Apple Apple Apple...

Extended time with 2 27" iMacs and a 15" MacBook Pro; what I learned...

So I recently spent a couple of days setting up a couple of huge iMacs and a MacBook. And it was actually pretty fun. The iMac is a beautiful piece of engineering and the display is gorgeous. But the really money was finally being able to bind a OSX based machine to the domain here at work, get all the required software and connections working and have it all happen in a relatively short amount of time. I was also able to document everything so I have a reference for next time or for the "other guy" who doesn't have a clue what to do in this environment (I was that "other guy", thrust into the midst of chaos and no one knows what to do). I got some experience with installing MS Office 2008 for the Mac, Parallels Desktop 5 (with a Windows XP guest OS), and the lousy but necessary campus AV package (McAffee). I was also able to bypass the lame Cisco VPN connection they enforce here by just setting up a VPN connection in OSX (I also was able to do this in Windows 7). At last, no 'extra' software to connect to a VPN when it's built right into the OS. Binding to the domain (a Windows Active Directory environment) was pretty simple and I applaud Apple for making it that way. The easier it is to integrate with you competitor, the less grief for the consumer.

I am no Apple sympathizer, but they can make some beautiful equipment. Now if Microsoft gets in on system design, it would be an interesting turn of events (they already have Microsoft stores... but for how long, who knows). Either way, the only 2 drawbacks, to me anyway, are the pricing and program compatibility (ie GAMES). There is value in the pricing, but it's still out of reach for many, and a waste of money for many. I still bend to the latter though process. The games aspect is shrinking slowly. Many games, especially those from independent developers, have Mac ports, and I think as time goes on, we'll see a majority of games playable on both Windows and Mac platforms... if the current trends continue. That's the only question on many developers minds.

Eh, anyway, it was fun to mess with them. I did miss a 2nd mouse button. The new Apple mouse came with the iMacs and they were pretty interesting (multi-touch devices). I did like the integration of the bluetooth(?) keyboard and mouse. No setup whatsoever and I had 2 iMacs side-by-side.