that's a problem, because it makes the switch that bit harder.

Nick,

How about you point your friend in the direction of OpenOffice.org - they will be able to work (natively) with their MS Office files!

cheers

David

David,
Of course, I know about openoffice and had thought of pointing my friend that direction. But consider what they say about themselves:
"While stable enough for usage and offering the majority of the functionality to OpenOffice.org on other platforms, this is not a traditional MacOS X user-friendly application. The X11 release is about functionality, not looks. This build is meant for the Darwin community and Unix-savvy MacOS X user community"
Matthew and family didn't fit into that category! And the idea that you go to the web and download the primary software you are going to be basing your business on, is new to them.
My point was really about software bundling, and peoples' assumptions - Apple is perhaps focusing differently, 'thinking different' as we might almost say.....

Tracked on November 22, 2004 01:02 PM