From Windows to Mac: One Photographer’s Transition

I’ve always had an interest in the technical side of PC’s; from building custom systems to trying out new software just for fun. As time’s gone on and modern day life became more demanding, my hobbyist approach to computers had to shift onto the sidelines somewhat as I became more user than tinkerer.

As far as operating systems went, Windows was what I knew best and what I’d stuck with for many years. Sure, I’d had experience of other operating systems such as Linux, but Windows was what I used to work and play for the majority of the time.

Nowadays, my thirst for more productive time is at an all time high. As a photographer processing lots of relatively large files, having a computer platform that performs and is stable is a high priority. Unfortunately, my main Windows computer had become more and more unreliable as time went on. Having received many glowing first-hand reports on the latest generation of Macs and also from my own experience at Apple stores, I decided it was time leave the annoyances of Windows behind.

That brings me to today. I’ve left behind a large, noisy PC tower to a shiny, quiet, compact MacBook Pro. Not only has the transition been quick, but it’s been easy too. For almost every application I used on Windows, I’ve been able to replace with a Mac equivalent. For the few applications that are currently (Mac versions are under development) Windows only, I’ve still got the option of running them from within a virtual Windows installation running within the Mac OS.

The operating system is friendly and just lets me get on doing what I want to do rather than having to mess about with too many settings and having to install drivers. This means that I don’t need to put on my technical hat to and I don’t feel the need to swear at the computer because a window or dialogue from another application has just rudely popped in front of the one I was using and intercepted the keystrokes I’d just made.

All of my peripherals, bar my ancient scanner which required a driver download, worked when I plugged them in. Connecting to wireless networks has been completely painless. Photoshop, Lightroom and Photomatix are all running faster than I ever had them on Windows. Even the memory issues that plagued Lightroom for Windows seem to have been left behind. The integration between these three mainstay applications also seems to be tighter on a Mac. Images can be exported from Lightroom to be automatically fed into Photomatix and back again. No need to go digging in Explorer!

As I still have the monitor I used with my PC, I simply plug this into my MacBook Pro (requires an adapter) and I get a very useful second display which can be used to extend the desktop or can serve its own purpose e.g. to provide an alternative view of images in Lightroom.

Then of course, the software that allows me to connect my Canon 5D to a computer also comes in a Mac flavour although I’m one who prefers to transfer images directly from the memory card using a USB card reader.

The downsides of migrating to Mac? There’s obviously the cost of such a migration to consider. Apple Macs aren’t cheap and then there’s the added cost of software to consider although some developers will allow you to transfer licenses for such a transition. The user interface is different from Windows although there are elements to it which are similar. You can still browse through the file system, you still have windows which you can maximise, minimise and close, etc. Some applications have a slightly different layout on Mac from what they have on Windows. The menu layout in Firefox being an example, but it’s not something that takes very long to get used to.

As I mentioned earlier, there were a few applications which I simply couldn’t find Mac-compatible alternatives which were as good.  For these, I had to turn to a virtual installation of Windows XP using VMWare’s Fusion.  It’s worth noting that installing Windows XP via Fusion was easier than installing it on a real computer because Fusion handles all of the driver side of things and even sets up the network connection for you.

The most technical issue I came across was to do with the fact that Mac OS X can’t natively write to NTFS formatted drives which caused a slight headache as that’s how I’d formatted my external hard drives. Fortunately, a solution was just a quick Google away in the form of MacFUSE and NTFS-3G.

As an experienced, computer literate user, my migration from Windows to Mac has been smooth and uneventful.  From the perspective of user-friendliness and stability, Mac OS X has been very good at keeping the gears and levers out of the way of my productivity.  For others who are less confident with computers, I think the move to Mac is still a good one as the benefits on offer after the move has been completed are very worthwhile.

As I’ve seen and heard from many Mac users, Macs just work.  I’m certainly not going to argue with them.