Tonight I was doing a lot of reading about parallels/vmware and bootcamp. As I was hammering google with search after search I stumbled upon a post where a long time PC user was weighing the pros and cons of switching to a MacBook Pro. I read his post as well as the responses and began to think about all of the pros and cons which were presented to me. Were the reasons I switched to a MBP the same reasons I am happy I made the switch? I had an epiphany!
The pros prior to my switch over to a Mac vs. the reasons I wouldn’t switch back to a notebook PC are not even close to the same (other than spotlight).
For starters as I sit here on the couch with my MBP on my lap there is dead silence. The only sound is my fingers hitting the keypad as I type. On my old “rig” the fans would be working overtime. I would equate the sound to that of a small jet firing up it’s engines.
In a previous post I talk about the top 10 reasons I switched to a Mac. Well here are 10 reasons I won’t ever switch back in no particular order.
- My MacBook pro is ridiculously quite - My Notebook PC was annoyingly loud
- Spotlight - This is on both lists but after using it regularly I couldn’t live without it!
- Preview - Mainly because of the ability to open PDF’s very quickly.
- Sleep Feature - Close the lid and walk away. The MacBook Pro immediately goes into sleep mode.
- fn + F9 - I would have never even considered this a “pro” when deciding but now it is a definite reason not to switch back. When using “function+F9″ you will be shown all open applications. Makes it easy to find something quickly.
- Much MUCH lighter. Again this wouldn’t have been a consideration prior to switching but boy is it nice to have 6.8 Lbs. in my back pack rather than 12.5 Lbs.
- Spaces - Have tons of applications open without having to navigate them all.
- No more registry - No more .dll
- No more uninstalling programs or figuring out why I can’t uninstall something.
- Style and design - This may seem frivolous but aluminum case and streamlined design is not only attractive but more comfortable.
I bet the reverse learning curve would be steeper going back to a Notebook PC again than it was switching to a Mac. Everything about the Mac just feels more comfortable.
Let me know what you think are the best features of your Mac or PC and why you wouldn’t switch from one to the other.
Tags: mac, Mac Software, mac user, macbook pro, macbook pro, macuser, switch to mac
March 10th, 2008 at 4:16 am
The only contra for the Macbook pro is the price which is worth it because you get what you paid for, but many people can’t afford it.
In every other point the mac gets the pro even Windows Vista runs faster on them.
March 10th, 2008 at 4:33 am
In my case the price of the MBP was actually less than the Notebook PC I am comparing it to by about $700 but I understand what you are saying. It is possible to pick up a notebook for under $1000 however the cost ofr a comparable windows notebook (if there is such a thing) would be in the same ball park or possibly more.
Thanks for the comments!
March 10th, 2008 at 4:33 am
What? Whatever laptop you buy will have a sleep feature. It’s not something that apple invented and it’s not only on their computers! There are spotlight-like programs for PC, using google will help you! I DONT KNOW ABOUT YOU BUT MY KEYBOARD HAS AN F9 KEY AND ITS 20 YEARS OLD. Please learn how unix works, it may not have the same system as windows but it does keep track of itself. Spaces? There are plenty of programs that do this same virtual desktop thing. “No more uninstalling programs or figuring out why I can’t uninstall something” What? I honestly can’t even begin to imagine what the hell you’re talking about there. I’m positive I’ve removed programs from my mac before, and I know there are programs that don’t run on it!
PS Preview is a craptastic program.
March 10th, 2008 at 4:45 am
haha anonymous obviously doesn’t know what F9 does. F9 shows ALL application windows, which allows you to switch between apps and windows much faster and efficiently than possible in windows. Also, in regards to the sleep feature, i think what this guy is talking about is the auto-sleep, where you close the lid and it immediately sleeps, saving power, compared to PCs where they stay on for a period of time.
March 10th, 2008 at 5:04 am
* On a macbook Pro you close the lid and it goes to sleep. On my sager NP9750 I have to “tell” it to go to sleep.
* No there is no equivalent to spotlight! Google desktop (when added to a windows PC) is closer than the search function but still not comparable to spotlight and spotlight is much faster!
* Sorry let me be more specific. Function + F9. Try it on your mac. It brings up images of all your windows at once. Faster and easier than dealing with a taskbar menu.
* Yes virtual desktops have been around for a long time however you would have to configure/set them up. On my MBP it’s right there and I would have never thought to set up something similar as I didn’t know that I would actually use it (hence the title of my blog post).
