Mac Attack (@mellank, @sethdesantis)

This post comes to you by special request. Some background: during the day I am a Windows computer network administrator. I know all there is to know about Windows, save perhaps how to compile it from source. If I just lost you, I'm qualified to teach you.

Last year, while I was rushing to finish my taxes, my Windows laptop broke. It is a computer I had only recently refurbished. My back up computer was a Windows netbook, which was cute and good for some light web surfing but not up to the tasks of daily computer use. My synopsis of the Windows computer experience:

• You have to "fix" it every time you use it
• The fix may be as simple as software update or as complicated as a virus removal
• In your office, there's a guy like me shielding you from that pain
• It doesn't "just work"
• You have to install drivers for your printer
• You have to install Flash or Java to open your favorite web page
• You have to install Office
• You have to install an email program
• You have to install a program to store and organize your camera's photos
• You have to install a program to edit photos
• ...
• Because of the above, you can't just pull out your laptop and do a thing while you're thinking about it, which is a productivity killer

I decided to replace my broken Windows box with a MacBook. I bought the cheapest MacBook with an optical drive, because I believe that is the best computer value on the market. It may have been surpassed by the new 11" MacBook Air released this year, depending on whether you need to read CD/DVDs.

My synopsis of the MacBook user experience is, "It just works."

Out of the box I could browse the web, connect to Gmail, synchronize my Gmail contacts, listen to music, synchronize and organize my music player, synchronize and organize my photos with enough editing to handle most simple changes, take pictures with the built in camera, watch videos and DVDs, record and edit video, record and edit music, read PDF files, edit web pages, back up the computer, and synchronize computer files and settings with an online account.

I needed to add some applications, but I didn't need them to do what I opened the laptop for at that moment, which was connect to TaxAct and complete my return.

She gets me

When it came time to install an office suite, Firefox, and a Twitter client I thought for a minute about how to find these and decided to check Apple's website first to see if they had a list of recommended downloads. They did! I found NeoOffice, Echofon, and Firefox. I clicked links on the Apple site to download them. For those who are unfamiliar, here's a brief description of the Mac install and remove process:

• Download a dmg (disk image) file
• Open the disk image
• Drag the application icon from the disk to the Applications folder
• Open the application
• Pin the app icon to the dock

To remove:

• Unpin the app icon from the dock
• Delete the application file from the Application folder

You see, Macintosh applications have always been contained in a single file. They are much, much, much easier to maintain than Windows applications, which infest your computer more than reside there. Sorry, it's true.

Although that process is easy enough for most people, it is not obvious. How can we go one better? The App store.

Now, there's an app on your dock which connects to an online catalog. It lets you search, browse, purchase, and install all in one spot. When you install, you give your iTunes password. The App store downloads and places your new application in your Applications folder, and its icon on your dock. Bang. I replaced Echofon with Twitter, which is as awesome as the iPhone version. Yeah, Twitter!

When updates are available, you are told and given the choice to begin or wait until later. If you choose wait until later, that's the end of it. This is unlike Windows, which will nag you every few minutes with a pop up that invariably pops up while you're typing, causing you to reboot unexpectedly, losing work. Mac does not do that.


Also relating to user experience:

• The screen is beautiful, but at 1280 x 800 pixels, it is not a lot of screen real estate. If I was working on this for eight hours a day I would use at least one external display.
• The keyboard is... I can't say for sure but I find it difficult to touch type on it. If I was working on this all day long I would use my Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 keyboard.
• The battery lasts forever. I can be out and about for one or two days, depending on what I'm doing and how much of it I'm doing. On one outing I spent six hours in my local Panera Bread.
• I am deeply in love with Apple's capacitive multitouch pads. If I was working all day long I would use the Magic Pad to preserve the experience of the built in pad while using the external keyboard.

I'd love to hear feedback about challenges you face or anticipate switching to Mac from Windows. I am quite sure that discussion would generate several blog posts worth of great material.