About
This site is for switchers from the PC to the Mac. It will hopefully help you avoid some of the mistakes that I am making and learn from my experiences.
My first Mac
I bought my first Mac in May of 1985. It was a 512K fat Mac and cost $2800. I used Macs until 1991 when I bought my first IBM-based PC. Windows had caught up enough and were cheap enough that it made sense at the time. Although I enjoyed the Mac, in those days before the Internet boom, personal computers were mainly used for productivity software (e.g. email, word processing) and games and Windows handled that just fine.
The Present
But now two things have changed:
- Mac OS is based on Unix
- Windows has turned the corner and is going down
First, Unix. I used Unix (and even Multics from which Unix was derived) from around 1980 until the mid-90s and think that it is a much better OS than Windows or the pre-OS X MacOS. NeXT and the Mach kernel were positive steps and when Apple adopted the NeXT OS as the basis for Mac OS I knew I would be switching at some point in the future. Yes, I know it took awhile, but inertia and circumstances in my life delayed my adoption until now.
Second, Windows. The plague of viruses and security problems was bad but the solution (Vista) is even worse. My Windows XP machines are all getting old and I have no desire to upgrade hardware if it means switching from XP to Vista, too. Yes, some vendors are still offering XP but Microsoft will undoubtedly stop supporting it at some point down the road so it’s not a viable long term solution.
So I am switching. No boot camp or parallels for me. Everything will be converted and as my PCs die they will not be replaced. Also, I’m totally going off Microsoft software. I’ll be using Open Office (actually NeoOffice until the Aqua port of Open Office is available) so no Word or Excel anymore, either.