私の物語: November 2012

The good old saying by those who embrace Apple and Mac OS X.

Honestly, I used to think: "what's the big deal about OS X? Apple is just over priced product due to brand name, and OS X is just a simple operating system which doesn't compatible with anything but other Apple stuff". Well, this is what everyone out there been thinking all this while. Until the day when I'd finally fed up of Microsoft and decided to give Mac a try... I just realized that how foolish I am to have been thinking that way.

I have been using my Macbook Pro with Retina Display for 1.5 months, and I just thought of writing down some of my experience to share with others who are having a misconception against Apple, Mac or OS X. It's an Apple against the whole world, so sit back, relax and hope you enjoy reading what I'm about to share with you.

Software: OS X against Microsoft
The battle of the operating systems. People still stick with Windows because they think that when they switch to OS X, they will lose everything they have... they will not be able to run their favourite software on OS X, all other stuff or gadget will not compatible with OS X and etc. Therefore, they will stay with Windows until the end of the world. Honestly, other than some programming application which does not run under OS X, any other popular program/application out there will have a version which support OS X. Adobe products for example, and even Microsoft itself is having Office and messenger for OS X.

In fact, OS X is on the upper hand to have integration with facebook within the operating system itself, cloud storage integration through icloud, messenger service which links to any device through messages app and much more. The operation through OS X is very simple and "makes sense". Apps can be call out easily by a swipe of your fingers and everything is very well organised within the OS. Software or apps can be easily download and obtained through app store, which is safer compared to randomly downloading from the internet. Oh boy, how I feel like wasted 25 years of my life stucked in Windows OS.

Some people say that unlike Windows, you can't customise OS X. This is totally wrong. You can customise more than what Windows can actually do by running geektool and scripts. Anyway, to be fair it is not as easy as 1, 2, 3. And there are some glitches in OS X too, such as you cannot "cut" a file and paste it some where like how you do it in Windows, pressing "delete" alone will not delete a file and etc. But all these glitches are mainly due to user who had used to Windows, and all these glitches do have their workaround to get it nicely done. And by the way, did I mentioned that when you want to install a software or app in OS X, you just need to drag and drop into the App folder and you are done? No more waste of time required to wait for the software to install (which took ages in Windows).

Hardware: Macbook against Laptop
Oh boy, there's nothing much I need to elaborate here. Macbook is certainly the laptop with best build quality out there. The keyboard is just so comfortable to type on (well, others are catching up by copying Macbook), the whole laptop is just solid with it's aluminium casing (others are copying this as well, but most laptop are still built from cheap plastic), the design is nice (there are nice laptop from others too, but you'll notice others are trying to copy Macbook's design as well), light weight and slim, and most of all, they are coming with jaw dropping battery life.

By the way, do I really need to mentioned how great is the Retina Display screen? You'll feel that you are "immersed" into the content displayed on the screen... this is just how good the Retina Screen is. But, beware that when you are viewing software, website or pictures that are low res or not optimised for high res screen, be prepare to suffer the pixelated output. But as the trend has been set, others will follow soon with high res screen (and Samsung will be likely the first to copy it) and this problem will soon be overcome. And another thing that should be well noted is how great the trackpad is on the Macbook... they are simply brilliant. It really makes me wonder what the hell has been going on in the R&D lab of others... the first thing they should copy is not the design or the spec, rather is the trackpad.

People tend to say they can pay less for the same spec of Apple product... well, actually they can, but the difference? Not significant. Taking Macbook Air as example, closest competitor will be Ultrabook, and the price difference? Hardly a big gap between them. As for my Macbook Pro with Retina Display, there's not even a comparable competitor out there. Closest comparable laptop with slightly lower spec and worse screen is already closing in to the price point, so did Macbook really charging a premium?

Overall: Apple against the rest of the World
Up to date, my experience with OS X, Macbook and Apple is very encouraging. I won't say Windows is trash, as we are now seeing Microsoft working there ass off to get Windows 8 closer to the like of OS X by introducing all sorts of direct integration and simpler interface. However, no matter how good Windows OS turns out, it will soon be compromised by different hardware out there. Everyone is making their own hardware, without any control on it, the user experience will greatly affected. This is where Apple actually excel compared to others. People will name it as "closed system", however I would say it is a "controlled system" or "very well managed system". By having the ability to build both the hardware and software allows Apple to deliver such a seamless product to the market, and this is also the reason why they are the largest and the best company out there, standing strong.

All in all, I'm enjoying my Macbook, and maybe I can share on iOS against Android in the future when I can get my hands on an iPad or iPhone. Till then.