Now I want to buy my wife a Mac
I am married to a wonderful woman - for the last 21 years I've been blessed with a fantastic life partner. She's a brilliant lady with several graduate degrees to her credit, an accomplished attorney and teacher, someone that has succeeded in virtually everything she has set out to do. She even pulled all this off while we raised three incredible children.
Unfortunately she's had me to serve as her technical crutch for the last two decades so she's never really become proficient with computers. Sure, she can buy stuff on the web as well as anyone can and she's gotten pretty good with e-mail since I switched her to Gmail but outside of that...
She has an HP Laptop running Windows XP - it's about 2 years old. I've got the thing pretty well protected, paying my annual mob "protection" money to anti-virus vendors to keep her machine safe since even though I warn her not to click on everything people send her she still manages to install crap on the machine.
"But it says I needed to install that in order to view the pictures my friend sent...". When I explain to her that digital photos should not require any software to be installed to view because they should be in a standard digital format she just gives me that blank stare.
I try to patiently explain to her that many companies want to you to install these applications because they will grab information about what you do and send it back to the company. "It's called Spyware". That gets a slight flutter from her eyes - I'm thinking I am getting through.
"So I can't install that software to look at the pictures?"
Argh! This goes on every couple of months. This morning we had another issue; her computer would not allow her to get into her account - every time she logged in it would restart the machine. I ended up having to simply power the machine completely off (holding down the power button for 5 seconds) in order to stop the cycle.
In this case Microsoft had graced us with an auto-update overnight that required a reboot and something went screwy. I'm pretty confident my wife would not know (or care to learn) how to really restart her Windows machine.
While checking out the machine after getting it to log in properly I noticed that it was running pretty slowly. Several years of software being installed and leaving their little footprints in the registry were having an impact. With all the anti-virus software running (the entire Norton control center) the machine just runs... slowly.
It's still a serviceable machine, but I wonder if my life would be a little easier if I got her a nice little iMac. She would have her little iSight camera to talk to our daughter when she wants to. The new iMac would be blazingly fast compared to the AMD driven HP she's using now. Though she has a laptop it's permanently attached to her desk and never moves so portability isn't an issue.
Best of all, I wouldn't get that constant concern that she had installed spyware, malware, trojans, etc. on her machine. Sure that could happen on a Mac but it's far less likely. It's assured on Windows XP and her HP doesn't have the horsepower to run Vista.
In case you're wondering, I'm trying to talk myself into getting her one.
Comments
Maybe I'll "trip" over the power cord on the HP she has to hurry this along...
If portability is a must for you, this would be my game plan:
1. Get wifey an iMac.
2. Buy Mac Pro.
This way you would have the incredible powerhouse of a Mac Pro, and still keep the Macbook for portability.
I wouldn't opt for a MBP because you would get ALOT more power out of a Mac Pro, for not too much more than a MBP.
Plus you could keep the Macbook almost spotless and "Back To My Mac" to the Mac Pro when you need something.
No matter what, I can't see how you could go wrong :)
She hated it. Didnt want to learn something new.
I think he was the only one ever who has returned a Mac to an Apple store. (Had to pay a restocking fee too!)
Get your wife to try it first.
@Brad: Excellent point. I should probably have her play with the MacBook for a bit before taking the plunge.
First off, great blog, I really enjoy reading it along with all your input over at Mac-Forums. Keep up with the great insight that you provide on this blog.
I'm almost in the same boat as you, but my wife has actually taken a liking to using my i-Mac. I think she's starting to prefer it over her Dell laptop. At first she really didn't want to touch it because it was so different. Now it's hard sometimes for me to use my i-Mac when I want to. :-0 The only problem is that we'll have to wait until the Dell laptop just dies or becomes so incredible slow and unstable before I can justify buying a new Macbook as a replacement.
The same can be said for the Dell desktop that my 3 kids use. That one is definitely on the verge of needing to be replaced. I figured I'll do one more wipe and clean install of XP on that one before I replace it with a Mac.
