I have been a PC user for more than a decade and a half and I should say that, by and large, I have been satisfied. Despite the countless blue screens of death, installs and reinstalls, starts and restarts, not to mention the constant updating of virus databases, spywares and what not, I would say that the PC has done me well.
I have been an avid tablet PC user for the past three years. I credit the tablet PC for making my life 100% paperless. I especially fell in love with my motion computing LE 1600 tablet PC running Windows XP . At a little over 2 lbs., it is simply sexy and a joy to use everyday.
This was the case for me until I decided to update my system to Vista last March 1, 2007. Except for the Aero and a few seldom used softwares, everything was running as expected except for some sluggishness when compared to when it had the XP. Although I expected that a 1.5GHz processor with 1GB RAM may not just be enough for Vista, I still went ahead just for the sake of trying. And so after a week of sluggishness, I found myself shopping for a more powerful tablet PC. This was until I chanced upon a couple of Mac forums talking about how well XP was running virtually using Parallels on top of Mac OS X.
But switching to Mac system would mean that I would have to ditch the pen capabilities which I have learned to love all these years. So I asked myself the question, what do I really love about the tablet PC that the other non-tablets do not have?
1 Being able to use MS Onenote for everything handwritten
2 Being able to sign documents before printing to PDF's
3 Being able to change to portrait mode when taking notes and when reading Zinio digital magazines.
4. Having a computer in a meeting without the obtrusive laptop screen between me and the other conferees.
I could live without item 2 above considering that I more often go to the office & sign the hardcopies anyway. I could still read zinio magazines but this time only in landscape mode. Come to think of it, it is mainly reasons 1 and 4 above that endeared me to the tablet PC.
Considering that I hardly ever convert my handwritten notes to text, and that I seldom ever return to review them, a return to the old reliable pen and paper system may not be too bad after all. For handwritten notes all I need really is a collection point prior to the notes going through some form of processing. This will also address item 4 of not having a 'barrier' during meeting. And for this purpose, I have already used a filo fax before.
And so, I am left with basically this dilemma now - do I just buy a brand-new and more powerful tablet PC or do I switch instead to a Mac running XP under Parallels but sacrificing the digital ink capability? At this point I narrowed down my choices between a similarly configured IBM X60 tablet PC or the Mac book pro 2.33GHz 15“. Considering mainly the price and specifications of the two, the Mac book pro wins hands down.
And so last March 16, 2007 I ordered my first ever Mac notebook from Amazon.
Now, is that old filo fax still in the attic?
Sir Nap, I find your presentation so credible and practical. You're such a helpful and dependable computer wizard, sir.
Posted by: andre | April 05, 2007 at 05:34 PM