It is of course something of a bittersweet affair to celebrate the one year anniversary of my Powerbook, when it was only a week ago that it went in for repairs. But that’s how it goes, and if nothing else, I think my Apple Support experiences up till this point is in fact a good way to lead into this small homage to my little titanium clad baby.
And so a year passed, I’m standing here again, wondering which months I missed out on. But it would seem that this year, as the others, was a full 12 months as promised, though I am inclined to feel that some foul play is involved.
Either way, let me instead dispense onto you, some of my experiences with my by now faithful companion, My Apple Powerbook G4. When I decided to invest a sizable amount of money in this titanium clad cyber-device, it was really quite a step to take. First of all I have always been a Windows user, and I never never owned a laptop before. In fact, I’ve been something of a gamer, and I work as a 3D artist; things I can’t reasonably do on an Apple laptop. Also all of my friends have always, and by and large remain, Windows users, and I daily go to work on a Windows machine.
But for years I’ve been keenly observing from the sidelines, how the whole Apple culture has been growing, and finally last year it reached a point where I felt safe enough with making the changeover. Without having had any proper hands-on time with it, OS X Panther seemed like a downright fantastic OS, and at least from where I was standing, years ahead of everything out there. And seriously, who can argue with the luxurious finish of Apple’s hardware?
So has it been worth it?
Oh has it ever? But I don’t think I need to tell you that, I have after all spent enough time doing just that.
Not that I haven’t had problems, because I most certainly have. For months the Powerbook would freeze for no apparent reason, usually when I was playing music in iTunes. And no matter what I did I couldn’t get rid of it… And I wasn’t alone, in fact there seemed to be a lot of people with the very same problem. But with the 10.3.6 update, it seemed to disappear, in Apple’s usual “don’t talk about it, just fix it” fashion, which can be most infuriating.
Then of course there was also the whole Firewire debacle. That however seemed to be a case of a sick little iPod making rounds at work, so I guess you can’t blame anyone in particular.
But in the end, the question would be: Had I known then, what I know now, would I have made the same choice? And I think I can say with a healthy portion of certainty that the answer would be a resounding yes!
Even the most expensive and smoothest of the non-Apple laptops I have had my hands on feel antiquated; indeed almost quaint. Let there be no doubt, Apple is at the head of the pack here, it’s time for the rest of the industry to get their damn heads out of their asses. Not because they’ll die out, because let’s face it, Apple is gaining market share at the speed with which trees grow.
And the exact same can be said for OS X vs. anything else out there. Don’t even bother, because it’s a non-contest. Not that Windows and PC’s in general are without purposes, they most certainly are not. But for myself, it’s a no-brainer. Apple wins, knockout in the first round. A remark that despite its inherent truth will land me immediately in the zealot camp, but then so be it.
Now, a lot can be said about this subject, and trust me on this, a lot has been said in the blogosphere (it’s, what, the fourth or fifth most popular subject among the bloggin’ and bitchin’?). I’ll leave it at a few general remarks, all of which I believe I have made before, but in the interest of completeness:
It seems as if the independent software developers on the OS X platform have a much greater deal of respect for both the OS on top of which they are working, as well as for their end users. Windows doesn’t have shareware of this quality (and dare I say it? Qualitative quantity). Anything you need, and it’s 5, 10 or 20 bucks away on Paypal, and in a lot of cases it’s even free.
And while there are a few exceptions here and there, the difference between working with Windows and OS X is the feeling of how everything works together. Whether through direct interconnectivity or AppleScript, applications speak with each other! Small touches, like the systemwide spellchecker is merely the jewel in the crown that is OS X. On the surface a glitzy, well polished but slightly candy like OS. Underneath it’s everything you ever wanted, but were afraid to ask!
That said, I wish Apple were better at communicating with their costumers on a more day to day basis. I respect their secrecy when it comes to their new products, but their tightlipped approach to dealing with bugs in its OS and apps is downright frustrating. Not that that differs Apple from most other corporations, but given everything else, it’s not what one would expect.
In terms of raw appeal, everything counted, I don’t see anyone beating what Apple has going until they begin to understand that Apple’s secret is the fact that they’re doing it better than everyone else…
I am saving up for a powerbook now but they will probably have the G5’s out by the time I purchase one. Until then I have my PC decked out with OS X look-a-like icons, menus, and more.
