I’ve been thinking about a Mac PowerBook Pro laptop. My Dell is on the way out, and I need a new laptop. But do I need a Mac?
Well, it depends. Mitch Matorin, a solo from Massachusetts, weighed in on the debate a few days ago. He says:
The question, for me, is whether the benefit that I get from learning the new system is worth the hassle of unlearning the old system,which, despite its frustrations, works reasonably well. I am nothing if not a technology whore, and I have been wanting to get a Mac for a while because of their reputation and my desire to have new toys. Parallels gave me the excuse to do it, since I wouldn’t have to ditch all my preexisting software. What I discovered is that the transition would be more difficult than I had expected because the PC methods are so firmly ingrained . . . Truly, I was frustrated that I could not see a clear benefit. I wanted to. I was sheepish that I didn’t. But I ultimately came to terms with the fact that I didn’t . . . If I were starting from scratch, I might very well think that the Mac was the greatest thing since sliced bread and I might very well be much happier for it. But that wasn’t my starting point.
But in all the hype over the greatness of the Mac, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that, love it or hate it, the PC is familiar and we have adapted to its faults. I just don’t think that people who are already running their law offices on PCs should blithely decide to switch to Macs simply because Parallels is available. It isn’t the same. There will be a steep learning curve. You will have to unlearn old things and learn new things. It will not be as smooth a transition as one might be led to believe. There will be technical problems, whether it is software that does not run under Parallels well for some reason, or, as I experienced, Parallels crashes. If you are considering moving to the Mac because of Parallels, you have to ask yourself why that matters. If you’re going to run Windows programs, get a PC. It makes no sense to get a Mac if you’re going to spend your time in the Windows OS. If you’re going to work on the Mac side and get new software, then Parallels is not relevant.
All I’m suggesting is that potential switchers pause and consider what they are expecting and why they are switching. And be prepared to devote a good deal of time to learning the Mac and getting comfortable with it during the 14-day return window because if you don’t and you decide later that it is too frustrating and the benefits are not clear enough, you’ll have just dumped a lot of money on something that is going to be at least as frustrating for you as a PC.
It’s an interesting take on the problem, and one that I hadn’t considered until reading Mitch’s comments. What will I do? Stay tuned.
