Mac or PC?

A couple of months ago, as my work laptop was due for replacement, I struggled with the decision of which laptop I should request next. The options were somewhat limited to a couple of Windows machines, and a couple of MacBooks. For years I have resisted the Apple temptation, and faithfully stuck with Windows. In the last couple of years, though, more and more of my friends and colleagues have made the move to a Mac and keep exalting its qualities.

I have to say I was "converted" to the iPhone a few years ago, after Windows CE, Windows Mobile and Android smartphones. In the realm of tablets, I first used an Android tablet, the Asus Transformer, and thought the world of it, until I played with my wife's iPad. When I got my own iPad I never looked back. But a Mac as a working laptop? Not so sure. The truth is some of the work applications I have to use every single day were Windows only, but that too has changed, for the most part. The CRM I work with is now browser agnostic, and web based, which means I can use it from pretty much any computer that has a browser. And for the few exceptions there's always VMware Fusion or Parallels, allowing for the use of a Windows virtual machine. After much consideration, and to be honest because the specs of the Windows machines were rubbish, I decided to take a leap of faith and try the Mac.

So here we are now, after about a month and a half working with a MacBook Pro! How is the experience? A lot easier than I expected it to be. I have found Mac OS X to be very intuitive, although there are a few things I miss from Windows, like the way folders and files are ordered when viewing them. But otherwise I would say the transition has been very easy. Software is much easier to find for a specific function than I expected, and there are many free applications for it as well. The hardware is fantastic, amazing resolution (Retina display), much lighter than my previous laptop (Lenovo ThinkPad W510), smaller (13") and thus easier to carry around. The sound is far superior to any previous laptop I've owned, and the whole system is super fast (i7 CPU, plenty of RAM and flash storage). And the battery life, around 10 hours, is just beyond any expectations!

Are there any questions you would like to ask a newby Mac user? Go ahead and ask away!