Mac conversion

I am a Mac convert. Let me tell you why!

At the risk of sounding a cliche, I have been a PC user ever since I can remember. I've started with a "286" running a MSDOS version 4 or 5 and have upgraded to every PC CPU and OS combination that ever was. It was an exciting time. Everything was new and learning was its own reward. I still remember how exciting it was to install one of earliest sound cards available (a SoundBlaster) and to hear the computer generated MIDI music.

I have always been able to get my job done with a PC

So why did I stick around PCs for over 20 years?

I am an engineer by trade and a hacker by nature. If a tool didn’t work the way I wanted it to work, I would rebuild it, re-program it, replace it or simply adapt to it. It is easy when you know what you are doing and have been doing it for as long as I have.

Let's be honest for a second here. As I am re-reading the above paragraph, I can't help thinking that I stuck with PC simply because I knew it well but I knew nothing else. That is simply not true. I have worked in Unix and X-Windows during my university years. It was great, but we couldn't bring that experience back home (unless you had close to 15K to spend on a Workstation).

I was surprisingly satisfied with Open Source software

In 2008, I decided to try alternatives to Microsoft governed ecosystem. I was traveling for a two months to Lebanon and I figured what better time to give this a shot. I loaded the latest Ubuntu desktop (I think it was 8.x) onto my aging Dell Inspiron 8600 laptop, installed Thunderbird, java, MySQL, Eclipse and few other development tools I knew I needed. The experience was a success. Apart from MS Outlook to synchronize with my iPhone and MS Visio to do technical diagrams, I was surprisingly satisfied with Open Source software. Support forums really made my experience a lot easier.

It's simply a beautiful Machine

In 2010, I decided to upgrade my six years old solid as a rock Dell Inspiron laptop. I loved that machine but doing anything constructive was just too long and painful. I figured I give Apple Macbook Pro a chance.

Macbook Pro laptop is simply a beautiful machine and it has enough power to satisfy most of needs (gaming is no longer an option except with your kids). But, and there is always a but, beauty justifiably comes at a price. A brand new base model Macbook Pro is minimum 2,000$ (including taxes).

Kijiji comes to the rescue and offers me a three months barely used high resolution anti-glare version of the 15" mid 2010 model at 1500$ (down from asking price of 1700).

To cut the story short and finally publish this post, I've been a happy Mac user since March 2011. The laptop crashed maybe twice in total (once when I plugged in a no brand name USB device). It does all I need it to do and more. I love my Macbook Pro laptop. I've upgraded to Lion when it came out and there is simply no turning back to using a Windows machine (except in corporate work environment, where you are forced to).

To be fair, I should mention that I have kept a virtual windows machine specifically for three applications: MS Access, Beyond Compare and Acdsee. I could not find Mac equivalent for these Windows applications but as soon as I do I will be PC free.