I’ve wanted a Powerbook for several years now. The only thing that keeps me from buying one is that I’m a student, with associated income — meaning almost none.
A Powerbook will be one of the first things I buy when I have a proper job and income.
My story is a little simillar. I was a Windows user since the early 90’s. I bought an iPod nearly two years ago and from seeing what an incredible little gadget that was, I made the huge plunge and bought a 17” Powerbook around about the same time. It has now become my main machine for home and work (I run a web dev and multimedia company). The Powerbook does it all and I can never see myself going back to a Windows machine. Switching to the Mac was the best thing I’ve done… and boy, am I sorry if this is starting to sound like an ad! :)
Being a Windows user that has never used a Mac, except for when I was completly unaware of what a computer was (meaning; how they worked), I think that I can safely say that both the PC and Mac have their place in the computer world. Until recent, trying to get unique software that’s available to the windows community only is now being ported to the Mac as well. Games…hmmm…that’s a different story.
Thanks for your detailed description on your experience. I may be a Mac user in the near future…
I want a Mac. They are by all accounts downright lovely.
But I also want to be able to play Half Life 2, Bf1942 and others against my friends over our home network.
Dilemma.
Oh if only “they” would develop for multiple platforms more than they do.
ID software may make boring games, but at least they port them to a variety of places. Others, like Hyperion Entertainment specialise in doing just that – porting other people’s games to Linux, Mac and really obscure places like AmigaOS (though they’re currently rather tied up in developing AmigaOS4).
Olly, I totally agree with you, Mac’s Rock!!! And yeah, I wish there’d be an Xbox version of Hlife2
I am and have always been a mac head. Writing this on one now. First Powerbook I ever had was a 112mHz little diddy. The style, grace, and creature comforts the mac world affords just can’t and won’t be matched. It will be copied, but never duplicated.
That said, who can’t wait for the iPhone to make it’s debut?
Im now about 3 months into my PowerBook/iPod experience and have so far not had any problems bar the odd lockup when I was first experimenting with some scripts!
Its amazing just how easy it has been switching from windows to OS X, everything really does ‘just work’!
Ive not even got my old windows tower in my room anymore, its just waiting till i can empty what I need off it and then its gonna be Debianised and stuck in a cupboard to spend the rest of its days as a dev server!
Thanks for the full summary of the Mac. I think that I will be getting my hands on one of the G4’s for Christmas…hopefully.
Having owned a PowerBook G4 myself I can honestly say “here here”. I decided to trade over to a desktop and purchased the new iMac G5 20” a couple of months ago.
I just was not using the laptop as a truly portable machine that it was and decided on an iMac. I do miss it though! It was so sleek and sexy.
I actually prefer trackpads over the mouse.
I have been using my first mac (an ibook G4) for just a little over a year now, and have loved every minute of it. It does “just work”. I have yet to hear any PC user brag about their computer in the way that a Mac user does or say things like “it just works”. Not only does it just work, it gets out of my way so I can work…and that is really what seperates Macs from PCs. When working on a PC, I always feel like I’m constantly fighting against it, trying to beg it to do what I need it to do. That is why I got frustrated and made the big switch. I will never look back.
I’ve been using Macs at work for years… I started when OS 8.1 was out at a small publishing house. I hated them. Then there were a few years (the entire stretch of OS 9, as a matter of fact), that I had no contact with them.
Then 3 years ago I saw OS X, and knew that it was time. I bought my first mac ever for my home (an iMac G4 800), and I’m still using it today. It’s the most beautiful, easy to use machine I’ve ever owned. There’s such deceptive power hidden underneath the shiny, simple hard– and software exteriors of Apple computers. My productivity has more than doubled; it’s amazing the amount of work you can get done when you don’t spend most of your time babying your machine, coaxing it to work.
Though I think my time with this particular machine is just about over (I hear the G5 iMac calling my name), it is by far the best OBJECT OF ANY KIND I have ever owned. I will, of course, be waiting for the next Macworld, but barring any new announcements there, I should have my second privately owned Macintosh coming my way within weeks.
