Making the Big Switch

I bought my first computer in 1983. It was a Commodore 64 and it was great. I’ve had many computers since, all of them (despite urgings from Mac-user friends) IBM clones – PCs – until this summer.

While at the cottage, a long-time Mac-user cousin said, “What you want is a MacBook Air.”

“Oh yeah, why is that?” I asked with little enthusiasm.

“Well, it’s light, it’s fast (he explained why), and it’s got great battery life.”

His answer shot right into my computer Achilles’ heel, addressing every shortcoming of the sluggish laptop I was lugging around and having to plug in far more often than was convenient. “And,” my cousin said, “it’s not even all that expensive.”

After almost 20 years as a PC user, I now own a 13” MacBook Air. It’s sleek. I love carrying it from room to room, to meetings with my writing group, and anywhere else I might be inclined to take it. I can work on it pretty much all day on battery. It’s a beautiful little machine!

There’s stuff to learn, of course, and I’ve learned a lot just checking out various tutorials and menu options. And my sister put me onto a deal whereby I could get a free Mac-related book I’d find helpful, just by agreeing to review it on my blog – which I’ll be doing next week.

I still need to find out how to get Pages to do some of the things I’m used to doing with Word (like jump to the beginning or end of a long document without scrolling to it) and there’s lots of neat stuff at the App Store and in iPhoto that I’m keen to explore too. But I have a feeling that my MacBook Air and I are going to be together for a while.

Do you have one or know someone who does? Are there features you think I should know about that I might not have discovered yet? Please let me know!