Apple

Think moving from a Windows PC to a Mac is easy? My experience, and my wife's, may encourage you to think differently. Here's the story:

When my latest Thinkpad began to get unreasonably slow, as Windows laptops often do after a year or so of use, I thought it'd be a good time to jump to the Mac platform for a while to see what the fuss was about. My wife's three-year-old laptop was running out of gas as well, so I thought she and I could make the change together. I was looking forward to an interesting period of learning a new platform, and I thought my wife, a heavy e-mail and Internet user but not someone who enjoys tinkering, would appreciate the fit and finish of products in the Apple ecosystem. I didn't think we'd have to give up much.

I bought a matched pair of MacBooks for us, and, over the holidays, we went cold turkey, leaving the Windows machines at home while we traveled to my wife Jennifer's parents for a 10-day-long holiday stay.

Technologically, it was not the happiest of vacations.

Skin deep?

(Credit: Rafe Needleman/CNET News)

Before I get into the things that have been driving us batty, let me just say that the Apple hardware we moved to is gorgeous, and has been reliable. I'm enjoying the stability of OS X and the genius of the multitouch trackpad. And I love that fact that after I put the MacBook to sleep by closing the lid I don't have to worry about it not starting again when I open it.

But when it comes to the different applications my wife and I use, and to moving data from the Windows realm to the Mac, and to accessing hardware we already have, the process of switching continues to be rocky. Not all of the issues we have are with Apple products, and that's rather the point: No platform exists in a vacuum. People use other apps, and have their own training and preexisting hardware. Switching means overcoming a lot of technological inertia.