There’s a Dark Side and I Crossed Over

I admit it, I freely admit it. I betrayed all my roots, left my childhood behind, put my past to the wind and crossed over. There’s a Dark Side and I crossed into their camp. I don’t think there’s any return now. After around 3 and a half months of research and saving when my old laptop kicked the bucket, I finally bought a new laptop. It just so happened to be an Apple one.

Being with PCs all my (admittedly short) life thus far, it was a hard choice to make. Leaving behind certain programs, keyboard shortcuts, various bits and pieces of hardware, and even a few games, I crossed the great gap of time and space and pride and prejudice and ventured out into the unknown distant galaxy of Apple Mac.

It’s been bliss.

Don’t get me wrong, I had my inhibitions. Would my software still run? How would I open all my millions upon millions of .docx and .xlsx Word and Excel documents? Would I hate my decision? Would my PC friends disown me as a person? Would I be kicked out of all LAN parties before even showing up? So far the answers to all those questions have been positive ones. The only hitches I’ve had are places where I forgot to back up certain bits and pieces I needed to (like fonts and brushes for Adobe programs–whoops!). In terms of programs, for the ones that don’t work on Mac there are alternatives (sometimes better alternatives, I might add), and for everything else, it probably wasn’t that useful anyway.

For example,

Instead of Office I switched to iWork, which has just as much functionality for a quarter of the price.
Instead of FL Studio, I switched to Ableton Live, which is comparatively better in every way.
Instead of AnyPasswordPro, I switched to MyWallet, which has many more features for a fraction of the price.
Instead of Visual Web Developer, I’m using Dreamweaver. It isn’t free, but comes with CS5.5 Master Collection.
Instead of Outlook I’m using the standard Mail client which comes with MacOS X. It’s brilliant.

Here’s my list of pros (as subjective as they may be) for Mac thus far:

• Better battery life (by a country mile)
• Better build quality
• Better looks
• Mac OS X Lion rocks
• Increased productivity
• Better design than any Windows laptop I’ve ever seen
• Better trackpad than any Windows laptop I’ve ever used
• Faster boot times (I’m talking hundreds of thousands of light years faster)
• Faster program launch times
• Superb screen quality
• Awesome backlit keyboard
• Simplicity!

It’s only been a month, and already I don’t think there’s any way I’ll be returning. The only downfall, really, is the price. The old adage of getting what you pay for does ring true, but it’s still a giant hurdle to leap and will put more than a few off getting a Mac laptop anytime soon.

It’s an admittedly scary thing giving a whole new computer manufacturer a go, and a whole lot of research went into this before I made the plunge, but really it was an adventurous gamble in the end, and one that proved to be a wonderful buy. Well, that’s a bonus! Obviously they’re not everyone’s cup of tea, but for me, I really like tea, and I really like the MacBook Pro. I might even brave the somewhat controversial Mac gaming world and give Assassin’s Creed a go.

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Tags: Technology Reviews