TechMiso

A quick couple of months have passed since I migrated from a Microsoft Windows environment to Apple’s OS X — the experience so far has turned out to be nothing shy of rapturous.

I’m still grounded in Microsoft at work, but have no complaints doing so — it keeps me unbiased.

I’ll say this about Mac-

The plunge was comparable to standing on the edge of a bungee platform with feet planted 200 feet above a tiny gorge. And then, having your best buddy devilishly push you off with no warning.

OS X is fortunate to have its feet planted firmly in the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) -or- sometimes known [more affectionately] as Berkeley UNIX. This foundation allows Mac systems to serve up a great deal of stability — which easily correlates to a strong sense of comfort and control.

Open 10 heavy applications on a MacBook Pro laden with a 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo pumping instructions through 4 GB’s of 1067 MHz DDR3 memory and writing data across hard disk speeds clocking in at 7200 RPMs — you can multitask like a freak and never miss your beat.

Apple ponies up their dreamy OS (currently code named Leopard) to a comprehensive list of quality Mac applications. There are some apps that make the Mac Experience even that much more tweak’able and personable.

MailPlane for email-
Diehard Gmail user? MailPlane on the Mac gives you that browser-like feel through an email client that offers full-on Gmail functionality and then some. Drag ‘n’ drop attachments, optimize photos, capture screenshots automatically to MailPlane and multiple Gmail account access within 2 clicks are just a few of MailPlane’s hottest features.

MarsEdit for blogging software-
If you’re a blogger on a Mac and not using MarsEdit — what are you waiting for. Accurate story previews, Flickr integration, HTML markup macros, cross-blog compatibility and offline drafting make this blog editing software a ‘must have’ for any serious blogger.

Adium for IM-
Stable open source instant messaging that taxes your system’s resources little to none. AOL, MSN, Google Talk, MySpace and Facebook are only a few of the 15+ IM networks that Adium can link up with — keeping your IM experience smooth and organized.

Growl for event notifications-
Tie in all your interactive Mac apps with a solid system notifier that’s consistent and configurable. Growl gives you the perfect notification engine for apps like MailPlane, MarsEdit and Adium.

Then there’s the near exploit-free Mac security for some important and additional value-added computing. With a range of built-in mechanisms to keep you hack-free, the one item worth a strong mention is OS X’s sandboxing.

Enjoy a higher level of protection. Sandboxing prevents hackers from hijacking applications to run their own code by making sure applications only do what they’re intended to do. -Apple

You have the best of both worlds in a Mac. The combination of a stable UNIX computing platform plus reliable and relevant applications. The combination of the two easily pushes Mac out ahead of Windows in reliability and user satisfaction.

Granted — The leap from Microsoft to Mac is not for everyone. Granted — There is a learning curve. But with an open mind and an awareness of Mac’s potential, adding a Mac to your life can be a tangibly rewarding technology upgrade.