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Why you'll (not) love a Mac E-mail
Sunday, 28 December 2008 08:44

I have met a few customers recently pondering the move to Apple Mac, especially when confronted with the Vista operating system installed on most new PC computers. Here's my quick considerations as to why the Mac may not be quite the computing nirvana you're hoping for:

  • "Vista is horrible, I don't want it" - mostly said by people that have yet to see it, let alone use it. It's not very different to XP and in many respects somewhat better. If you're happy using XP then Vista is no problem especially when you've been given a few tips.
  • Price of a 15" Mac notebook (MacBook Pro) is £1369, a similar spec laptop with Vista/XP will cost less than HALF that amount.
  • All your previously bought software (Office in particular) won't work on the Mac, so make sure you add that to the price and throw all that PC based software in the bin. All Macs need software specifically written for them.
  • Your core line-of-business software won't work on a Mac. I've yet to find a company using LOB software that will run on the Mac operating system. The Mac can run Windows XP, either in a window or by starting up in Windows mode which gets round this, but if you're doing that, don't forget you need to buy the Windows license and wonder why you didn't get a PC in the first place.
  • Support is more difficult. Whilst I can help with most simple Apple problems, you'll find many support companies can't.
My point really is once you're past the shiny exterior and fancy packaging, and get down to the real business of using the computer, it simply doesn't fit the business environment.