Category: Creative Geek

Now that Mike & I both have new computers, it is interesting to see how we use them from the ground up. The night we opened them, we spent the same amount of time on them – doing very different things. He went right into downloading things, getting it all set up just the way he wanted it. Me? I went right into a web browser, played on Flickr, sent some Twitter messages, and surfed the web.

On Christmas Eve, we took our computers over to my parent’s house, and after all the gifts were opened Jason spent time setting up his new iPod on iTunes, and I finally spent a little time tweaking the Mac. Mike showed me how to install things, and I added widgets to my dashboard.

Since that night, I have spent minimal amounts on the computer. Mike is on vacation this week, but I had a meeting yesterday, a meeting today, and have another meeting this weekend. Also, now that I have some energy back, I’m trying to catch up on housework. My computer time has amounted to minutes spent printing documents for the meetings; my email has gone mostly unread except for the business accounts. I haven’t even set up an email client on the new Mac; I’ve been using Gmail or my iPhone for all correspondence. Mike on the other hand has totally pimped out his machine, or is at least well on his way to doing so. He gets up in the morning and it is the first thing he does – spends time on the computer with his morning cup of coffee. (Served up this morning in the thermal coffee mug with the USB connection to keep it warm.) He has talked about getting Gmail IMAP’ed to the iPhone, and his online to-do list is now set to go there too, tied in to Gmail and Twitter. He has figured out how to take DVDs and get them on the iPhone. He has made everything sparkly and shiny. Me? Lucky I finally figured out how to change the wallpaper on the desktop.

I’m jealous. I want a pimped out Mac too. Although at least I’m not that far behind on the learning curve, and I’ve already done my first Mac OS upgrade!

But there are things to do around the house – we’re finally finishing the painting in the living room! – and this week, that is just more important for me. After the crazy rush of the holidays, I still need a break from the glow of the monitor. But someday, I will be upgrading. What should I put on it? The obvious items – PhotoShop and Lightroom – are a given. But what else? Have any recommendations of what you simply have to have on your Mac?

For YEARS people have said to me, “So, you’re a photographer – so you use a Mac, right?”

Uhm, no? They make all the same software for a PC, and I that is what I’ve always used. I married a PC geek. We have lots of Windows machines in our house. More PC computers than people actually.

And to address the usual comments made:
— No, they do not always crash. I think the Dell Latititude has only crashed once on me. It had a lot of intensive programs open, and it was just too much. Plus, I hadn’t rebooted the machine in 2-3 days. So then it crashed. Pretty much my fault. Otherwise? No problems.

— No, if you have Windows, you don’t need a backup drive because the drive is guaranteed to fail. Mike’s desktop machine is over 5 years old, and has never had a hard drive failure. I’ve had one – on a free PC, no less – over 10 years ago. We do have backup external drives, but that is because I have to backup critical data like client’s photos.

— No, if you use Windows, you don’t always get viruses. You need to have good computer habits and if you have firewall protection as we do – our router blocks unsolicited incoming traffic – you shouldn’t have a problem. I haven’t run a virus software on the Dell in a 14 months, and it has never been a problem. (Shhh, don’t tell. I don’t highly recommend that.) I’ve only ever had one virus, actually – and it was because I downloaded and installed a free screen saver from an unknown source in 1997, and it was infected. I learned. The Mac commercials make me want to scream over this whole virus thing. Oh, and hackers are starting to target the Mac more.

BUT … with all that being said … we went yesterday and bought TWO Macs. I got the MacBookPro (I need the higher specs that it offers for photo editing) and Mike got the MacBook.

Why the switch? When I used to ask Mac owners why I needed to switch as a photographer, I would get responses like, “It is just better.” That doesn’t make me justify a computer purchase. However, it was finally explained to me that the Mac operating system handles memory paging better than Windows. So if you want to have 10 photos open in Photoshop, you can. The Photoshop actions that bog down CS2 there don’t do it on the Mac. I finally had a valid reason. I edit a LOT of photos, and I need the speed. My clients will thank me.

Mike went with a Mac for his FIRST laptop that he has owned himself – not counting all the work laptops he has had over the years – because he likes the eye candy factor of the operating system over Vista, he likes the form factor of the MacBook, and is willing to admit that he is not the hard-core l33t gamer that he was when I met him back in 2002 when he first purchased the (then) kick-ass Dell PC tower that we own. Also, Mac now runs linux underneath it all, something he is comfortable with, and if he wants, he can get software to allow you to run Windows inside the Mac. Matter of fact, the fastest Vista machine on the market? A Mac, according to PC World.

Mike probably would have inherited my old laptop, except Jason enjoys 3D modeling and other things such as that, and my Dell Latitude was pimped out when I purchased it a year ago, and has a lot more memory, a faster processor (Intel Core 2 Duo) and a Nvidia graphics card in it that will help make his computing experience better. Plus he is a gamer, so it will help with that too. We decided that it made more sense, since Mike is a lighter computer user now, mainly using a browser and email, to give Jason my PC and for Mike to get a new one. As soon as Jason found out I was getting a Mac, after asking for the 24″ iMac himself, he then started asking for my PC laptop.

We realized this morning that I am a bitter, snarky Mac users though thanks to the Mac commercials we’ve seen over the years, and the comments people have made. ANY time something happens that counters the commercials, we mock it.

“All you have to do is plug it in, and it just WORKS.” Uhm, no. Mine didn’t just work. I had to install 19 updates, and only had Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger on the laptop when I fired it up, so now I get to do my first Mac upgrade all by myself to get OS X 10.5 Leopard on it. It didn’t just work.

“They never lock up or crash.” I was just using Safari last night, while my 19 upgrades happened in the background, and suddenly found myself watching the pretty spinning colorful wheel. Sure, it was pretty. Nice design, good eye-candy. I was pretty amused that within 2 hours, it had happened to me. Don’t tell me they never lock up. That is a little unrealistic.

“It is just so easy to use.” Again, no. While typing this post, I hit a key on the left by mistake, I have no idea which one, and BAM! My window was GONE! I had to hunt around the monitor to find it, only to discover it had rolled up to the top and was hiding up there. I got it back, but things like that are confusing if you have been using a PC for over 15 years. I know I’ll get more comfortable using it, but I’m *so* not there yet.

All in all, they are pretty and shiny and sparkly, and we’re happy. But I’m not ready yet to say it is sooooooo much better than a PC. Talk to me after I drink a bit more of the Kool-aid and I might change my mind. 😉