PowerBook experiences
You're reading Mikko Saari's blog Life and opinions. This entry was written 05/16/2005, at 14:12.
If you want read more of my entries in the same topic, this entry belongs to the category of Geek stuff.
Previous entry: Hide and Seek
Next entry: Neat software: Instiki
We've been using our PowerBook for about two weeks now and it's been very nice. A computer kind of thought to be the secondary computer has made our desktop computer almost obsolete. It's just so much more fun to use!
Mac OS X is great. The user interface is quite intuitive and easy to use, we both like it immensely. There are great ideas like the Exposé - move the mouse pointer to one of the corners of the screen to see every open program at the same time so you can choose which one you'd like to see. That's very useful and natural feature, which I'm already missing in Windows.
I've also already learned to push the apple key, so when using the other computer, I keep using alt (which is where the apple key is on Mac keyboard) instead of control.
One Mac thing we didn't accept: the one-button mouse. Instead we got a Logitech MX510 with eight buttons (we have MX500 for the other computer). It's simply the best mouse I've ever used, either version. The red MX510 looks nice.
OS X isn't perfect: programs crash (especially Camino), but generally the system hasn't minded. Once Finder crashed (or didn't start properly) and we had to close the computer to get it working; at the same time (and much less use) Windows has had several fits, presenting us with the Blue Screen immediately after the Windows started.
One thing I'd recommend to anyone using a Mac is QuickSilver, which makes starting programs and accessing files very easy. It's a must for people who like using keyboard a lot, as it can eliminate lots of mouse pointing. Also some people have complained about Dock, saying it has usability problems; I wouldn't know about that, as QuickSilver has made Dock almost completely unnecessary.
We've also enjoyed the iTunes Music Store. It could have a better selection, but despite that, we've made some purchases already. It's just too easy... The AAC files can't be listened with our MP3 players, which dampened our spirits earlier, but then I figured out we can burn our purchases on cd's and then rip the cd's to get proper MP3's of them, so no problems there.
Listening to music is quite handy with Airport Express, so we can hear the music from decent speakers without having to worry about wires.
If we had the money, we would probably buy a 20-inch iMac right away and toss away the Windows machines completely.
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.melankolia.net/mt/mt-tb.cgi/3273
Comments
We've (my wife and I) have gone completely Windows free since buying our first Mac back in 2002. Of course I was running Linux at the time already, so I've been free of the virus known as MS for quite some time.
Now I use a 17" iMac for just about everything I do and couldn't be happier with it (just upgraded to Tiger as wel!!). The thing I really like about MacOSX is that I can do things their way through the interface, or I can just open up a terminal window and let my unix geekness shine through! :-)
-- Jim
Posted by: Jim Kiraly at May 18, 2005 12:03 AM