Lawyer 2.0

“I’m switching to Mac.”

Let me explain.  I ain’t dumb when it comes to computers.  Until recently, I would have classified myself as an “enthusiast,” because I prefer to build/upgrade my own systems.  No, not from the customization menu at dell.com.  From parts.  That I order online.  And then assemble myself.

I know my way around a Windows box.  But y’know what?  Lately, they’re more trouble than they’re worth.  I’ve had to reinstall XP twice in the past year — a multi-day affair, given my work schedule, and usually coinciding with some upgrade or another that I perform on my system.  I refuse to switch to Vista, and although Microsoft has pushed back their stop date for sales of XP a couple of times, I don’t want to take the risk that sales of XP stop before a usable build of Vista ships. 

“Now Lawyer 2.0,” you might ask, “isn’t it true that you use your computing hardware for high-performance, resource-intensive multimedia applications that have a tendency to be finicky and unreliable in the first place?” (i.e., games).  Yup, I do.  But compared to my non-gamer wife, I’ve had it relatively easy.  Granted, her HP laptop is creaking along now at 5 years old — a virtual eternity in laptop years — but she’s had lots of problems with it.

1. First, there was the dueling anti-virus problem.  Norton and AVG each think the other one is a virus, and when they’re installed on the same computer, they fight!  Granted, this was partially my fault.  I should have checked a little more carefully for antivirus software, but I took my wife’s word that she didn’t have any installed.  Unfortunately, the only way to fix the problem (and this was the conclusion our FORENSIC COMPUTER SCIENTIST friend came to) was to delete BOTH anti-virus packages and leave the computer undefended.  Apparently, Norton left some stuff in the registry on uninstall that even our friend (did I mention he’s a FORENSIC COMPUTER SCIENTIST?) couldn’t figure out how to clean up.  While we were trying to figure out a way to back up her data so we could reinstall windows (the only way to get antivirus software on there)…
2. The Sasser worm crashed her machine…about two full years AFTER it hit initially.  That was a fun reinstall; the only way I could do it and preserve any of her data was by booting from a knoppix CD, transferring her important files to her iPod, and then formatting her hard drive for the reinstall.
3. She has never been able to properly rip audio CDs to .mp3 for her iPod.  For some reason, whenever we try to rip music on her machine, the tracks skip or exhibit other errors.  Could be a drive problem.
4. At least one of her (three) USB ports has stopped working, inexplicably.
5. Speaking of her iPod, it took me about three installs to get iTunes working right.  Wouldn’t recognize her iPod and sync up.  Can’t fathom why.
6. Her computer refuses to adopt a modern wireless encryption protocol; neither WEP nor WPA works properly.  So, we rely on MAC address filtering to “secure” our wireless network.
7. …and finally, there’s an electrical problem (we think) with her power connection.  To be fair, she’s used her laptop heavily for five years now.  Before we sent it to our buddy for repairs, she couldn’t move the laptop from its position for fear of disturbing the power cord and breaking the connection.  If this can’t be fixed, she’ll need a new computer.

In the grand scheme of things, these are all minor annoyances (except for the virus outbreak), right?  But my wife only really uses her computer for email, Internet, music, light usage of productivity apps, and some minor photo processing.  And all of these problems make it harder for her to use the darn thing for what it’s intended for!  She’s always juggling USB ports, I have to rip her CDs to .mp3 for her, for the past couple of months the power cord issue has prevented her from moving the laptop so much as an inch.  Running an unsecured network is risky.  The less stable her system is, the less she’ll rely on it as a media repository.

But the last straw came a couple of weeks ago.  My wife is using a loaner laptop, and due to our move, I just set my desktop up a couple of days ago.  So, when we were looking to print something out before taking a road trip, I had to connect the loaner to our printer.

And plug ‘n play decided — inexplicably —  not to work.  The computer saw that there was an HP OfficeJet 7200 series printer attached, but refused to speak to it.  OK, I thought, maybe I need to install the drivers after all.  I installed the drivers, and it still didn’t work.  Gah!  I thought that Windows ‘95 solved this problem, like, over 10 years ago!  I wasn’t expecting the full functionality I’d get from installing HP’s drivers, but I was expecting it to at least be able to print!

So, I’ve been trying to convince my wife that her next laptop should be a Macbook Pro.  She’s an amateur photographer, and she eventually wants to pick up a dSLR, so the dedicated video adapter will be useful.  It’s pricey, but given how much she uses her computer, it’s worth it.  I’ll upgrade later; I can still get quite a bit of useful life out of this iteration of my PC.

Maybe I’m not as good with computers as I think I am.  Maybe I know just enough about them to be dangerous, but not enough to effectively administer my own systems given my usage.  And I know all about the reality-distortion field; I don’t expect a Mac to run perfectly.  I just expect it to run better enough than what we have now that it will save enough time to justify the higher cost.  I’m also really digging what I see/read about the iLife application suite, and I’m even tempted to give iWork a go.

Lest anyone think I’m some sort of anti-Microsoft troll: please.  I’m sure I’ll wind up with a Windows XP partition on whatever new Mac I purchase.  I use Windows XP enthusiastically at work, where our installations are administered by a team of dedicated IT professionals backed by a firm-wide, national IT department.  Unfortunately, I don’t have that luxury at home.