The IT Nerd

I’m a IT Nerd. I have used everything from Windows, LINUX, UNIX, VAX, VMS and a bunch of other operating systems that you’ve likely never heard of. So why is it that my main computer is a Mac (Full disclosure: I have several PC’s as well running Windows as well as a LINUX box)? It’s simple:

1. It just works: It’s more than a marketing slogan. My Mac does everything I want it to do easily and quickly (of course having a fast processor with lots of RAM helps that “quickly” part). That’s because Apple puts a ton of effort into designing their hardware and software so that users can just get on with it. In fact when I got my MacBook Pro, I took it out of the box, downloaded some software updates, installed some apps, and had it on my network and printing in about 30 minutes. When I set up my last Windows box, the same process took two hours. Most of that was spent downloading 147 patches and updates (I kid you not).
2. It’s easy to recover from a disaster: Say my Windows OS goes south on me. I can try to do a repair install, but what I’d likely have to do is to erase the disk and reinstall. After that I can restore my files from my backup (you do back up your files… Right?) and reinstall my apps. It will be about a day or two before the PC is back to normal. Here’s what you do on a Mac with an OS that is toast. You stick in the Mac OS X disk and choose the Archive And Install option (make sure that you choose “preserve user and network settings”). This puts a fresh OS on the disk and gets you up and running within the hour. You may have to reinstall one or two of your apps, but nothing major.
3. OS X is a refined and secure operating system: If you think Windows Vista is the bomb, walk into an Apple Store and try OS X. You’ll find that it’s a very easy to use operating system that plays nice with Windows, UNIX, and LINUX computers without requiring the user to have a computer science degree. Not to mention that because it is basically BSD UNIX underneath that pretty user interface, so it has over 30 years of development behind it (almost twice the development time that Windows has had). Oh yeah, while any 12 year old can write a virus for Windows, it takes tremendous skill and effort to do the same thing on OS X.
4. I can still run Windows: If I really want to use a OS from Microsoft, I run Parallels Desktop. It allows me to set up virtual computers running any OS that I want. I currently have four virtual computers running Windows 2000, Windows XP Home, Windows XP Professional, and Windows Vista. Because the Mac is based on Intel hardware and processors these days, the speed you get is 80% of a real PC of the same speed. If I want the other 20% of the speed that I am missing, then I can use Boot Camp which is built into OS X.

The bottom line is this. I just want a computer that is secure, easy to use, and does what I want it to do. For me, that’s the Mac. I’m not going to say that the Mac is for everyone, but you should look at one before you buy your next computer.

This entry was posted on February 22, 2008 at 4:33 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.