I made the switch in Jan. and never looked back. Currently I have a G4 iBook, which is kind of “meh” and a G3 FireWire-which is “WOW”. I love the feel and the touch, and in spite of the “slow” (400 MHZ) processor, this machine is my traveling companion. Armed with an Airport card and a second battery, I’ve whiled away 8 to 10 hours flying across the country. It’s been durable, and has yet to fail me (unlike Dell, Compaq, HP, and Gateway units I have owned. As a matter of fact, the only laptops I have found to stand up to my daily use and travel is the Thinkpad) and I just start to shake when I think of replacing it.
I bought my wife a 12” PowerBook, and I enjoy using it on the rare occasions I am “allowed” and could see migrating to a similar unit. But for the nonce, I can totally understnd your attachment. There is no shortage of software available to me, and this “new” attachment is certainly a romance made in heaven.
I’m glad that you’re happy making the switch, Michael. I’ve personally closed the Windows vs. Mac discussion a long time ago, and settled on the PC camp. I’m certain that Macs are higher quality, in fact much higher quality, than most Dells, but I’d argue that if people went out and spent the same amount of money on a PC that offered equivalent performance to whatever that sum of money would get them in the Mac camp, there’d be little difference in quality.
Having said that, I don’t think anyone actually makes PCs that pricey (and I say that merely as an observation, not trying to goat anyone) in the same performance bracket.
Personally, the reasons for me to stay with PCs are:
* Multiple vendors, driving down cost, increasing choice
* Ease of development. I’m a programmer, so having multiple development tools (Microsoft Visual Studio, Borland JBuilder, BlitzBasic etc.) is something I appreciate greatly.
* Outlook (not just as a mail program, but as something that can synchronize with my PocketPC, hook up with my workplace’s Exchange server etc.)
* Firefox’s Windows HIG compliance
* Games
* Availability of wares. Yup, I said it. Now shoot me.
I think you are 100% correct in your assesment of the higher quality of Mac shareware. It doesn’t matter why that is (higher entry costs on Mac development), but it sure shows.
I going to buy Apple in about few months. I have seen OS X Panther and I like it very much.
I was in the same situation as you, Michael. I switched about 6 months ago and now I can proudly say: This PowerBook is the best thing I ever bought.
Having tried out 4 OS families I’m quite sure that OS X is the best – for me. I tend to be very fanatic about Apple when talking to others, but I understand many PC users.
Yes, my Win2000 was as stable as OS X. No, OS X is not that much faster on my PowerBook 1.33Ghz than Win2000 on a 1Ghz Pentium. Yes, there is much better and more freeware for Windows around. And no, I can’t play Half Life 2 on my Mac.
Every time I touch the aluminium shell of my PowerBook, however, and look at my brushed-metal windows, I know I was more than right to switch.
It’s not that much about faster, better software, compatibility or price. It’s about the small things, the moments when you think “Somebody at Apple expected me to come this way, and now the OS asks the right question”.
Also, I have to confess, I’m very happy that Apple’s market share doesn’t grow that fast. I like to be a little elitist… ;-)
Ive used Macs since os 6 on a little SE (my damn lucky workmate had an SE30 with an A4 b/w monitor the bugger!) with Illustrator 88 (and I think maye the one before) CricketDraw (predecessor to Quark) just before PageMaker came and went.
Then there was OS7 (Virtual Web SE)and the wonder of multitasking (albeit not true multitasking) .. Wow, 3 programmes open at once! Next OS8 and a few false starts with OS8.1 (possibly the worst ever Mac OS). OS9 for a few years more and despite what some might say, IMO a pretty good Mac OS that I had very few crashes on. In fact, we had a Graphite G4 running as a fileserver with a 300gig fast SCSI (or something) connection for a few years with very few crashes. Actually I think aside from rebooting for software updates it may have only crashed 3 times in 2 years, and a few of us regularly hammer it with 300meg photoshop files and hefty Quark files daily.
Finally (so far) of course onto OSX. OSX is an odd beast, if you come from outside of the Mac world it probably does seem fantastic with all its bells and whistle and *NIX geekerey but if you come from most of Apples user base (at the time of OSXs release of course) the you are more than likely a designer using Quark for page layout along with Photoshop and Illustrator or/and Freehand (my prefered vector app – until recently anyway, theyve slaughtered it now) OSX can be a confusing and scary place.
