A few days back I asked my loyal readers for their opinions on the Macbook Pro (thanks to all who commented). In the end, I went with the Macbook and have been spending the afternoon adjusting to things. Everything is going well so far.
The purchase at the local Apple Store went without a hitch (and thankfully without someone selling me stuff I didn't need). However when I got home the machine wouldn't boot. I guessed that it was because of bad RAM (I upgraded) and a trip back to the store proved that to be the case.
Weirdly, the staff at the store kept asking me whether this was my first Mac. Is there some sort of pheromone that migrating Windows users give off?
My sole question at the moment is a recommendation for freeware (preferable open source) blogging client software. Thoughts?
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I find the ScribeFire blogging extension to Firefox is quite easy and intuitive to use for most purposes.
http://scribefire.com/
I agree about ScribeFire. It's very clean, easy, works seamlessly with Blogger and with WordPress for sure (I've worked with both of those).
Congrats!
The Apple Store employees are not on commission, and get the same benefits that regular Apple employees do (don't know about their salaries). So, there's no incentive to give you a hard sell. Apple *wants* you to come in and play with their machines.
Don't worry, the Windows smell should wear off in time.
I suspect it was your ease at doing things counter-intuitively that triggered their response.
Now, how is Windows like quantum mechanics?
They're both counter-intuitive.
How are Windows and quantum mechanics different?
Quantum mechanics makes sense.
Here's a page of blogging freeware for Mac:
http://www.freemacware.com/category/free-blogging-software-for-mac/
you can also browse through
http://www.freemacware.com
for a bunch of nifty freeware for the Mac.
there are loads of freeware at:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/
and you can also check
www.macupdate.com (they got user reviews, very handy)
Roberta is spot on. OK, I'll come out of the closet. I work in Apple retail and am a Mac user for 23 years, and still have my original working Mac Plus. Yeah, props to me.
It's not so much pheromones as a pong of desperation. But, it will wear off.
The Apple staff is genuinely interested in you having a Good Experience with your new computer. Simple as that. No strings. Apple is all about building loyalty to the product and we do that by offering services and support.
Which store are you dealing with? I bought my Powerbook at Biltmore in 2003.
@ Bill
Chandler. It's closer to home.
Folks were very nice.
I recently just purchased a Macbook as well and found it one of the best changes I had made after using a PC for most of my life. I was able to find the equipment that was necessary for me and only that. I also wasn't confused about the extra things I was buying as they explained everything and how it worked. It was a great experience and definitely am loving my new macbook pro. I think once you get used to it it'll become a lot easier.
Bill: I'm well indoctrinated. I still have my working original 128K-turned-512KE. Obviously, the loyalty bit worked well with me. I think the fact that I was able to turn on the mac and find it intuitive to use even though I had never used a computer (it was 1984, after all) had me hooked.
I use ecto to blog, and I highly recommend it.
I use MarsEdit for blogging: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/internet_utilities/marsedit.html
I really enjoy the rocket ship icon. :-)
Note that Ecto and Marsedit are both commercial products, and so cost money. At the same time they are low priced and should not hurt your budget all that badly. At the moment I'm using ScribeFire to post about sites and news as I rove the Web.