As those who know me well will agree, for most of my professional life I was a Microsoft zealot. I supported the software, designed enterprise architecture, and led teams with the aim of using their collaborations software in its purest form.

I was (am) also, and this is an understatement, an Excel fan. The fact that I thought it was reasonable to create an excel spreadsheet with conditional formatting to plan holidays I think speaks for itself.

Ever since my trusty IBM X40 blew up I started an experiment in using Apple computers and the Mac OS X operating system. This has been an interesting exercise that has sometimes been frustrating but overall has been enjoyable. Making myself think in a different way has been a good thing.

However, I have been using what you might call training wheels in this Apple experiment…You see I still have the following software installed on my MacBook;
•    Mac version of Microsoft Excel and Word
•    Entourage for email (that is connected to a hosted version of Microsoft Exchange 2007, yes I still can’t let go of that one)
•    Microsoft messenger
•    Parallels with Windows XP and;
o    Windows version of  Excel for when I do complex spreadsheets that include macros for other people
o    QuickBooks. The charity I am involved with uses QuickBooks, and I have the need to view QuickBooks file. Now QuickBooks make a US Mac version of QuickBooks. However, in their wisdom they do not make a UK version. Due to the difference in accounting systems I have to use a UK version, so …
•    IE6, IE7, and IE8 : this is mainly for testing browser compatibility issues

So over the next few months I intend to take off these training wheels and go native. My initial investigation has thrown up the following observations:
•    iWork 09. Numbers, Pages and Keynote look interesting products that I can see myself using. Numbers has some really interesting strengths over Excel on the visualisation front, however lacks its power in advanced usage. The interoperability is good, although the inability to create CSV files is  …. Annoying. As I am doing very little spreadsheet work for others these days this looks like a viable route.
•    Entourage. Well it would seem that the next version of Mail in Snow Leopard (the next version of the Mac OS X) is becoming a bit more grown up and can act as a collaboration tool. Still vapourware at this stage though
•    Exchange 2007. This really depends on how well the next version of Mail and iCal work with Google mail and allow me to do the things I want to do. That being said the next version of Mail is meant to work better with Exchange, so I may have to hang on to that one. You have to allow me some sentimentality, and I still believe that Exchange is the best email solution out there.
•    Messenger.  There is a solution, but it seems painful and overly complicated, as iChat does not play nicely with the MSN network. The conclusion there is to move away from MSN, but that seems really painful at this stage.

So that’s where I am, stay tuned to see how I do with removing those training wheels.

Michael Apple switch, IT Governance Apple, Microsoft