IT Professional Switching to Mac

Congratulations!

I have followed a very similar path as you and can relate. I wish you happy computing with your new mac

 

I'm in the same boat as you. My dad got himself an Apple when I was little, mid 80s (not sure of the model) and been around Macs almost my entire life, I've just been a little hater. Became very excited about Windows since 98 and been using it ever since spanning over many systems I've built. I've even been somewhat of an advocate. I like Windows Vista for the most part, but OSX and the underlying Unix excite me. Then there's Apple's build and hardware design that I really like, things like the Magsafe and keyboard lighting, things like that. OSX will be great but of course I won't be able to get rid of Windows entirely since I do some gaming and a ton of .NET programming for work. My new laptop should be arriving shortly (like a few hours from now!) and I simply can't wait. I got all giddy when I read that my package was out for delivery (a whole 2 days ahead of schedule) and I know I'll love this machine.

Good luck to you, I think you'll love your new Mac.

 

My IT brother-in-law was thinking bout getting a mac and was asking me all sorts of questions. And if OSX didn't do something I only had one thing to say.


Boot Camp.


Apple really made it too easy.

 

I can relate as well!

 

Congrats on your decision to make the switch

 

Big switch for me too in the last 6 months...

Nikon to Canon, Micro$oft to OSX

 

congrats on the switch to Mac! I hope your new Macbook Pro will be nothing but a joy to use and learn.

and you can bet most of us here will be eagerly awaiting your writeup on the Macbook Pro and OS X.

 

Congrat! Also a fellow soon-to-be-ex XPS m1210 user.

 

What took you so long?

Most of the IT guys here are on board. Even the penguin's here are taking a look.

MS blew it with Vista. You can actually buy a new PC for what they charge to upgrade to Vista. That alone caused a bunch of folks I know to make the switch.

 

Welcome back from the Dark Side. After you're fully immersed, we'll show you the secret handshake.

 

If you don't need WYSIWYG editing of HTML, it sounds like Panic's Coda might be right up your alley.

 

You might want to check out the apple developer connection

http://developer.apple.com/internet/

that is the link to a bunch of Apple web dev stuff!

 

I love Coda but I have had some problems uploading script files that just won't upload with a unix line break. I never figured out why or how to fix that but got around it by FTP with CyberDuck--a great free FTP progam.

But back to the original story--as I too am a recent Windows convert. I didn't want to try and learn Vista and I needed a new computer to replace my 5yo Dell. I've done some work in the IT field--mostly in web development. I have been impressed hearing from so many IT-types who have converted to Mac. That seems to say a lot about the OS and hardware architecture. I have some experience with Linux and so to me that too is a big plus in favor on OS X. So far no regrets from me--I love my iMac!

I'm sure you'll not regret your switch--look forward to your next report.

 

People bitch, moan, and complain about the way Mac OS X is laid out or does some things when they switched to it from Mac OS 9 and Windows.

But after about 30-90 days of getting used to it, their productivity picks back up and they stop complaining -- especially when you searched and found OS X replacements for your current apps.

 

I'm also an IT professional I switched in early 2003 and I have never looked back. Welcome to the party. As someone else mentioned above I did the reverse of their switch from Canon to Nikon this year....

 

Just to chime in, I'm also in IT and switched back to Apple (from Linux and FreeBSD (which I still use for servers)) in 2006. I also switched from Canon to Nikon in that year. Lastly, I also have a Sony Vaio which I'll be switching to XP from Vista this week ...

 

You will wonder why you waited this long!

pcmofo,
I have been working in IT for the past 11 years doing various levels of Middleware architecture and administration. I currently work for a software company as a Solutions Architect doing pre-sales work around SOA testing and governance. Up until about 4 months ago, I have always used Windoze based PCs, but my current company is very Mac centric. I got a two year old MBP when I started, and last week went and bought a new MBP 2.5GHz, 512MB graphics card, but with the stock 2GB of RAM. A quick call to NewEgg got me the Mac 4GB RAM upgrade kit from Kingston for a whopping $138 shipped.

I may offend some of the true Mac purists in here, but here are a couple things I have learned already... 1. If you do a lot of presentations to clients, go ahead and spend the money on Office:Mac 2008. Keynote doesn't always render graphics and charts properly, and I hate presenting a slide show to upper management that looks shoddy. 2. Get VMWare fusion instead of Parallels. Learn to use the Unity feature of it as well.

I have had some raised eyebrows when I walk into a demo with a Mac. I explain it away saying our software is written exclusively in java, so it will run on anything. Coming from a 3GB thinkpad to my Mac was a world of difference. I can run a VM on my 4GB Mac, allocate 3GB of RAM to it, and Leapord still runs fine. (Just remember to shutdown Entourage)

I think you will be very please with the versatility your Mac will give you, along with the low overhead that OS X uses when compared to Windows.

Enjoy!

 

I love Macs ever since getting my first one Christmas.

It was an iMac - though I sold it to save up for a MacBook. I don't plan to switch back.

 

I use Keynote almost every day. It blows PowerPoint out of the water. I can't tell you how many meetings I've been to where people try to run their PowerPoints off of different WinPCs and they get different outcomes. Images display fine on some WinPCs, but not others. Same for the fonts. And don't even get me started on Word.

 

It really depends on what platform the Presentation was originally created. We don't create our presentations (our marketing department does it for us), and then we trim the slide deck down to fit the customer's requirements. We have one slide in particular, that when viewed in anything other than PowerPoint, completely screws up a very important bar graph. I have used Keynote/Numbers/Pages, and found that office:mac 2008 is more compatible and offers the same functionality. I never used Office 2004, so I cannot comment on that version of the software. I am regularly asked to forward a copy of my presentations to my customers, so they can use them in a business justifcation type presentation. The fact that there is a Mac version of MS Office gives me the peace of mind to know that when they go to create their own version of the presentation, the slides will render the same way.

IMHO if you are in a professional setting, and your customers are on on Windoze based PCs, the office:mac 2008 suite assures that your presentations will look the same, regardless of the OS on which they were created. I will sacrifice not being a died in the wool Mac guy for making sure that I get my deals closed. You can withhold the secret handshake if you must.

 

Congrats on the great purchase!

 

Windows server admin 8 years, Mac user 1 year...I don't know what took me so long. I guess the spell finally wore off.

Welcome and congrats.