Theres still a few things OSX doesnt do that OS9 did, one that immediately comes to mind is that you cant print Finder windows without a utility), another is that you can lo longer select some files in the Finder, hit Apple-P and then let your program print them all out, very useful with 30 or so national press ads I can assure you.
The way OSX works is at times considerably different from OS9 where as the other OS updates have been more evolutional and so if youre a long time Mac user, whose no doubt very stuck in your ways it can be a confusing and difficult switch. This is something that as the studio “geek” Ive had much experience with, I still have to remember the OS9 ways of doing things too.
Coupled with Quark not releasing an OSX native version of Xpress for a few years after OSXs release (and even then XPress is shit, and to a lesser degree still is) this means that many studios, repro houses and printers are still using beige G5 and PowerPC Macs with Quark 4 and OS9 (Im talking UK here, I know the USAs gone all InDesign) means that I dont think Apple have quite reached the user base they can with OSX.
So I think OSX was a brave decision by Apple to basically force their current userbase to either switch to OSX or switch to Windows (and I think Quark may have helped some people move to Windows) so they had to try their hardest to keep the faithful, and I think theyve done fairly well. I bought the OSX public beta (still have the disks I think) and It was an initial shock I can tell you, and I never used it very much. I dont know if Longhorn is as radical a switch as OSX but with many Windows users simply not having an alternative (I guess due to the software they use or company contracts, correct me if im wrong as Im not very up on Windows) itll be interesting to see how MS manages it.
Now ive been using OSX on my personal Mac constantly since OSX10.1 and at work on all Studio Macs (predominately G4/450s but a few G4 733s, my dual G4 1.4ghz, a G5 1.6Gghz and an Xserve – if youre interested) apart from our ISDN machine Im very pleased with OSX and wouldnt want to switch back. When Quark quits (which it does all too often) now only Quark quits, NOT the whole Mac – fantastic!
Yes games are a problem (especially with evil MS buying Bungie, ruining Halo and releasing what was to be a dual Mac/PC game in xBox intially) but then Ive got my PS2 for that, I didnt spend £1400 to play games! Though I do confess to love UT2K4 :-D
Anyway, I didnt expect to write so much, so sorry for boring you and move along now please. ;-)
All I can think is… “That is one bloody big pink apple.”
I hope to be switching over the Mac soon, I’ve had so many windows issues this year that I’m about to snap.
i was a windows user, but slowly became a Mac user. as time went by i became a Mac fanatic. i’m thinking hard here, but there is not one thing i prefer about a PC over a Mac.
I would have to go with Bjørn on this one, except for the fact that I’d actually like both. I would like a mac laptop. I don’t see why mac/pc should be an either/or choice.
I am attracted to the usability of the mac os. They really have some good usability people, and I think MS puts much too little weight on this. I am also attracted to their development tools, which are supposedly very good.
About market share, I have only seen indications that Apples market share is declining. Their user numbers are growing, but the size of the market is growing faster, and that means a declining share.
I believe your assessment of mac developers having more respect for the host os is a wrong one.
I think the real reason why mac utils feel better and more macish is because of their development platform: They disposed their backlog of crud, and made a system where the easiest thing to do is to make it behave properly.
In contrast to this is the MS development platform, where you have a myriad of tools and ways to do things, and the one that is most in tune with how it currently ought to be is not the easiest one.
For example, if you choose to make a windows program with C++, rather than their newfangled languages, you have to do a lot of things to make the program look like a modern windows program.
Agreed – my ibook is still out for repairs, and adjusting back to using my PC on a daily basis is making for a bitter experience.
For me, the Powerbook experience really lies in the small things, the oh-so-nice touches.
Such as the blue LED, ensuring you that your book is sleeping peacefully, breathing away. Or the glowing ring showing you that electricity is indeed flowing into the battery. And speaking of; the indicator on the battery making it easy to see how much power you have left without waking the beast. How about the little fold-out wings on the A/C adapter, to easily store the power cable when not in use? The Powerbook (and indeed all Macs) are packed with these things.
