Diary of a new Apple Mac switcher

by Craig Alan Williamson, November 2007
Published in MyFirstMac, 19th November 2007

Spring 2007
Making the decision to switch to Mac
My Sony Vaio laptop was becoming as slow and unpredictable as a drunken hedgehog, so our 2 year relationship was definitely on the rocks. I gave Windows Vista a test drive and found it to be a huge disappointment with lots of fancy bells and whistles but nothing new that was of any real use. So I set about researching Apple Macs and they seemed like just the ticket - reliable, easy to use, brimming with software, fully compatible with my PC files, and guaranteed to attract instant admiration from attractive women. My mind was made up - I was switching to a Mac.

Summer 2007
Deciding which Mac to buy and when to buy it
My Mac choices were restricted to laptops (after all, how were all the attractive women supposed to find me if I was confined to a desk?), so the choice was either Macbook or Macbook Pro. I eventually decided that the 13" screen and integrated graphics of the Macbook were neither large enough nor powerful enough to display the kind of high definition pornography available in the modern era. Therefore the 15" Macbook Pro became my weapon of choice with its dedicated graphics card, larger memory, faster processor and heftier price tag. Once Apple announced that their new OS X Leopard operating system would be launched in October, I had only a few months left to wait before taking the plunge.

16th October 2007
Time to order my new Macbook Pro
With Leopard's launch date finally confirmed, I placed my order for the base Macbook Pro (15 inch screen, 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM) with a hard disk upgrade to the 160 GB 7,200 rpm version. Having spent such a considerable sum of money I was naturally keen to follow the progress of my order, but Apple's web site treats tracking numbers, shipping companies and delivery dates like nuclear weapon launch codes. Contrast this to a toilet roll holder I ordered recently where I was updated almost hourly on its whereabouts during its journey from Milton Keynes. My Macbook Pro was coming from China and delivery was estimated to be around 14 days. Apple could tell me more, but they would have to kill me afterwards. I elected to wait patiently.

29th October 2007
The sweet smell of a fresh package
In fact two packages were awaiting my eager fingers - both the Macbook Pro and the Leopard 'Up-to-Date' disk arrived safely. My new laptop is truly magnificent - I installed Leopard in less than an hour and it worked perfectly right away. There were no nags to upgrade this or protect against that - it just booted up and let me get on with things. My files were all safely transferred from the Vaio by sharing the My Documents folder and letting my wireless network do the rest. The Mac discovered the shared folder with no prompting whatsoever, and the files were copied across swiftly. Unbelievably the most difficult thing to transfer across was my iTunes library (the only Apple software on my PC). Doing this without losing your playlists, play counts, ratings and album art is more difficult than sitting through 'The Devil Wears Prada', but I eventually managed it and wrote a 'How-To' article in celebration.

November 2007
I want to sleep with my new Mac . . .
I'm not one to rush into relationships, but let's just say that things are going really well between my Macbook Pro and me. She's fast, responsive, silky smooth, and extremely stable. I've even shown her to my wife and now she wants to join in, so we've ordered a white Macbook for her. The software is so easy to use, and the new Stacks, Spaces and Quick Look features of Leopard have genuinely increased my productivity. I'm loving the dashboard as well - I have installed the 3-2-1 countdown widget so my dinner never burns in the oven, and the delivery status widget to monitor progress of my wife's Macbook. Life with the Mac is good, and I am so glad that I made the switch.