FunJoel, one of the growing numbers of screenwriting bloggers recently asked whether he should get (a) a laptop and (b) a mac. (ie switching from a windows desktop). I wrote a rather lengthy reply, which I'm going to repeat because it'll appear as if I have content:
I'm a Mac user through and through. They're just, well, elegant. If you appreciate elegance, you'll appreciate Macs - especially their laptops. Whats more, is that *developers* appreciate the elegance and design elegant software.
For someone who lives with their computer, like a writer, then elegance is a necessity. Spotlight will save you time wading through your notes, e-mails, word documents, etc. Dashboard widgets like for wikipedia are great for quite fire research. OS X has some of the most innovative and well executed shareware on the market for writers: voodoopad, omnioutliner, netnewswire.. iChat is pretty damn common amongst our studio clients for both text and video conferencing. (We use iChat with Cinesync for client reviews) The lack of required maintenance makes the machine far more elegant. Secure encryption of your documents is easily activated with a click (and its vital if you have anything requiring an NDA on your machine or nothing you want leaked). Apple's .Mac suites includes *great* tools like Backup which will automantically back up your documents [encrypted] to Apple's own servers... The best executed wireless software I've seen. Bluetooth implementation that's actually useful... Being able to print to PDFs from ANY application... A built in text editor which can read doc files (great if you want to ditch word). There's all the functionality of quicktime... preview... iphoto.... blah.
All these things are more than the sum of their parts. Its moves a computer from being a mere appliance into something approaching an experience. Which is hard to understand. Hmm. Perhaps its the difference between a mac and a Pc is like the difference between reading a 1000 page novel printed in 10 point on newspaper, to reading a 1000 page novel printed in a legible font (14 point palantino say) on nice, rich paper that's proper bound. The *result* may the same, but if I'm going to spend serious time with something - I'd rather pay for the latter. Or, if you prefer: Macs are like a finely aged single malt (Talisker 18 years), whereas Windows is like straight Black Douglas. Still get you pissed, but if you drink for a living it ceases to be about getting pissed.
As for interoperability between Macintosh and Windows boxes... Its a fairly non-issue, worst case scenario you simply e-mail files to yourself. BUt you won't bother, cause you won't touch your box again.
And remember, just because you have a laptop doesn't mean you can't treat it like a desktop. I have a nice 20" display (which can be used portrait!) which I plug my laptop in at home and use a proper keyboard. Sure, its a little more money but you get the ergonomical advantage of a desktop without being tethered.
If you're not a power user - or simply can't justify the money for the sexy sexy Powerbook - I'd consider an iBook. They're a bargain and rather rugged.
Get an extendy warranty too. Its a bet thats not worth losing (especially as its a business expense) - if you need more economic justification, it adds a lot to the resale value of your machine. More than the proportional cost, I would say.
If you want to really understand the mentality of Macs, Mac users and Mac developers then I heartily recommend this article on a shareware program that epitomises it:
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/apps/delicious-library.ars
:)
I'm a Mac user through and through. They're just, well, elegant. If you appreciate elegance, you'll appreciate Macs - especially their laptops. Whats more, is that *developers* appreciate the elegance and design elegant software.
For someone who lives with their computer, like a writer, then elegance is a necessity. Spotlight will save you time wading through your notes, e-mails, word documents, etc. Dashboard widgets like for wikipedia are great for quite fire research. OS X has some of the most innovative and well executed shareware on the market for writers: voodoopad, omnioutliner, netnewswire.. iChat is pretty damn common amongst our studio clients for both text and video conferencing. (We use iChat with Cinesync for client reviews) The lack of required maintenance makes the machine far more elegant. Secure encryption of your documents is easily activated with a click (and its vital if you have anything requiring an NDA on your machine or nothing you want leaked). Apple's .Mac suites includes *great* tools like Backup which will automantically back up your documents [encrypted] to Apple's own servers... The best executed wireless software I've seen. Bluetooth implementation that's actually useful... Being able to print to PDFs from ANY application... A built in text editor which can read doc files (great if you want to ditch word). There's all the functionality of quicktime... preview... iphoto.... blah.
All these things are more than the sum of their parts. Its moves a computer from being a mere appliance into something approaching an experience. Which is hard to understand. Hmm. Perhaps its the difference between a mac and a Pc is like the difference between reading a 1000 page novel printed in 10 point on newspaper, to reading a 1000 page novel printed in a legible font (14 point palantino say) on nice, rich paper that's proper bound. The *result* may the same, but if I'm going to spend serious time with something - I'd rather pay for the latter. Or, if you prefer: Macs are like a finely aged single malt (Talisker 18 years), whereas Windows is like straight Black Douglas. Still get you pissed, but if you drink for a living it ceases to be about getting pissed.
As for interoperability between Macintosh and Windows boxes... Its a fairly non-issue, worst case scenario you simply e-mail files to yourself. BUt you won't bother, cause you won't touch your box again.
And remember, just because you have a laptop doesn't mean you can't treat it like a desktop. I have a nice 20" display (which can be used portrait!) which I plug my laptop in at home and use a proper keyboard. Sure, its a little more money but you get the ergonomical advantage of a desktop without being tethered.
If you're not a power user - or simply can't justify the money for the sexy sexy Powerbook - I'd consider an iBook. They're a bargain and rather rugged.
Get an extendy warranty too. Its a bet thats not worth losing (especially as its a business expense) - if you need more economic justification, it adds a lot to the resale value of your machine. More than the proportional cost, I would say.
If you want to really understand the mentality of Macs, Mac users and Mac developers then I heartily recommend this article on a shareware program that epitomises it:
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/apps/delicious-library.ars
:)
posted by stu willis at
12:34 am
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