Comments on: Recovering PC User Tells All: Why I Obsessively Love my Mac

By: arielsnapp

arielsnapp — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:38:02 +0000

Thanks Philip, I can appreciate your perspective. I especially had no
idea the Mac version of Office is not supported.

As I mentioned in my post, everything is not perfect for me either, as
some of my PC software doesn't work with Parallels, and its not
supported as something that my Mac coverage or Parallels support can
really help me troubleshoot. I have also noticed a slightly slower
response when loading my apps on Parallels. However, my system itself
is much more stable than any PC I've ever owned.

For years, I had hear mention that Macs were better for design and the
creative type, and that may actually hold true in your case. It may
not be capable of supporting PC software as much as it should be for
certain people to make the switch.

There are many reasons why businesses can't just switch back over to
Macs, and you've hit it on the nail with those reasons - there are
still compatibility issues that are not receiving the correct support
because they are made by competing companies.

For me, having to only buy and maintain 1 computer to do web design
alone is worth some of the compatibility issues.

Since my post is really quite biased towards my personal, web design
and organizing needs, I'll add a little disclaimer and list a few more
reasons why you may not be able to use a Mac. Thanks!

By: arielsnapp

arielsnapp — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:38:02 +0000

By: philipb4

philipb4 — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 09:09:56 +0000

Although I'm pleased to hear that you're enjoying the switch, I'd have to say my own experience of starting to live with a Mac after 20+ years on PCs is by no means an unequivocal win. I've noticed, however, that the complaints I've had don't seem to matter to others, so I think at the end of the day it's a case of 'horses for courses'. In particular, I'm noticing that I was always in the top 5% of 'power users' for business management tools (things like all the advanced functionality of Outlook, Excel, Exchange Server, etc…) and so the struggles I'm having using Office for Mac (which is nowhere near as capable as the Windows version) go unnoticed by most other users. And although I could run them on Parallels, it becomes clumsy and, yes, unstable, if I'm running most of my most intensive applications in that environment all the time.
If I want (or need) full Exchange support in my client apps I really can't use Mac Mail/iCal, so I use Entourage for Mac (Business Edition) – but there's still no dragging and dropping of emails to create tasks/appointments, it crashes a couple of times a day, it uses the screen real estate very inefficiently. And the Mac versions of Office applications have no VBA support – in other words, all the advanced programming of Excel spreadsheets that Windows users have learned to leverage very successfully simply won't work on native Excel for Mac.
Of course, I do enjoy my Mac – it's a very slick machine, and a lot of the 'home entertainment' tools (things like managing my photos, music, etc…) are very cool. I love the battery life on my MacBook Pro, and there's no doubt it makes a very professional impression with clients. But there's no beating the productivity of Windows for true power business applications operating in multi-disciplinary, integrated environments – and if a majority of your work is done in those settings, why would you boot up off OS X just to then switch to Parallels?
Anyway, just my 2 cents