I'm in the Luddite waiting list.

[miladycarol]

*sigh*

I was practically gifted my mac. I was sure it was going to be a huge improvement. I was sure it was going to make my computing life more stable and smooth. I'm still optimistic. Not so, others in my house.

G is livid. He's on the edge of taking the mac, nuking it and installing a Windows OS on it.

It has been a month since I made the decision to move completely into the Mac as my sole machine. It has been a month since I've been able to do any real work on taxes because I spend 4-8 hours a day trying to make the programs work with the hardware.

I have a Windows PDA. I have spent a month working to try and figure out why the PDA doesn't sync properly with the calendar and address book. Tech support is useless. They send me an email every day or two and choose only one little part of the list of problems I lay out for them and only rewrite the contents of the user manual as their advice. Honestly, I spent exhaustive time laying out a written grid of changes I made to each application and device to try to find a pattern of where the disconnect was... it made no sense. There was no pattern. I tried it again and the results were randomly different. This means the sync program is shifting its writing and deleting properties at random. I spent money to buy a second program, deleted that one and it wouldn't read my pda at all. Turns out they have three programs for similar devices and I bought the wrong one. Now I have to wait for resolution there. This means I have no reliable pda, calendar or address book. I'm back to paper.

It took me 1.5 weeks to work out how to make iTunes work with my music since all my original files are housed on the external drive. Then it took another day to realize I had to reformat the iPod to work with a Mac because it was originally synced to a pc. Now, I have musical joy, though.

I bought a docking station so I could use my big monitor rather than the little 13" screen. It worked great for the monitor, but every usb port and the speaker plug had bad wiring causing shorts. I had to send that back.

I still can't figure out why I can't stream videos in any browser without the browser coughing and choking. I've tried 4 different browsers.

I'm so not used to the system it takes me a while to figure stuff out. When I wanted to uninstall the first sync program, I spent a good 4 minutes looking for the uninstall feature. When I tried uninstalling the second one an hour or two later, I still needed another 4 minutes to find that one. Is the uninstall unique to each program? Windows has an uninstall program in its utilities.

I guess part of my slow adaptation is that I spent the past 20+ years of my life learning and growing with Windows. I'm used to it. I have certain expectations on how things should perform. With the exception that Windows OS is inherently unstable in my presence and, even after a new reinstall, it degrades quickly so that it is lagging and locking after a few short months, I actually enjoy Windows. G and Flex were tired of having to constantly repair the system for me. Their systems work pretty reliably. Computers that worked for them perfectly then were given to me break within months. It must be me. So, people conspired to get me a Mac. And here I am enjoying the stability of the platform yet not liking how the programs function and relate to each other. The very thing I liked about Windows programming.

Like I said, G is now trying to convince me to allow him to nuke the Mac OS in favor of Windows XP. I hate to do that. I've spent the past few months of my life, most intensively and exclusively for the past month, learning this new system. I'm not willing to throw in the towel. I just want certain things to work really well, and they don't. I'm pretty convinced I'm not being irrational.

I tried explaining to the tech support man that I am in the vanguard of a wave of people who will likely be immigrating to Mac from Windows. Whole national governments and big corporations are declaring they will not be moving to Vista. People are skeptical and unhappy about the way Vista works. Sure, hardcore geeks will be happy to nuke their computers for Linux. Then there are folk like me. I use the computer for work and some recreation. I am not a geek. I need a nice interface. I moved to Mac. If I am having this much trouble and I am surrounded by both Mac and Windows geeks, imagine how Grandma Gertrude, Sally Secretary and Ellen Entrepreneur are going to react when they try to do this cold turkey. I'm not a rocket scientist, but I'm far from the dullest tool in the shed. I intend to succeed but it's been a daily battle up the Alps to get where I am.

It's a sad tale. I'm waiting for my happy ending. I'm sure it's out there. I'm working hard for it. If I could only get my pc to boot properly, I'd be able to work on the taxes again. *sigh*

Comments

[lurkitty.livejournal.com]

The video streaming thing is real problem with the Mac. There is no set standard. I have to say that no matter how many plugins I download for Quicktime, I can't get it to work. I find that there are some network players that don't work and some that do. I personally use VLC media player and have found it to be sound.

I guess I just didn't care as much about keeping my old systems of doing things. I moved into primarily Mac systems and learned how to use them. I never really liked Windows, so I wasn't unhappy to see it go.

If you don't like the Mac, sell it. They hold their value very well. Nuking OS X will just cause more problems.

Sorry I caused so many problems for you by helping sell you the Mac.

[miladycarol.livejournal.com]

Goodness, I'm not planning to nuke the Mac. I actually like it. I just want it to work in a certain way. I don't think asking it to sync with my PDA is unreasonable, that's all. G's the one who is mad. I'm just sad it's taking so long.

You are not the cause of problems. I enjoy Maxine. I like her. It's the software that is causing me grief. It's all third party stuff, not Apple. I'm grateful for all your help in learning to adjust. Honestly, the biggest plague is the Missing Sync software. It just doesn't work. And it has taken me a month to realize this. Mea culpa.

It's exasperatingly humorous to me that it has been so difficult. Again, not your fault. I need certain things to work. It's who I am, how I operate and the programs that the business world around me uses. I'll cope. I'll cope better, of course, once I can reliably sync my calendar and contacts, though. *smiles*

I am an old dog. A creature of habit. This learning new tricks thing requires a lot of energy -- and tea. Comfort tea. I can't even tell how many pots of Gyrokuro and Precious White Peach have gone cold on my desk during this process. Not to mention latte breaks.

I haven't really been posting much. My working through computer stuff is mostly why. I wanted to explain to the world I haven't forsaken it. I'm just holed up on a mission. I'm actually pretty proud of my non-computer savvy self. I sat here wearing my gum shoes, my fedora and a dark trench coat doggedly pursuing some resolution to find the program at fault, not me. I figured out the dock problem with your help. I worked through my iTunes issues. I am working out how to use the Parallels program sanely. I'm learning my way around the Mac OS. It will all work out perfectly. I have faith. I've just been focused this month.

And, I love you. Lots.

[karinablack.livejournal.com]

aw I've always had good luck with Macs :(
Good luck with this!

[miladycarol.livejournal.com]

It'll get better. It will all be worth it in the end. That's been my mantra the whole time.