Following in Vlad’s footsteps (see Joining the Mac Family), I too am switching from a Dell laptop to a MacBook Pro. I was waiting for the new, beefier models to hit the stores, which they did on 2/27/08 (”Penryn” processors, 250GB hard drives, and more gestures recognized by the touchpad). I decided to go with the 15″ model. Vlad likes his 17″, but I think it’s too unwieldy. The 15″, which barely fits in the backpack I was using with my Dell, is perfect for me.

Unlike Vlad, this is my first experience with Apple Macs whatsoever. Ugh, is this keyboard going to take some getting used to! Other than that, I’m finding the experience pleasant, overall. Vlad’s been raving about how, on a Mac, applications all talk to each other in a cohesive environment, and I’m jazzed about the potential there. He mentioned Quicksilver and Growl, in particular, as two of the chief components in this merry dance.

The first thing I did was to move my connectivity over — using Apple Mail for e-mail and Adium for instant messaging. Adium works exactly like the Trillian software that I was used to on the PC, and Apple Mail seems to offer all of the important features that I am used to in Outlook. I have used Thunderbird in the past, and I think I’m going to like Apple Mail better, although if I end up with Thunderbird I won’t be terribly disappointed, either.

My only hitch so far came when I started loading up other applications, a couple of which don’t play nice. I’ll write about that in my next post. Stay tuned.

Related articles:

• Joining the Mac Family

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