A Microsoft Guy Converted to Apple
September 23, 2014
I never thought that I’d be writing this post, but the day has come where I decided to switch to an Apple laptop. If you’ve known me, you were probably aware of my disdain for Apple products. I was of the opinion that they are offering the same equipment with a higher price tag and people who purchased that stuff were suckers. So now, either I’ve been snookered into this mass hysteria of Mac Madness, or things aren’t really how I originally thought.
My reasoning for purchasing a Mac was somewhat just curiosity. I was not incredibly happy with my current laptop, mainly because of the limited resolution, so I started looking at new laptops on the Internet. I had a useable laptop already, just one that I wasn’t super happy with, so if I didn’t immediately take to Mac OS, I could always switch back to my Windows machine until I grew accustomed to my new Mac.
Surprise
Once I got my new Macbook Pro 15 I never felt the urge to switch back to the old laptop. Mac OS was certainly an adjustment, but so was the change from Windows 7 to Windows 8. The interface was totally different to me, but pretty simple to navigate and it was so basic, that the learning curve was fairly minimal.
I found the retina display to be pretty amazing. It wasn’t just a buzzword to get people to buy something, it really is great to work on. But my favorite feature so far, it the “Spaces” feature. Mac allows you to have different desktops and put different apps on different screens. I can then rotate between them depending on what I’m working on. Maybe a Work space, a blogging space with my WordPress page open and a goofing off space with Facebook or news.
The performance of the laptop is great. It’s 16GB of RAM a 256 GB SSD and Core i7 Processor. It’s been rock solid so far and I haven’t had any issues so far.
The power cable is also pretty nifty. There is a magnetic connector that connects to the laptop so if anyone happens to trip over the cable, it just disconnects from the laptop instead of breaking something. It’s the little things.
Challenges
The migration was not rainbows and funny papers though. By far the most difficult thing for me to get adjusted to was to lose my keyboard shortcut muscle memory. I had used “Windows Key + Any” for just about everything. Launching Remote Desktop, Locking my Computer, opening an Explorer window. Needless to say, there is no Windows Key on a Macintosh. Next was the Alt Key. Alt + Tab to change Windows, Alt + D to go directly to the Internet Explorer Address bar, etc.
I’m also a big fan of Microsoft Office and some of the applications I use for work require the Windows Operating System. I installed Fusion and have done a P2V on that old laptop that I wasn’t super fond of to keep all my old settings. Throwing the Virtual Machine in a “spaces” is awesome to keep everything neatly separated.
The biggest challenge has been not being able to “right click” on anything. If you want to bring up a context menu, you need to press the control button on the keyboard and then click. I think you could use a two button mouse with laptop and it would work, but if you’re planning on jumping onboard, you might as well learn things in the new way.
Summary
I’m sure I’m going to get some pointed comments from friends who have known my dislike for Apple products for so long, but it’s time to eat crow. I’m happy with the new purchase and only time will tell if the hardware will hold up.
Eric,
Welcome to the apple family 🙂 Was in the same boat as you until OS X and the unibody MBPro.
You should be able to right-click anywhere by using two fingers on the trackpad. You can also set a bunch of different multi-touch gestures under System Preferences –> Trackpad. I think once you’ll discover all the options you’ll really like it, given that you’re fond of the Spaces concept already.
It definitely takes some time, but the Command key more or less becomes your old Alt key. If you haven’t yet, look up some of the more common keyboard shortcuts (apparently there is a way to lock your mac).
I myself only use Fusion to run Outlook (I hate Mail and Outlook for Mac for work email). Other than that, I’ve actually grown accustomed to running the MS Office for Mac suite. Some adjustments to the look/feel for sure but it does 99% of the same thing natively without having to go to a VM.
If you’re looking for some great apps (many available for free) let me know.
Good Luck!
-D
Congratulations Eric! At first the switch was difficult for me too, but after a little time, I don’t know if I could switch back to Windows.
Eric,
I too recently switched however my lenovo laptop ran debian with windoz vm’s. My goals, one was to reduce the weight of my laptop bag. My lenovo power supply was literally as big as a brick; two – i desired a nicer glass screen since we spend sooo much time looking at these screens. To my surprise the multiple screens and switching between them really make it great for delivering really nice VMware demos AND it just works with a projector. You gotta get “free” CORD for RDP and muCommander for file management. By the way Fusion 7 is awesome.
Tom
waiting for my license of Fusion 7 to come through before upgrading. Thanks for the comments Tom.
You’ll come back Eric.
They always come back.
Like you, I”m a keyboard guy. When I used a Mac for about 6 months last year it was also my number one hurdle. “What do you mean Option + N isn’t universal” (I think that was minimize to desktop, analogous to Win+D), I’d ask the Mountain Lion. “You mean Option + N mutes in iTunes but minimizes to desktop in Finder?”
More or less I think Option + Spacebar (spotlight invoke, which keeps my hands on the keys) made the situation tolerable until Windows 8.1 was released, and that’s when I switched back.
Any problems consoling into a switch with USB/Serial on that btw?
Anyway congrats on your laptop!