[palane]

Calling it a Mac tax is specious, but it's not specious to say that one typically spends more on a Mac than a PC. Most of the price comparisons I've seen read like comparing a BMW to a Lexus. The Mac Pro is an impressive computer and good value, but it's a lot of money to spend if all you need is a couple of PCI slots.
Why are some folks so defensive about price? A fair comment is yes, you'll spend a bit more on a Mac, but it's rewarding in the long term.
BB

[Rhywun]

The whole point of the Dock, at least as I see it, is that you are not supposed to care which programs are running and which aren't. Windows users are conditioned to quit programs they're not immediately using, for no particular reason other than to clear up the taskbar. With so much RAM, why bother unless you really need it?

[pcharles]

I completely agree with your feelings about how Apple handles the menus. It is archaic. I have always used Macs right back to my Mac LCII, and always been happy with the way things work.
However, now I have had the chance to work with Mac and Windows on a dual monitor setup I wish we could attach the menus to the windows. because in OS X I have to move my mouse all the way back to my other monitor to select something and then move all the way back to the screen. When I am running in Windows mode the menus are with the work and and if I have multiple windows open, each has its own menu.
With a single monitor system you never really notice this, but this one thing makes Windows much more productive than a Mac when running a dual monitor system.

[MiniMoe]

pcharles writes: "...I wish we could attach the menus to the windows. because in OS X I have to move my mouse all the way back to my other monitor to select something and then move all the way back to the screen. "

Once you become a better skilled Mac user, you'll use keyboard shortcuts for menu items that have them, instead of mousing to the menus. OS-X just rocks in comparison to Windows when it comes to this. Cmd-Q to quit, Cmd-H to hide, Cmd-W to close a window... I could go on and on. Personally, I'm very glad the Mac was designed without a menu bar on each window!

[dtbrummell]

How exactly are those little dots hard to see. I was a windows user until recently and I don't find it hard to know what programs are running from those dots. Maybe my sight is just better.

[MiniMoe]

dtbrummell writes: "...Maybe my sight is just better."

Perhaps the author is in denial about needing bifocals. :-D
I have no problem seeing the dots either.

[lahrensbrown]

'Home' key = 'fn' left arrow; 'End' = 'fn' right arrow

[natmusak]

This experiment reminded me of my first experiences with Mac OS X. :D Once you get acclimated, it's just a much better operating system.

The only quibbles I had were notions like "you can't beat free" and "there really is an Apple tax." The problems the author faced with Sun's VirtualBox and Neo/OpenOffice could probably have been beat by buying Parallels and iWork, respectively. I think the experiment would have been more authentic if he had had to actually buy Windows Vista too because there is no free version of that.

The Apple tax meme seems to conflict with the author's conclusion:
"Overall, though, Mac OS X beats Windows. There, I’ve said it. And lightning hasn’t struck me yet."

If Mac OS X is better, it has more value, does it not? Trying to separate the Mac OS and the Mac and say Apple puts a premium on the hardware (which the author also noted was better than anything he'd ever used, at least in terms of elegant design and weight) is like separating Microsoft's Xbox 360 hardware from its embedded OS (not that either are stellar, which I can say being an Xbox owner).

Overall though, this was a fun, interesting read as a 4 year Mac convert myself and I agree on his assertions that Apple should look at improving their network interface as well as reconsidering the Menu Bar - while I prefer it wholeheartedly to Windows' in-window menus, I'm hoping they will strip it out for something better in the next release of Mac OS X. When Snow Leopard ships this summer, I'd like to hear Preston's impressions. :)

[flyperson]

@ThePixelDoc
I'm with you on this one. Without wanting to appear rude, I can't see how an experienced user and writer on tech had so many trials and tribulations with the transition, especially given a 2 week window. I accept that the author may not be a spring chicken, but as an enthusiastic, but amateur (and in my late '40s) follower of technology when I am forced to move in the comverse direction, I find it reasonably easy to use , set-up and even network Windows machines (albeit an irksome and unpleasant experience).
Anyway, I suppose my take-home message to potential switchers is that a younger, more tech-savy and motivated user than the author will have little trouble during the transition, I would go further and say that I think a few days would normally be quite enough, especially if such user is willing to spend a little time searching the Net for pearls of wisdom.

