PC Girl Gets a Mac! [Updated]

My Dear Reader,

So I absolutely had to buy a Mac for my new job. It turns out that you can't really edit video on a PC. Before May, the only real contact I'd had with a Mac was with an old (mid-1990s) model the my childhood best friend had. I remember not being very impressed at all, especially with the wallpaper. (When you're in elementary school, the wallpaper is what really matters.)

I admit that the next time I ever thought about a Mac was my first semester in college, when I had a floor-mate who would hand out Mac pamphlets like they were tickets to the Promised Land. She seriously tried to convert us all.

I was slightly turned off.

However, after my vast experience with PCs, and my month of experience with a Mac, I feel that I have the knowledge necessary to compare the two. In all fairness, I'm going to have to compare it to modern PCs and not the one I own, which I bought in 2003 (and named Eris, after the Greek god of discord). The new Mac, by the way, has been christened Catriona, the Scottish version of Catherine. Here's the list of pros and cons so far:

Pros:

• It's pretty.
• It has an eject button right on the keyboard!
• It starts up and shuts down quickly.
• The monitor isn't separate from the tower, which keeps things simple. Less cords equals good.
• It has a lot of media-friendly programs that come with it, like GarageBand and iMovie.
• I think it deserves two bullet points for just how pretty it is.

Cons:

• It came with only half of a keyboard! Instead of coming with the full, ten-key board that is normal for desktops, it came with the condensed version that come on laptops. I use those extra keys for my job, so I had to buy the full keyboard for an extra $50. Blech.
• No right-click on the mouse! Ahhhhh!
• The Safari browser that comes with it likes to close unexpectedly a lot. Especially when I'm trying to get into my Netflix account. Internet Explorer seems a lot more stable.
• I still have to restart the computer whenever I download something or have a problem! The Mac Guy lies!
• It's a lot harder to install extra memory correctly.
• A lot of the cool freeware I like isn't available for a Mac. In general, it seems like if you want to modify a Mac, you're out of luck.
• I don't buy the "Macs never get viruses" thing.
• The free word processor is lame, as is any of the non-media software. It appears that the Mac is only designed to be practical if you're in the entertainment industry.
• Like, every single program on this thing has an "i" in front of it. I want to beat myself with something. iCal for the calendar? Come on!
• There is no SD card slot! In general, if it's not connectible by Firewire or USB, you're out of luck.

The funny thing is that with all things considered, the majority of it is very much the same. With all of these differences, though, I think I'm still a PC girl. Hopefully I'll get used to the change sooner or later, right?

Regards, best wishes, and sorry this post was late,

-Cecily Jane