Lovin’ the Mac
This MacBook Pro simply rocks. It is fast and intuitive. I have suffered absolutely zero issues in the transition from my Windows box.
I have had no problems getting Mac versions of the apps I use or finding and using substitutes:
1. Browsers
I have Opera, Firefox and Safari installed. As I do web development in my spare time, I need to make sure that whatever I do works in multiple environments. Opera 9.26 works just fine. I have found a couple of bugs, but they are not OS-specific. I just hadn’t noticed them before.
2. E-mail
Apple’s Mail program beats the pants off Thunderbird. Now, I will admit that, perhaps, my configuration of Thunderbird was less than optimal. Otoh, Mail was easier to configure. I’m quite pleased with it.
3. Chat
Trillian by Cerulean Studios does not offer a Mac OS X client. They do have an alpha version of a new, enhanced product, but it’s not ready for prime time. After a quick Google session, I did find a program called Adium. Not only is this a better product overall, but it can use different emoticon and sound sets. I was able to find a Trillian-compatible set so that the icons are familiar. I’m quite happy with it.
4. iTunes
As an Apple product, it just feels better on the Mac.
5. Audacity
I use Audacity to make music mixes. Audacity is a cross-platform application. I had no problem installing the Mac version of Audacity.
As there are MP3 licensing issues related to distribution, Audacity doesn’t “ship” with MP3 support. On my Windows box, I had to do an Internet search for LAME. As it turned out, LAME is also available for OS X. I was able to easily download this library and configure Audacity to use it. No problem.
6. Terminal
As OS X is a Unix-variant under the hood, it comes with real shells and real terminal emulator programs. I need this when I write code. I don’t like a GUI getting in between me and the code. Plus, a host of open-source libraries and applications need to be built at the command line. A real shell comes in handy in these situations.
7. XCode
As an Apple Developer, I have access to the latest code building tools from Apple. I downloaded the 1.2GB behemoth and installed all the code building tools. No problems encountered here at all. In fact, I was able to build the mod_ruby module for the Apache web server using both the Terminal and XCode tools. Sweet!
8. Apache Web Server
This comes with OS X. My version is 2.2.6. Turning the server on and off is as simple as clicking a checkbox in the Sharing System Preferences applet. By contract, installing Apache on Windows was a separate download and installation.
9. M$ Office 2004
I had a copy of MS Office 2004 for the Mac lying around. I installed that. I don’t know how long I’ll use it. It is so un-Mac-like that it sticks out like a sore thumb.
10. Work Stuff - X11
OS X ships with the X11 display server. A co-worker showed me how to use SSH tunnelling to get my work computer to use X11 on my laptop for display purposes. I couldn’t get this working well on my Windows box.
11. Work Stuff - VPN
The IT department installed a VPN client app so that I can use my laptop as a build machine for our company’s product. As our primary build environment is command-line driven on Linux and Solaris, having Terminal and XCode installed allows me to be productive away from the office.
Apples new autofs system also allows me to mount some of our network file systems into my MacBook’s file system. This way I can access our in-house build tools. I can also access the files on my work machine even when I’m at home. Very sweet!
12. Finding Servers
QNAP builds NAS servers for home use. Depending on the model, you can populate them with up to two hard drives. I built a system with two 750GB hard drives running in a RAID-1 configuration where each drive is “mirrored”; each drive has copies of the same files and directories. I have digital photos, MP3 rips from CDs and tons of graphics and code files. The MacBook was able to easily locate the volumes and mount them automatically. Copying files through the high-speed 802.11n wireless network is a breeze. Additionally, I enabled the iTunes Server package on the QNAP system so iTunes can spot the server and mount its music collection. This works a lot more easily than it did with Windows. With Windows, I had to manually Map the Network Drives.
So, all things considered, I’m very happy with my purchase. Getting the extra 2G or RAM for only $100 has worked out as well. Code building has been blindingly fast and running multiple apps has been easy.