I recently converted to a MBP from an IBM laptlop. I first started out on personal computers in 1984 on a Macintosh Plus. I loved the Mac system, but had to move into Wintel world in 1992 because there was simply no sophisticated business software (high level accounting programs, database managers, enterprise-level sales contact programs, etc.) being written for Macs. Interestingly, my organization was a split environment--the designers and program staff used Macs and business and back-office staff used Wintel machines.
After 15 years in Wintel land using IBM laptops, I recently returned to the Mac world with the purchase of a 17" Macbook Pro. I thought I would briefly share my experience for those considering such a move.
The machine itself is nice with great design and fit and finish. The screen is magnificent. Switching from XP to OS 10 was relatively painless, and I was comfortable within a week. That's the good news.
The bad news is that the Mac platform has not been anywhere near as stable as the XP platform. My office runs an Exchange server for email, contacts, and calendaring. Entourage, Microsoft's Outlook equivalent for the Mac, has serious latency problems, which MS system engineers admit. (Our computer systems are managed by a tier 4 data center with high level system engineers knowledgeable in both Wintel and Mac environments.) MS engineers blame the latency issue on Entourage not running native on Intel and say that this issue will be resolved when the next version of Office is released in January.
I could run Outlook in Parallels, but I have to attach MS documents to emails frequently, and the process of attaching a Mac document to an Outlook email, while doable, is not elegant, to say the least. Plus, Parallels has closed unexpectedly in the last 2 months more than my last IBM laptop did in 3 years. The same is true for Firefox, my Internet browser of choice. It has shutdown unexpectedly 4 times in the last month. This simply never happened with my IBM. Finally, I have had several unexplained shutdowns or freezes of OS 10 in the 2 months I've been using it. Again, these are problems that I simply did not encounter with my IBM laptop. (I should probably note here that my needs are simple--MS Office, email, Internet access, calendaring, and contacts constitute 99% of my day-to-day work.)
My colleague has an identical MBP system connected to the same office network. He uses Outlook running under Parallels and has not experienced any significant problems. He reports that Outlook runs at least as fast, and maybe faster, in Parallels on his MBP than it did on his previous Dell machine. Switching between XP and OS 10 is quick and seamless.
My overall conclusion is that the Mac system is still a long way from being business-world friendly. The corporate world is an Exchange-server environment. If Apple is to compete in that environment, it will have to become much more Exchange friendly. My afore mentioned colleague and I also purchased iPhones when they came out. Getting them to work with our Exchange servers was not a trivial task! The iPhone is an elegant device, and it is the first cell phone that I truly enjoy using. But it does not come close to the Blackberry in usability for email, calendaring, and contact management.
After 15 years in Wintel land using IBM laptops, I recently returned to the Mac world with the purchase of a 17" Macbook Pro. I thought I would briefly share my experience for those considering such a move.
The machine itself is nice with great design and fit and finish. The screen is magnificent. Switching from XP to OS 10 was relatively painless, and I was comfortable within a week. That's the good news.
The bad news is that the Mac platform has not been anywhere near as stable as the XP platform. My office runs an Exchange server for email, contacts, and calendaring. Entourage, Microsoft's Outlook equivalent for the Mac, has serious latency problems, which MS system engineers admit. (Our computer systems are managed by a tier 4 data center with high level system engineers knowledgeable in both Wintel and Mac environments.) MS engineers blame the latency issue on Entourage not running native on Intel and say that this issue will be resolved when the next version of Office is released in January.
I could run Outlook in Parallels, but I have to attach MS documents to emails frequently, and the process of attaching a Mac document to an Outlook email, while doable, is not elegant, to say the least. Plus, Parallels has closed unexpectedly in the last 2 months more than my last IBM laptop did in 3 years. The same is true for Firefox, my Internet browser of choice. It has shutdown unexpectedly 4 times in the last month. This simply never happened with my IBM. Finally, I have had several unexplained shutdowns or freezes of OS 10 in the 2 months I've been using it. Again, these are problems that I simply did not encounter with my IBM laptop. (I should probably note here that my needs are simple--MS Office, email, Internet access, calendaring, and contacts constitute 99% of my day-to-day work.)
My colleague has an identical MBP system connected to the same office network. He uses Outlook running under Parallels and has not experienced any significant problems. He reports that Outlook runs at least as fast, and maybe faster, in Parallels on his MBP than it did on his previous Dell machine. Switching between XP and OS 10 is quick and seamless.
My overall conclusion is that the Mac system is still a long way from being business-world friendly. The corporate world is an Exchange-server environment. If Apple is to compete in that environment, it will have to become much more Exchange friendly. My afore mentioned colleague and I also purchased iPhones when they came out. Getting them to work with our Exchange servers was not a trivial task! The iPhone is an elegant device, and it is the first cell phone that I truly enjoy using. But it does not come close to the Blackberry in usability for email, calendaring, and contact management.
