bobfreen's Profile

I got a job about three years ago where I had to use an iMac running OSX. I was really excited because I'd heard so much good stuff about OSX. My home machines use WinXP. I was able to get up and running instantly because I found the basic interface to be nearly identical to Windows, something I had not found to be true with, for instance, OS9. I still have trouble when I use an OS9 computer because there are enough differences with what I am used to, but OSX was so similar to Windows that I figured out some tricks that none of the Mac fans knew about simply because I knew they were there in Windows. I showed people a useful trick the very first day I ever used a Mac. I also found that the interface is prettier on the Mac, the colors more harmonious and the proportions very pleasing. But the programs ran the same. If you use Word and Photoshop exclusively, you will find absolutely no diff between platforms. In more specialized areas I found that I liked the way, for instance, the screen capture programs work in OSX, and I like the ones I use on XP just as much. They just work differently. I use a multitrack recording program called Samplitude on the PC. The first time I had to use Protools instead I had absolutely no trouble doing my work because again, they work very similarly. I even showed the engineer I was working with some tricks that I knew from Samplitude that HAD to be in Protools, and of course were, but he didn't know about them. The place I worked was a pure Mac house, everyone loves Macs there. I found people getting very angry at me every time my work computer rebooted in the middle of my work. If I asked for help to fix the problem people would almost not believe this kind of thing was happening. When it happened to other people, they looked at me with pure fury when I asked what they were doing just before the crashout. I was just trying to troubleshoot to prevent these things on my system. Then I noticed that every single other mac, all kinds of high end puppies, were giving their users fits. When anyone upgraded their computer they had terrible trouble with at least one program, often mail or DTP. Crashes were extremely common. The network was not 100% reliable, though nobody expects that. Through about 2.5 years of working with Mac computers I found the harmoniousness of the design to be a tremendous factor in enjoying my work more, but the crashing that happened on a monthly basis assured that I would not switch over, especially when you consider that since 2003 I have had exactly one system crash using XP. So my experience is quite different from people who have made the switch away from XP, but I know a number of people who have switched away from Macs to PCs, and none of them wind up feeling like they've stepped into the hell they have always been told they would experience. My friends who have switched over to XP generally work in animation, and their work boxes are all XP, so they buy one for home use intending to keep the Mac as their main squeeze. Finally, however, they realize that the bad stuff they've heard about Windows is ridiculously overstated. One of them even says that Macintosh is the new Scientology.