Ok, so I’ve drank the Kool-Aid, taken the plunge and gone Mac.

I was really excited to get my hands on one, and a lot of colleagues of mine have already switched and made comments like, “You’ll never go back to a PC”, or “I rarely ever use my windows VM”.

I decided to test these thoughts and go full emersion into the Mac OS, no Bootcamp partition with Windows 7 loaded as a safety net, and only allowing myself to use Fusion with a Windows 7 VM when absolutely necessary (Still no VI client on Mac.)

I did install the 2011 Office Business suite and decided to use the Outlook 2011 client for my email.  But I think I will review that in a later post.

Ok, here are my first impressions….

1.  It boots fast.  Yeah, I know it’s supposed to, but I was really surprised at the boot time.  It only takes about 38 seconds for the system to come to the login screen, and is instantaneously into my account after logging on.  With my Windows 7 machine it took about 2 minutes to boot and then another minute and a half for my account to load after logging on, and then another couple minutes before I could actually do anything effective.  So this was a huge efficiency boost for me.

2.  While also on the subject of speed, let me throw in there that the time to come out of sleep mode is instantaneous, whereas my Windows 7 laptop took about half a minute to wake back up.  And again, as soon as I log in, I’m fully functional, up and running

3.  The touchpad is by far the best thing ever invented.  Being multi-touch makes navigation so easy.  Use one finger to click, two fingers to right-click, pinch and stretch to zoom in and out, and a whole bunch more!  I have to say that my wife was able to, with no instruction from me, figure it out in no time.

4.  The keyboard is super comfortable and a joy to type on, however (here comes the first negative) you will notice that there are quite a few of your normal keys missing on an Apple keyboard.  There is no “home” and “end” buttons, “page up” and “page down” are not included, and more.  There are shortcuts built into the system to address the missing keys that we are used to (like “command” and the arrow for “home” and “end” for a complete list see here)

5.  The MacBook display is GORGEOUS!  Crystal clear and bright. You simply can’t beat the LED monitor.

So, here are a few questions on everyone’s mind when it comes to making the switch to Mac, and my answers to them….

Q.  Is it worth the money?

A. In short, YES!  The MacBook hardware is vastly superior to any PC I have seen that runs for a similar price tag.  The Aluminum body is built to last, and you will find that it just “feels” stronger and more durable.

Q.  Is it hard to switch from PC to Mac?

A.  No.  Switching to a Mac was really simple.  I found that I was able to get used to the interface very quickly, as well as getting into the system settings and customizing it to fit me better.  After only about a day of use, I found that I was able to navigate the interface efficiently, and found that the gesturing system was very natural.

Q.  What about my applications?

A.  Ok, that is a question that plagues people when talking about going to a Mac, me as well.  I have found that for the most part, the apps that I used in Windows have a Mac counterpart or equivalent.  And as I stated in the beginning of this blog, I am using the Office 2011 for Mac (which takes care of most of my Office needs).  However, there are applications that are not available on Mac, yet.  And I say “yet” because with the push toward cloud computing and deployment of nonlocal apps, pretty soon it won’t matter what OS you are using.  In the meantime though, apps like the VI Client, Visio, and Project are not available for Mac OS X.  These I run on my Windows VM.

All that beginning said, what do I think?  To go Mac or not to go Mac, that is the question.  I have to say, I love my Mac.  I have been using it for about 2 weeks now, and can’t imagine going back to a regular PC.

So, I guess it’s true what I was told…Once you go Mac, you don’t want to go back.