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Irony: I officially remove “Mac” from the title bar of my blog the same week Lotus does a fantastic job of proving they are committed to the platform!

A bit of a history lesson before we get to this post…

When I started this blog I focused mostly on Lotus stuff. Shortly after I became a Mac guy. I then realized I was standing in two communities that (at the time) had little overlap but a lot in common (namely a strong, vocal, passionate and talented community around the product).

In the last 4 months I made the decision to go back to being a “Windows” guy largely due to looking at the roadmap our company had for deploying technology and coming to the realization that if I was the guy who was going to stand in front of the company and lead them into these new tools, I better use them myself.

As I have gone further and further away from Macs at the office, Lotus has gone closer to them – which is exciting to say the least. We still have a few here and for many users it simply isn’t much of a change to use “Windows” Notes (8.5) vs. “Mac” Notes. And that’s no small accomplishment on the part of Lotus! I’m delighted to see them continue to have a stronger commitment to that platform!

Don’t get me wrong – I’m still a Mac guy at heart (and at home). But I wouldn’t be telling the truth if I didn’t admit that it is noticeably easier to get my job done being on a Windows platform due in large part to consistency in using the same other software (VPN, VoIP, etc.) as everyone else.

So … for now, I got the Mac out of the focus of this blog. But given that my decision to finally do that came on the same day I saw many news stories from Lotus about their commitment to the Mac, I have to wonder if its temporary.

Time will tell.

Tags: consistency, mac, windows

It is with a most humble attitude that I need to make this announcement: I just ordered a new laptop – and its not a Mac.

(Dominokeys.com would like to take this moment to remind you that for all medical emergencies we recommend using 911 or your cities local emergency services phone number.)

Yes. I’ve been a Mac fan for years. I’ve harped on the lack of Lotus support for the Mac. I’ve praised Lotus for a solid Mac Notes client. And now, I’ve gone back to a PC.

Simply put: there are too many business applications I need to run that require me to “live” in Parallels (virtualized Windows environment). If that’s where I’m spending my time, then why not just RUN Windows?! Our VPN, Cisco IP soft-phone, Quickr Connectors, System i emulation – and a list of other tools all require Windows. Yes, I could go around and hunt down Mac counterparts to those tools but it almost always results in more work for my Admins or the purchase of another software package (the System i emulator alone was over $100!).

At the end of the day – I need to get BUSINESS done. I’m not abandoning Mac altogether – I still have an iMac and MacBook at home. And I may even keep my MacBookPro around for presentations, videos and such. But as the primary machine, I’m kind of looking forward to the simplicity of Windows.

How smart of a decision will that be? I’m sure you’ll read about it here over the next few months.

Tags: Apple / Mac, bizness, lotus, mac, pc, windows

Wednesday afternoon my Mac went to sleep, as it normally does when I’m not around. I disconnected it (with no drives pluggedin) and went to my local coffee shop to finish out several emails I needed to respond to. When I got there, my Mac refused to wake up. I did the usual fixes but nothing work – which resulted in my visit to the Apple store.

Since then (and since my Mac is @ the Apple store for the next several days), I’ve been using a Sony Vaio we had laying around the office. Its a nice, lightweight machine with a Centrino Duo processor and XP. But within minutes, I started to make a list of the things I miss from my Mac and things I forgot I liked about PCs.

Missing about my Mac…

• Placement and funciton of control/command type keys
• Not having to deal with a static “start” bar that consumes a lot of space (and I think “auto hide” makes it worse)
• Spaces – I never realized how much I used that until now
• Auto-scrolling speeds on the mouse (the Mac adapts to the speed at which you move the mouse – the PC is one-speed-for-all based on what you set it to be)
• CMD+SHIFT+F4 (brings up a screen capture utility)
• Quicktime being “there” already
• Smooth fonts
• Spacebar preview (in Finder)

I forgot PCs are nice because…

• Applications are easier to find (when you need to install them)
• “Windows” key functionality like “WIN+R” to bring up the “run” command. Quicksilver does that on a Mac but I don’t think it does it as well.
• Network drives are MUCH easier to deal with on a PC (why do I have to MOUNT a network drive on a Mac each time I want to use it!?)
• Full Lotus product support (Quickr connectors, Notes 8, etc. – they’re all here on Windows and work great)

Despite realizing that there are things I miss from the Windows/PC world, I’m still anxious to get my Mac back!

Tags: lotus, mac, pc, windows