It's an idea I've had for a while and I really wanted to do it during the height of the "Switch" commercials, but I always found a reason not to. My recent blog about Macs brought about two responses (by ViRGE and GL) that have sparked my interest in doing an article about using a new Mac for a month.
So I've decided to pull the trigger; in the next week or so I will begin a new category on my blog dedicated to the experiment (any ideas for what I should call it?) and then at the end of the month I'll publish an article on the whole thing.
I'm already seeing some issues that I'll have with the move but I'll save all the ranting and raving for my posts on it :) It'll be an interesting month, luckily I've got a couple of PCs in the house that'll still be operational just in case things get too rough ;)
I'd like to hear your thoughts - anything you'd like me to focus on during the month?
In other news, I'm heading up to NY this weekend and Vinney will meet me there. We're going to try and catch a play while I'm up there for the weekend. Any recommendations for good places to eat in NY? Whenever I've got to the city I've always been on business and never really had time to explore the city.
Class is almost over (shhh...I don't always blog in class) so I'm outta here.
Take care.
So I've decided to pull the trigger; in the next week or so I will begin a new category on my blog dedicated to the experiment (any ideas for what I should call it?) and then at the end of the month I'll publish an article on the whole thing.
I'm already seeing some issues that I'll have with the move but I'll save all the ranting and raving for my posts on it :) It'll be an interesting month, luckily I've got a couple of PCs in the house that'll still be operational just in case things get too rough ;)
I'd like to hear your thoughts - anything you'd like me to focus on during the month?
In other news, I'm heading up to NY this weekend and Vinney will meet me there. We're going to try and catch a play while I'm up there for the weekend. Any recommendations for good places to eat in NY? Whenever I've got to the city I've always been on business and never really had time to explore the city.
Class is almost over (shhh...I don't always blog in class) so I'm outta here.
Take care.
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Col - Thursday, February 5, 2004 - link
Good idea mate. I used Wintel machines exclusively for years after my parents upgraded from our antiquated Mac, and for the most part of that time I assumed that Windows was the way forward. However, in 2001 I bought an iBook for graphic design and such, and I have never looked back. I am now using a Dual 1.25Ghz Power Mac G4, and love it to bits.I still appreciate that there are some things that Windows does better than Mac OS X, but in terms of overall features, usability, GUI, stability, robustness and sheer beauty Mac OS X 10.3 is so far ahead of WinXP that it becomes almost laughable.
And Apple are committed to a yearly upgrade cycle, so by the time Longhorn arrives the Mac may well have surpassed even the promised improvements in the next-gen Windows world. I would bank on it.
The G5 is one beast of a machine, and you will undoubtedly be more than impressed with the hardware. The only thing the G5 doesn't have standard is a really awesome video card, however, my G4 stock only has a 64MB ATI jobby in there, and it's more than enough for my needs, including the few games I run on here. I would recommend at least 128MB though, for future compat. Also, on the RAM front, I would start with at least 1GB. Currently I only have 256MB in my PM, but a friend of mine has the same unit with 1GB in there and it screams, even with its G4 processors and low bus speed.
I hope you enjoy your experience... I think you will.
iamcol.com
Anonymous - Thursday, February 5, 2004 - link
Others have already hit the high points (I second the recommendation for 6th St Indian restaurants, btw), so I don't have a lot to add, other than a thank-you for embarking on this grand experiment; I look forward to seeing the critical light you can shed on the new Mac world.One tip: if you haven't purchased yet, and aren't eligible for a student developer discount, another option to consider is buying refurbished from the apple online store (look for the red sale tag near the bottom of the left column, and check back frequently). I just got a 15" Powerbook there for $500 less than MSRP and other than the box it is indistinguishable from new (even had the latest version of iLife in the box). They've had dual 2GHz G5s available for $2399 off and on for the past few days (either an opportunity to save some money or an indication of impending revision, or both).
While I appreciate the talent at evaluating hardware that you bring to this experiment, I'm much more interested in your take on the whole experience. As a lifelong occasional mac administrator (by profession but certainly not by choice), I believe OS X changed everything. From the early nineties on, I felt like the mac was an underpowerd and antiquated platform kept alive by the devotion of a few isolated constituencies (especially my people--the creative community), but with v10.2 it suddenly leapfrogged Wintel. Though I still maintain one Windows box for gaming (one area where the vaunted software shortage is true) and compatibility testing, I've moved almost entirely to a Mac (I can't believe I just typed that without getting struck by lightning) for my work and day-to-day use. I can't see ever going back, either.
