I got a Mac today. Ok… it’s works rather than mine, but you know what I mean! :)
I’ve always been a PC kinda guy. Not for any particular reason, I’ve just never needed to use a Mac, PC’s and Windows have always done the job. Recently however a few things have made me look more closely at Mac’s. Some of it is personal interest (I am a geek after all), but my immediate need is for work.
Although we’ve got a few Mac users dotted around, we don’t really support Mac’s in a big way. We’re essentially a PC house, based around Windows and Active Directory. Over the next few years though it’s pretty clear that we’ll need to adopt and support multiple platforms – at least on the client.
So… I ordered a Mac. It’s only a plain old Macbook, but it’s all I should really need for now. First impressions? I really like it.
In fact, the first impression you have of Mac is bound to be great because of the beautiful packaging. Apple really know how to make feel good about spending your money. Quite why the PC vendors haven’t caught onto this over the years is beyond me.
One thing that impressed me was the out-of-box-experiance, that’s in the desktop deployment sense, the initial setup and config. As one of the first things to be configured is the networking, the OOBE was able to go onto the net to get the latest up to date setup. Or at least I assume it does as I was asked to join Mobile Me, and I’m pretty sure this Mac was built long before it’s release last week.
With regards to the hardware itself, it’s as pretty as a Mac should be. Nice and shiny white. The keyboard is fantastic – much nicer than the ones on my Lenovo or old HP laptops. Although having said that I’m still getting used to the different layout and shortcuts (no del key?!?) but I’m sure all that will come in time.
Tomorrow I’ll start looking at how I go about integrating this new toy into our MS environment. From what I’ve read and planned, basic integration won’t be too tricky, but I want to do it myself to be sure. Then I’ll start looking at the basic applications. First on my list will be Office 2008, like it or loath it businesses run on Office, especially exchange. I’ll also need to take a good look at AV/Malware tools and print drivers etc. Should be fun :)
Oh… and I’m already missing Live Writer. What a great little app MS have there.