[thelist] Switching to Macs

Arlen.P.Walker at jci.com Arlen.P.Walker at jci.com
Mon May 20 10:26:01 CDT 2002


OK, one last time:

> 1) He has to base his peripheral purchases entirely on what is
> available with appropriate mac drivers, which seriously limits choice

He's probably limiting himself more than he needs to. For example, the Sony
Mini-Disc unit that has a PC (USB-based) interface. If you contact Sony,
they will tell you the device doesn't work on a Mac, as they haven't
written, and don't intend to write, the drivers for it. What they don't
tell you is that the Mac doesn't *need* drivers for it; you just plug it in
and it works. This scenario is repeated for a lot of peripherals. As a Mac
user, you should get used to distrusting the peripheral manufacturer and
instead asking fellow Macheads.

This is one of those phantom issues (looks worse than it is) like store
availability of Mac software. I find a lot of Mac software in stores in the
PC software sections. Game developers especially will sell games on hybrid
CD's which will work in both platforms. So the store stocks them in the
Windows section, even though the same CD will work on a Mac (says so on the
box, even). Went through that recently with someone over clip art. They
wanted an image of a flag, I took a look through a couple of books and
found one he liked. When I handed him the CD, he said "But this is for
Windows." He was right, the CD said Windows, with no mention of a Mac. I
had to explain that pictures are pictures (there's a small hitch if the
image is WMF, but that's still readable with the right software, so it's
not a serious problem, and in this case it was an EPS, anyway). You stick
the CD in the drive and open the file, and you'll see. He did.

The hardest part about being a Mac user in a Windows shop is the often
aggressive hostility shown by the Windows people who refuse to take a even
single step towards making anything work. They end up looking like the
computing counterpart of the "ugly American" tourist stereotype, refusing
to do anything at all to make getting along together easier, and forcing
the Mac user to do all the adapting. Fortunately, this isn't hard; in fact
it's far easier for the lone Mac user to fit into a Windows shop than for a
lone PC user to fit into a Mac shop. (In the latter case, the Mac users
usually will make the adjustments to help the PC along, I've found.)

Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 224

Arlen.P.Walker at JCI.Com
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