I still love my Mac, part 2.

A few minutes ago I came across a one-page website put up by somebody who blasted Mac lovers for loving their Macs. Very rudely. Sad - for the author. I guess he got insulted because somebody was going on and on about it.

Folks, the Mac is not perfect, any more than anything else made by man is perfect. It will sometimes have failures, and the vagaries of computers apply to the Mac as well as the Windows PC. If you expect perfection, you won't find it here.

Having said that, simply put, the frustration level is way less on a Mac. Compared to any other system currently available for the personal computer market.

I've been there and I've done that, and I've examined both systems looking for the best solution available. I have also looked at Linux (several different distributions), OS/2, BeOS (which had great performance, but was sidelined due to insanely poor business practice), EVERY version of Windows since 3.0, DOS, and CP/M before that. I haven't just loaded them up and looked at them, I've used every one and became proficient on most. And yes, I have Vista installed in a VM on my Mac. It works, and I use it for certain tasks, but I don't linger when I'm done working there. I have been responsible for maintaining all the computers in every place I've worked in the last 20 years. So I know just about everything that can go wrong on a computer.

I'm using a Mac by choice. It is a net improvement to my life.

No, it's not perfect. But it is so much less painful than working with Windows that I've adopted it wholeheartedly. I no longer spend nearly so much time (and money) just maintaining my system. It makes many things fun to do. In fact, it is so much better than Windows that I find myself typing articles like this one; something I never felt motivated to do for Windows.

OS X is subtle in many ways. For instance, in Microsoft Word, you have spell check? On the Mac, everything has spell check - it's universal. On my PC at work, I have occasionally launched Word just so I could see how to spell something. On the Mac, not necessary. You might not even notice this for a long time, but it's a real blessing. It's even a great thing for developers - they don't have to figure out how to implement spell check in their programs. Many other things are similar, in that you one day realize how well it all works.

Is there a learning curve? Yes. I've been using it a bit over a year, now, and I still learn little things about making it do what I want. For instance, the Mac keyboard doesn't have a delete-to-the-right button; the delete key deletes the letter to the left. Just a day or two ago, I found out that the delete-to-the-right function is the delete key with the Fn button held down. It was there all along. I came across it in the excellent Missing Manual book, Mac OS X Leopard Edition, which I'm currently reading.

There is a class of people I have worked with who just can't handle change. If you are one of them, stick with what you've got. It's your loss, not mine. Don't complain because it doesn't act like Windows; you have to understand that it's NOT Windows. As for me, I will try new tools that become available to see if there is merit in them. In the Mac, I find lots of merit.

So you do have to be willing to learn new things - Mac OS X is NOT Windows, although they have many similarities. If you get frustrated because it isn't Windows, maybe it isn't for you. But if you want a system that doesn't aggravate you regularly, buy a Mac.

Have fun!
-Pop