The Creative Mom

My first computer was an Apple 2C.  My dad bought me a “drawing” program that let you color pictures like a digital coloring book.  It was crude, awkward, had only eight colors and was utterly magical.  My current computer is a brand new iMac, complete with Adobe Creative Suite 3, which allows you to color pictures with a few more than just eight colors.  Between my first and my current computer I was, admittedly, a loyal PC user.  Although I enjoyed my time in Windowland, it’s hard not to be pulled into the bright and shiny simplicity that Apple has cultivated so well.  

As the last remaining digital artist still using a PC I was tempted to change over several times, but I had three major roadblocks: PC software, PC using clients and a PC gamer husband. 

I knew that I needed a new computer, and I was impressed with the iMac.  But, I own expensive Adobe software.  To buy the Mac version of this software would have cost me as much as my new computer.  So, I was shopping for another PC.  But, a quick stop in the Apple store changed my life.  I found out that Adobe will transfer your license from one platform to another, free of charge.  All it took was a phone call, one piece of paperwork and five bucks for shipping, and I had the Mac version of CS3 ready to install. I did have to sign an ominous sounding document called a “Letter of Destruction,” stating that I would destroy my PC version.  I figure on using intense neglect as my destruction method.  With this major roadblock cleared joining the bright and shiny apple people was looking doable. I still had a couple more issues though.

When I was in grad school we had a Mac lab and a PC lab. The department kept them in separate rooms so that an enraged, sleep deprived student having file compatibility issues would only destroy half of the computers if he snapped three hours before his thesis presentation.  It was file compatibility problems like these that kept me working on windows.  I certainly didn’t want to send completed projects to clients using PCs only to have them not work properly or have formating issues. This problem was valid ten years ago, I think it is almost irrelevant now.  It seems that Mac finally realized that file extensions are a pretty good idea.  I’ve transfered files to and from my Mac and my PC and emailed to and from other Macs and PCs and other than a few “permission” problems that were easily fixed once I made friends with Finder I’ve had no problems.  I can even open Microsoft Word documents in Pages as well as save Pages files as Microsoft Word documents.  My PC fanatic friends may never even know I have forsaken the dark side!  At least my file extensions won’t give me away.

I have had one last Mac to PC roadblock hanging around for the last ten years.  My husband is a gamer.  Although there are some ways around this, such as using Bootcamp to run Windows on your Mac or buying the Mac versions of popular games, there is a much better solution, one that will not only help improve your marriage, but it will get Weird Al off your iTunes.  His and Hers computers.  You’re a grown up, and it is 2008.  You don’t need to share a computer with your spouse.  

Although I haven’t put my cute little Apple sticker on my car quite yet, I have been  enjoying my new life as a Mac user. I have found that compared to their Microsoft counterparts, Mac applications are, once you get over your bad PC habits, easier to use.  In Windows there are a ton of ways to do any one thing.  On a Mac there is usually only one way, the easiest way.  I like to think that your Mac is like a woman.  Once you realize that doing things her way is the best way, life is good.   Finder and I have good days and bad, but we’re learning to work together.  I still try and close windows in the upper right corner, and the whole command/control key thing is hard to relearn.  But those little things are worth the elitist high I get when I think about the next big Windows virus that will strike all of those stubborn PC users.  

I’m a big fan of iLife so far, especially iPhoto, and Mac’s MobileMe is pretty cool stuff.  Backing up my work often helps keep me from having random anxiety attacks, so I love iDisk. But the best thing of all, the thing that tipped the scales in favor of Apple… It just looks so seek and sexy sitting on my desk.  And, let’s face it, Apple has some awesome designers working for them, designers who don’t get overruled by the engineers.  Everything from the keyboard and mouse to the instruction manuals to the website tutorials radiate that sleek and shiny Appleness.  Even a die hard PC user has to admire that.