My experience switching from a PC to a Mac

More then a year ago I was looking for a small notebook to substitute my old HP Pavilion notebook and, after some afterthoughts, I decided to switch from a PC to a Mac so I bought a MacBook (white) in an Apple Store in Rome.

This is my experience switching from Windows-based system to a Mac.



First Impression (vote: 8)
My parents bought me my first PC on 1992 and sice that moment I used all Windows versions, from 3.0 to Vista. So when I turned on my new MacBook, I admit it, the first impression has been not too enthusiastic. Yes... beautiful interface, fast response but honestly not so immediate for an "new-ex" Windows user.
Two hours after, I was completely addicted from the simplicity and extraordinary usability of Mac OS X Tiger (and now Leopard)!

Spotlight instant search (vote: 10+)
I 've never used search feature in Windows XP and, I think, I am not the only one. Be honest: it's an unserviceable functionality. An user can't spend more then ten minutes to find something on your PC! If I wanted to find easily some documents, the only way was to maintain organized my documents folder or use Google Desktop or Windows Desktop Search to have the "illusion" of a suitable search function on my Windows XP system. I have to say Microsoft has done big steps improving search feature in Windows Vista but search results are still not so accurate especially if you are searching for some text into your documents.
The situation is totally different in a Mac. With Spotlight you find exactly what you are searching for (applications, documents, text into a document, contacts, e-mails...) and search results are accurate and almost instant.

Using Microsoft Office 2004 and OpenOffice (vote: 4)
I daily use Microsoft Office 2003 / 2007 (on Windows XP/Vista) in my work, mainly to manage and design complex Excel files or integrate them with Access data. I believe, without doubt, it represents the state of the art if compared to other similar alternatives available on Windows. I can't say the same for Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac which is a very bad conversion of the office suite available on Windows. Working with Excel is frustrating and Word crash frequently when you add or modify tables. So I downloaded and tried OpenOffice but the impression hasn't been good and I decided to remove it. Now, I use Pages instead of Microsoft Word and Google Spreadsheets or Editgrid to manage (not for my job...) Excel files, waiting for the new Office Mac Version (2008)...

Using Apple Pages (vote: 9)
I like Pages. It's more then a powerful word processor. It is a "fusion" between Microsfot Word and Publisher with a simple and clear interface and also includes several useful features (you don't find in Microsoft Word...), such as executing basic operations between table's cells like if they was cells of an Excel spreadsheet.

Using Dreamweaver (vote: 8)
I didn't find big differences using Dreamweaver switching from Windows to Mac. Perhaps Mac version it's a little slower then Windows version but it mantains the same distinctiveness which do Dreamweaver the best software available to design and programming web sites in any language.

Forgot "essential" Windows software (vote: 10+)
Using Windows, I spent much time on download.com web site looking for new software to improve system security and performance (Ad-Aware, Norton updates, AVG antivirus, Spybot, Spyware doctor, Avast, Zone Alarm, Registry optimizer, defrag utilities, Diskeeper... the list is very long...). Using a Mac I forget antivirus software and all other "essential" Windows software to improve system performance.

iTunes (vote: 10+)
I've never liked iTunes on Windows XP. It is slow and crash frequently. So when I find iTunes icon on OSX dock bar I started to use it with some hesitation mainly because I didn't have found a good alternative like Media Player 11. But after some days I changed totally idea. iTunes for Mac is not the same software I used with Windows. Nothing to say: extraordinary. The best software I never seen and used to manage music, videos and podcast.

Mail and Safari (vote: 9+)
The best web experience I never done. Nothing to add!

Conclusion
Ok... then: "Mac yes or not?".
I think if you are a Windows user and you need to use mainly Excel and Access (with complex interactions between them and VBS macros) or other Windows-only-based software, switching to a Mac couldn't be a good idea. But if you are a web designer, a musician, a simple home user or you don't need strictly Widnows-based software, think to switch to a Mac. In any case, I suggest you to go to an Apple Store and take a look in person to the Apple product you want to buy in order to do a more conscious choice!