Switching to Mac
The incentive to switch from Windows to Mac OS is stronger than ever. My problem was that working of a Mac was never a decent viable option for me. Back in the days of working in newspaper publishing I’d develop sites on my original blue iMac and test them on IE5/Mac. Occasionally I’d test them on other browsers like Opera and iCab but there wasn’t a lot else around back then (six years ago). Certainly, no Safari or Camino to test in.
The problem was that in comparison to other browsers at the time on Windows, IE/Mac was the king. It was the best at doing web standards. Sites looked great in it. I loved developing for that browser! The problem would come when a customer would complain that a site looked a bit odd to them. You see, the majority of people were using Windows PCs running IE4 or 5 which realy mangled any site using semi-advanced CSS. To avoid such complaints I had to hack the site code to make the sites look right on these horrible browsers. In order to do that I needed to see the sites on a Windows PC. You could also use a PC emulator (Virtual PC) but it was way too slow and irritating to use. So I got the company to swap my iMac for a PC. I then moved jobs – to The Open University where at the time their policy was to only support Windows PCs. So I got a PC by default. And that’s the way it’s been ever since.
But now there’s finally a way for me to buy back into Mac OS whilst also using Windows – out of one machine. And not just any machine but one that’s well designed, well built and doesn’t crash all the time. OK so I’d need to get a new dual core Intel Mac to get this to happen and my pocket doesn’t currently stretch to that. But for sure, the next desktop PC I get at home or work will be such a Mac. The next laptop I buy will be the most inexpensive iBook – the 12″ powerpc version. No Windows ability on that but then that’s not really the point of me owning such a thing as I previously noted.
In my opinion Mac running Windows is a great step forwards. Excellent news.
Tags: Gadgets, Web design