A few weeks ago, while formatting the primary drive and reinstalling Windows 7 on my PC… again… an unnecessary and onerous task that many power-users do on a yearly schedule, I realized that the Mac that I used exclusively at work, by comparison, was such a panacea of productivity and compassion to my workflow that I must be a fool to continue to battle my PC at home for dominance to get something accomplished. The Mac works the way I think, and almost everything on it is so intuitive that I am rarely at a loss for how to do the thing that I wish to do, no matter how orphicf or complex. The PC, on the other hand, tries, very hard, to do what I ask of it, but as often as not there is so much extraneous work that goes into getting a place of productivity that the scales balance and sum total of productivity vs. effort is zero, and for me, that has become unacceptable.
I happened across an article this morning that made me feel as though an engine is revving. Readying itself to blast off into a blurred world, breaking through solid barriers erected by a formerly pertinent norm. A New World Order is emerging. The article, “If you value your online security, you should welcome the iPad,” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/apr/09/ipad-apple-security) outlines a facet of Apple technology products well known to Apple-philes, that their products are (so far) invulnerable to malicious attack such as viruses and spyware, which is yet another deciding factor for me. The entire reason I was formatting my hard drive and re-installing Windows 7 is because of spyware accumulation, remnants of viral infections, and a garbage dump of registry debris. Don’t get me wrong, I am an adept computer user, and very careful with respect to viruses and spyware, but when you spend your life on the Internet they are almost impossible to avoid if you use a PC.
So now, after 6 months of solid, exclusive work on my Mac in my office, I am completely convinced that the panacea of productivity, ease of use and ability to create VERY high quality results with an utter minimum of effort is for me. I am going to shelve my PC, which is the last in a long line of machines that I have battled with, nurtured through illness and been frustrated in upgrading (software and hardware), and replace it with a kinder, gentler computer.
I can hear the outcries already… “But Apple is getting so draconian!” and “Those walls around the garden are a prison in disguise!” Perhaps, but I would rather live in a beautiful prison, where I am protected from harm, have every conceivable amenity I could ever hope for (PLEASE do not tell me that Mac won’t run certain apps… have you ever tried to run Keynote on a PC?), and am nurtured through the entire creative process rather than confounded by my tools.
Next post will be from my new Mac!