There’s been a little speculation over what the new Apple iMacs will look like. My view agrees with this, that it may look something like:
Yes, that’s just an image of Apple’s cinema display with a superdrive slot sketched on top. If this really happens I might be feeling an early Christmas present coming on…
So my MacBook finally arrived. The wait is over, but it was well worth it! I’ve been putting off writing this, mostly because there are loads of other bloggers who are switching, and they all have something to say.
My switch to Apple has happened for three reasons. Firstly, I was fed up with Windows. OK, more than fed up, really pissed off. Having to re-install my operating system every six months, because it is too slow, keeps crashing, and just can’t cope has left me wondering whether Microsoft are really the best solution for a desktop operating system?
Secondly, I’ve been using Linux for a while and it is just not user friendly enough for my purposes - e.g. lack of support for proprietary software such as Dreamweaver & Flash.
Thirdly, I am attempting to launch myself as a website designer/developer. I’ve always loved design and appreciate something that is functional as well as just looking cool. Not only does the MacBook and OS X fall into these categories (since they were developed with these attributes in mind - even the packaging looks great!), but I hope that they will help to inspire me to come up with some really cool designs. Working in a Windows/Linux environment just doesn’t have quite the same vibe.
So, enough about my reasons… (I’ve already written enough on this before!)
How am I getting on with it? The main reason for switching as I’ve already said is from a web-dev perspective. At the moment I have absolutely nothing to report on this front. I bought Macromedia Studio back in March, which came on a dual Mac/Windows install disk. To install this on the Mac I need a replacement serial number from Adobe - this is still pending and after a week of emailing and phoning backwards and forwards I must admit that I’m starting to get a little frustrated. I’m sure that Adobe will come through good in the end, but it does mean that I am left a little high and dry!
Office… As much as I hate MS and Windows, I have to concede that they do have the best Office suite on the planet. OOo is not quite good enough yet, but is getting there. In the end I have decided to give NeoOffice a go. I’m told that it is based on OOo and so far I love it. It’s has a simple launcher for each application and works well from the word go. I haven’t really had an opportunity to really test it yet, but I will do soon and I hope it lives up to my requirements. I really miss MS Office, but I can’t afford to go back to it yet!
So to sum up – this is a great system and I love it. Everything is so easy a child could work it. Let me stress everything just works! No messing around, real plug and play. If you haven’t considered getting one yet, I urge you to try it out.
After a considerable and necessary break from writing here, I have decided it’s high time I started again. I have been considering what this site means to me - as a blogger, how I feel about it, what I want to get out of it, and what I need to change about my writing to reach these goals. This thinking has lead to the removal of some previous posts, because they are either complete drivel or they cover topics that I don’t really want to have on my website. I have also been considering a site re-design (rather than the current wordpress theme designed by someone else) that is in the early development stages, and the plan is to have it released in the next few weeks - but you know how these things are…
So, what’s changed since mid-July. My Open University degree is now coming along nicely. I’ve just finished a rather enjoyable module on the basics of Java programming - ahem… I should say that I’ve nearly finished this module because the exam is in just over a weeks time. This module has been really beneficial to me as a programmer, and I hope to put many of the tools that I have learnt into practice in some of the projects I’ve been working on.
This previous post mentions my frustrations with using some of the modern desktop operating systems available today. Rather inevitably, I have decided to switch over to the Mac. Despite recently having the opportunity to get to the Apple shop in Birmingham I have decided to buy my MacBook from a very local re-seller in Eynsham. They seem like a great bunch of guys and apart from the great deal that they offered me, I hope to be able to rely on them for support in the future. Although I am not yet in possession of my MacBook yet (they are having a few problems getting hold of stock at the moment) they have been kind enough to lend me an iBook G4. So fingers crossed for it’s arrival this week, and I’ll do a full update when it comes.
Plenty of other cool things have also being happening (mostly non-geeky things) but I’ll save them for another occasion, because if I don’t get some sleep soon this will just be another post consisting of mostly drivel which may require some heavy handed editing in the morning.
