I’ve been hungering for a Macbook for a long while now. I fell in love with Apple last year, after finally deciding to see what all of the fuss was about. I played with OSX on both a Macbook Pro and an iMac and I was blown away with how smooth and beautiful it was. From that moment, I knew I had to have a Mac.
I waited and saved. I planned on getting one when my tax refund came, so I bided my time by looking at Apple.com and other sites to see what sorts of deals they would have. It only fed the hunger.
Earlier this week, our tax refund came. I’d been checking Apple.com religiously the week prior, looking at the price of the refurbished units and plotting which one I would get. I’d decided to get the standard Macbook instead of the Pro. Though I will eventually buy a Pro because I will want to dip back into PC/Mac gaming, it’s not a necessity at the moment. I just need something that is portable so I can do my freelancing and novel writing in a place other than my office. The standard Macbook is a perfect fit.
Ordering the Macbook was easy but we ran into a few problems because of rules our bank had. Unfortunately, Apple.com and the customer service providers weren’t helpful in remedying our problems, which I won’t get into here. Suffice it to say, instead of waiting to get the Macbook next week, we were forced to go to our local Apple Store to make the purchase. Though I had to spend $100 extra that I didn’t want to spend, I still got 6% off because of my corporate discount. We walked out of our local Apple Store on Friday with a brand new Macbook and the standard 1 year warranty.
Starting it up was amazing. It loaded extremely fast. We were able to create two accounts with ease and it connected to our network without a hitch. I started immediately fooling with the preferences and ironing out any little kinks. Since I come from a strictly Windows background, there are things that will be hard to unlearn. Fortunately, OSX is a very flexible OS and has been a joy to use. Spaces and Expose have opened my eyes in terms of screen real estate.
After finishing some basic things, I started transferring my more important files. I wasn’t sure how hard that would turn out to be but thus far it’s been simple. Simple enough, in fact, that the standard organization I used under Windows now feels archaic and messy… and I was a very organized guy.
Once I transferred my writing and graphics, such as wallpapers and photographs, I started fleshing out my applications. I have iWork and MS Office for free for a month but I don’t want to become dependent on them, so I downloaded Neo Office instead. Neo Office is extraordinary in terms of features. It’s everything I could ask for. I was hesitant about using it for my Excel files, since my spreadsheets hold our financials, but it’s been a blessing. I also grabbed a few other applications that people on Neogaf suggested and each one has been an eye opener.
The switch is essentially finished now. I have everything I need. The rest of my things are on our two 120 GB hard drives in my old computer, an 80 GB hard drive in Allie’s, and a 30 GB hard drive in our spare computer. At the moment, I’m moving roughly 40 GB worth of information to Allie’s computer and restructuring the other two hard drives. I plan to get enclosures for the 2 120s and the 30, leave the 80 in our Windows machine, and hook the other three up to a USB hub. Once we get a new router, I’ll let them stream off the router. Since we’re not dependent on streaming video, the lower throughput shouldn’t be a problem.
I’m the owner of a brand new Macbook and I couldn’t be happier. I’m finally sitting in my living room on the floor, where I’m most comfortable, and typing to my heart’s desire. Life is good. What more could I ask for?
The Shepherd's Sons 