One of them is a suitably corporate Dell laptop with Windows XP.
Having been using a Macbook Pro for the last couple of years, I'm in the interesting position of experiencing the reverse switch from OS X to Windows. The experience is pretty mixed so far.
What's good? Full versions of the Microsoft Office applications, rather than the somewhat crippled ones that Microsoft chooses to make available for the Mac. That includes Outlook, the only client that works properly with the old versions of Exchange that most places are still running. These applications start up pretty quickly too.
What's bad? Pretty much everything else. Here's this morning's example:
I open the laptop - I'd left it in standby mode on Friday. It lets me log in, but that's about it. Disk whirring away...
I try starting the Cisco VPN application I need to pick up email. I can select it from the Programs menu, but nothing visible happens. The hard disk is still busy, but there's no indication of progress. Wait... Go and put kettle on... Wait some more.
Finally I give up. I know, I'll log out. Select "log out". Nothing happens. Try again. Nothing happens. Start quitting various applications manually. Start seeing messages reporting other applications are unable to stop and do I want to "terminate" them.
Eventually, I hit the power button and reboot and after around 15 minutes I'm finally able to read some email.
Clearly "stand by" is a bit of a Microsoft joke. Next time I'll power down.
(For those of you who don't use a Mac: my sympathy. I've become conditioned to using something that works with me rather than against me. When I've finished working with my Macbook, I close the lid. When I want to do something, I open it. Shouldn't that be how a laptop computer works?)
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