- Posted by Prashant on November 1, 2009
Few weeks ago my long and beloved Toshiba Proteze tablet PC finally gave up on me. Getting it fixed would have cost me around 1300 CAD, so i decided to buy my new laptop. Being the geek that i have always been; cars and computers always go through a thorough research before i buy one. I have been researching on my new laptop for quite a while and after weighing in all my preferences, it boiled down to final three. The finalists were:
- Asus Lamborghini MX5 - The beast (Production delayed)
- IBM W500 (Great SPECS but i would have liked the engine of W700 Ds in 15")
- Apple MacBook Pro (15")
Apple MACBook pro finally won out because of its light weight, great build quality, rave reviews and of course having lived on the dark side, i had to taste the kool-aid. I like my machines to be powerful computing machines, so i configured it to the MAX (except the RAM, which is still 4Gigs). After i ordered it on the web, i will not lie; i twisted and turned for 5 agonizing days - waiting for my laptop. It was a total love at first sight and waiting for the girl to pass by the same place at same time but 10 minute delay seem like ages experience.
Anyways finally my beautiful MACBook pro arrived via UPS. Of course like everything else in life it was assembled and shipped from China. The packaging was very nice and compact. I then went on to unpack it and gently opened the hood. The configuration wizard popped up. It asked me some basic questions and there it was ready for use. Damm it even configured my exchange server email by its own without asking all the advanced settings (proxy etc...) questions that i am so used to filling.
First experience was absolutely a bomb shell. I was spell bound. The UI was phenomenal (as expected), usability was amazing. Since i had already readup on how to use a MAC even before it had arrived, i was not struggling with it. Basic features in MAC are very intutive and easy to use. Google helped me at points where i had any hiccups. It took me couple days to adjust to almighty command key. The screen is the best i have ever seen on any laptop. The clarity is absolutely crystal clear. Not even the high end laptops from other vendors come close.
Very soon i started missing my regular office tools. After all i am a busy professional and believe it or not, i have earned my bread and butter on Microsoft technology suite. Since most of the corporate world still uses Microsoft office, i got the Office for MAC. I also found Visio and Project equivalents on MAC that are compatible with Microsoft Visio and Project. I also needed to run my development environment. Again VMWare Fusion was there to save my day.
After my month long heavy grilling of MAC, i found the level ground. When the euphoria had died down, mighty cool MAC (but still just a computer) started to show the chinks in its armour. I will in my next blog discuss some of the PC vs MAC experiences i had on a personal level. MAC has a lot of cool things to offer, but seriously people what is all the HOOPLA about!