Scripts.Indisguise.Org - a hobbyist's blog and scripts archive

So last November 30, I braved the Singapore IT Expo (SITEX) to purchase my first ever personal Mac. Almost a month prior to this, I had received my first Mac in the form of my work machine, a MacBook Pro, and after a lot of deliberation, have decided to purchase my own.

If you want to see my first few thoughts on working with a Mac (and OS X), you can visit the aforementioned entry. The first few weeks of working with the “new toy” was exciting, if a bit nerve-wracking. As loadx correctly pointed out, I’m not a hardcore BSD (or any UNIX flavor) user, and I do rely heavily on Windows binaries for my PHP, Apache, and other geeky development application needs. Were it not for the sheer niftiness of the Mac, and the amazing colors, I would probably wailed about my choice for the work machine. I’m still learning the works, but so far I’m enjoying.

At the moment, I am:

1. Learning the ins and outs of iPhoto.
2. Hunting for a good LiveJournal client that’s up to par with Semagic.
3. Re-assessing Mail; just because I use Mail for work, doesn’t mean I need to stick to it for my personal email.
4. Needing to get another Windows license to set up dual booting.
5. Still deciding about using iCal.
6. Still hunting for a good personal finance application that will easily let me import my GnuCash data. Would prefer free, but depending on feature set, I don’t mind if I have to pay a bit.
7. Loving Stacks Overlays.

There’s more, but those are the pressing things. Through the advice of a friend, I have also started using MAMP for my development web server. This is new to me: I’ve always installed Apache, MySQL, and PHP one by one. We’ll see if I get the itch to give myself a hard time and install everything one by one.

More insights on my new MacBook soon. I still need to decide on a name! Continued application suggestions are welcome.

A few days ago, I finally received my actual work machine: a sleek 15.4″ widescreen MacBook Pro. This is the first Mac machine that I will be using on a regular basis, having never owned one before. So, I am slowly re-learning how to be productive on a laptop, but what I can say so far is: the odds are high that my next personal machine will be a MacBook. (We’ll see if I can stretch my budget for a MacBook Pro… if they release a smaller one, then it’s probably a definite yes :P)

I’ve still a ways to go, I’m sure, but so far I’m doing good in terms of personalizing how my machine works. The trackpad now works the way I’m used to it working; I have my trusty Aptana IDE with me; I have installed QuickSilver (but have yet to really get used to it); and I’m slowly learning the shortcut keys and whatnot, which is a big must. I suppose I’m moving along just fine; proof of this is when I sit down after a day’s work at my own laptop and end up hitting Alt+S for saving and Alt+Left Arrow Key to go back one word when typing. ;)

Now, I’m still weighing the pros and cons of going for a Mac for the next personal machine. In a nutshell, these are:

Pros

• Web development (read: PHP) should be easier on Macs because UNIX-compliant. I have not tried this out yet since I don’t use PHP when at work.
• Oh my gosh, the colors! The clarity! It’s absolutely breathtaking. I am in love.
• If I’m working on a Mac machine the whole day and go home to do some hobby coding on my Windows machine… I end up having around 10 minutes of re-learning the shortcuts and the keyboard. Yes, my mind is apparently rather malleable that way. It makes for slower hobby coding!
• I love the fact that the screen brightness dims when the surrounding light dims. Way to go, Apple! (Have Windows machines done this too?)

Cons

• Games. Seriously, people, this is a huge disadvantage, and I know that I am not the only one. I like my games. Right now I am delegated to the smaller games that don’t suck you in and make you play all night long, but I still have that inner yearning to go back to my gamer days. :P
• I’m still trying to get the hang of things not maximized all the way, which apparently is “the norm”. Now I don’t have a problem with multi-tasking in that way (i.e., having a code resource in one window on one side of the screen and the actual IDE in another side) but more often that not this just feels a little messy and disorganized to me.
• Expensive! Okay, the MacBook isn’t too expensive over a high-end laptop, so it’s probably more of a psychological thing.
• I need IE on Windows for web design. Let’s face it, lots of people use IE, so I have to design for IE as well. I know about Parallels, and I will have to take that into consideration, and make sure that it does work exactly like a Windows machine (or that IE does, anyway).

This isn’t saying that I’m completely won over, as there are still times when I feel like, oh but this is so easy in Windows! I am missing TortoiseCVS (is there a similar Mac OS X equivalent around that I don’t know about?) and I’m still slowly inching my way around Terminal. But this might all just be because I’m still a newbie, but I’m sure in time it will all feel like second nature.