Thinking of adding a Mac to your stable of computers, or just ditching Windows entirely? Lots of people are doing it. Macs—especially the laptops—also have a lot of advantages over Windows computers for the solo practitioner.
My wife recently got a MacBook after using Windows for years, and the switch was relatively painless. But there are a few differences. For example, on a Mac, closing the window does not close the program, like it does in most Windows apps. And it can take a minute to figure out where the right mouse button is (on a laptop, just use two fingers on the touchpad while clicking).
In addition to Mossberg’s basic tips, Apple offers some “101″ guides for the new Mac user: Mac 101 and Switch 101.
Some General Tips for Switch to Mac From Windows | All Thing Digital (via BoingBoing Gadgets)
Sam Glover is a business and consumer rights lawyer and the creator of Lawyerist.
Lawyerist is the #1 law practice blog. We write about marketing, practice management, career development, and more.
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Sam, I just discovered your website after linking from a CLE news alert that I run. Good stuff – I’ve bookmarked it and will peruse more fully later.
I also recently switched to a Mac when my Vaio of 4+ years started sputtering. Because I was transitioning to a consultancy and attempting to create my own websites, blogs, figure out accounting software, and many other small business and personal applications, it was a bit of a nightmare — long, long hours figuring out what worked and what didn’t. I like my Mac but the timing wasn’t right.
Bootcamp is impractical — no busy user will consistently shut down and reboot their computer to access another operating system and Parallels is less than ideal but still experimenting.
Looking forward to checking out additional tips and reviews here. Keep up the good work!
Tim Baran
http://www.BaranLLC.com
http://www.CLEPost.com
I think the hardest part about switching is definitely learning to use new software, especially for those who are very dependent on a particular piece of software.
I agree dual-booting is impractical. Virtualizing with Parallels is faster, but using VM Ware Fusion is probably more effective for most, if you just have to use Windows for something.
For this reason, I try to stay away from software that uses proprietary file formats. “Proprietary” meaning that no other software can read the files easily (or at all). Open formats (even Microsoft’s .doc format is now sort of open) make switching a lot easier.