I am about to embark on a complete divorce from the Windows PC world. You may or may not recall from a previous post, but last summer I did not take a Windows PC to Minnesota instead relying totally on my Apple MacBook Air. It was a non-event; for the five months we were in Minnesota I was able to complete everything without a hitch. Now, I do run Windows under Parallels on the MacBook Air as there are two things that did not, and one that still does not, have a viable Apple alternative but more about that in a minute. Since returning to Arizona this past fall, I have been using both the Apple and PC switching more based on which one was closest than anything else.  Well my HP 18” laptop is beginning to show it’s age. The keyboard is having a few issues and Windows 8 is probably not an option. (I checked the HP website on the Windows 8 issue and found that they have not tested this model.) Given what I have heard and read a goodly percentage of PC’s from the two or more years ago have witnessed problems with Windows 8.

So a replacement is due and I will be replacing the HP with an Apple 21.5” iMac.  Yep, not a notebook.  I might have been tempted to go with another Apple notebook except Apple has discontinued the 17” model and for some work I wanted something larger than a 15” display. The iMac is quite a machine; in addition to 8 gigs of memory there is also 512 mb dedicated video memory. The standard hard drive is 1 terabyte but I opted for the optional fusion drive which marries a 128 GB Solid State Drive (SSD) with the 1 terabyte conventional hard drive. My MacBook Air has a Solid State Drive and the boot speed and other operational speeds are addicting ergo the decision.  What the fusion drive does is to store not only the boot sequences on the SSD but as you use the system it moves those applications and data you use most to the SSD speeding these operations as well. As with cars speed in computers is addicting!

Now to the two things where an Apple alternative is or was not available. One, Quicken for the Mac seems to have matured to the point that I will make that move.  However, the second is an Outlook add-in called Send Individually and for the life of me I cannot find anything for the Mac that comes close. I have written about this add-in previously but what it does is allow me to send email to larger groups than my ISP will allow.  Typically, an ISP, and the number varies, will at some point block a large number of email addresses on one email.  I am not sure where the ISP I use draws that line but I have a few groups that are over the limit. Send Individually solves this issue by instead of sending all of the emails at one time it sends them one at a time and works like a charm. Will I be running Windows on the iMac, while the jury is still out on that one the leader in the clubhouse is no. I have the MacBook Air and it handles that one operation without a glitch making the decision to purchase additional copies of Windows and Parallels difficult.

One issue in this change that I thought was going to be a problem turned out to be easy.  I have a lot of data on the HP and did not want to move all of it to the MacBook Air’s 256 GB SSD drive. First, it turns out that my 1 terabyte Western Digital backup drive that I was using on the PC is readable with the Mac so no issue there.  Also, I setup a DropBox account and now have files available regardless which device I am using, including my iPad and iPhone.

So I guess a reasonable question is why the iMac rather than another PC. Part of it is probably laziness – I am not crazy about another learning curve to move to Windows 8 as I am totally comfortable with the Mac operating system. Second, having all of my devices on the Apple system has more than a little appeal. My son, only half-jokingly, said that the PC world would probably shake given that I have been a PC person since the first IBM PC but I assured him that everything will be alright. Apple does not currently stock the 21.5” iMac with the fusion drive in the stores so mine will be here in a couple of weeks and as things go on I will keep you updated.