The Philosophical Fish

So here I stand, on the precipice of a monumental decision.

PC or Mac.

I’ve been a PC user from the earliest days of the Tandy 1000 dad brought home. That machine didn’t have a hard drive, it used a cassette deck to run and record information! The first time I saw colour on a computer screen was a brief introduction to the Apple II which Dad brought home for a brief introduction (it was an office machine) somewhere around 1980. I loved it and didn’t want it to leave, but leave it did and we moved on to a Corona “portable” computer.

Eventually I borrowed my Uncle’s 286 for University, but then he needed it back and I entered into the realm of my first personal computer purchase. Macs were a novelty still, and there were a few PC choices. I considered a Next computer, I loved the sleek black machines…but the cost was too high for a student, so I had a machine built for me in Richmond, a 386. I brought it home, along with an antivirus program….that apparently had a virus in it…and my computer had a difficult start to life. Two visits to the computer store to bring it back to life and a new virus program to keep it safe.

Viruses became a bit of a plague in the lab I entered into in my Masters. My supervisor was famous for one particular virus that just kept resurfacing no matter how hard we cleaned all the computers. He would pull out some old disk from some deep drawer and stick it in a machine…it would spread to all of the lab machines, all of our home computers and one by one we would crash and clean, yet again.

And thus I began to learn about computer innards. Fixing, replacing, rebuilding software environments. A couple of my labmates referred to me as the guru, when really I had no training, just a penchant for finding out how far I could push a machine…and then needing to clean up the mess I had made.

I moved up to a Pentium machine, then a Pentium 2, then a Pentium 3, and now I sit looking at my awesome Dell XPS P4 that I have had for just shy of three years. I contemplate how many hours I have lost reformatting computers because eventually, they clog up, slow down, freeze at the worst possible moment and infuriate me to the point where a lobotomy seems the only mechanism for moving forward again. But to get things back up to speed means a two day down time while all the various programs, drivers, settings etc are replaced. Invariably, something gets missed, information is lost, fourteen little things don’t get set up for weeks because I forget them. I even have a checklist of the order things need to be reinstalled because hardware A doesn’t like it if software B is installed before driver C. Drives me insane.

When computers came along, they were touted to be inventions that would make life easier, simpler, connect us all. It is true that communication has been revolutionized by the computer…but….easier???

Every few weeks I spend a couple of hours trying to troubleshoot my Mom’s computer from a distance, difficult when you can’t put your hands on the keyboard or actually see what is being described. And it is getting harder as I move on to higher level software and she doesn’t. I wrack my memory trying to remember what the earlier version of a program did.

Re-enter the Mac. I’ve been chewing on the idea of a Mac for a couple of years. They aren’t prevalent int he sciences and I never even considered it while I was still in the lab because everyone else had a PC and how was I to share data? It’s not such an issue anymore, most of my work is writing, and I usually send documents in pdf format. Anyone can use them. Macs and PCs have become more and more compatible…but it’s still not perfect. I still have several key pieces of software that won’t run on a Mac unless it is in emulation mode…which sort of seems to defeat the purpose…but some programs can be replaced with others, and the workarounds aren’t impossible.

Yesterday Mom’s computer went kaput. She called me on Sunday complaining of a problem, I asked her about viruses and software and suggested she install the Shaw service that she was paying for. She contacted Shaw ans they helped her set it up. Then she called me yesterday saying her computer was dead. We chugged through some things and it turned on and started up, but kept clicking and making odd noises. She’s had issues with it since day 1 and it is over three years old now. I’m reasonably certain that she got a lemon, it can happen. But she’s so frustrated with it. I told her she needed a new computer, period. She said she didn’t want Vista. I said unfortunately, Microsoft has all the computer manufacturers by the nuts and you pretty much can’t get a machine from one of the major players that doesn’t have Vista. It’s a horrible program, but it has been forced on us.

Then…I don’t know why….but I blurted out “Buy a Mac Mom”

Her initial reaction was horror. I explained that Macs are famous for not crashing, they don’t get viruses, they have a great support network….and they are not difficult to learn. They are intuitive machines. She said “But I love my monitor, would I have to get all new stuff?” I said yes. I started looking up information for her. As I poked around on the Apple site I learned some things….

I had NO idea that you could use all the PC peripherals on a Mac! Mom could still use her flat screen monitor! And her printer and mouse! This was wonderful! Then I found the Mac Mini! What a cute piece of technology. Basic requirements, good speed, a writable DVD drive…this was perfect. Back on the phone to tell her about it…she softened. Particularly when I told her it should work out of the box and that there was a phone support line to help her get her printer etc working on her new machine should any problems arise. After a few more phone calls I convinced her to go to the store today and meet a Mac. The stores in PG don’t carry the Mac mini in stock, but they can get it in in a couple of days. The one thing I warned her was that I would no longer be able to help her since I know nothing about Macs.

After that call I started to wonder. Why was I so good at selling her on something that I don’t have….maybe because deep down I really do want one? I’ve been muttering about my current machine for months, have started contemplating the next box…maybe I should begin looking in a new direction too? So now I am oggling the Mac Pro.

So now I stand at the crossroads and analyse what is holding me back…

• I need a desktop and a laptop and can’t justify the purchase of both when my Toshiba laptop is only a year old
• My navigational software (Fugawi) won’t run on the Mac
• OneNote won’t run on the Mac and there is no Mac version
• Trips and Pics, my geotagging software, won’t run on the Mac and there is no Mac version
• My Creative Zen Vision won’t run on the Mac, no Mac version available
• Streets and Trips – ditto
• Motorola Phone tools – ditto
• utorrent – ditto
• Microsoft Money – ditto
• Microsoft Publisher – ditto

Solutions to the above:

• Publisher can be replaced with Adobe Indesign
• Money can be replaced with Quicken
• Streets and Trips…do I really care? I bought it because of the GPS unit only, the program is more of a novelty for me, but it has helped me on the road….so it can stay ont eh laptop where it gets used most anyway
• Kirk’s Mortorola phone might work with DataPilot
• utorrent…there are other torrent clients, I just like this one and they may be coming out with a Mac version soon

So OneNote, Fugawi, Trips and Pics, Zen…those are the issues and so the Mac would need to run in compatibility mode to run them. But doesn’t that defeat the purpose of a Mac? Am I not trying to get away from Windows?

There is one other, egotistical, issue. I have spent so much time learning to fix PC’s…I feel rather clever when I solve a problem. What will I do if I can’t…or if there are no problems to solve…?

What to do, what to do…….?