I’m a few weeks into my new Macbook pro, so here are a few thoughts on the integration of the Mac into my workflow. I’ve always liked Mac hardware, they know how to design products that are attractive and functional. The Macbook 13 is just the right size for my needs, which is for use on the road while on photoshoots. I needed a computer that I could download images to and review the days shots on a high quality display. It needed to be light and portable and durable. The macbook seems to fit the bill nicely.
I’m getting the hang of the OS and desktop. Now I can move around in it pretty well.
Things start getting ugly when trying to integrate the mac into a windows home network. I spent many hours getting the network to be reliable. It was a bear – and I have a bit of experience with networking. Even after the ip and subnet addresses were in sync I couldn’t get the networking to work. I could ping back and forth, but sharing and mounting windows folders on the mac wouldn’t work. It came down to syntax errors on my part, my lack of familiarity with samba, and usernames and permission issues. It was a PITA. I still don’t have printer sharing working from my windows machine to the Mac. Not sure why, I gave up in frustration after spending several evenings trying to make it work. Perhaps a printer driver issue? When I print a file from the mac it shows up in the printer que on the windows machine, but doesn’t print.
So it doesn’t just work. Not when your talking about networking a mac with windows machines. Surfing the mac forums turned up similar issued with printer sharing from other users. It seems it might be an issue with OSX 10.6.4. So I’m waiting until the next OS update before I try and crack it again.
Overall I’m pretty happy with the mac, it’s more expensive than PC hardware, but it seems better made. I’ll report soon on running PC softare on the mac, specifically Lightroom and InDesign.
09/08/2010
the macbook integration continues
08/18/2010
Transition from PC to Mac
After 20 years of working with PC’s, I’ve decided to buy a mac to give it a go. I purchased a macbook pro 13, which is arriving today. Should I have changed systems, after knowing windows intimately for 20 years? Am I inviting unnecessary headaches into my daily workflow? My previous day job duties included system administration of a windows domain, and all the headaches that go with that. I was the guy called upon to fix the daily problems with all the PC’s in the office, and administer the server, set up the domain, maintain printers, do all the software installations etc etc. So it’s no wonder I want to get away from windows. And yet it is the beast I know well.
Why change now?
Was it the incessant goading from mac friends – the slick presentations by supreme leader Jobs -or the “it just works” rumors I keep hearing (which I’m doubting)?
Regardless, my Dell M700 laptop is showing its age, and I need a replacement. Looking around for new laptops is a discouraging business, I put my time in reading reviews, and the macbooks kept coming up as a good answer. The thing is, I can run windows on the mac, using a number of different solutions – bootcamp is a dual boot setup – you start the computer in either OSX or Windows. Like having 2 different laptops in one. Or I can run Parallels, which runs windows virtually in a window on the OSX desktop. Since my macbook pro came with a copy of Parallels included, that will be the option I will try first.
Here’s the big question I have, will my PC software run on the mac well? I have a lot of PC software, versions of Dreamweaver, Photoshop CS5, video editing software etc are for PC. So this is a test to see if that software will work well on the Mac hardware. If it does, I’m a happy camper. Luckily adobe lightroom 3, my most often used software, is both PC and Mac ready, and the adobe’s license allows me to have an installation on my home PC, and one on my macook pro.
So if your interested stay tuned for my trials with the partial switch to mac – and the problems I encounter. This could get interesting.