why not have a piece of fruit?

Our office is switching over to Apple computers.

My love for all things geek-ish is at war with my hatred for change.

Pros:

I'll be running something called "Parallels" which will allow me to keep using the Access database in which I've invested more than a decade of effort. Said database ties into every nook & cranny of my job, and trying to replace it quickly and without a good bit of research would be an enormous obstacle.

Apparently the Apples will allow for easier calendar sharing and ... well ... I'm not sure what else yet. But "good things." Many "good things" will happen.

Cons:

Computer in my office breaks down, I can no longer set up my personal laptop and carry on. This has been a life-saver so often in the past.

Finding substitutes for when I go away is going to become far more difficult. I've created a fairly comprehensive procedure manual that almost anyone who's computer literate and comfortable with M.S. Office could use to do my job.

But, finding people comfortable with a PC and Office ... compared to finding people comfortable with a MAC ... quite a different proposition. I hope there exists some kind of Macintosh version of Snagit that I can use to re-do the procedure manual ... but haven't done that research yet.

Losing all my tech support. I have several friends, and when faced with a computer question, we go back & forth to try & help one another. Mac-using friends? Ummm ... maybe I should put an ad on Craig's List?


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The Apples are pretty ... I'll give them that. They're cute and small, and white. The icons jump up and down apparently eager to do one's bidding. But when it comes down to having to produce something, I'm anxious to be convinced that it will be do-able.

I was using one of them the other day, for some VERY basic data entry, and was surprised at how cumbersome the interface was. There was a lot of reaching for the mouse, when a key combination would have kept things moving much more quickly. If a key combination was available, it was certainly not advertised by the traditional underlined letter on the button. While I tried to force myself to do everything with the mouse, I still, at least twice, hit ctrl+s to save my work, and apparently started some involved process that locked me out for the remainder of the day.

One thing for sure, I need to hit the library and try to find myself a "Dummies" book that will show me how to do all the basic OS-related stuff that is SO second-nature on a PC!