“Oh My Quad, great GUI and family reunions”

I’ll try not to bore the non-Mac readers out there but everyone should take a quick read.

Apple Computers finally launched their Mac Pro systems yesterday at the WWDC. It’s their new workhouse desktop computer and it rocks. It’s quad core, crazy fast and priced to take over. I’ll have one soon. Well as soon the queue frees up, as every creative professional who uses a Mac have been holding off purchases in anticipation of its launch. For geeks and pseudo-geeks like me you will drool and gasp at its specs.

For those not into Macs, be aware. A new tide is rising and you are already part of it. The Windows - Apple controversy has raged on for years. Windows were supposed to be faster, had more programs, wider user base and priced better. Macs were supposed to be only for graphics and designers. Not everyday use. That is over.

Apple computers have always been super user friendly, easy to operate, resistant to viruses and slick. The computer system battlefront has been steadily changing in the last few years. Apple brought out a series of simple to use and competitively priced systems like the iMac that looked great and were a breeze to use. Windows users were still quite entrenched in their prolific PCs but Apple started to bite into their market ever so slowly.

The war still waged on. Windows and Mac users constantly jibed each other about who had the best system. Then about a year or so ago, in the switch of processor suppliers, the war was over. Intel, the chip makers for most PC (Windows based) computers, were given the contract to make the processors for the new Mac lines.

What does this mean? Aren’t Macs and PC still different? Well yes and no. They still have different operating systems (Windows versus OSX) but that the thing that drives those systems (processors that run similar codes/kernels) are from the same family so now they can play together.

Simply said, you can now run Windows programs on your Mac creating the best of both worlds. Now Apple had to reconfigure much of it’s code, the new stuff labeled “Universal”, to go along with the new chips but the Intel chips run dramatically faster and cooler making a huge “speed bump” difference.

So why am I such a Mac fan? For many reasons. I was a Windows user and enjoyed that I could mess with lots of the backend stuff aadn the price point was great and competitive with sellers. But I knew that Macs were better for my kind of stuff (graphics and editing). I got used to using Macs in university and quickly saw how efficient they were. They also protected you from messing with the backend stuff so your systems ran smooth or just stopped completely if it wasn’t working properly and you had to restart. This might seem problematic but it stopped you before you got into too much trouble and really screwed your system up.

Then there is the Apple Aqua GUI itself (pronounced gooey). The Graphic User Interface. It is the thing that runs sort of on top of the code that enables you to click and scroll to use your programs.

The Mac GUI It has evolved over time and visually is one of the Apple’s many brand recognitions. You usually know just by looking if things are Apple or PC. I’ve always found that Apple went that extra kilometer (I am Canadian of course) to have a sleek looking GUI. Complex shading, rounded corners, extra thought about colour schemes and icon drawing style set it apart from Windows for me. It made me feel that if someone was considering these extra details about the interface then that extra thought was being put into everything else.

This is a great example why I try to put that “extra thought” into my products. I want to ensure that we make our products are better than you expect. When I finish a project I have put myself into it and even though it represents you, it is a reflection of CM Creative and Craig Moore. It makes it so that I live and die by the CM Creative brand because it reflects who we are as a business. It sometimes takes an extra bit of time and work but the end product always benefits from it. It also means that I take pride in whatever I am making because of how it also represents who CM Creative is and how we work.

I am drawn to people and companies who follow this ideal. I see it in Apple and although it may be a slick marketing plan by one of the world’s dominate computer companies, but I have bought in and they haven’t let me down yet.

So in the news you may hear terms like “Windows Boot Camp”, “Parallels”, MacIntel, Mactel, Mac Pro , Duo-Core, Conroe and so on, especially if you are anywhere near Mac people. It’s all chatter about the new Macs taking over. For me the war is over. Let the family reunion begin and spread that slick GUI over everything so it looks nice and runs great.

CM
www.cmcreative.ca