I'm not a Microsoft hater, an Apple fanboy, or a platform zealot.
When one tool works better for my needs than another tool, I use the
better one. If that tool no longer does what I need it to, I go back to
the hardware store and find another.
So it is with Macs and PCs: I use what works for the task at hand
and really don't care which I am using so long as it stays out of my
way and lets me work (or play).
I own computers belonging to both platforms, use both each and every
day at work, and (with a few exceptions) have the software I need for
each platform. Where I run into difficulty isn't in choosing, but more
specifically, in choosing which platform to use as my primary computer.
Simply put, my primary computer is the one on which I have my email
archive, all of my work, and, in the multimedia age, my full music
collection.
My primary computer has alternated many times between a Mac and a
PC, and as of the beginning of February, it is once again a Mac.
Strangely, it was a Microsoft application that made the switch back
from Windows to Mac compelling.
Why I Switched to Windows
Exchange was and is a revelation, a product that
so greatly enhanced my ability to do business that I cannot image how I
ever lived without it.
Taking a quick step back, I last used a Mac as my primary computer a
little less than two years ago, when I migrated my company's email and
calendar system from Yahoo POP3 mail and Apple's .mac calendar to a
Windows 2003 Small Business Server and Microsoft Exchange. Exchange was
and is a revelation, a product that so greatly enhanced my ability to
do business that I cannot image how I ever lived without it. In May of
2006 there were a few shared calendar alternatives, most of them
web-based, and I tried a few.
.mac simply had too many outages, and once I moved from three Macs
to four, I started running into sync failures and dropped
appointments. In short, something as critical as my court calendar
needed something more reliable, so .mac had to go.
I tried other web-based options ranging from free (Google,
Microsoft) to ultra-pricey (LawLogix and INSZoom), but in the end I
decided that I needed a local calendar server that would allow shared
calendar access to all users along with offline access when I traveled
with my laptop and had no Internet available (like in a courtroom).
Of course, there are more choices today. Leopard Server includes an
iCal server that is every bit as capable as Exchange calendar (though I
believe Exchange still has the edge on email). Leopard's iCal server
can even be used by Windows clients, as iCal is standards-based,
allowing applications from Mozilla, Microsoft, and others to work as
well as Apple's own iCal client does.
Leopard Server did not exist in May 2006, and so it wasn't an
option.
Back then I thought I would have no problem moving to Exchange, and
on my PCs it was a revelation - but on my Macs it was a disaster. Sure,
the email portion worked great in either Entourage 2004 or Apple Mail,
but the calendar in Entourage was crippled, and Apple iCal is not
Exchange-compliant. Entourage 2004 allowed each user to view his or her
calendar just fine, but the shared calendars of other users were simply
not available in Entourage 2004. Perhaps it's hidden somewhere, but
even after two paid support calls to Microsoft I still couldn't find
it.
My solution was moving to a Windows laptop for my primary computer
and using Virtual PC on the Macs I owned (all PowerPC models at that
time).
Office 2008 Changed Everything
Microsoft Office 2008 changed everything. Now I can finally view the
shared calendars of other users, and, more importantly, my secretary
can view and edit my calendar. I can't view two or more calendars
side-by-side like I can in Windows Outlook, but I can open multiple
calendars in multiple windows - even on multiple monitors - something I
cannot do in Outlook.
Other than the lack of full Exchange support, I was a big fan of
Office: Mac 2004 and preferred it over the Windows version. It's not
that documents were easier or faster to produce, just that the
application itself was friendlier, more pleasant in appearance. Office
2007 for Windows brought a new file format, and the much-criticized
ribbon replaced the traditional menus. I like the ribbon, but I know
the menus. Where I've learned to use the ribbon, it is faster and
cleaner, but where I haven't I often reach for the menu that is no
longer there.
Office: 2008 Mac has the ribbon too, but its also got the menus, and
this alone makes it better. Being universal Intel/PowerPC and natively
supporting both the new and old file formats cinches the deal, making
the Mac the better platform for working with Word documents and dealing
with email and calendars, which are my primary computer tasks.
The only other application that I use frequently for legal documents
is Adobe Acrobat Professional, which fortunately includes both Mac and
Windows versions on the disk. I own four Acrobat licenses and had it on
four PCs last year. This year it is on two PCs and two Macs; it works
great with Leopard (after solving an updater issue).
There are downsides to the new Mac Office, but they just don't apply
to me. Visual Basic is no longer present, which will hurt users who
have old documents with VBA macros. I never used VBA macros, and thus
their omission doesn't affect me at all. Office 2008 is also slower on
PowerPC machines, but not enough to really matter. I use it on a
1.0 GHz upgraded
Sawtooth PowerMac G4 with 1.0 GB of RAM, and while it takes a good
15 seconds or so for Word to launch, once open it is responsive and
stable. I will soon install it on my associate's PowerBook G4 and
expect it to perform more than adequately.
I've always preferred Macs to PCs. I just like the elegance and the
feeling that Apple's designers respect my intelligence. Windows never
really got in my way, and I have no problem whatsoever being productive
on a Windows machine. I don't get any more work done on a Mac than on a
PC, and in the grand scheme of things, it makes almost no difference
which I am using, but given the choice, I'll take a Mac.
In May 2006 I didn't have that choice, but in February 2008 I most
certainly do.
Thanks, Microsoft! 
Andrew J Fishkin, Esq, is a laptop using attorney in Los Angeles, CA.
