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My First Time: Transitioning From Windows To Mac

by Daniel Forrest
03/17/2008

I recently purchased a 17” MacBook Pro. Aside from being shiny and new, it also happens to be the very first Apple product I have ever owned. My decision to purchase a Mac was not an easy one. As a life long Microsoft user, I wrestled with switching to Mac for almost a year.

I have been using computers for about three decades now. When I first started, programs were controlled by line commands in DOS. I seem to remember using what I think was called Windows version 3, though I can’t be certain. I do remember that Windows ‘95 and ‘98 were both unstable messes. Windows 2000 was a big improvement in stability and Win 2K professional was, for me, one of the most stable versions of Windows I have ever used. ME was a disaster. Win XP restored my faith a bit and XP pro has served me adequately over these many years.

Long-term Windows users are survivalists and like any good survivalist, we have developed strategies for dealing with adversity. In our case adversity comes in the form of ill-conceived or poorly-executed Windows releases.

Windows users survive by maintaining a sort of cautiously optimistic attitude. I am certain that much of our ability to maintain hope is born from the large emotional and financial investment we have made in Windows and related Microsoft products.

Each iteration of Windows brings with it the hope that “maybe this will be the year”. Like dedicated Red Sox fans before the big win, we are constantly praying that our home team won’t blow it again. If the new release of Windows fails to live up to our expectations, we get through it by telling ourselves that this cruel mistress we call Microsoft will treat us better next time.

Being a pragmatist, my personal Windows survival strategy involves one simple rule: avoid being an early adopter. It has been said that it is easy to recognize a pioneer, just look for someone with arrows sticking out of their chest. Depending on how you look at it, early adopters are either a very brave or a very foolish lot. Aside from having to deal with a slew of inevitable security issues, there are potential driver, hardware and application conflicts to wrangle. Each of which, depending on how early you jump onboard, carry with it a unique set of problems.

Within the Windows community there is sort of a passive, unspoken understanding between the geeky-daredevil Windows “first day adaptor” types and the more reserved, “you go on and storm the castle and I’ll wait here while you open the gate” slow adaptor (or cowards, if you prefer) like me. That agreement has always been… well… “You go on and storm the castle and I’ll wait here for the gate to open.”

In the months and weeks preceding a new Windows release the optimism of your fellow Windows users can be sort of contagious. The air is filled with the heady mix of tech talk and the smell of fresh motherboards being unpacked in anticipation of getting more power, more functionality, more everything out of the newest Windows release. If you are a long time Mac user, what you might not know is that many Windows users build their own computers.

It is during these times that I would hang back and try to stay calm. I avoided reading reviews of the latest release. Instead, I laid low and just waited it out until the vast majority of the front line geeks said it was safe to stick my head up.

Even then, I would only upgrade my OS when my hardware needs exceeded my current configuration or basically, when I needed a new computer. Consequently, I stayed about one year behind “cutting edge.” Over all, I feel that this survival strategy worked well for me.

I think that to the average Microsoft user, Mac fanatics have always seemed as if they were in a cult. More than just annoying, Macheads fiercely defend a product that is, for the most part, not nearly as practical as Windows. Windows users essentially view Mac users as victims of a highly effective advertising campaign. Macs are after all, notoriously overpriced and until recently, underpowered and lacking in software selection.

On the other hand, Mac users undoubtedly feel that the brains of most Windows “losers” must have atrophied while we waited for our machines to reboot from the latest Blue Screen of Death. To a Machead, Bill Gates is a ruthless dictator whose quest to be supreme leader of the closed source OS universe is somehow the cause of Apple’s relatively minor market share and small software selection.

Any knowledgeable Windows user will admit that there are a hell of a lot of bodies buried up in Redmond Washington. Let’s face it; Bill Gates makes Tony Soprano look like Gandhi. The thing is that in the early days of home computing, being a ruthless company killer was actually sort of a good thing. Home computing was a new frontier and, as such, it was a wild and woolly ride for any end user or business looking for a reliable OS provider.