On top of that, you get a rock-solid OS, amazing design, and the cool, cool feel of aluminum.
What more could you ever want? Well, support for games, surely. And for that I still keep my PC around….Oh well, at least you can now hook it up to a cinema display, and dream of having a G5 :)
Due to my low budget, I only have an iBook G3 Firewire (my very first Mac, in 2000) and bought a second-hand almost unused eMac 700 this year. Although the iBook needs a new battery, I still use it a lot around the house (read: the Missus wants to watch a movie but not me, yet I do want to keep her company).
The eMac is my main workhorse and even though I use it to run a web server and email server I can still use 99% of the resources to do my actual work (or play).
While OS 9 on my iBook locked up at least twice a day, mainly due to not enough RAM, OS X has yet to fail on me. Of course I’ve had some problems, but Panther is the first really mature release IMO, and I hope I will enjoy Tiger just as much. Plus, even my iBook will be able to run it! That’ll be his fifth OS X release after 3 OS 9 upgrades! Talk about ROI!
Great, being part of a true Apple ad :D
Bjrn,
Bad argument for staying with Windows; every OS comes with a large warez community =P.
Isn’t your PowerBook an alluminium one?
Anyway, I made the switch in April and couldn’t be happier!
I wouldn’t trade my 15” PowerBook with any other laptop. :D
You know what? I find it more inspirating to work in such a friendly environment…
I never liked Macs for as long as I can remember – my buddy was the Mac head, while I worked on Windows, Linux, Solaris, IRIX… Just about everything BUT the Mac.
Then Mac OS X came out and I was very intrigued. I went out and bought a 2001 G4 Quicksilver (relatively sight unseen) and turns out – I still use it to this day, over three years later. Still plenty fast, and I use it for digital photography, development, Website construction…
Just a few months ago, given a choice of computer at work, what did I choose in an all-Windows company? A 17” Powerbook!
From never having liked Macs to now, a full-on Mac fanatic. I’m very confident I made the right choice, love my Macs greatly and will do it over again in a heartbeat; I’m spying a nice G5 for the spring and an iPod before then sometime! :)
Oh, and I might add… No spyware, no viruses, crashes I can count on two hands or less. All in three years time. I think I got one, maybe two kernel panics in all that time (equiv. to a BSOD).
I’ve reinstalled Mac OS X twice. Once was a fluke, the second by choice. Every upgrade installed and just worked for me, from 10.1 through 10.3.7.
Sorry to ramble on, but if you haven’t tried a Mac… You really don’t know what you’re missing.
Please. It’s bad enough with your telephone, man. Please go with the blue color when making big colored areas on your blog. Please?
;)
Only a few days before the Keynote. :D
I want a Powerbook G5 15” or a more powerful G4 than the actual. :)
There is no way to compare costs in a PC vs. Mac debate and PC users don’t quite understand that the way Mac users do. It’s not just about comparing hard drive, processor, etc. The Apple computers these days are so integrated that the slower processor works faster with the operating system that knows which processors it’s using and the bus speeds are nice. The operating system can’t be compared: apples and ornages (pun intended).
The way fonts render on the screen, the screen, the metal, the design, the fluid dock, the icons, the quality shareware like Delicious Library or Transit, the free apps like iTunes (still better on Mac). iPhoto, iMovie and the premier apps like Keynote and Final Cut… the universal spell checker and address book, iChat AV and using a iSight, the way the iPod works. The slot loading DVD burner, Salling Clicker and it’s integration with Bluetooth and how a PDA/Phone syncs so nice and plays itunes when I enter a room and fades out as I leave. The amazing ease of moving onto one network to another recognizing DHCP clients on the go, airport express linked to my stereo system and even Microsoft Office is slicker on the Mac. The community of people that really do work together, Unix, the keyboard and monitor that adjust the light based on conditions in the room, the wireless keyboard and mouse and the quality of a keyboard and mouse and oh goodness I’m gonna cream my jeans.
PC’s aren’t bad either. I enjoyed building my own and everything, but I don’t compare them.
By the way, I just wanted to stop back to say that after reading this entry, I went out and got myself a Powermac G5 and it’s great so far.