I think if you slowly let her use your Macbook, she learn to love it and it'll be a piece of cake for you to go ahead and proceed with your plans. :-)
I mentioned to my wife this morning that I was thinking about getting her a Mac - she said her machine was fine but it didn't sound too enthusiastic. I'm just going to drop little daily hints and see if they will break her down.
I'm actually just buying my wife a new laptop, and it'll be a Mac.. She got convinced when she was using my macbook to check email or something, and the palm rest didn't get warm. She writes a lot, and all other laptops she had in the past (dell and hp) would get warm because of the harddisk after a few minutes.
I'm buying the Mac, and try to make her use osx, but I know she'll probably still end up usin Vista. That's the good thing about the macbook... Even without OSX, it's a great laptop, and can run vista beautifully..
Regards,
Eduardo
Well, three weeks went by before I had time to install Windows using Boot camp. I did this while my wife was sleeping hoping to surprise her thinking she would be dying to go back to Windows. The next day she says ok thanks. Time goes by and by and after a while, I ask her if she's tried using Windows before and she said only once because she couldn't play a video online (I had not installed the right plug-in). However she said after playing with her iMac and getting forced to use MacOSX, she actually prefers it much better and doesn't want to go back to Windows.
Our house has two Macs (iMac and 15" Macbook Pro) and two PC's (desktop and Lenovo notebook) however if it wasn't for the fact that I need Windows for work, our household would probably be all Mac by now.
It allows you to use one mouse/keyboard and controll multiple machines, it has both a mac, linux, and windos versions that work togethere. It would allowf you to have one machine as the server and all the others conect in as clients, And like you can have multiple monitors, each PC becomes a monitor on one large virtual screen.
you can't drag applications and stuff between machines, but you can copy and paste some data between computers.
It is cool.
-Sarflin
http://sarflin.blogspot.com/
I just found your blog and have read through them all. One app not mentioned is Quicksilver, which is get for key board shortcuts. Someone mentioned coda in a comments from a Feb post but it was just dated yesterday. Coda has gotten a lot of thumbs up from developers online.
Also check out MacDailyNews.com
I didn't have to buy a new laptop yet, she's getting used to OS X, and if there are any issues, I can reinstall XP. At some point, I'll be able to have her justify a Macbook.
*I'll leave it up to the reader to debate the legality of this, just to say that, I do have a macbook, a mac mini, an iPhone, and 4 iPods.
Great blog Im sorry I just stumbled across it today. You've given some great information. I have found myself in an inner battle. Im looking to buy a computer and am torn between pc and mac. My mac friends call me an idiot for even thinking pc and visa versa from my pc friends. Im looking to buy a computer to do video editing and play around with those sorts of things. I also like to do some gaming and play with tech and other sorts of things. I was wondering if you could help me make the decision.
thank you
I recently switched from PC to a new Macbook Pro and haven't regretted it since. Being a web designer, I can relate to nearly everything you have said so far. Like others have mentioned, give your MacBook to your wife and go buy yourself a MBP + Time Capsule.
what could a fella do in such a case?
avg anti virus for windows
totally free for home use
been using it for years and have not had a virus in over five years.
We're going to go to the store to buy a new video card, but while we're there we're going to look at the Macs. If you like them, how about we buy one of them instead and end this vicious cycle?
My dad and I went out and looked at the Macs. I showed him that the basic idea is very similar to Windows; run programs, browse the web, etc.
He bought an iMac and we brought it home to set it up. I didn't lift a finger to help with the setup, they did it all themselves, and I haven't fielded a single support call since.
The machine did die due to hardware failure once and they had it replaced by Apple, but that can happen to any piece of technology.
They've never screwed it up, they've never installed something they shouldn't have, and it runs just as speedy as the day it was purchased.
I recommend Macs to home users as a rule now.
hope that link works. otherwise:
On the left side of the apple store there's a link for certified refurbished macs. I myself have never tried buying one, but i'd imagine they'd have to be good. and they're good deals. Has anyone tried these certified refurbishes?
