I sold and bought my first PC a long, long time ago. Back in the late 80s I owned a Mac, I think it was a Mac2. I honestly thought there would never come a time where I would buy a Mac. Ever.
Then I upgraded my PC to Vista. What a disaster. I had grown accustomed to my PC freezing every now and then. Enter Vista and my PC was frozen more often than it was working. The biggest culprit was MicroSoft Outlook.
The application has to have a memory leak. I could follow memory numbers as they grew and grew. Then as my email was downloading, the rules would stop working and everything went straight to my inbox. Spam and all.
When you get as many emails as I do. Thats a problem. When it also causes the system to freeze, its more than just a problem.
My first step was to get a copy of CPU Magazine with Vista tricks. The tricks helped. Everything froze or crashed less often. Significantly less often. But the annoyance factor was beyond belief. I dont run any special applications. I run outlook, Office and firefox. Thats it.
I had gotten to the point where I was embarrassed to be a PC owner. The thought of someone calling me and asking me to go to my computer to find something was paralyzing (ok, not that bad, but it sounded cool writing it).
This wasnt just a problem on my Desktop, it was a problem on my laptop with Vista as well.
So a few months ago I made the executive decision to buy a MacBook to replace my laptop.
I haven't looked back.
Its not that there arent hassles with the Mac. There are two. One there isnt a version of Outlook for the Mac. As someone who has more than 10 years and gigabytes worth of emails in multiple outlook files, the concept of exporting and importing wont fly. So i am keeping my PC Desktop purely to download my emails into Outlook so I have a master database. But I only do so after deleting unimportant emails from the server using my Macbook.
The 2nd problem is the lack of the right mouse click. I know its a Mac thing to only have one button, but its a hassle. Sure there are work arounds, none of which are quick and easy for a longtime PC user.
Both of these are easily offset by 3 simple Mac elements that make me very happy.
First is that when I close my MacBook without turning it off, it doesn't lose power. It can sit there for hours and then work when I open it up.
The 2nd is that it rarely freezes up. Maybe 3 or 4 times in months.
Finally, i LOVE the fact that it boots up in 1/1000000000 of the time it takes my PC. It probably will add years to my life .. (ok an exaggeration).
Im not an Apple fanboy, but I love me some MacBook
Once you go Mac
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Reader Comments
(Page 2)22. More and more I have been reading these stories. Even some of the biggest MS supporters that blog have purchased Mac's over the past year and a half. The simple fact is Apple makes the best PC's on the market. I do have both in my home as my wife refuses to switch from her Tablet PC. Even have Vista loaded on one. I like most of what I see but the driver issues keep me from upgrading all my PC's. As I built this machine myself. I just can not believe MS and what they have done with Vista they need to publicly get rid of some people to make a point.
On a side note as a fellow Dallas area resident, I wanted to say hey neighbor.
Posted at 10:00PM on Sep 16th 2007 by Corey McLaughlin
23. More and more I have been reading these stories. Even some of the biggest MS supporters that blog have purchased Mac's over the past year and a half. The simple fact is Apple makes the best PC's on the market. I do have both in my home as my wife refuses to switch from her Tablet PC. Even have Vista loaded on one. I like most of what I see but the driver issues keep me from upgrading all my PC's. As I built this machine myself. I just can not believe MS and what they have done with Vista they need to publicly get rid of some people to make a point.
On a side note as a fellow Dallas area resident, I wanted to say hey neighbor.
Posted at 10:00PM on Sep 16th 2007 by Corey McLaughlin
24. I ditched Entourage for Mozilla Thunderbird. It's not Outlook, but it is MUCH better than the alternative. There's even a calendering plug in called Lightning that makes Thunderbird even closer to being a complete Outlook replacement. Only problem is the lack of good synch support for iPhones or other smartphones.
Also, as noted above, an external 2-button mouse works just fine for right-click. I have a cheap Kensington that I prefer to the Mighty Mouse.
Posted at 10:05PM on Sep 16th 2007 by rslux
25. Bulletproof advice for any serious Outlook user thinking about switching to Mac from Windows:
1) Do it. You'll be fine.