I write this little blurb in a moment to spare in between some particularly nasty exam revision. Eugh! Anyway, I have been having a little ponder over my future desktop use. Win XP is so outdated and should I go down the Mac or Linux route or continue with Windows in the guise of Vista?
I have been using Linux (mostly the Red Hat Fedora flavour) for over a year now, not much as a desktop solution but as a home server. Linux is a fantastic operating system, especially when it comes to upgrades and server stuff, but it does not have the tools to be quite good enough in the desktop side yet - specifically with office (i.e. OpenOffice.org). When Microsoft first started to dominate the world back in the eighties it was not because of their superior operating system (some others were much better e.g. RISC OS) but because of their decent office applications like Word. These may not have been the best office applications but their widespread use have resulted in heavy re-investment and development by MS which in turn has resulted in a fantastic office suite which is highly widespread on a global basis. Don’t get me wrong OOo and its brother Star Office are pretty good, but to compete they must be able to use MS Office documents perfectly before I would be happy to replace the Microsoft flavour. Anyway, that’s the office rant over…
I also need to be able to run two other programs on Linux before I could switch. Firstly, Quicken – my life is not complete if I can’t continue to manage my finances with Quicken. Some may say that I’m being a little narrow-minded and should try the open-source equivalents (like GNU-Cash) but linux is such a hastle sometimes I just can’t be bothered! Secondly, Macromedia Studio 8 – I spend about £700 on this fantastic internet development suite and I sure ain’t going to start using an open-source equivalent for free (especially since I have tried some and they are rubbish – with a notable exception of the GIMP which I actually find I use more than fireworks on my existing XP machine – because it’s better…). OK, so there’s one last argument I can think of to switch me over to Linux which is to use Wine to port over my XP programs MS Office, and more importantly Quicken and Macromedia Studio 8. I spent about 4 evenings trying to get Quicken to work with no cigars (not even a tiny hamlet) and would happily envite anyone to try and get these three programs working, and I’d make the switch.
So the Mac… If I were to switch over to a Mac I would probably get the MacBook, as I really need to think about getting a laptop (I just can’t seem to stop working these days, sad isn’t it!). Mac OS X is beautiful; actually I think it’s a work of art. But before I get too carried away I need to think about the cost. Bearing in mind my requirements for switching to Linux it goes like this:
£749.00 …. Lowest priced 13-inch MacBook
£297.02 …. Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Standard Edition
£92.77 …. Microsoft Virtual PC for all that software I’ve spent so much on…
£197.77 …. The Taxman (VAT)
£1207.01 … TOTAL
Or I could take a risk and try risking Apples version of office at (iWorks) which would bring down the whole price to £923.01 which is much better but still a pretty penny… hmmm. Still this sounds a lot more promising than a Linux solution even if you don’t get the same value for money.
So how about Windows Vista? Well I don’t know… I’m currently 14% through downloading Beta 2, and look forward to giving this a go. I think the outlook is pretty good, but we’ll see.
Really it’s a bit of a toss up between WinVista and MacBook. Both would cost about the same amount (once I’ve bought a Notebook with Vista pre-installed) so the next six months (when does Vista come out) could be an interesting wait. Watch this space.
[UPDATE: I just realised that I’ve used a transparent png image at the top of this page, for those of you using IE6 - sorry about the white background - I understand MS have sorted this in IE7, but this is another reason to query moving to Vista. How long will it be before the next update? By the time it gets to the end of it’s life cycle will it be very much out of date like XP is now?]
Wow… Flickr just updated their organiser interface… Whilst I was using it! Very confusing…
At a first glance it looks much better than it was, and will probably delay my attempt to mess around with some of the API stuff indefinately. Phew…
UPDATE… It seems that they did a lot more than update the organiser, this is the ‘Gamma’ release. Also, it’s nice to know that I have blogged about something before boingboing get their hands on it!
