Thomas Hawk Illustrates What Makes a Mac a Mac
I know there are stories aplenty about a high-profile personality switching to a Mac, but this one caught my eye via Scoble’s blog. I’m a few days late on this, but it’s so good that it’s worth mentioning.
Photographer and digital media enthusiast Thomas Hawk bought a Mac after 15 years of Windowshood. He’s just now getting around to sharing the news with us.
It’s always remarkable, on some level, when someone like Hawk totally ditches his known computing paradigm and moves to something totally new, something that presents a bit of a learning curve in terms of applications, workflow and nuances. That’s a gutsy move in and of itself. But what’s more remarkable are his comments about the Mac: they’re glowing. To wit:
And what do I have to say about the experience after two weeks? My God! This is f***ing amazing!
…And then I just did it, I went out and bought one. Maybe it’s a self destructive bent that I’ve got. Maybe it’s the need to explore something new. The move made me think about marriage. Was I simply trading in my trusty old wife of 15 years for the sleek slender new 19 year old model? Was I somehow doing this as a fashion statement? But the answer was no.
…And all along the way it was my 18 year old tech mentor Kristopher Tate, who kept saying, dude, just get a Mac. Just get a Mac. They just work.
And so I did. And I have to say that he’s right. It just works. It took about 48 hours of getting used to but once my little introductory awkward phase was over it just works so much better. It springs to life immediately when I open it. The new EVDO card I got works perfectly. It’s fast. The picture quality is very accurate. I can easily work in both Bridge and Photoshop at the same time on it while still having Firefox and Thunderbird and Skype and iTunes and jUploadr all open at the same time.
It’s stuff like this that makes a Mac a Mac. I’ve never, ever seen the Windows version of this. Not once.
Yes, computers are tools, and yes, they’re a means to an end, and yes, everyone has one these days. But you can’t tell me that the Mac doesn’t evoke something very different in people, something that very humanly and clearly illustrates a tool that’s better than the rest.
Hawk even went on to write more Q & A about his move to the Mac, seeing how this news generated quite a few comments on his blog. Check it out.
Technorati Tags: Apple & OSX
Yea, computers are “just tools”. I use Mac at home; XP at work. You know what? XP stumbles even on basic things, still: handling PDF’s; browser stability. Things “disappear” and come back in the dock. Multiple instances of apps. launch without warning. Drives me bonkers.
I am a professional photographer myself, and for eleven years I was a Windows user. After using a Mac for the first time, I, too, had one of those epiphanic moments. It was like a whole new world had been opened up to me… And that was ten years ago! Imagine how much more I love them now!
In my studio, I have one Windows machine that handles tasks that are run on Windows-only software (no Intel Macs yet). I hate using this machine. It can’t handle even the most basic tasks without stumbling, and the built-in security is complete crap.
Tom — XP is showing its age, no question. Why an OS doesn’t have built-in PDF viewing and creation (write) capabilities is beyond me. Yes, there are plugins for XP that provide this (CutePDF, if I recally correctly), but come on — some thing should be native.
I think Vista will change a lot of that, but then Apple makes its move with Leopard, and the cat and mouse game continues.
We shall see.
peakaction — good story. I have a similar one: I just got a fully decked-out Dell D620 for work: 2 GB RAM, workstation class GPU, Core2Duo 2.0 GHz, all the trimmings. Nice machine in every possible respect.
Doesn’t even begin to compare to my MacBook Pro at home. Not even close. Yes, Office 2007 is a *KILLER* office suite, but aside from that, there’s nothing that makes the experience even sniff that of the Mac, regardless of how cutting-edge the hardware is.
Thanks for your comments.
I am one of those weirdos that bought a MacBook and put XP on it. It is the best install of XP I have ever used and I think it is because it is the first completely ‘clean’ XP install I have done, no crappy pre-installed software to get in the way. And it is the first XP laptop that both goes to sleep and wakes up properly (and consistently) when I close (or open) it up.
That said, OSX boots faster and goes into and out of sleep faster, and, of course, is just prettier.
I bought this MacBook in the spring as a stop gap measure because my old Sony was just too slow to readily run CS2. My plan was to use the MacBook until I could get a powerful Vista desktop next year (and then continue to use the MacBook for traveling and visiting clients). But, it has so surpassed my expectations that I have axed my plans to get that new machine.
Oh, and I think one of the things that makes Macs so pretty, from the outside, is the lack of half a dozen vendor stickers on it.
Certainly computers are tools and found everywhere. What seems to be desirable about the Macintosh and in particular, OSX is the positive user experience.
It is this experience that has kept me a long time user, particularly in this age of the computer as a commodity. In summary, my MacBook Pro is made well, it feels, well, and it simply works.
I probably use my Windows XP computer in my office almost daily, and yes, I’m quite productive when I use it. But there’s always something to have to configure or watch out for or maintain.
Apples seems to have it right in their design of both hardware and software.
Neal — I agree. As much flak as Apple takes by those who don’t like the company or its products, they sure have stumbled upon a holistic (and I hate that word) combination of design and functionality that seems to resonate with people.
Yes all of which most this is true, but I really disagree with Apples marketing campaign in one specific ad they seem to create an impression that, PCs can’t do these things at all. Fair enough you’ve had your fair share of PC troubles, But it all comes down to the Hardware, Every verion of WinXP is still WinXP, Why does it work on This macine but run poorly on that macine etc, Its the Hardware- RAM, Motherboard, HDD that makes the PC, if theres bad hardware in the computer something is bound to go wrong. One that is important to remember is how many PCs there are out there, and continue to be made. Now Apple has had its fair share of problems, take the iPod for example when they first shipped they had a battery fault and life of only 4hrs, and a vast amount of the new MBs are shutting off (Supposably because of the logic board which is built by intel) But all I’m saying is, in the end its a computer, and yes some people find the GUI stunning, call me crazy, but I don’t see the big deal with it, I use my PC only to create videos, compose music and theres the every now and then gaming session.
I don’t know if how I’m explaining this is right, but I REALLY REALLY Love my PC, I’m a PC enthusiast and find no problems prompts or slowdowns, and to note- I use Macs at work, they are good, but not good enough for Windows to deserve all this bashing and “oh its so crap”
…CONTINUED…
.. Not that anyone said that in this thread, But it kinda seems that way from most people who don’t fully understand how a PC works and why it does what.
I Hope everyone can understand my point of view, I respect Apple and its great products, I just wish some of these modern day Mac users could just do the same, for our (PC Users) sake.
Best Regards
Damien Lobb