My switch to a Mac (part 2 - the Good)

This post and my next will detail the good and bad experiences of my switch.  So here's the good.....

1. Mac OS X just works.

The Unix foundation of Mac OS X makes it stable, secure, and super fast. There really is no comparison of a PC and a Mac (apples and oranges). I'm not running any ant-virus software to slow me down and I don't need to! It has only crashed once on me but I caused that trying to do some funky things with Fusion. I find myself using it most of the time (75%?) and only resort to my Windows 7 VM for Office applications, VMware stuff, and a few other .Net based apps. Now that Snow Leopard is finally here I'll have even less dependence on Windows with the new Exchange support. But more on that later.....

2. VMware Fusion rocks!

Their tag line "Windows is even better on the Mac" is definitely true. I P2V'd my old Windows XP laptop and only gave it 1GB memory and it runs much faster and more stable as a VM on my Mac than it ever did on my old laptop with 2GB memory. Of course this isn't much of a surprise to us VMware guys; that's par for the course. Windows 7 runs really well under the same environment too. The shared folders feature of Fusion makes working with both OSes very easy and the Unity feature is pretty cool as well.  I have my Windows 7 VM assigned to start up automatically in full screen within a space on my Mac.  I can flip between spaces with a keyboard shortcut so it's like having two operating systems in one!  Loading Windows 7 on boot is super-fast too.  My Windows VMs just get suspended when I put my Mac to sleep or shut it down so that when I power back up they are available almost instantly.

3. NTFS-3G

This freeware utility gives you read/write access to NTFS volumes on a Mac. Very handy if you work with Windows regularly and share external drives or thumb drives.  I had a external WD drive that I used with my XP laptop to store and backup all my data.  This made the transition very easy for me.  I just plugged it into my Mac and instantly had access to my stuff again.

4. Cool Mac features.

These are all the features that add up to the "Mac experience".  The Dock, Expose, Spaces, etc. really make it a fun OS to work on.  Vista introduced the Flip and Flip 3D features which are pretty cool and Windows 7 has some more cool new Aero features but it's still the old Windows underneath and Vista is a memory hog.  And then there are the fundamental differences of a Mac like how applications are installed.  You don't have a registry to deal with anymore, Hallelujah!  And of course since it's based on Unix you can do just about anything from the command-line/terminal.  Through working with VMware I've gotten comfortable enough at a Linux terminal to have little fear of that side.  Here are some other features I love:

That multi-touch trackpad is totally awesome dude!

This is one of those things you just have to try for yourself.  The whole trackpad is a button, or two buttons and has all the "gestures" just like the iPhone.  Once you get used to using them it really changes how you use your laptop.  Just take a look at their demo to see all the cool things you can do with it.

I can type in the dark!

At first I didn't think much of the lighted keyboard and just dismissed it as a cool attention getter but I've found it quite useful. I can easily work on my Mac in the dark without squinting at the keyboard or disturbing my wife with any lights.  It only comes on in low light conditions and you can adjust the brightness.

Easy integrated backups.

Time Machine is easy to configure and works flawlessly. In Windows I would either create a copy script, use Windows backup, burn stuff to DVD, or probably all three. Yes, I could have scheduled/scripted Windows backups or even install 3rd party backup software.  I just never took the time to devise and maintain a regular backup strategy. Once Time Machine is configured you just let it do it's thing and forget about it.  It does "progressive" backups so you literally just go back in time and pick the file you want.

5.  Learning Curve.
There really wasn't as big of a learning curve as I thought there would be.  I had worked on Macs a few times so I knew of some of the differences.  Overall I was feeling pretty comfortable with it after just a couple of days of use.  There were some challenges though which I'll go into in my next post.  I found a few sites useful when I needed to find out how to do something:
http://www.macrumors.com
http://the.taoofmac.com/
http://switchtoamac.com

6.  Application Compatibility.
This may seem like a big issue but if you're willing to learn a new way (usually better way) of doing something then this isn't as big of a hurdle as you probably think.  Most of what you would typically use is built into the OS and if you can't find it there then just check out Apple's Mac OS X Downloads page to find what you need.  For my home use there isn't a single application that I haven't been able to find a Mac friendly replacement for.  Furthermore, in just about every case I have found I like the Mac applications better than their Windows counterparts.  For my work use there are only a small handful of applications that I have to rely on Windows for.  I just run those on my Windows VMs when needed though; no problem.

7. I'm cool now.

Okay, well a little cooler anyway. I won't be hanging out at Starbucks or sporting any trendy, metro/retro fads but hey, I'm buds with that Mac guy in the commercials now.

What's killing me right now is that I'm out-of-town this week and my copy of Snow Leopard is waiting for me at home. So once I get back there that will be on the top of my to-do list. I'm excited to see how well the Exchange support works so I can sever my ties to Outlook. The speed improvements from the new GCD feature and from it being all x64 bit will be the icing on the cake. I mean, really, it's already fast!