Judging by the insightful take on computing you've offered since your site's beginning, I suspect you will have a lot of valuable observations to make about what appears to me to be the most interesting development in personal computing since Windows 3.1. Good luck!
Brian Everitt - Thursday, February 5, 2004 - link
Have fun Anand! I have been reading your site for years, and I just recently switched to using a new PowerMac G5 at home. I am a computer systems engineer and I know my way around Windows and PC hardware blindfolded, but I confess that I absolutely adore this PowerMac. I like OS X so much that I lobbied desperately at work to get a new iBook instead of a Compaq Evo laptop. Sadly I lost that battle.I feel a lot like David Coursey at ZDNet. He tried a similar thing and his month-long experiment turned into 3 months because he liked the Mac so much. In fact he has kept the iMac and still uses it regularly. You can read about the whole thing at
http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/4520-6033_16-4207177....
Darren Murph - Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - link
Congrats! I've got both a Dual PowerMac & a 3.0Ghz P4 Gaming PC in my dorm...it's awesome to have the best of both worlds. You'll love the Mac, I doubt one's better than the other, but there's no doubt Macs are just amazing to use. ENJOY! :)Eug - Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - link
Just a note, if you're going to get a dual Power Mac: The current G5 Power Macs use 130 nm CPUs which top out 2.0 GHz (so far). Now, considering the G5 Xserves have already been announced with 90 nm chips at 2.0 GHz, considering the G5 Power Macs haven't been updated for half a year, and considering that Jobs promised 3 GHz in a year (summer/fall 2004), one would expect that the dual Power Macs are going to be updated soon. I suspect a dual 2.4 GHz Power Mac announcement within the month.Thus brings up one issue with Macs. Apple is very secretive about product updates, so much so that even IBM is hiding their G5 PowerPC 970 roadmaps for the sake of Apple. This makes planning purchases difficult, and thus many Mac users simply hold off buying at the end of a 6 month cycle.
As for the "Mac Lab" test, software is of course key. Stuff like Safari (now at 1.2), iCal, Mail, Address Book, and iSync are all preinstalled. iLife '04 should come preinstalled as well, but if it isn't, it would be worth spending the $20 to get the update. (I'm assuming you're buying the Apple hardware and software, for the sake of this post.) iPhoto 4 is not the greatest program in the world, so be forewarned. It's in need of some bug fixes. I'm sure you're already familiar with iTunes; iTunes on the Mac is almost identical. If you have a DV camera, iMovie with iDVD is a very nice combo. And for the budding musician, GarageBand is nice too. Now if you need a bit more robust Apple software, you have Final Cut Express, DVD Studio Pro, and Logic Express.
For a backup PC, using Microsoft Virtual PC would have been nice, but unfortunately it currently does not run on the G5. Microsoft has promised it for Q2 2004. Microsoft does have Remote Desktop though, which will take over control of one of your shared PCs on your network. Works great, as does the Microsoft Office v.X suite. (Office 2004 comes out soon too.)
And of course, as you already know, there are a bazillion *nix apps available for your testing pleasure.
Good luck, and I look forward to your blogs and article.
Cheers, Eug. :)
Refrag - Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - link
Load up the PowerMac with 16GB of RAM from Crucial. OK, that may be overkill, but Crucial does have 2GB sticks for it so I would recommend getting those for the extra RAM you add so that it would be easy to get up to 16GB if you ever wanted to.Windows Fanboy - Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - link
"If your going to do it you need to do it right and have no PC's to fall back on then you will appreciate the PC that much more when you come back to the light ;)""OMG!!! OH NO!!! AIEEEEE!!!! NOOO!!!O!O!O!OO!!!O!O!!!"
And you guys complain about Mac fanboys?
Anonymous - Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - link
MACs are overpriced and slow. Do yourself a favor and forget it.David - Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - link
I'd have to say that using Safari to check out the system wide spellcheck isn't such a great idea, since (for unknown reasons) it's practically the only app that doesn't have it on by default (I suppose the Gecko browsers don't either, but that's 'cause they use Gecko text fields instead of native ones for now). Omniweb 5 beta or Textedit might be a better choice.Lucian - Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - link
On the subject of discounts, you might consider signing up for the Apple's student developer program, if you are eligible:http://developer.apple.com/students/
It only costs $99 a year and you get all major OS releases sent to you for free (which already puts you ahead since they usually cost $129). You also get a discount on one hardware purchase, which, unfortunately, can be used once in a lifetime. In any case, it's well worth the $99.
I hope this helps.