Making the switch part 3

Nearly a month has past since I last posted about the possibility of switching .

Since that time I’ve been lugging two laptops back and forth to work. I can’t make the switch and make it stick. There’s simply too much missing on the OS X front, at least for me from a network admin perspective.

Yes I use BOTH computers daily. Unfortunately, my job requires Windows. I simply use far too many things to not use Windows. After all the network I manage is primarily Windows based.

All that’s missing from making the complete switch for me is Applications and compatibility. This wonderful MacBook Pro is just an accessory, another tool in my arsenal.

Doing everything by Remote Desktop is fine in a pinch but when you need SQL admin tools they just don’t exist.

I’m still struggling to find good tools for simply tasks like updating this blog.

There are tools out there, don’t get me wrong, but they are all missing something or aren’t good enough for me to cough up the shareware fee.

I’m using Office 2004 (the 3 year old) Office platform because that’s the latest. Using the Windows equivalent is simply a better experience. Entourage is very nice, but I need better/full Exchange compatibility and interoperability. While mail and the Calendar functions certainly do work (using Exchange OWA as the connection method, Tasks don’t sync and there are some issues.

I’m not a graphic designer, and I’m plenty happy with Photoshop CS on Windows. People that bitch about the mouse not being as good just need to buy a better mouse.

If I were a ‘consultant’ again and could dictate what platform I used, I could use this Mac. But I’m not. The systems that are paramount to the organization that I work with dictate the platform that I have to use as my primary environment.

I simply don’t have access to the tools I use the most and haven’t found good OS X counterparts yet.

For as many screwed up thing as there are about Windows, and there are plenty, there are similar annoyances with the Mac. Give me another button on this track-pad, give me standard PC keyboard layout. These things just shouldn’t be different. We’ve progressed past the one button mouse, and so should the track-pad.

Can’t we all just get along? ☺

Written by datapoohbah on January 13th, 2007 with 2 comments.
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