Hi AAron,

So far, i would give it a 10/10, I just love this new machine (ibook)!

Trevor

What do you love about it Trevor? People say that, but I'm not feeling the love yet ... :)

Oh, Apple Love... (TM)

Why do I love the Apple? Let me count the ways...

- it's clean, clear, and completely uncluttered
- Applications, documents, files, they all use large, crisp icons without being a space hog, whether it's in the Dock or in a Finder window
- Just compare C:\Program Files\ to your /Applications/ dir. The former is useless (no way to instantly start a program, looks like shyte, very cluttered with stuff you don't even recognize) and the latter is beautiful: just application icons (and the occasional folder, perhaps), no clutter, no unknown craziness.
- Mail works so much better than Outlook. Its threaded messages support is great, navigation via keyboard or mouse is both wonderful, mail sorting is infinitely better;
- iPhoto beats the sh** out of any picture management tool I've ever seen on windows or linux. Using it is very easy, sorting them is easy, keeping all your pictures organized is easy (i.e. adding ratings, keywords, etc.)
- iCal and Address Book are an absolute bliss to work with. Really, I love adding contacts and sorting them and everything, because it's just _fun_ (a concept I wasn't aware existed for such menial business-related tasks)

On the whole, I love how all the applications interact with each other seemlessly. You can drag almost anything from one app to the other, and if it makes any sense, it'll do exactly what you want it to do. (dragging music into Photoshop won't do anything, because that doesn't make sense. Dragging music into iMovie HD, however, works just like you'd expect it to)

Oh, and did I mention the pretty? *swoon* Expose, Dashboard, everything is just so much more pleasing to the eye, and that applies to the world outside of the screen, too. Everything about Apple products is just beautifully designed, including the packaging. It's so pretty, you want to keep it. :-)

So what is it about Apple / Mac that makes so many people be so happy about it? It gives them the warm, loving, happy feelings that people get when they get a crush. For many people, switching to and using Apple/Mac is like having a crush, except it's one that won't matter if you're already in a relationship ;-)

Thanks much Faruk for your thoughtful comment. I'm interested in a couple of points.

Uncluttered - OSX seems to want to put a lot of things on my desktop? Is that normal?

Program Files -- Windows isn't designed to let you browse that directory, the feeling is that you should use the start menu to find programs, so that's just a difference in design. It's two clicks to get to most programs in Windows that are used frequently.

I do like the icons generally and how they look. They do take up more space than in the Windows world, but it seems a decent tradeoff for most applications.

Adobe makes a nice photo management tool for Windows. I'm waiting for a tool that maintains it's catalog information in the photos, so that no matter what app comes along, I'll be able to preserve all the work of tagging photos.

I'll try playing around with Address book to see what's fun about it. I wouldn't have considered that to be fun ever (like you said).

I'll try more app-to-app interactions.

I was sorely disappointed when iDVD wouldn't read my existing MPEG collection though! http://www.wiredprairie.us/journal/2005/10/idvd_5_doesnt_inlucde_an_mpeg2.html

Aaron,

If you've a lot of PC-created video files, you'll probably need VLC http://www.videolan.org/doc/ to correctly use the latest codecs.

Re clutter, mac users are like desk users. Some of us like a cluttered desktop, others tidy up continually.

Also, remember the whole interface is pdf so you can shrink stuff without losing quality.

Finally, check out http://unsanity.org/ I can recommend Windowshade and Shapeshifter:-)

Oh, and definitely have a play with Omni outliner and Omni graffle. They're simple and powerful...

Enjoy,

Dug

Thanks Dug. Your post got flagged as potential junk and I didn't notice it until just now.

I'll check out those products. I've read about a number of Mac products now, but hadn't seen WindowShade or Shapeshifter yet. Thanks! Windowshade looks particularly interesting. Shapesifter looks like WindowsBlinds for the PC actually...

I wish there were more free things though (as I can't afford to invest too much in Mac-only software right now). Shapeshift might be worth the $10 though.

On the picture management software, iPhoto is nice, but I think Picasa 2 (google's free photo management software) blows it's doors off.

I do agree with most of your comments. I have been using PCs for *gulp* 18 years now and just got my first Mac (mini) this year.

* First, I love the design of the hardware. PC's are utter crap. My favorite feature of the mini? It's QUIET! (Well I guess it's built out of laptop parts...but still it's NICE!)

* I love the unix core. It's solid, it give a geek lots of power.

* Simplicity. I think Mac OSX has kept things simple. Sometimes this is to a fault but mostly it's a breath of fresh air. Take System Preferences for example. A browser type experience for configuring the computer. Back buttons are great. I love how it doesn't stack dialogs upon dialogs upon dialogs...that get's confusing!

* Spotlight. Search is integrated into everything. And should be consistent. I love how I search w/spotlight in System Preferences and it "spotlights" the matching items. COOL! I can search spotlight for "word" and Microsoft Word pops up in my list. Everything is searchable. Apple is on the right track here...

* I love the desktop experience, no hung windows smooth transitions etc... Apple has shown me that user experience DOES matter. Expose is so useful. Small but noticable visual cues tell me what the computer is doing (genie effect, bouncing icons, etc...)

Most importantly I don't feel frustrated when I use the computer, it's fun to use because things are crashing and hanging all over the place. Maybe I am not yet a power user and causing the havoc that I cause on Windows but it sure seems like the mac "just works."

I think Vista will catch up in a lot of these aspects but I truely wonder if it will ever be as smooth as the mac experience--Windows just has too much baggage and backwards compatiblity to maintain.

Yeah, I agree with your comments on iPhoto, although I'm not a huge fan of Google's offerings either. No software seems to do a good job of really being open (in terms of file formats, etc). I want portability and multi-user support.

Corbin, what do you do with your Mac ... normal everyday stuff or multi-media, etc?

I am really doing normal day to day tasks... I am a windows developer (C#) so I really don't get the opportunity to do a lot of development on it. I've tried some of the garage band stuff but basically just browser / email and occasional Neo Office.

I bought it just to explore the other side... I REALLY hope Vista raises the bar to the OSX level.

Try using PhotoMechanic from Camera Bits if you are looking to do actual professional work sorting and Metadata.

As for photo database though, I still have to go with iPhoto...

I'll take a look at that Ryan. It's right here: http://www.camerabits.com/.