[HandyMac]

A pretty good article in all, though I do wonder why Computerworld gave the writer a MacBook Air as his test machine rather than one of the other MacBooks, which cost far less and perform significantly better (including having Ethernet already built in), and are far more likely to be bought by the average user. A small portion of the money saved could have been spent on iWork, so the reviewer could have had a real Mac experience in application software rather than only the OS.
As someone noted above, on the Mac one does not minimize an application, it's the window that's minimized, which is why the application's menus remain even if all windows have been sent to the Dock. I suppose it's to be expected that in two weeks he would still be regarding Mac OS as an alternative version of Windows (rather than the other way around, which is the true history), and looking for things to happen the way he's used to; in time I hope he'll give the Mac enough respect to learn it on its own terms.
I also find it somewhat surprising that in two weeks the writer would not have noticed that he had to spend exactly zero time worrying about viruses and malware. Thus his obligatory mention of the supposed "Mac tax", with no corresponding mention of what a Windows user has to spend, in time and money, on chores that have nothing to do with getting work done on the computer.
I also took at look at his "two weeks with Linux" article, where I note he mentions that (once he got it going) Ubuntu started up easily and reliably every time: "So solid that I never experienced a single crash or Blue Screen of Death in all the weeks that I used it, either in the operating system itself or any of the applications I used -- something I certainly can't say about Windows XP." Perhaps his Linux experiment got him so used to this experience that he didn't notice that Mac OS gave him the same results.

[deesee]

I take my hat off to you sir, for being open-minded and fair in your evaluation of a mac.

I think people's comments that are focused on negative comments about how you didn't discover the double finger tap (oooohhh) or whatever, are missing the point: that a Windows guy like yourself, openly evaluated the Mac and found it to be a much better experience than Windows.

Who cares if you missed this or that, or if you used the word "tax" to describe the mac's price; who cares that someone did this in the past? So what.

Instead of thanking you for perhaps opening the eyes of a few more PC folks, they beat you down for trivialities.

Some people are just never happy. Nevertheless, I thank you again.

[SpiceLMF]

@[Philbert|m-718601] I do think this was a even handed review but I agree with you.

When I read that he got a Macbook Air all I could think was "WHY?!" Yes it's a very slick machine but not as practical/full featured as the other macs. As other's have said it's VERY niche. I absolutely love Macs and I would never buy an Air.

And again to agree with your post Phil... a lot of this was irrelevant. NeoOffice to OpenOffice is a big one... but I also found some of the networking part a bit too relevant to the reviewer. Who cares about the windows Network Map? Maybe I'm saying that because I don't use vista but it seemed like he concentrated on that a bit

All in all though, I don't mean to come off as a complainer. It was a good article and very interesting to hear a PC user's experience. It reminds me of when I first got my mac and the difficulties I had which were few. The biggest problem I had when i switched were icons on the right of the desktop and the window close buttons on the left. It drove me crazy, I searched for ways to change it... then I realized it doesn't matter within a few days I was used to it. Other than that, my switch experience was realllyyyy smooth.

I'm also suprised he didn't mention drag and drop installation. Sure there's a few applications on OSX that require a pkg installer file but most apps are just drag and drop into the application alias. When I first installed an app in OSX I was amazed!

[AppleGuy91]

I believe iWork is still offering a free trial version, it would make much more sense for this reviewer to use that (a program designed by Apple) instead of reviewing an open source MS Office substitute. Doesn't VMWare Fusion and Parallels offer a free trial version as well?

[tomgccc]

You said you could not add comments in OOO 3.0. If you had looked in the Insert Menu for "Note," you would have found what you were looking for. OOO just uses a different name for that menu item.