10.29.08
Finally trying a mac
So I have been kind of hesitant to try macs for a few reasons:
- They are very trendy and “hip”, which usually makes things less attractive to me
- They are expensive, and my PC has been working pretty well for me
- I have workflows and a good environment set up on my PC, not to mention some expensive software (MS Office, Adobe Photoshop)
- I am used to using PCs…been using them since my dad bought us a 33mhz 486
- Any time I spend briefly on a mac drives me a little insane because of the keyboard shortcuts and other differences
- I am not a big fan of trackpads. I really like pointing sticks.
However, as of late, I have been flirting more and more with the idea of a mac. I finally decided to try one out:
- Most of the colleagues who I really respect for their engineering talent and intelligence love their macs
- I want to develop an iPhone app or two, and the only way to do it is with a mac
- My PC has been giving me a real headache as far as hardware issues. Software wise, it’s been fine but the hardware problems are starting to drive me up a wall…the computer is almost 3 years old now.
- Newer macs have really large touchpads with multitouch which seems like it could be better than using a pointing stick
- Apple says 50% of students are using macs. If this is true, it really says a lot about the long term prospects of the platform. Something developers, including myself, should be watching very closely.
- I need a mac to develop iPhone apps.
So the real reason I got one was out of necessity. I figured I would try it out as a secondary machine and see how I like it. I got a pretty sweet deal on a black 2.4ghz macbook. Well, lo and behold, my inner geek came out as soon as I opened the box; I started to settle in. Add / remove some dock icons, customize my terminal, set up mail and firefox, etc. I think I am going to try to use it as my primary machine.
Some initial observations:
- Macbooks don’t have home/end/pageup/pagedown buttons. I was not aware of this fact. So far it has not been an issue but once I start to do some real work I fear it might drive me up a wall.
- The text anti aliasing is a little weird compared to my PC. I think I am starting to get used to it, but if I pay attention it makes me squint.
- The keyboard shortcuts are really frustrating. Muscle memory is hard to break. Only after 4-5 hours I am finally remembering to hit command-L instead of command-D for the address bar in Firefox. Again, once I start doing some serious work, we will see how it goes. I think it can be overcome in a day or two with some perseverance.
- I love the fact that is UNIX under the hood. Being able to open up a terminal and have access to all the UNIX goodness is pretty awesome.
- I do like the touchpad. It is large enough to go across the screen in one swipe, and the multitouch behavior is very cool and convenient. Still getting used to right-clicking though.
- I still don’t know what I am going to do about my MS Office and Photoshop. There is always the last ditch option of bootcamp or a VM like Parallels / VMware…
- The screen is a little annoying…the viewing angle is really, really narrow. From what I have read, this is not an issue with Macbook Pros. Also the screen is a little on the small side. Very useable, but I think I would definitely benefit from the larger screen on an MBP.
So overall my experience has been pretty positive so far…a few grumbles here and there but I think it will be a good relationship. If I decide to stick with it, in a few months I may need to sell this macbook and upgrade to a unibody MBP for the 15″ screen. That remains to be seen, because one of my main gripes about macs is the price. A little deal hunting on eBay and craigslist can alleviate that problem. It’s also easier to justify the price when the new unibody macbooks seem like they are really well built.
