Today is my Macbook Pro’s one week anniversary, and this weekend the new Apple Store on Lincoln Road opened. Erika and I strolled through the store checking out the hardware, and that 30″ monitor is something else. I’d be quite happy with the 23″, even, but wow. That 30″ is a monster. I’d need a bigger cubicle.
The store had a live DJ who started his set by playing the audio from the original 1984 ad. As soon as I heard it, I knew what it was, and I looked around the store trying to figure out if anybody else had figured it out. Either everybody else knew exactly what it was and they were incredibly jaded, or else they didn’t recognize it. I prefer the latter, but even though I felt like the only guy in there who got The Inside Joke, I still didn’t feel quite hip enough to be in that store. That store oozes hip. I think I have to walk in there with my Powerbook in hand to be hip enough. You can’t just walk in with an iPod – everybody has those.
Now that I’ve lived with my aluminum mistress for a week, time for a recap of how my switching is coming:
Mac OSX is very fast, and feels way faster than Windows. I can log in within seconds of pushing the power button, and hit the web or my email a few seconds later. It’s smokingly, screamingly fast – as long as you’re running OSX applications. When I fire up Parallels Desktop to run Windows apps, the machine slows back down again, but hey, that’s Windows. I’ve got 1gb of ram in it, and I’ve already ordered another 1gb because of the Windows apps I have to run, but as long as I avoid Windows, it flies.
The design is drool-worthy. I still grin when I look at this thing. It has a well-built, attractive, smart, clean design. Everybody who checks it out says positive things about the design, and even if it was just running Windows, they would still want one. I can’t wait for my first presentation in a dark room just so people can see the glowing keyboard. Hooah.
Quicksilver is like Google Desktop’s personal trainer. I’ve used the Google Desktop software a little, and it’s alright, but I’m not keen on the privacy implications. Quicksilver does similar stuff, plus integrates even more with the operating system and my programs, making it easier to accomplish everything without going through a lot of file-open or copy/paste stuff.
The Magsafe power connector means I have to buy a new home/car power cable. Just a few months ago, I splurged and spent $120 on one of those fancy Targus home/car/plane power adapters that works in almost any laptop, in almost any location. Well, wouldn’t you know it, they don’t have power tips for these new Macbook Pros with their Magsafe power cables.
Some of the keys don’t make sense in OSX. For example, when I’m filling out a web form, I want to hit tab to go on to the next field. For some bizarre reason, the tab key skips dropdown fields and checkboxes. For years, I’ve typed username/tab/password/tab/hit space to remember password/tab/space bar to submit, but that doesn’t work in OSX. I can’t figure out how to navigate through web forms in OSX without using the touchpad, and that’s a slowdown. I’m surprised a company that seems to focus so much on usability would bar me from filling out a web form using a keyboard.
The screen doesn’t tilt all the way back. I use my laptop when lying in bed in the evenings. I stick my knees up in the air, put the keyboard on my thighs, and push the display back so it’s straight up in the air. No such luck – the Macbook Pro doesn’t open all of the way. It’s usable, but not comfortable.
Network drives aren’t handled as elegantly as Windows, and I have to bust out a book to get printing working. With my Windows machines, when I log on, Windows automatically connects to my favorite network shares and makes them easily accessible from my programs. With OSX, it’s not so easy, and every time I want to access a network resource, it’s like reinventing the wheel. I had printing working once, but I don’t print that often, so I’m going to have to hit the book to figure out what I did.
Even though a lot of software is available for the Mac, the niche stuff for systems administrators won’t make it here for another decade. Friends of mine know I’m into RoyalTS, a powerful Windows replacement for the Remote Desktop Client. RoyalTS lets you have multiple RDP sessions open simultaneously, automatically scales screen resolutions up and down when you restore/move/maximize its window, saves login info, and more. I was really spoiled by that thing. However, on my Mac, not only do I not have RoyalTS, but I don’t even have the full-blown Microsoft remote desktop client. Granted, MS did technically port the client, but it’s got one fatal flow: it will only run one remote desktop session at a time. Man, that blows. Sysadmins jump from machine to machine all the time. My first thought was hey, no problem, this will force me to get better at administering machines using other backdoor tools instead of remote desktopping, but the other backdoor tools aren’t available on OSX either. Other niche sysadmin tools all suffer the same fate – VMware VirtualCenter, Microsoft Operations Manager, UniCenter, etc. If you buy it from a third party for more than $1k per seat, the management tools are probably Windows-only. Java might change that, but I doubt it, especially since even the niche Java-based stuff doesn’t seem to come on OSX, like IBM Director. (Gee, I can’t imagine why IBM wouldn’t develop an Apple client.)
Apple did release a tool called Remote Desktop 3, but it doesn’t work with Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol. Before I get emails from OSX geeks, yes, I know Apple’s RD3 works with VNC, but we don’t use VNC on servers. There’s a security risk because someone can be logged into a console, and then a VNC user can shadow on top of them, take over their session, and do Bad Things. VNC’s fine if it’s the only tool you have, but Microsoft’s RDP is a heck of a lot more powerful because it allows for multiple different sessions to the same host computer.
Three words: Microsoft SQL Server. The reality is that I’ve chosen database administration as my specialty, and to do that, ya gotta be on Windows. I wouldn’t be surprised to find myself working more with Oracle if they make OSX-friendly tools.
Am I still glad I made the switch? Absolutely. Here’s the proof: I keep bringing the Apple home with the intent of learning more sysadmin-type stuff on it, but I keep finding myself doing stuff, accomplishing stuff, not learning. OSX is just so attractive, easy to use, and inviting that I’m enjoying being a user instead of having to learn how to beat the damn thing into submission.
On the other hand, my attempts at Linux were like driving a monster truck: sure it looks hard, but in reality it’s even harder than it looks, and even when it’s done right, it still isn’t glamorous.
