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Confessions of a Mac switcher at Microsoft

Mac virtualization: VMware and Parallels side by side

The truth about switching

The Genius Bar

Each Apple store has a Genius Bar. It is a place where one can go to ask questions for free. I went into the local Apple store thinking I could obtain and wait for an appointment, but the queue was too long. I then learned I could make a reservation for a date/time over the web, did this, and was able to get answers or preliminary ideas to many questions. Locate your local Apple retail store and you'll see the link. High-level categories of my questions:

• Dual-boot and Parallels.
• Working with and connecting to other computing resources when everything else is using Windows. I need to have some level of compatibility with my customers.
  
• VPN software. Again, compatibility with my customers.
  
• Anti-virus software. These were the only questions where the fellow tried not to laugh or give me the "just how stupid are you?..." look (or at least that is how I felt anyway).
  

Other configurations considered

Before finalizing the decision to go with the Mac laptop, a friend and I discussed other wild-ass possibilities:

• Windows (XP or Vista) as the core operating system, and a virtual Linux machine
  
• Linux (Ubuntu) as the core operating system, and a virtual Windows machine

It always came back to how much care and feeding would be needed for any of these alternatives, and these discussions further solidified my decision to go with the Mac...

This fellow (Nick) is well into the transition to a Mac, and he's done a great job documenting his experiences.

www.keynote2keynote.com

The What and When

I checked in with my four friends on what to purchase, visited an Apple store on two occasions, and have selected this hardware configuration:

• 17" Macbook Pro laptop. I like more real estate on the screen, even if there are penalties for size and weight.
  
• 3 GBytes of memory. The extra memory will allow me to concurrently run many Mac and Windows (via Parallels) applications.
• Undecided on disk space.
  

Software. This is still a moving target but will likely include:

• Parallels, and Windows XP to use with Parallels. My understanding is that Parallels is just a shell and so I need to acquire the Windows operating system too.
  
• Microsoft Office for the Mac. This puts me behind since the Mac version of Office 2007 isn't due out for a while, but I don't care. The 2003/2004 version is sufficient for my needs.
• Microsoft Project. I'll run it in Parallels.
• Microsoft Visio. I'll run it in Parallels.
  

The When is easy. I am waiting for Apple to release the newer operating system (aka Leopard, or OS X v10.5) for the Mac. ETA is perhaps the end of March.

Why?

There are many reasons I have Mac "envy"...

• I just need it to work. I am no longer interested in being a test pilot by having to tinker with the operating system, drivers, etc.
• Simplicity. I didn't need to open a manual to use my iPod, and I can probably locate/learn anything on the Mac without opening a manual. I am consistently impressed by the simplicity and useability of Apple's designs.
  
• Incremental improvements. I think Apple's incremental-improvement approach to the operating system is simply better. Microsoft Vista has a lot of new code in the operating system. There is a huge risk of security flaws in Vista for at least the first year.
• Security. There are simply less viruses and hacks out there targeting the Mac (although this may increase in time). I don't fault Microsoft for this since they are the dominant personal-computing platform and hackers tend to go after the biggest market first; however, this does not alleviate Microsoft from striving to release secure, stable software.
• I can use the Parallels software to run almost any Windows-only software on the Mac. Moreover, I can run this as a window on the Mac - I don't need to choose between starting the Mac or starting Windows.
  
• A Mac gives me an underlying Unix system for some of my technical consulting or R&D work.
  
• Four trusted friends have transitioned to a Mac in the past nine months, and they adamantly tell me there is no going back.
  

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