It’s been three weeks since I’ve made my investment, and I’m still very happy.  Please read my First Impressions post and the update after one week with OSX.  For the record, I have been a strong PC user since my first birthday.  Windows 95 all to the way to 7- I was pretty loyal.  I have to say though, once my daily vlogs started, and my technology channel on YouTube sprung up, the video editing that my PCs and Windows could provide me was just not par.  So, $1600 dollars later, I had my very own MacBook Pro 13 inch 2.53GHz computer with OSX Snow Leopard.  Since then, I’ve had 3 weeks to learn the operating environment, and how to do things.  So, how has it been for a 15 year Windows user to suddenly switch to OSX full time?

Just like anything, switching to a Mac has it’s pros and cons.  I hate people that hate PCs.  I hate people that hate Macs.  I don’t see why it has to be a war, both are very good platforms and offer stunning operating environments.  Let’s look at the basics.  Macs are just better for media.  Macs can do business stuff, but not as well as a PC can.  PCs are great at office work, but kinda suck at media work.  For this reason, I believe, that the perfect setup is to have a PC and a Mac.  Unfortunately, this is not possible for everybody.  For the lucky few of us, it’s great to be able to switch back and fourth between Windows (for Microsoft Office, and superior navigation within the OS) and Mac OSX (for stunning media work, such as videos and pictures, and even Photoshop.)  Now for the whip, the thing is, you don’t need a PC to run Windows anymore.  Setting up Bootcamp, or the software that allows Windows XP, Vista, and 7 to run nearly flawlessly on a Mac was very easy.  I have 50GB of disk space tied up with Windows 7 Ultimate, and the other 200GB left to Mac OSX to chew on.  Now, the near perfect MacBook Pro’s hardware can run Windows and OSX for the absolute best of both worlds.

Speaking of hardware, the MacBook Pro is exceptionally built.  I’m used to ThinkPads and Lenovo products, and this easily surpasses all of Lenovo’s work.  I’m personally happy with the connectivity, but one more USB port would not be a bad idea.  So, hardware wise, this thing is solid, light, small, portable, and nearly perfect.  The screen looks beautiful, and the keyboard is a pleasure to type on.  The iSight camera does a great job of video capturing, more so than any ThinkPad webcam I’ve ever seen.

Let’s talk software.  All new Macs come with Mac OSX 10.6 – Snow Leopard.  Having always used Windows, I expected to have some issues when trying to use OSX.  I expected wrong, Snow Leopard is very intuitive, and user friendly.  My only complaints software wise is the lack of personalization, and settings that every computer should have.  For example, when you shut the lid on your laptop, it has to go to sleep, says Apple.  There is no setting to change this like in Windows, so I found that frustrating.  Secondly, connecting up to external monitor is a little different.  You can duplicate displays, or extend.  There is no option for just simply shooting all the video over to the monitor!  So now, I have to leave the lid open to use the external monitor.  Aside from a few annoying issues like this, it has been very pleasant.  One more thing to note is that desktop navigation could be improved.  In Windows, everything that is open is in the taskbar, in OSX, it’s all over the place.  Switching back and fourth between several finder windows, or Safari windows is a pain.  Plus, the lack of command x or even a right click> paste is annoying.  So, you must copy files to a new location, and then go all the way back and delete the originals manually if you wish to do a cup operation.

Productivity.  Apple has something called iWork, which is their version of Microsoft Office.  I have the trial of this software, and it appears to be good.  It comes with Pages (like Word), Keynote (like PowerPoint), and Numbers (like Excel).  I’m happy with it, but I think Microsoft Office is significantly better.  And, yes, there is a version of Microsoft Office (2008) available for OSX, but it is nowhere as good as 2007 or 2010 for PC.  Anyhow, having Windows installed on a Mac, at least for me, is an absolute must for those applications that run in Windows, and for Office.  Other than this, Mac OSX is perfect for all media tasks, and everyday work like e-mail and web browsing.

In unibody nutshell, the MacBook Pro has been a fantastic investment for me, and I’m sure it would be for you too, if media is your forte.  I highly recommend getting a Mac, any Mac, and I suggest you try running Windows on it.  Windows not only looks great on the LED screen, but it runs very well,and is fully compatible.  Even if you don’t like Windows, it’s still worth having for productivity in the Office.  I am not a happy Mac user, but not a PC hater.  I use Windows every day, and I’m happy about it.  Although I use the Mac and OSX as my default system, I don’t have a problem going back and using XP or 7 for a few hours and hamming out that powerpoint or spreadsheet for the boss.

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