2) DO NOT USE ENTOURAGE. Never ever ever. Anybody who says Entourage works well is not a serious Outlook user.
3) If you must use Outlook, as so many of must, for compatibility with the enterprise, you should install XP under Parallels, and run Outlook there. Does it work well? No. It works the same as on your Windows box, which is rather badly, but it's still better than living with Windows year-round.
Posted at 10:06PM on Sep 16th 2007 by foogert
26. Mark, have you tried going into the trackpad preferences and turning on the 2 finger tap = right click option? It took me a few days to get used to, and now I'm pissed when I use a non Mac laptop and try to right click that way.
I do like apple's 'mail' application but I understand that it's not outlook even though I never truly cared for outlook.
Posted at 10:11PM on Sep 16th 2007 by James Miller
27. Hey Mark, Good to see you going on the light side of things for a blog or so. Im not a comp wiz by any means but never ever ever in my life have I seen an industry that is capable of bamboozling people into accepting the reply " Turn it off and reboot it, It'll be ok then." I mean WTF!!!!? Can you imagine going to your fridge that you spent the same kind of money on and the food be warm and the manufacturer tell you that and you say "Oh Ok, why didnt I think of that? Thanks for the tip." Or with your giant HDTV if it just goes like blank or anything along those lines. I have to say that the PC industry has the market cornered on BS when it comes to explaining or rectifying problems. Sure hope that Orange Juice is cold in the morning. Thanks for the thoughts
Posted at 10:12PM on Sep 16th 2007 by Frankie from Lawnside
28. Hello Mr. Cuban,
I was curious if you'd be using your MAC to make any deals to get a second season of The Black Donnellys put together to get some new episodes to put on my new Fav. station HDnet.
Thanks,
Jacob
Posted at 10:13PM on Sep 16th 2007 by Jacob
29. Everybody has shared (or is sharing) your experience with Windows based PC's and slowly everybody will see the light as well, and switch to a Mac. You did exaggerate on the loading time for Mac OS X compared to a Windows product.........you need to eliminate one zero (1/100000000)---much more accurate). A sign of good engineering. Sorry Mr. Balmer!
30. I actually work on both Mac and PC and can verify that Mac is a far superior product. I don't think I've ever heard an argument the other way around. There must be some truth to the superiority of the Mac way.
Posted at 10:19PM on Sep 16th 2007 by Bob Wegener
31. Lost a lot cred with that article Mark.
Posted at 10:27PM on Sep 16th 2007 by Wes
32. I agree with most of that... a couple of annoyances for me include:
Difficulty in maximising windows - I like windows to take up the full screen and I like to alt-tab between them. I HATE accidentally clicking outside a window when I want to scroll it.
The right click - why can't you just give me two buttons? The two fingers on trackpad for MBP is annoying, and the right mouse click on Mighty Mouse is not 100% accurate. Also, Mighty Mouse middle mouse button hurts after awhile :)
Best thing - all the nice efficient apps.
33. Don't listen to what they say...Mac does have a right click. When you are clicking on something, just hold "ctrl" and click on something. All of your right click options will be there!
Posted at 10:42PM on Sep 16th 2007 by Jesse Moffat
34. All my powerBook freezes seem to be related to an interrupted sleep state. For example, closing the lid, remembering something, then opening it again. Sometimes I then get a freeze.
Usually when I close it again and wait for the sleep light to start breathing, I can then open it up and it wakes normally. Took me some months to figure this out.
Posted at 11:14PM on Sep 16th 2007 by Dennis Chamberlin
35. If you can just buy a 3rd party mouse than theres no real problem. My only real concerns about buying a mac are 1. How easy is it to learn for someone who has used windows all their life? 2. Whats their customer service like? After some disappointing experiences with Dell I find good customer service extremely important. (they used to be great now there as lousy as everyone else, IMO) My only other real problem is that they're more expensive than other pc's but if there are fewer hassles that are easier to relieve than i may make the switch in the coming months.
