Switching to Macs October 3, 2007
Posted by Rei Victor dela Cruz in : Macs , trackbackFinally, after a few months of thinking of about it, my wife and I decided to switch to Macs from — no not Windows — but from Linux. We actually switched way back in April, but it’s only now that I’ve had time to write about it. We are a different breed in a sense as most switchers are coming off Windows.
I had decided as early as 2003 that I have had enough of Windows. I started with DOS in 1987 (I was in second year high school at the time) and eventually moved up to Windows 95 in 1996, Windows 98 in 1999, and XP in 2003.
After dealing with viruses and spyware, unexplained slowdowns and crashes, and numerous security updates appearing almost daily, I finally went on a limb and installed Linux on a separate partition of my XP machine and configured the machine for dual-boot with Linux as the primary OS. After a few months, I was using Linux more and more, and Windows less and less. Until one day, the Windows partition refused to boot except on Safe mode. That was the last straw. No more Windows for me. I had re-installed Windows XP and Windows XP Service Pack 2 three times in a span of a few months and I wasn’t going to do it anymore. But because I’m lazy, I still didn’t remove the Windows XP partition. This laziness is due to the fact that I didn’t want to backup everything, install Linux, and restore the data.
But after using Linux for a few years, I realized something was still missing. Don’t get me wrong. Linux is a great OS. It’s fast, secure, no viruses, etc. There was no problems with updates since I was using Fedore Core. I think Fedora releases the most frequent updates compared to other distributions. From what I recall, there’s a new version every six months or so.
Now all this time, there was something inside me — a small voice — that’s telling me, “Why don’t you look at Macs?”. But I’d contradict myself and say that a Mac isn’t for me, it’s too expensive, it’s only for graphic design, desktop publishing, music composition, movie special effects, and other lies. The voice became stronger during the time my wife and I were making our wedding preps. Our photographer/videographer was using a couple Macs with two cinema displays to edit and produce the video, edit and enhance the photos, and layout the album. Wow! What a great setup! How I’d love to have that at home. My wife was very impressed too.
Since seeing those Macs and the cinema displays, we’ve always talked about getting a Mac. Then early this year, as if we attended a free Mac seminar at the Glorietta. During the seminar we saw what Mac OS X Tiger could do. We were also very impressed with iLife, Dashboard, Spotlight, and other features and applications. That was it! We were speechless! We wanted a Mac!
I still had to do some research of course. How much does it cost? How do I go about service? Is it cheaper to have it imported? Which stores sells Macs at the lowest price? I had a lot of questions. Fortunately, all my googling pointed me to the Philippine Macintosh Users Group (PhilMUG). During the research phase, I merely signed up and read posts. I admit I was “afraid” since I wasn’t a Mac user yet and felt that I wasn’t “in” with the group. Besides, I was getting answers to my questions just by reading the posts.
Then in April, after three months research, we purchased our Mac. When we got it home, we unpacked it, only to realize that the store forgot to mention that we had to buy a plug adapter. Jeez! The Mac was right there, and we couldn’t even turn it on. We had to wait another day! We really had to calm ourselves. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to sleep with all the excitement. The next day, we got the plug adapter. But guess what? I made a mistake when I took measurements of the computer table and now the 17″ Mac won’t fit! We nearly cried in frustration. Since it was very late at night, we had to wait again until the next day so we could make the adjustments. We just told ourselves that when we finally turn on the Mac, it’ll just be sweeter.
On the third day after purchase, finally or should I say mercifully, we fixed the table, put our new Mac on it, attached the plug adapter, plugged it in, turned it on, and voila! What a sweet and wonderful sound! We can still remember the first time the Mac booted up. It was definitely the answer to the Windows and Linux woes. The Mac was perfect. We were able to use it immediately without installing anything. Even installing updates or new applications was easier than it was with Windows. The graphics and interface was so much better AND cooler too. Heck! Even the apps are cooler!
We have enjoyed it ever since and for the past few months, we haven’t even turned it off. My wife and I even sort of compete for time on the Mac. If one of us leaves the Mac to do something else, the other one is sure to immediately grab the opportunity to use it.
All in all we can say that we are now full blooded Mac users. Though our Intel Mac allows us to install Windows via Bootcamp or Parallels, we don’t plan to do it anytime soon. I mean, what for? We’ve already spent a lot of sleepless nights whether it’s just surfing, watching movies, listening to music on iTunes, or creating albums in iPhoto. We’ve even tried making a simple movie from the movies in our digicam and creating a DVD that can be played on a DVD player. There so much more you can do and you have fun doing it. I can’t say the same thing with Windows or Linux.
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