As it’s been three weeks since I made my transition to Mac and bought a 13-inch MacBook Pro, I thought it would be useful to share some thoughts on how it’s going so far.
One of my biggest concerns was adjusting to a touchpad after many years of using a TrackPoint. While the multi-finger touch options are really useful, especially for browsing and such, for heavy text work, I still keep reaching for my TrackPoint, because removing my hands from the keyboard for navigation doesn’t feel natural. I also find myself inadvertently zooming in and out because of the pinch motion.
I find the MacBook Pro’s keyboard to be functional, but the flat keys still don’t feel right to me as I have always liked a sturdy tactile IBM keyboard. At this point, I think I’ve nearly reached my same typing speeds, so I don’t believe it’s adversely affecting my productivity, but it still feels awkward.
Conversion to using the Cmd key from Ctrl for shortcuts hasn’t been a huge issue for me, but relearning the new shortcut keys for text selection is an ongoing process (thanks to everyone for the tips in the comments of my previous post). I’m also finding that having to use Fn+delete to match the behavior of my old delete key still trips me up quite a bit.
The screen is probably the most significant upgrade from my old laptop. Even though it’s smaller in size, the widescreen format and higher resolution let me see more of websites and documents, while the brightness and clarity of the display is just astounding compared to how my dull and off-color my old screen was. It’s a joy to work with and everything just seems to look better.
The hardware itself is quite light and manageable. I love how quickly it wakes up and makes itself ready to work. The long battery life is quite nice and while I haven’t really tested or timed how long it lasts I find that for my regular work flow it really won’t be an issue for me.
The biggest issue so far has been the change in software. While many of my day-to-day staples have Mac counterparts, they often work differently. Sometimes even just the UI differences are enough to just make me feel “off.” For the rest of my software, where a direct Mac counterpart isn’t available, I’m still finding replacements and learning them. I was prepared for it to be an ongoing process, though, and even though I am taking a productivity hit, it’s also giving me the opportunity to evaluate and review a lot of software that I had only been able to read about prior to my switch.
Overall I am finding the experience to be enjoyable and positive. There are a lot of quirks, a lot of frustrations, but some nice features and benefits as well. I can’t say I like it better than my PC, but I’m not hating it.
How was your transition to Mac? How long did it take for you to be hooked?
As a geek-n-training I’m considering making the move to Mac myself. This is great info. Thanks for sharing your experience. I am also a coach so I work with people in implementing changes in their work often. Having info like this helps to set and manage expectations of the transition.
Keep sharing, please!
~Linda
Thanks Linda. I’m not trying to fuel a pc/mac debate or anything I really am trying to document my experience so that it can help others who are considering the switch as well. Glad it is helping!
sb
Every laptop user should get a mouse and perhaps a travel mouse. When I use my macbook (I am a desktop G5 lumberjack guy) I want to punch my face in trying to use a trackpad thingy for anything related to work.
If I can suggest one add on that kicks ACE is Default Folder X. It remembers the last folder you where in so if your working on a project in several applications you don’t have to keep navigating back to the same folder. You can also set up Favs. It saves me sooo much time.
Thanks Jack – the only thing I can think of that I like less than moving my hands to a touchpad would be moving them to a mouse. I can see how in some tasks the more precise movements are nice but I haven’t had a mouse connected to a PC I use in years. Choice is a wonderful thing though!
I’ll take a look at Default Folder X. The big apps are easy to find, it really is the specific function utilities like this that make such a big productivity improvement. Thanks.
sb
Who talked about “connecting” a mouse. Wireless BT mice work great with the MacBooks :)
Well, it may be wireless but it’s still connected. And unfortunately it’s still a mouse.
Thanks :-)
sb
Our story and experience…
http://www.ithinkthisworldisperfect.com/2007/11/closing-window.html
Fantastic story – and thanks for the recommendations on the podcasts.
sb
I moved to Mac over 3 years ago cold turkey never having read a Mac manual or without a clue of what I was doing or if it would really work. I had reached productivity in less than a week.
Thanks Tom – you must be a lot smarter than me. It’s not that I’m not productive but still not where I was. Working on it though.
sb
LOL Get ready for your door to get kicked open by Apples Secret Police. They’ll bust in take all your Macbooks cus you’re one of those evil BLOGGERS! Heh. Well, keep us posted how that goes for ya. Insted of going Mac I went Ubuntu. Using the same one year old Windows Vista laptop it feels like new for free. I will never go Apple cus in the name of freedom, and in the spirit of not supporting the evilest companies I’ll never own an Apple product.
