Perhaps I should start by taking the suit jacket off. There.

So far the hardest part about making the switch was coughing up the cash for another new computer. I bought my last notebook just under a year ago, thinking that it would last for a couple of years. It was a Toshiba Tecra A7 and it was really diasppointing. Hot, slow, troublesome. In a side by side boot test, my Toshiba takes 10 mins to boot. No kidding.

I was excited to get my new Mac. I though about it for about three weeks after getting the quote, and then when I placed the order, my supplier was out of stock, and so was Apple. Oh well, I guess this is supposed to teach me patience or something.

I waited until the kids were in bed before unpacking switching on the Mac. Kind of didn’t want this to happen.

Twenty-five years of conditioning using a PC were gone in about an hour and a half. The first 10 minutes were the hardest. “Where do I find applications? oh, what’s this Finder thing? Oh there they are!” Then move to “Ok how do I install Firefox? Lets try GetFirefox.com and see what happens…oh there it is, download. Run. Done. How do I get the FireFox icon on the bottom menu thing… can I drag it there? Yes!”

An hour later I was checking the System Software was Up-to-date, and installing Firefox plugins like I’d been using it forever.

The next morning when I switched on my PC at work to connect to the Exchange Server, I found that I was looking for things in the wrong places and usig the trackpad with two fingers to scroll, to no effect. I had made the switch!

There are still some things I need to do. This Mac will be the computer I use at home AND at work. I am required to use MS Project. Hmm, next to check out Bootcamp and Parallels. That will be weird.

Cam.

• Record labels rethink digital rights management at Midem – International Herald Tribune
  Major record labels are closer than ever to releasing music on the Internet with no copying restrictions — a step they once vowed never to take
  (tags: DRM music free)
• The Streamburst antipiracy plan: don’t use DRM
  Instead of shackling users with artificial technological limitations on what they can do with their files, Streamburst hopes to secure content using a bit of personalization and a unique watermarking system
  (tags: drm movies music watermark)
• The DRM imbroglio is front and center at Cannes
  As much as we might hope the industry is going DRM free, there are plenty of reasons to believe that DRM isn’t going anywhere, and we need to look no further than Midem to see why
  (tags: drm music movies licensing free)
• iTunes DRM called out by France and Germany
  Apple is being challenged once again to open up its DRM by consumer groups in Europe.
  (tags: drm apple itunes)