From that chaos Bill Gates rode forward like a geeky John Wayne to tame the disparate versions of operating systems and create one household name in personal computing. Think about it, more people associate the letters MS with Bill Gates than they do with Jerry Lewis.

When Apple decided to abandon Motorola in favor of the marginally better IBM chips it was a case of “too little, too late” in the growing MHz war between AMD and Intel. Not even the highly efficient Free BSD based Mac OS could put lipstick on those wimpy pigs. Windows stayed competitive with Apple for one reason and one reason alone: the shear brute force, big block, bad-assed computing power of Intel and AMD processors.

Switching to an Intel- (or an AMD for that matter) based system was the only logical move for Apple to make. When Apple finally chose Intel, I am sure that even the most ardent Machead was happy. Apple’s decision to finally join the muscle processors and the multi-threading/multi-core revolution means that the company will stay relevant into the next decade.

Microsoft faces a different challenge. Theirs is not an issue of hardware but one of an antiquated, bloated business and product development style. Microsoft seems destine to collapse under its own weight unless there is a radical revolution of both thought and style. Perhaps Bill Gates should consider changing the name of his company to GargantuanSoft.

As a life long Windows user I may have been willing to burry my head in the sand and muddle through another decade of inadequate Microsoft products. Vista however has been my wakeup call.

In 2004 champions of hopeless causes got a big boost. The Red Sox, after 86 years, won the World Series. It was an event filled with courage and drama. It happened against all odds. An almost 40-year-old guy named Curt Schilling chucked fastballs for the Sox while blood poured out of his ankle and soaked his sock. News channels all over the world broadcast that game, cameras focusing on the six foot five inch Schilling and his ankle. It is the stuff legends are made of.

Now, I don’t know that Vista is anymore bloated, ineffective, intrusive or unstable than any other iteration that has come out of Redmond, WA in the last ten years. What I do know is that after years of development and a ton of hype, it was time for a win. It was time for Bill Gates to swagger up to the plate looking haggard from years hard work, wipe the blood and sweat from his brow, square his geeky little shoulders and slam one right out of the park. Windows users needed a hero. A Curt Schilling, bloody sock moment. Instead, we got the shit kicked out of us. The mighty Gates has struck out.

Which brings us to where I am now. Typing on a Mac.

Life-long Mac users might be smiling, leaning back and saying, “Yet another poor misguided soul has seen the light, there is hope for humanity.” Perhaps they might expect that I will now start espousing the gospel according to Steve Jobs. To them I have only this to say: It is not going to happen.

As a former Windows user my default mode has been set to “cynic.”

Don’t get me wrong, the Mac works fine for what it is. However it does share something in common with Vista. It is bloated. The difference is, with Microsoft the bloat is more in the code and in Apple it is in the price.

Is a Mac worth the money most of us will pay for it? Hell no. Linux is every bit as efficient as OSX. Linux works great and offers tons of incredible software (for free) and works on almost everything, which allows for greater flexibility and freedom in choice and most important, it is free.

Believe me when I tell you that Linux kicks ass. So why didn’t I go with Linux? Because I am too old and “soft” to go back to an OS so heavily steeped in command line controls and brain power.

To date, I have spent over three thousand five hundred dollars on this laptop. I have noticed that Mac sales staff call it an “investment.” Every cynical Windows user knows that isn’t true. For me a computer is a tool. A tool I need to get by in the modern world. And this tool is way overpriced. Just as Window’s users have come to realize that Bill Gates is no sweetheart. It is time for Mac users to admit the obvious; Steve Jobs hates poor people.

My prediction is that in five years or less, Linux will be ready for a curmudgeon like me. If this shiny, fragile Mac is still functioning, I’ll drop it like a hot rock, leaving it and the trenches of the Windows vs. Mac war far behind. I’ll head for the peaceful meadows of the digital hippie revolution called Linux.

Until then, I guess I’ll just do my best to survive…

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