Switching to a Mac?

It's the time of the IT Show again and people has been asking me about the Mac, and how different is it from a normal Windows machine.

In simple terms, if you only do the following:

1. Check Emails
2. Surf Net
3. Writing Office documents

The Mac will suit you just fine. In fact, you could just get a Mac, and download some open-source software, and you're on your way. Some of the open-source software I use include:

1. Thunderbird (email)
   
2. Firefox (surfing)
   
3. NeoOffice (Office)
   

You can use Safari to surf the net but my advise is to get Firefox. Many websites do not support Safari and Safari does not really follow the W3C standard that accurately. The way it caches stuff is another problem.

The advantage of a Mac over a normal Windows machine:

1. Easy to use (subjective)
2. Lesser viruses written for the Mac
   
3. Machine does not get slower and slower until you need to reformat or defrag.

Read up on my Mac (Tiger) tips to find out how to make your life easier on the Mac.

If you need to play games though, you will need to buy an additional Windows license to install on your Mac. Suggestion is to play the games using Bootcamp, and not under some virtualization software. The virtualization software will slow your game down. Previously, I was aiming for a MacBook Pro because its graphics card is powerful enough to play nice games. :D

Anyway for the Mac, either you love it, or you hate it. For me, I'm somewhere in the middle. I can use it, but I'm not religious over it. Somethings are done better, on a Windows XP Pro. (I still don't like Vista)