Posted at 11:26PM on Sep 16th 2007 by j
36. The right click thing's been covered. As for the e-mail issue, my solution's been to use IMAP and leave everything on the server. I can run any e-mail program I want, on any machine I want, without worrying about exporting or importing files.
Posted at 11:46PM on Sep 16th 2007 by Colin Morton
37. Mark,
I have a new HD video camera arriving tomorrow and would love to sit down with you and ask you some questions about the experience. For instance, did you troubleshoot the issues on your previous PC yourself, have a staffer do it, or what? Did you bring in a trusted IT Pro or Partner to help figure out the issues? I’m just curious how much time was spent trying to analyze the issues that led to your frustration with the PC and operating system. I would also like to know your thoughts on what we are doing right and wrong in regards to Windows Vista and the world of personal computing.
I would also like to record what you like about the MacBook, OS X, and what applications you use. Let me know if you are interested.
I would also be interested in interviewing other people on the same subject. I live in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex so feel free to contact me off my blog if you are interested. I believe Mark’s blog links my name to my blog.
Best regards,
Keith Combs
Microsoft
Posted at 11:53PM on Sep 16th 2007 by Keith Combs
38. Mark, you are certainly too smart, and too well steeped in your own technical expertise for anyone to try and give you the typical Mac is better spiel, but all I can say is that the more you use it, and the more you extend your tool set further into the creative realm, the more you will bond with your Macbook in ways that could never be possible with a PC. I've been a longtime enthusiastic Mac user, and never take debate that Mac or PC is better, especially since since the only thing that matters is how productive and happy the user is, but it certainly makes me smile to read your post.
Posted at 12:17AM on Sep 17th 2007 by Michael Longfellow
39. Mark:
Regarding email. Here's my emailing set-up:
1. A Google Apps private domain email account.
2. A dot Mac email account.
3. I created a POP3 account within Apple Mail for my Google Apps email. I then downloaded 1,400 archived emails into Apple Mail.
4. I then went into my Settings for Google Apps email and turned-off POP3 access and initiated Forwarding of my email directly to my dot Mac email address. I archive all emails in Google Apps.
5. In my Apple Mail program I get an error icon saying that the server for Google Apps can't be reached. It doesn't matter because all my email goes into my dot Mac Inbox. By leaving my Google Apps email box "active" I now have the option of using that private email address as a return address when I write a new email (Hey Apple, please make the choice of Return Address a regular option).
6. I do not use my dot Mac email address actively.
7. I also have a @gmail.com email for any time I need to give an email out for signing-up for a service. This gmail account also forwards to my dot Mac Inbox within Apple Mail.
8. By changing the View settings for the columns displayed inside Apple Mail you can put the To column in so that you can see which email account each email is from.
9. I now have an IMAP email service.
10. Perhaps the best part of using Apple Mail is that I can with a few clicks easily add names/emails from within Apple Mail to my Apple Address application.
Good luck!
Posted at 1:20AM on Sep 17th 2007 by Timothy Post
40. Mark,
Get the Logitech Marble USB mouse and it does have a right-click for use with the Mac.
Also, sounds like you're storing more email than you need to. Take a look at my tutorial on creating an off-site email archives that is searchable. That way you can feel free to delete as much as you want from your computer, knowing that everything you send and receive is archived if you need to refer to it, but you keep your email program database file lean and mean so it runs fast with few problems or clogs.
http://www.iadam.org/
Finally, others have mentioned it, but Entourage is indeed a good program comparable to Outlook. Definitely worth exploring.
Good luck,
AB
Posted at 1:21AM on Sep 17th 2007 by Adam Boettiger
21. My solution to Vistaitis has been to keep XP and not upgrade, which is cheaper than Macification. But I also have an odd prejudice against Macs. I don't understand why, because they have been better machines for some time and I have naively waited for PCs to catch up.
PS - you should test out Yahoo Mash - I'd love to hear your take on how the Social Network space might shake out.
Posted at 9:53PM on Sep 16th 2007 by Joe Duck