[Shacs] switching to mac - need some advice

[Kevin A. Estis]

>> I don't really know, as I haven't done any price comparisons, but I've
>> heard that the MacBook Pro's are more expensive than comparable PC
>> Laptops.  Is that true?

That is certainly true...except few laptops have everything the MacBook
Pro has (they come close but not quite). For example, the MacBook Pro has
both USB 2.0 and FireWire 800, includes an integrated camera and
microphone, and sensors to detect (and help prevent) hard disk errors due
to vibrations/shocks. Other features such as the ability of the Ethernet
port to automatically change to a "cross-over" cable is nice as well.

The reason *I* use a Mac is because I have a full *nix OS (easier to say
that than "FreeBSD with a Mach kernel") with a nice GUI (all integrated)
*and* I have the ability to use "standard" Enterprise applications. I
don't have to worry about "will my presentation or document look the same
on my screen as it does when I email it out to others?" (which is still an
issue using OpenOfice, etc.). I also don't have the overhead and lack of
usability that you run into when you try to run Win32 applications via a
WINE environment (CrossOver Office, etc.). Not to mention the ability to
grab my *nix output and drop it directly into a presentation or document
(doing a penetration test is great but you still have to show the results
in a way the customer understands).

Lastly, there are features that are only in Mac OS X (or only just now in
Vista) such as a centralized (and encrypted) password repository,
integrated certificate management, and the ability to encrypt user
directories *and* virtual memory, a centralized search engine for
documents/email/contacts, etc.....all out of the box.

Yes, at this point I'm what's called a "mac fanboy" but every support
group I go to is composed of Ubuntu users implementing Beryl which just
isn't the same.


--
This signature was created on a Mac...therefore it should look better than
other signatures but will cost you more and doesn't really work in the
enterprise.
Kevin Estis
macinhack at shsu.edu