The Mac is Poison!!

Yesurbius · #1 February 7th, 2007, 03:13 PM

In 1995 I purchased my first Mac. I purchased it for 'learning purposes'. I wanted to further my experience as a technician, and be able to support Mac OS X as well. I had a souped up Windows XP machine - ATI Radeon 9600XT, Athlon XP 2600+ .. ASUS board .. nice machine.

My Mac Mini arrived and I found that my XP machine started collecting dust. I was no longer interested in games and I was busy doing web development, surfing the internet, and all my day-to-day functions ... without my XP machine.

In time, I sold my XP machine and stuck exclusively to my Mac. I spent 9 months away from any windows machines, and when I returned to the work force (end of 1995), I realized that I was at a significant disadvantage.

I had forgotten simple clickpaths with XP. I was attempting to guide customers over the phone and was struggling. I had totally missed the spyware explosion in 1995, that saw spyware and rogue spyware surfacing on all the computers in mass numbers. I had to therefore learn as much as I could - without having an XP machine to work with.

By the end of 2006, it became clear to me that I needed to get myself a Windows machine and right quick - because without the ability to 'play' - I found I was learning nothing pre-emptively and was only learning whilst fixing customers' issues.

I came to a realization ... since I had my Mac, I had one system crash, one corrupt system (Epson printer drivers pooched my printing subsystem) and only a few mild software quirks, all of which were corrected by fixing permissions. Nothing much broke on the Mac. And while this is great for productivity and ability - it poisons your ability to constantly learn about current issues on Windows - and hurts me as a computer professional.

I used to use my older machines and run various Unix clones on them - mostly OpenBSD. I'd setup apache, bind, postfix/sendmail, as well as delve into whatever experimental software gets posted on sourceforge. Then I'd network it to my windows machine and play-client server. I built skills that have assisted me for the last 12 years that I've been a tech. Since I've gotten my Mac ... I didn't need another machine because the command prompt let me delve into whatever I wanted. I installed Development tools and could play around with whatever I wanted... Mostly SQL server, apache - and I did my web programming / design on the same machine.

My original intent was to learn Mac OS X, and you could definately say I have done that. I went to work in a local Apple Reseller's service center last year - and most of the work being done was hardware repairs. Nearly all the software issues were either Entourage, or OS 8/9 systems (which I knew very little about). There was very little software work, and the pay was quite pitiful. I left after a month or so - I had no apple certs and did not want a hardware career.

I converted my friend a year ago to Mac .. I couldn't understand why, last month, he purchased a few Dell machines. His rational was that he needed to run PCs ... if he bought Macs instead of PCs, then he'd spend more time in Mac OS and not in Windows - which would defeat the purpose of why he bought them (to setup test environments that he could learn from, and re-apply at work). I understand where he is coming from. I think I'm going to need to do the same as well - deliberately buy some PCs so I can continue to learn.

As nice as Macs are - they aren't the dominant machine out there - and they don't create jobs as much as windows does. Hell, even providing Mac support is not going to be profitable because most people with Mac OS X don't run into the kind of problems they run into with Windows. The jobs out there right now for Mac administrators are few and far between - there are very few Mac technician positions ... just not something to make a career out of.

So to remain competitive in the job market - I need to leave my mac for a bit :P But I don't wanna....

nixgeek · #2 February 7th, 2007, 03:40 PM

Well, there's no need to leave your Mac. You can just use a Windows computer in conjunction with your Mac. Do all the necessary learning on your Windows computer (tinkering, troubleshooting, etc.), and then do all of the stuff you enjoy on your Mac.

Now if you have an Intel Mac, then you don't even need to get another computer as I'm sure you know. There's also Parallels for installing various other x86 operating systems and various other Microsoft operating systems such as Windows Server 2003 and whatnot.

symphonix · #3 February 7th, 2007, 05:28 PM

To remain competitive in the job market, you need to leave IT completely.

Yesurbius · #4 February 7th, 2007, 06:06 PM

LOL Na - the substance of what I was saying is that the mac is just too good. If you have it - you'll want to use it LOL

Seriously tho .. Fired up IE7 on vista the other day .. went to a microsoft website ... and the browser locked up ... whole computer became sluggish - then the browser crashed. When you deal with stuff like that it makes you glad yer running Mac

PS - I'm on a G4 Mac Mini

**fryke** · #5 February 7th, 2007, 06:46 PM

"In 1995 I purchased my first Mac. I purchased it for 'learning purposes'. I wanted to further my experience as a technician, and be able to support Mac OS X as well." - Wow. You were _quite_ early with Mac OS X support back then, I'd say. :P

sinclair_tm · #6 February 7th, 2007, 07:17 PM

i noticed that as well. that and his 1st mac was a mini in 1995...

i use both a mac and win xp pc at home. mac for everything but games. but i do have to use windows at work, so i get my daily dose, and am able to help just about everyone with their computer needs on the side.

eric2006 · #7 February 7th, 2007, 07:26 PM

I used an XP machine 3 years ago. Luckily, nothing has changed for the OS in 5 years, so I'm still up-to-speed, and I will be until Vista takes over in 2-3 years (though I can't imagine Vista troubleshooting being much different).

Yesurbius · #8 February 7th, 2007, 08:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eric2006

I'm still up-to-speed, and I will be until Vista takes over in 2-3 years (though I can't imagine Vista troubleshooting being much different).

What's under the hood is considerably different. I haven't had hardly anytime to get into it.

I'm not sure what you guys were getting at with the "He was _QUITE_ early" .. I assume that's sarcasm but not getting what the sarcasm is for..

I've been following Mac OS X development since it was an obscure webpage on Apple's website back in 2000 .. took me 5 years to build up the courage to chuck my money toward it

Seriously tho - 1995 isn't early. I've used Panther and Tiger. I worked with others when I was a systems admin at a high school.

Know what I really think Mac OS X needs??? Thin client capability. That'd change a lot of things on the business side of things...