by Giorgos Simonides
There is no end of advice out there for the switcher who wants to try a Mac in order to see if it beats Windows. But I was highly impressed by the article by Preston Gralla of Computerworld published this week on MacWorld's web site. Preston Gralla, as I learned, is a die-hard PC fan who has often come under attack from Macistas for his fervid support of the Seattle OS. Now, though, he has written about his experience of giving up his PC and living for two weeks with a Mac.
The result, surprisingly for PC fans, is strongly in favour of the OS X operating system which he reckons beats all current versions of Windows. In getting to this verdict, though, he went through a number of hoops that will be of interest to any Windows users who fancy changing to Mac. The whole process is relatively simple, as Preston says, and the result is well worth the effort of learning some new ways.
He also installed a virtual PC machine within his Mac. For economy he chose the free Virtual Box from Sun, although he could have gone for the more mainstream (paid) options of either Parallels Desktop or VM Ware's Fusion. Whichever you choose, you have the ability to run Windows within the Mac OS, in a window or full screen, with very few compromises.
For some strange reason, the Mac he was presented with was the Air. He loved it (and has now gone on to buy one because he reckons it is so lustworthy) but the Air does have one or two quirks and compromises. While I think he would have done better with a MacBook, he liked the Air so well and didn't dock any marks from the overall Mac experience.
If you are thinking of switching, you must read this article before doing anything else.