PC users move to Mac for Apple OS X 10.5 Leopard

Until recently my friends have been fed up of me going on about ‘when I get a macbook’.

I’ve wanted to switch to Apple Mac for ages. I’ve been blown away by the ipod and the sheer user friendliness of the itunes software. I noticed that people who own apple mac’s tend to rave about how good macs are when compared to PC’s. Most of all, I was sick to death of PC bugs. My three years old PC was incredibly slow, couldn’t cope with two windows open and crashed at every inconvenient moment. I toyed with taking the machine for an overhaul but couldn’t see the point in shelling out for upgrades and the like only for the PC to slow down again before long.

So on Friday I queued with a stream of others outside the Apple store on Regent Street for the launch of OS-X Leopard and bought myself a new macbook. Naturally it’s still early days but I am loving the whole speed, versatility and user friendliness of the Mac. The PC really pales into insignificance by comparison.

The only thing I am missing is MS Office (but I use it at work so it’s not really an issue). My initial plan was to shell out in February for Mac Office 2008 but I’m starting to wonder why I should pay so much when Apple’s iwork might do what I need it to, especially if it’s as good as the other Apple software I’ve brushed against so far. I’m still debating this question but one thing is definately for certain, there is no way I’m going back to a PC!

I am a PC user of 16years experiance. I have supported and maintained Windows desktops and servers during this period (From Windows v3 up to XP), and have a fairly good understanding of the OS.
Last year we needed to buy a computer, and due to restricted space, wanted something with a minimal hardware footprint. Even factoring in the cost of an OEM license, the iMac was the cheapest option to do this, and a year later, I still get a satisfied feeling when booting my mac.
The ‘switch’ took me about 2-3 hours to get used to the differnt ways of doing things in OSX, but it now feels much more straitforward than Windows. (I still use windows for my work laptop)

Everything seemed to work with no fuss:- Wifi, BLuetoot, USB, etc.

I now very rarely boot into the Windows partition, and work almost exclusively in OSX.

Last weekend, I upgraded to Leopard, and my experiance was good.
The intial upgrade was easy, but, the performance was as good as I expected. I then performed a migration install (e.g. retain old files and settings, but install OS fresh) which took an hour and resolved the issues. Apart from having to reinstall my printer driver, I have not needed to do anything else to make it work as I would expect, and am v. pleased with the new features.

My one frustration is the incompatibility of DRM solutions for Windows and Apple, and I still need to use IE for some web media.

All in all, the new features in 10.5 are v.good, especially the enhanced parental controls and spotlight. On windows, I often spend a few minutes trying to find a utility or app that i use infrequently, but in OSX 10.5 i press COMMAND-SPACE and start typoing the app name, and it finds it. Great.

I would heartily recommend a mac to anyone, and i am in great danger of becoming an apple head!!!

A week in and I feel it necessary to update my previous comments to reflect on the customer service Apple provide. Living in London I thought it would be best to go to the Apple store on Regent Street for my purchase rather then PC World or somewhere similar. I’m extremely pleased that I did.

On Thursday, only six days after I had bought my MacBook (with Leopard OS X 10.5) Apple quietly released a hardware upgrade… An improved system at the same price! For exactly the same £829 price tag I would now get an Intel Santa Rosa chipset, a faster speed (2.2Ghz) and an updated graphics processor. These updates may not be much but there was a principle involved. I had deliberately waited until October 26 so I could get the best and most upto date I could afford, a MacBook with ‘Leopard, and it was already inferior! The shine had gone from my shiny new MacBook!

I emailed the Regent Street store and they replied swiftly, saying that as I was still in my 14 day returns period I could return my MacBook with all the original packaging and the receipt for an exchange. So on Saturday I went back to the rather busy Apple Store and after only five minutes I had exchanged my computer for the upgraded model, no questions asked. I was amazed at how efficient the whole thing was!

I stayed around in the Apple Store to watch the free demonstrations on the iLife software (iWeb, iPhoto, iDVD and Garage Band). The knowledge and enthusiasm of the presenters was great and they walked the audience through everything. If you had your MacBook with you (as plenty did), you were encouraged to follow the steps on your own projects. Sadly the iPhoto demonstration was cancelled at short notice, but this gave me time to unbox my new MacBook and set it up – I even downloaded updates using the in-store WiFi.

This whole customer service experience has only enhanced my overall impressions of Apple. I perfectly understand the need for updates and Apple handled my quibble swiftly and professionally. The staff in the Apple Store were enthusiastic and knowledgeable. Microsoft really should offer something similar for PC users.

As for the MacBook – aside for the minor irritation of having to reinstall a week’s worth of files and programs (I had backed it all up to an external drive so it wasn’t that much hassle) – it still performs brilliantly. The new MacBook has a slightly rearranged keyboard layout and it is impressive stuff. The whole thing is so simple to use. Apple seem to have all of the needless stuff. I’ve installed a Freeware Office suite as a temporary measure but this integrated fully with MS Office documents (though slight reformatting is needed) and at the moment I really don’t see any reason why I would ever revert back to a PC!

As a PC user by day and a Mac user by night, I have to say I love the Mac and 10.5.2.

When using the PC I learned how the PC works. I would spend time on fixing DLL’s and registry problems. I could write a book on troubleshooting the PC. If I wrote the book, I would write it on a Mac, because the Mac just works. I don’t fuss with all the inners.

And when you look at the hardware (vga camera, bluetooth, wifi) that come standard with the Mac, the software (iMovie, iPhoto, builtin PDF maker, spotlight), and the fact that it runs fine with a lot less memory and drive space, the costs start to look comparable.

truthfully i am going to get a Macbook pro here soon and ive actually never been more excited to get a new computer at all [all ive ever owned is PC]