This past fall, one of my clients purchased me an iMac so I could develop an iPad application for them. It only took a couple of weeks of working with it before I was compelled to completely ditch my PC.
Chipping Away at Long Held Prejudices
My first Apple product was an iPod Nano which my wife got me for Christmas several years back. Owning an Apple product ran counter to a mindset I’d held since digital media school in the late nineties. We’d trained on PCs, Macs and now defunct SGIs. We were taught to be platform agnostic so as to not limit our chances for a job at any particular firm.
I greatly appreciated this approach, and the rebel/premium ethos of “Mac culture” was a turn-off. “Why pay a premium for a ‘closed’ Mac ecosystem when my PC background allowed me to be comfortable building and configuring my own cheaper Windows PC?” If I needed to work with a Mac, I could; however, I preferred to stick with PCs.
Getting back to that iPod Nano: All I’d asked for was an MP3 player, but after a little persuasion, I kept it for its clean design and ease of use.
The iPad – “A Magical and Revolutionary Device”
When Apple unveiled the iPad in January of last year, I was immediately taken by the device. While consumer electronics experts debated what niche it would fill, I knew exactly what I would use it for: browsing/searching the web, checking personal emails, reading, cooking, etc. The iPad was/is a perfect device for “casual” computing.
I started counting down the days until it went on sale. I watched Apple’s videos about the device. Though at times I thought they went overboard, gushing about how it would “change your life,” my anticipation continued to grow. Then on April 30 of last year, much like any other Apple fanboy, I found myself waiting in line on launch day at the Apple store (the WiFi model debuted on April 3, but I waited for the 3G model).
Since that time, I’ve never had “buyer’s remorse”. My iPad is my favorite personal computing device that I’ve ever owned. What the iPod was to music lovers, I see my iPad as a perfect match to my love for computers.
Windows Vista Didn’t Broaden My Horizons
Running corollary to my early adoption of the iPad was my dissatisfaction with Windows Vista. In the fall of 2008, I built what would end up being my last PC. Although I suspected that Vista would be an intermediate step between Windows XP and Windows 7, for reasons that escape me now, during the build process I ended up having to go with Vista rather than a 64-bit version of XP which I later planned to upgrade.
That build process was easily my most arduous one ever. Before getting to the software installation, I ended up having to buy some cooling compound in order to reseat my quad-core processor after I installed it improperly the first time. Then I had problems which forced me to go with Windows Vista. And, to top things off, Vista wouldn’t recognize two 1TB hard drives which I planned to use as a RAID.
But, despite the difficulty of that build, I still took pride in having built my computer from its constituent parts. My only disappointments were an unused copy of Windows XP and those $300 worth of unrecognized hard drives sitting inside the chassis. I recall saying that might very likely be the last computer I ever built, thinking I’d settle for a Dell or an HP the next time.
“We need an iPad app!”
Fast forward back to last fall…Sensing the cachet of the iPad, one of my clients wanted an app that would showcase their company’s wares. As a part of that process, they offered to buy me a Mac. After dabbling with the idea of a Mac-Mini, we settled upon an entry-level iMac as the best solution for my needs.
I believe it sat in my office for a day or two before I had time to set it up. By this time I was already very excited about developing on a Mac; however, my plan was to use it alongside my PC. I simply had too much invested in PC software, and using a PC made it very easy to interface with my predominantly PC-using client base.
The Sound of Silence
The past two PCs I’ve built have used mid-sized tower cases. That means at least four cooling fans and even the occasional clear cover with glowing blue lights. Those fans make a lot of noise, and my PCs put out enough heat to easily warm my office on a cold winter day.
By comparison, my new iMac made virtually no noise at all. The difference was like leaving a smoggy, bustling metropolis and walking along a quiet mountain path. I was surprised how much a difference that made. This alone made working on my Mac much more appealing.
To be fair, there are quiet PCs out there. However, my PC-DIY ethic had compelled me to sacrifice aesthetics in favor of upgradability and expandability. Now that I was presented with a quiet, elegantly designed iMac, I was drawn to its combination of form and function.
Mac OS X – A Power User’s OS
It didn’t take long to work off the cobwebs and relearn the Mac OS. As I did, I found many things big and small that I loved about it:
- Keyboard shortcuts – They’re an indispensable part of my job. They greatly increase my productivity by allowing me to work faster. Although there are similar functions in Windows, I loved using CMD+Tab to quickly switch between open programs. And, there’s something about the Mac OS that intuitively encourages keyboard shortcut use which results in greater efficiency once you get past the learning curve.
- Familiar Design Patterns – Every program in Mac OS X has a main menu which sits at the top left of the screen. It takes up minimal screen real estate and always makes it easy to find the program’s functions when I don’t know the keyboard shortcut. I also like how you can reach virtually any program’s settings by hitting CMD+;.
- Linux foundation – Mac OS X is built on top of Linux. This means I can access a command prompt and have access to the same OS that I’ve been using on my web servers for the past ten years.
- Great software – To my delight, I found Mac software that replicates and improves upon PC software. For example, since the mid nineties, I’ve been hand coding web sites in Macromedia/Adobe Dreamweaver. Since I don’t use Dreamweaver’s WYSIWYG, I’ve always thought the software was a bit of an overkill in my place, but I’d never found anything that worked better and was as intuitive. However, on the Mac, I quickly took to Coda and found it to be a superior solution to Dreamweaver. Plus, at only $99, it costs hundreds of dollars less.
- Clean design – Working with the Mac OS feels so much cleaner than working in Windows. Applications open quickly. Switching between them is crisp and smooth. Overall, the OS feels like it has been carefully crafted and well thought out.
All of these things quickly won me over, and I came to dread whenever it was time to turn on my Windows PC. Then, once I found out how well VM Ware Fusion can run a Windows virtual machine on a Mac, I was ready to switch completely.
I’m Never Going Back
Once I switched, I realized I was never going back to a Windows-based PC. My iMac looks and works like an expertly designed machine. I’m no longer a systems integrator building my own PC.
I’ve come to appreciate Apple as a brand I can trust to build the tools I work and play with every day. This leaves me free build and code web applications with my iMac or read a book or surf the web on my iPad. The Apple aesthetic has won me over, and I trust their products to take care of my computing needs.