I apologize for this being totally off topic, but I think you should give Quicksilver a try. http://www.blacktree.com/
http://www.tuaw.com/tag/Quicksilver/
I'd be interested to see what you think about it.
It's an application for the Mac that will revolutionize your experience, and is the first app I recommend for anyone who purchases a new mac. It take a while to get used to, maybe an hour or so, but once you start using it you'll wonder how you lived without it.
Back on topic: of course you should get your wife a mac! :)
Cheers
She then has an incredibly well-built Windows machine, and stuff like the built-in iSight will work fine in Windows, Apple's Boot Camp provides all the drivers for that to work.
When I bought her an iMac, I didn't receive a call regarding it for well over two months!
She even managed to install new bios firmware which Apple delivered via the software update, and she's the kind of person who usually calls me even for popups with Yes/No options!
Now, she edits her pictures in iPhoto, doing stuff even I didn't know you could do. On the old PC, she had trouble even looking at the photos.
However, that's not the case for everyone, as a buddy of mine tried to get a Macbook for his wife. She couldn't figure out how to type a backslash and got pissed at it and he had to get rid of it.
My girlfriend, however, tolerates the Macbook I convinced her to get. She's not overjoyed, but neither was she with her old laptop, but at least neither she nor I have to worry about the bloatware and spyware she managed to install back then. Though mostly, she's sad that she can't use any animated smileys in MSN Messenger anymore. :)
http://tinyurl.com/yrs25g
I would agree that it is a MUST-HAVE for any Mac user.
@David: Congratulations! It seems your blog just became wildly popular in a matter of one post! Keep it up.
Good idea!
I went through the same thing with my wife about 4 years ago.
I have been a Mac user since 1990, though I did to the PC for awhile when Apple was having some hardware and OS issues. But as soon as the first public beta of OS X was available I ran out and bought a Mac.
Four years ago instead of buying really nice anniversary presents for each other we both agreed that we would buy ourselves Mac laptops. For a short while she struggled with wanting to use the same programs she used on the PC, but when I showed her alternatives she quickly liked them better. Now she never even asks a question about finding a program for her machine she confidently goes out and finds it on her own.
Our machines are getting to be a tad old now and I recently asked her if she thought we should get new computers. She looked at me over the end of her nose (you've been married a long time I know you have seen this look) and told me "no I don't want a new computer, I want a new Mac".
Buy your wife the Mac, you won't regret it.
I also switched my niece from a PC to a Mac Mini. I used to be at my sisters house every weekend trying to figure out what happened to the PC, but since switching her to the Mac I haven't had to fix her computer in 2 years.
Now she's perfectly happy with it and doesn't complain, and it actually always works which I think surprised her. Apps don't randomly crash. She was previously just resigned to having to reinstall the OS or get newer hardware whenever the system started getting slow again.
- Ok admittedly you cannot use shortcut keywords as you have actually spell the word in Spotlight -- but nevertheless since most people use QuickSilver to start up applications -- Spotlight is more than adequate and just as fast...
- to the person that cant afford a MacBook -- get a MacMini or get an old MacBook on ebay.
- David, MacBook Pro or iMac -- tough choice -- i think if you see iMac you will fall in love with it...
@captaink: I was looking at QuickSilver this evening and was wondering what it really offered me. Since I got "back" into Macs with Leopard I don't see too much value there.
Even running windows, a mac is a better machine than anything on the windows side of the world. IMO
For my wife I really want her to use OS X. She gets so much crap on her computer that I really don't want to have to deal with it. I'm sure she'll like it ;-)
That being said, Quicksilver can do WAY more than that and it might still be worthwhile giving it a close look. It is a bit of a pain to configure but it is super powerful.
I'd recommend spending some time reading into this detailed guide to determine if it has anything to offer to you or not.
By the way ran across your blog for the first time today on Digg, love your blog, this may be the first time i have ever started from the first post and read every post on your blog. Keep up the good work.