Published on: 12th April 2008
Golden rule... never make predictions (but here I do)
Please note: This is not a 'mac is better than PC' article, or vice versa, but a comparison of the two for everyday use and application based on my personal experiences as an IT professional!
My introduction to Mac...
About Christmas time (07) I was involved in a project that involved a large amount of work in the Adobe creative suite. The versions I had on my PC were too old to be effective, so I knew I had to take the plunge and purchase CS3. I also knew that the designers I was working with were all Mac based. For that reason, the computer I purchased was a Macbook Pro. For me, ending 15 years of PC purity and bias!
The 'switch'
Now, while I say that this is not an article that will express preferences, I have to say that the only reason I even considered buying a Mac was Windows Vista. Having been looking forward to Microsoft's new operating system for some time and been demonstrated to by Microsoft reps the 'ease' of Vista, caused me to upgrade my main computer to Vista at the earliest opportunity. What I will say is, it's lovely to use in short bursts; just pray you never have to rely on it! In the role of a development server, for me, Vista was a disaster. It seems that the Vista focus is security (a worthy cause) but it achieves this at the cost of constant user interaction and barriers to software that make it highly incompatible. I kept my thoughts to myself but quickly realised that businesses who were also trialling Vista were finding it equally difficult for different reasons. So, the business world continues for the moment to run on XP, which is a fabulous (if dated) OS. It's interesting to note that Microsoft have released many of the enhancements Vista offers as add ons for XP (like the desktop search). I love new things, and the world of computing moves on far to quickly to purchase a machine based on such an old system as XP, so a Mac was on the cards!
Leopard or Kitten?
Apple's current OS is Leopard. I had to upgrade the machine I purchased, but it was not a difficult process. The most concerning thing about any new OS is whether you will be able to repeat the same processes you do currently. Thankfully most of the development work I do is in MySQL and PHP which has a Linux foundation, so making these run on the Mac was probably easier than on the PC (once the initial hurdles of the OS basics had been overcome). The rest is down to front end software (my recently purchased CS3 and Microsoft Office 2004). Leopard is an altogether 'breezy' experience after a PC. The strangest thing is going back to XP having just used the Mac. Everything is extremely 'clunky'. There obviously a colossal number of subtle shadings and transformations going on in Leopard's desktop that 'ease' the eye around the screen. What is clear is that the OS makes use of the features of the laptop to the fullest extend, exposing the difficulties that the PC has with supporting the plethroa of hardware and capabilities out there. Overall, Leopard is extremely slick to use once an initial learning curve has been overcome, and there's nothing lacking I have found yet that would prevent a business from using it every day. So, what follows is a look at the issues around using Macs and PCs together, and some other comparisons.
Looks
If looks are your thing, it cannot be argued that Apple's are beautiful. There are other PC laptops out there that look very nice, but for me, the Mac is at the top of the tree! However, some of the looks are obviously compromising the design slightly. Regarding the Macbook Pro, there are 2 issues that are current burners. No 1 is the standard of the keyboard. The keys are 'stiff' with incredibly short travel. So, unless you hit them 'dead on', keypresses are missed. There are other issues (now solved) around keypresses being missed by the OS. If you are typing a long document on a MBP, expect to be frustrated at some point unless yours is very run in and you are well used to it! Issue 2 is the screen. Apart from everything being quite small (which is not a problem for me) the screen is also 'bent'. I have seen this on almost every Macbook Pro I have seen. The issue is well discussed out there, but apparently is a design 'feature' that Apple are not going to do anything about. Basically the screen backing plate bends away from the point where the latches close the lid so, you end up with gaps either side of the machine when the lid is closed. I was (to be fair) offered to send my machine back for this to be looked at, but decided I could not be without my Mac for any length of time!
Speed
These days, everything is quick. The Macbook Pro is no exception. Mine is the now outdated 2.2 Core2 machine. When running Adobe apps that are incredibly hungry, the machine feels normal, even spritely. When running a complex query in mySQL you are suddenly reminded how quick the machine really is!
Network
Once upon a time getting a Mac and a PC to talk was very difficult. I remember in the Summer of 1998 installing the 'Appletalk' protocol on my IBM laptop in order to share data with an office I was working in. It is very much the Macs that bend to PCs nowadays with Leopard having the ability to talk to PC networks out of the box. In fact, no sooner had I joined my network and instructed the machine to look for my server, all the shares were found and I was away. The Mac is superb at treating mapped drives as its own, streaming media across wireless or even mounting virtual disks across WiFi. The Macbook Air promises this and PC users may be sceptical. Trust me, it works!
Office
For me, the Achilles heel is Microsoft Office 2004. I have not yet upgraded to 2008 for fear is it like the recent PC Microsoft Office product. The problem is the speed and reliability of Office 2004 on the Mac. For some reason, it takes forever to load, takes an inordinate amount of resource to run and just somehow is not as good as the system is on a PC. I am sure is is good enough for most, but for me, it is the one area my productivity on the Mac suffers, and I reach for the PC where it is quick to load, clear to see on the screen and simple to get the job done.
Sharing Data
I am not an authority on this, but file permissions are extremely important when developing web sites with active code. Behind the scenes, the Mac uses the Linux system for determining user rights in a file or directory. This is a simple 3 tier system of dividing users up into Owner, Group and Everyone and assigning read, write and execute privileges to each. The PC on the other hand takes the approach of assigning read, write, privileges to a specific user. That would be easy but unfortunately when it is a machine service than needs access to a file, it becomes extremely complex (for me anyway!). Add to the bargain though a shared drive that is a hosted web site, and using a Mac to read and write from it and all sorts of strange things happen that it takes a while to work around. Invariably, a Mac will create any number of hidden files with ._xyz format. I assume this is in order to store the additional information required by the Mac OS for the file security? This has the unfortunate effect of doubling the number of files which can make synchronising changes very much slower. However, it is more of an inconvenience as left to its own devices, it all works just fine. I wish there was a way to make the PC run on the Linux file system. Setting permissions on the PC is so hit and miss it's unreal, but all Linux machines come with the 'chmod' command that makes setting bulk permissions easy.
Conclusion
I don't think I will ever look back. The Mac is easy to use on the surface and unbelievably powerful under the bonnet (thanks to the Linux family tree). In contrast, while XP is fantastic, it is getting very old, very quickly; and Vista is so problematic it is hard to see it ever gaining as much user adoption as XP. The only area the Mac lacks for me is in support of those PC apps that have always been so (MS Office). So, I enjoy my Mac immensely, but keep the PC handy, just in case!
A prediction!
Golden rule, never make predictions...So here goes!... I believe that Vista's fundamental approach to security and authentication is wrong. I perceive that technically it is too difficult to 'patch' Vista to a reliable state for everyday businesses. My prediction is that Microsoft will supersede Vista in order to become competitive with it's own XP product and launch a new operating system that it would not surprise me if it adopted a Linux-like core. Now watch me be horribly wrong!