I’ve spent years reading and listening to the Mac experience. I’ve never actually bought a Mac, but I was interested in some of its software and how cool it looked. The exercise was mostly academic; I didn’t care for paying for the privilege of Mac ownership, and the Windows alternatives worked well enough despite the clunkier interface.
When I jumped over to LOLapps, I figured it may be time to try my hand on the supposedly superior system (1). I almost bought one for myself, but abruptly realized that I don’t need multiple personal computers in addition to a work laptop. Plus, my gaming needs still demand more-flexible PC-compatiable hardware.
Of course, it’s not trivial to upend 15+ years of Windows usage, and despite the user-friendly moniker I struggled with getting the basics working. After a month of so, though, I’ve noticed a number of differences, seen from my perspective as a software developer and power user:
- The interface has a unifying design. Menus are neater, animations uniform, and options screens follow the same conventions. Having to write Windows code for three years, I can rightly blame Microsoft for saving their new UI widgets and standards for themselves while all the 3rd party developers come up with their own interfaces, most of which are crappy. Lugging around 15 years of legacy code doesn’t help.
- The keyboard is similar, but different enough to trip me up when a shortcut key doesn’t mimic Windows. The interface seems to be designed for a keyboard + mouse setup, so I can’t seem to reach as much in OSX with just keyboard shortcuts than I can in Windows. The one-button mouse is a non-issue.
- Most of the programming and system utilities cost money! While Windows and Linux hold on to a dying shareware market due to open-source alternatives, software trials and paid licenses thrive on the Mac. To be fair, all the paid software I saw were attractive and integrate well with the system, and some of the most useful (Eclipse and QuickSilver) were free.
- The system encourages having multiple programs and windows open and does a great job in organizing them. It’s an abrupt switch from my Windows habits of resource conservation and automatically shutting down any program not in use. I sometimes miss the taskbar.
- There aren’t any real customization options to speak of; you run the system hugely as Apple intends. For someone who actually spent time creating his own foobar skin (hey, there’s no foobar on Macs either!), it’s certainly annoying that I can’t tweak the interface to my liking. Then again, there are substantial efforts out there to turn Windows into OSX, so there’s definitely an aesthetic envy.
- Having UNIX underlie the operating system is awesome for development. I’m sure the vast majority of Mac users don’t know or care what the terminal does, but for us software weavers it’s a relief to put aside the likes of Cygwin and Putty and have UNIX/Linux interoperability within the operating system itself.
- The little utilities and programs that come with OSX work much better than most of the software Microsoft bundles with Windows. Spaces (virtual desktops), Expose (3D Flip in Vista?), Dashboard (Gadgets in Vista), Spotlight (start menu search in Vista), etc. just work better in OSX, but it’s more a statement about how bad Microsoft’s own programs run in its OS.
All of the considerations above condense to the point that Macs make for pretty good workhorse systems. There are still plenty of flaws – my Macbook Pro runs like a summer inferno in the Sahara – but when it comes to drawing graphics, writing code, and setting up servers, OSX fares admirably well. It also has treats for the casual user; the pretty interface, bundled iLife software, and ease of use makes it ideal for users who don’t care to learn how a computer works as long as they get their internets and emails.
Which, sadly, leaves out the power users (at least those of the keyboard and the customization variety).
And the gamers, always the gamers.
- Not that I didn’t try at my previous company, but they had already set up a Lenovo Thinkpad for me; prior to that I was writing Windows-only software for Factset, and I still tried to convince our IT guy to get us dual-booting Macbooks (↩)