Thanks for the tip – I’ll be on the look out for them ;-)
sb
What a sad, misinformed post. Of course, it was sent anonymously, since the poster is unwilling to be held accountable for their words.
Hmm, I must be doing something wrong with Ubuntu. None of my PCs feels like new for free. On the 7 year old Toshiba the floppy drive is still broken, and the screen still blanks when the wind changes direction. On my parents’ not so old Toshiba (sold in the UK with Vista and 512MB of memory — ouch) all the USB ports are still blown. On the 384MB HP the missing 128MB of RAM remains missing despite some prodding, and the DVD drive is still error prone.
Cool story, bro.
I made the same transition you are making about a year ago, also moving to a 13″ MacBook Pro. I’ve also been a long term Thinkpad user so the absence of the track stick took some time to adjust too. As evidence of how my transition has gone, a few months ago we bought a new iMac for my wife to use and my iPad is pre-ordered here in Canada for arrival next week. I still have three Windows 7 machines but they seldom get used now, instead I prefer to use the Mac.
The move made me look at alternative Office suites and I’m still flipping between email clients looking for the non-existant perfect client. I’ve discovered apps like Mailplane, Postbox, Mac Journal, Fluid, NetNewsWire, OmniFocus and Things along the way. The only Windows applications that I still sort of miss is Outlook paired with OneNote. OneNote 2007 will install and run well using Crossover Office but lacks the integration with Outlook. I’m looking forward to seeing Office 2011 for Mac with its new version of Outlook and I think I’ll also appreciate the addition of the ribbon that I grew to like while using Office 2007 on Windows.
All in all I am very happy I made the move to Mac. I was a long time Windows user and toyed with moving to Linux but in the end OS X seems to give me the best of all worlds in terms of software availability, security and the best user experience for me in my humble opinion.
As another hands-on-keyboard fiend: get QuickSilver. It is one of those small tools that change & improve everything.
I’ve got Quicksilver, Alfred and Butler lined up for evaluation. Trying to get a handle on native / built in functionality to see what I’m missing first.
Thanks
sb
Scott,
Can you go over some of the apps you have in that pic, other than tweetdeck what are they? I’m curious about the blog platform in the background behind yojimbo that you have up?!
I’m looking for a better way to manage files as I just switched over as well and have been having some difficulties organizing!
Hi David,
I’ll be doing app by app comparisons coming up really soon but you’re seeing MarsEdit for offline blogging. I like it better than Blogo but am still not completely sold on it.
http://www.red-sweater.com/marsedit/
Yojimbo is information management and seems to be the best of the bunch that I’ve looked at so far. I store some frequently used images and all my .pdf files in it. It also has meeting notes, snippets, and bookmarks, read later sort of stuff.
http://www.barebones.com/products/yojimbo/
I don’t have a ton of local files so file management isn’t usually a big issue but I imagine there are some nice options. I’ll make a note to check them out for a review.
Couple of others on my todo list to look at are Alfred and Butler for launching and search.
Hope that helps.
sb
I did made a move in 1996 did not want to wait for windows to get better,never look back,OSX does everything Windows will and in my opinion it does it better and end result is always the same unlike windows where you can do same thing but it can end up differently each time.And it just works each and every day and I don’t have to scratch my head and think what went wrong this time,I even tried Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro and although huge improvement over previous windows still not a match for OSX Snow Leopard.I have restarted Win 7 three times and desktop each and every time look different,and that was fresh install with no additional software.Sometimes gadgets load sometimes only some and sometimes not at all.Explorer 8 rather not mentioning it.Yes you pay premium for Apple but what you get in return – well Apple then looks like a bargain after few days of using it.
Thanks for the comments Jiri. It’s fascinating to hear everyone’s varying opinions.
sb
Scott wrote: “For the rest of my software, where a direct Mac counterpart isn’t available, I’m still finding replacements”
Specifically, what software?
Dave,
The couple that come to mind right off are ActiveWords for launching, snippet management and just general awesomeness. BlogDesk for offline blog composition, Connected Text for info management / personal knowledge base and Winamp for media management.
I’ll be starting my app by app comparisons next week so will be relying on all of your comments for the good suggestions.
Thanks
sb