* I again should explain a little more about “uninstalling”. In XP for example you have to go into add/remove programs and then go down the list to find what you want to remove. It’s a pain in the ass to be blunt. Now I just “eject” something I don’t need. Faster, easier etc.
* Preview is much faster and more light weight than say adobe. Also opens much faster and you can annotate. Also in preview you can resize images. I do this a lot. I don’t have to open Photoshop or anything else. It is quick and easy.
I have 5 Notebooks and 1 MacBook Pro. Everything from a cheap Acer to a Sager NP9750. I am much more productive now than I ever was and everything from those on the list to Transmit (FTP) and even stuffit make my life easier.
I’m sure your reasons are completely different and that is why I asked. Hopefully someone will mention something I haven’t read about yet that will be useful to me.
Thanks
John
March 10th, 2008 at 5:05 am
@Anonymous “HAS AN F9 KEY AND ITS 20 YEARS OLD”
I think you kind of missed the point there, sport. Obviously every computer has an F9 key. What the author was not pointing out is what the F9 key does on a Mac. It is the standard key that shows all open windows in alll open applications. Obviously, it doesn’t have to be the F9 key [it isn’t on my Mac], it can be any F key you assign it to.
The author could have also mentioned the F10 and F11 key, or easier still, he could have said “I can’t do without Expose anymore” and boy would he be right.
Now, there’s going to be utilities that do the same on Windows, and I understand that if your Windows Vista box has the spec for it it will do something similar with Aqua. But it’s not Expose, anonymous, believe me it isn’t.
In the OS 8/9 days, Mac OS was charming and I loved using it although there were plenty of things to groan about. Now it’s a truly awesome experience. The price argument has been hacked to pieces over many, many years and it used to be true, even. There has been a time where Apple computers were incomprehensibly expensive.
No longer. You can no doubt get a much cheaper PC anytime, but it would be dishonest to claim that you’d get the same quality of machine. And you’d still be running Windows. Windows Vista Home or Home Basic. A system that’s going to be nagging you to update every time you want to exceed its capacity. There’s only one system [server software notwithstanding] for the Mac. There are no second/third-class users on the Mac. Mac users are accused of being elitist but Windows Vista says: if you’re a poor clod, you get to buy Vista Home. If you can afford it you can have Windows Ultimate. Thanks, Microsoft, rub it in with some coarse sea salt, why don’t you?
I don’t know what the problem is with Preview. It’s a cool little app.
Price is a consideration, it’s true, but there comes a point where the quality of the experience exceeds the mere number on the price tag. 14 years and counting without any kind of virus scanner, an environment that doesn’t come in the way of what I’m doing “You’ve got unused icons on your desktop”, I know why I drive a Mac. I don’t even care about why other people don’t anymore.
March 10th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Golly. So you say that a brand new smaller computer is actually lighter and quieter than your old computer?
I absolutely feel that Macbooks are fantastic notebooks. But lists like this are what make Mac users look like morons. If you want to make a legitimate comparison then compare two similar systems.
BTW, how the heck did you get an ultra quiet Macbook? The fans here (as in most current notebooks) start loud and grow progressively louder in time. Before I got a Macbook I had a few old centrino notebooks that never got hot or had fan noise. But since going Mac then our Mac Mini and Macbook both hum all night and it’s annoying.
March 10th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
I switched 6 mos ago and agree it’s a much better overall experience. The thing about the mac is not just one good thing.. it’s all the little things that add up to a great whole. Kind of the opposite of windows, haha. Although, XP with the right add-on tools is not too bad these days.
For that matter linux, specifically ubuntu, is also really good and is actually better than both xp and mac in some areas, like application installs and upgrades via. apt-get for example.
But overall it’s not really a contest for your daily computer. Now I really do have problems with apple, their closed ways and their attitude towards customers, but like dating a hot girl who’s amazing in bed, you put up with a lot for the awesome experience.
March 10th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Cole,
MY MacBook Pro does not hum at all. Maybe MacBooks do? I have no idea as I don’t have any experience with MacBooks.
I would never buy a mac mini and quite frankly I’m not surprised that it hums.
The reason I use the Sager in my comparison is because it was my Notebook of choice and what I was using most of the time prior to the switch.
I also have several other notebooks some working and some not.
Comparing my MacBook Pro to all of my notebooks past and present, the newest being a HP Pavilion dv6000 (Core 2 Duo). Every one of the 10 points apply.
As far as getting “hot” I would say that all of my machines would get warm and the MacBook Pro is no different however it is MUCH cooler than the Sager but I think that goes without saying.
Thanks,
John
April 16th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
:))