On a whim I decided to see if I could use an Apple MacBook for an entire week - without turning on Windows desktop PC once, and see if there was anything that the Mac couldn't do that I routinely use Windows for...and vice versa, and to guage the general usability of MacOS versus Windows XP.

Today is Day One and already the Mac has a few advantages over Windows: a clean install of MacOS has native support for PDF files (via its 'Preview' application); Windows requires that Adobe Reader be downloaded and installed.

ZIP and RAR files are also natively supported by the operating system, and also a Java engine is also preinstalled. I have had to download and install The Adobe Flash Player, but then I would have to do that on Windows also.

 

As a network administrator, a significant part of my time is spent remotely controlling other PCs and servers. Normally I would use Microsoft's excellent Remote Desktop Connection software to control another Windows-based machine. Microsoft have made the RDC client available for MacOS, and it is as easy to use as the Windows version, however as far as I can tell (and please correct me if I have missed something obvious!), it only allows you to have one session open at a time, which is sadly not enough. However, I have found an application called CoRD, which allows you to save and run multiple RDC sessions simultaneously:

 

 

Very cool!

I also use VNC to remote control NT-based machines, and have found 'Chicken of the VNC' (I don't make this stuff up!) which is a VNC client for MacOS:

 

 

For email I will simply be using Outlook Web Access. We run Exchange 2003 here and OWA is fantastic: you receive notification of new emails, have acces to all of your mailbox (including subfolders) and can move messages between folders - I don't think there is any reason I would need Outlook, other than to view multiple mailboxes simultaneously...we'll have to wait and see.

 

To create, view and edit Office documents, I will be using NeoOffice (which is the same as OpenOffice but written specifically for the MacOS X platform, and which also has the benefit of being free!)

And finally, for instant messaging, on my Windows PC I use the free Tipic client to connect to our Jabber server. I have not been able to find a Tipic client for MacOS, but instead have found 'Adium' which so far has let me log in and is displaying my contacts with the correct status:

 

So far so good. I have been very impressed with the Apple web site and the ease with which new software packages are installed: in most cases it is simply a case of dragging an application to the Applications folder on the hard drive.

Another behaviour that has impressed me during the course of writing this post is the way in which the mac detected new hardware. I connected a USB mouse and keyboard, both of which were picked up and began working immediately without any notification or wizards to have to run through, and when I connected an external TFT screen, there a brief flicker on the Mac's screen then both displays became active - no wizards, no holding down <FUNCTION> F5 several times! Very impressive.

I am sure I am getting ahead of myself,...

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James Liddiard
Network Manager

Day Two

 

I admit that I did have to use my Windows PC yesterday - I needed to make some changes to the firewall and I was not able to find a Checkpoint client for MacOS (if anyone knows of one, please send me a link!). And I would have had to use my PC anyway as my PC's IP address is the only one that is allowed to talk to the firewall in any case!

But rather than just reconnect the monitor to my desktop, I did remote control the PC using CoRD so I don't feel like I cheated too much.

 

I have managed to get the mac connected to our OpenVPN server so that I can access the network remotely via any (sufficiently quick) Internet connection. I say I managed it, I followed this extremely well-written guide and connected (almost) first time. If anyone is looking to implement a cheap VPN solution I cannot recommend this enough:

http://girasoli.org/?p=30

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James Liddiard
Network Manager

Day Three

 Yesterday will go down in the annals of history as 'Black Tuesday', or rather 'White Tuesday' to be more accurate as most of our printers decided to start spewing out blank sheets of paper for no reason that I could discern! So the upshot was I didn't really get to use either a Windows PC or a Mac.

The Mac did earn another little gold star, however. I was emailed a '.docx' file, which I know is the new extension for Word 2007 documents. On the Mac this file type had been associated with NeoOffice automatically, and NeoOffice wa sbale to open the file without any difficulty. One of my colleague who was also sent the file could not open it on his Windows PC. We run Office XP mostly in the office and does not recognise the '.docx' file extension.

I ranted for about 5 minutes about Microsoft's policy of removing all backward compatibility in their software forcing you to constantly upgrade at huge expense...until I came across this little gem on the Microsoft web site:

 

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en

The Microsoft 'Office 2007 Compatibility Pack' allows you to open and edit Office 2007 format files with Office XP and 2003.

So I take it all back Bill :)

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James Liddiard
Network Manager

I am considering the possibility of switching over to Mac myself. I am in the process of obtaining a degree in animation, and my research has shown me that the graphics capability of Mac has it way over the Windows PC.

Days Four and Five

 

OK, a bit of a cop out lumping the rest of the week into one post. What can I say, it's been BUSY at work!

I can honestly say that apart from the firewall, I have not had to use my Windows desktop at all, and I have been consistently impressed with the ease with which the Mac has accomplished all the tasks I have set it, and it has been a generally better user experience.

I did have some trouble getting the Mac to work via Bluetooth with my Sony Ericsson K800i as a 3G modem. Mac OS has drivers for the Ericsson phone range built in, but they don't seem to wake the phone up to make a 3G connection: normal dial-up is fine...but who wants to dial-up these days!

Fortunately a very clever man called Ross Barkman has written scripts for virtually every phone under the sun. The scripts are all free download from his web site:

http://www.taniwha.org.uk/

 Download the script file, save it to the System Folder --> Extensions --> Modem Scripts. Within the Internet Connect software select the script to use, enter the username and password for your network provider's 3G service and in the telephone number field, enter the APN (Access Point Name).

Ensure that Bluetooth is turned on, click Connect and bob's your uncle!
Thank you Ross, you're a genius!

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James Liddiard
Network Manager

It sounds good to me. I am convinced.

You weren't lying when you said he wrote scripts for darn near all the phones under the sun.

Really. I am impressed with the experiences under Mac though. It makes me wish I had the money to change.

I have always been the type of PC user that has never put down the Mac computers. I was simply taught on a PC, and that's what I have always used. I do plan on making the move to Mac at some point very soon.