Yup. That pretty much says it all.
Next month will mark a year that I've been a Mac convert. Before that, I was heavy into Windows, and thought XP was as good as it could get. Wow, how ignorant I was.
🙂
To make a long story short, this is how I've changed:
- Amazingly I'm way more familiar with using the command line than I used to be. I know that OS X is primarily meant to be an icon-driven, visual interface, and I love that part too, but there are certain things in my work that have become far, far easier to do now that I can just pop open a terminal whenever I feel like it. I don't need to download PuTTY to interface with our linux servers, because I have ssh already there. Ditto for sftp.
- I've become more mindful or interface design and quality. It amazes me how the OS X interface can look so much nicer and cleaner than XP's or even Vista's aero interface. Even on the exact same monitor, the difference is like night and day. And then I came to the realization: the XP desktop hasn't changed or evolved in almost 7 years now. And the Aero interface? Aside from the translucent effects and preview options, it almost feels like not much has changed... in fact it's almost a step
back, in my opinion. then there's the slowdowns and instability inherent in Vista, but that's a whole other story.
I've noticed some folks are quite critical and picky about the look and feel of OS X: they say the new dock looks cheesy, or they were annoyed that menus were "too" transparent in 10.5.0-10.5.1. Sit in front of an XP desktop for a while, and then tell me if you still think these are problems.
😀
- I'm spending a lot more time actually DOING things on my computer, and spending a lot less time obsessing over the back-end things that allow work to be done. I'm still aware of what's going on underneath, just because that's how I am, but things just don't break as often on a Mac as they do on Windows, and I'm very thankful for that.
🙂
(Granted: My OS X experience and especially my transition to Leopard has been uneventful compared to other people on this forum. Maybe I'm just lucky? I don't know).
- Interestingly, using a Mac has made more comfortable with experimenting on different OSes. When I used Windows, I was very afraid of linux and unix-like OSes. I would
tolerate using them when I had to, but I really didn't want any more to do with them than was absolutely necessary for me to function at work. Even my personal web server ran Windows, and I only used our single Mac workstation at work when it was necessary (for digital imaging projects, and video work).
But, after a few months of REALLY getting comfortable with OS X, using a Mac full time, and tinkering with all the stuff underneath the Aqua interface, I started working with linux. In November I switched over the personal web server to Ubuntu, and I'm having a blast now.
🙂
And most importantly, whereas a year ago I could not possibly imagine getting through the day without doing something in Windows, there are now multiple days where I never even touch a machine running a Windows OS. And whereas I used to despise "those Mac/Linux guys" who would frown whenever they were forced to use Windows... I'm now one of "those Mac/Linux guys," and I catch myself frowning in the same circumstance.
🙂
In the end, I really should thank Microsoft for fumbling so badly with Vista. They cheated me out of my money for the OS upgrade, horribly disappointed me, and motivated me to give Macs a more serious look. And I think I'm much better now off now for it.
😀
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