 |
 |  |  |
 |
FROM THE CIO
Why I Switched From Windows to Mac OS/X - Initial Thoughts Apple is running a series of commercials about regular people that have switched from running Windows to OS/X (www.apple.com/switch). Since I recently made the "switch" I thought I would share my thoughts on the experience. I was drawn to try OS/X because I have always been a fan of an operating system called NextStep that was released in the late 80's for machines made by NeXT computer. NeXT was owned by Steve Jobs and when he returned to Apple a few years ago, Apple bought the rights to NextStep. I also wanted to better understand what problems Apple users faced at UMBC. I am a dedicated laptop user so I purchased an iBook and gave up my Dell 4000 laptop. Most important for me was having compatibility with Microsoft Office. I'm happy to say Office V.X, which includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Entourage - an Outlook like email and organizer, is fully compatible with Office 2000/2002. In addition, OS/X provides support for two browsers (Netscape 6 and Internet Explorer 5.1). If you use Netscape 4.7 you must run this in what is called OS/9 compatibility mode. To make the switch, I needed two other applications: Netscape Calendar and a good terminal emulation program. Netscape Calendar is available under OS/9 compatibility mode-but using the new Corporate Time upgrade to Calendar, I can now use the web to access my schedule, too. Compatibility mode allows you to run applications written for the Macintosh that have not yet been released on OS/X. Compatibility mode works reasonably well but requires that you dedicate RAM memory to the application. This means that if you use OS/X and will use compatibility mode you must have adequate memory. I recommend having at least 384 MB. The benefits of switching to OS/X are that the machine never crashes and works great as a laptop using wireless networking. Under Windows, I always had problems with suspending my laptop; it was slow and often wouldn't come back properly. Under OS/X it works perfectly. Apple has also built in an application called System Update that will notify you and install updates and security patches. Also, I like the fact that many Unix applications are available for OS/X. Finally, the user interface on OS/X is very intuitive and easy to use. What are the problems of switching? Printing was much slower than under windows, especially large PDF files. I also find that some applications I ran under Windows aren't available. For example, I'd love to have Microsoft Project or Visio for OS/X. I have access to an older PC when I infrequently run these applications. Would I recommend this switch to others at UMBC? Definitely for science and engineering. I think OS/X has many of the benefits of Linux but also provides full Microsoft compatibility. For others I would say the jury is still out on whether it's worth switching to OS/X. For more information, you may want to contact the UMBC Macintosh Users Group (http://mug.umbc.edu), which also maintains a listserv (umbc-mug@listproc.umbc.edu) for announcing meetings and sharing tips. To join the list, use the "manage email subscriptions" link in the "Communications" tab in myUMBC. Just search for available lists and enter "umbc-mug" to subscribe.
|
