Tuesday, February 20, 2007

I'm a convert

Well, I've joined the ranks I thought I would never join.

Like thousands of other computer lovers, I upgraded to Vista and MS Office 2007 at the end of January. Vista worked fine, though it slowed down the computer, didn't recognize my printer, and didn't know how to run a couple of my programs. But there was a glitch in the Office program, so I called support.

And called again. In fact, I spent an average of three hours a day for a week on the phone with folks in India, Canada, and Washington state--I think. And I got so frustrated that I ordered a Mac.

Right now my mother is probably asking why--it's not because of the commercials, where the Mac is the cool guy and the PC guy is nice and nerdy. It's because Macs don't get viruses (yet), they don't give you the Blue Screen of Death, and they don't hang up like PCs do. And yes, they are cool. But mostly I was simply tired of messing with things.

While I waited for my Macs to arrive, I kept talking to the tech support people, who finally gave up. And--get this--they gave me a full refund on Office 2007, plus they're mailing me a full edition, gratis. Of course, I'm not sure I'll load it. The program is working fine on my laptop, but I never could get it reinstalled on my desktop. (They had me delete it to fix the glitch, and it would never get back on the computer.)

So--most of last week I was working a little and learning a lot. The Mac, as you know, is completely different, so I'm dealing with new language, new icons, and new ways of doing things. I keep looking for the control/alt/delete thing even though I haven't needed it. :-0

So far I've fried one external hard drive (my fault), and filled another hard drive, but by the middle of next week I hope to have a handle on everything.

And I'm a happy Mac mama . . . though still learning. (Oh--and the new computer is why the picture of my daughter is crooked. It's right-side up in iPhoto, but not when I insert it. Hmm.)

~~Angie

5 comments:

W. Mark Whitlock said...

Congratulations. I hope you and your Mac will be as happy as I have been with mine since 1987. They are a writer's friend.

Kelli Standish said...

Angie,
If you need some comic relief after all your trauma, be sure to check out the UK version of the "Hello I'm a Mac" commercials. They're hilarious!:D

Kelli

Angela said...

Those are adorable commercials! "Just larking about." I love it!

Angie

lisa said...

Which Mac did you get, Ange?

Welcome!buglee511

Kerry Krycho said...

Angie–Glad to welcome you to the world of Macs! Once you get used to a Mac, you'll never go back. Even my dear husband who is a computer programmer is about ready to trash his PC and move to a Mac. He, too, has had the not-so-pleasant task of recovering information from a crashed hard drive this past week. And the Mac commercials are some of my favorites! :D