I have been seriously contemplating getting a Mac in a month or two, and have been watching the Keynote by Steve Jobs on the new Leopard. If anyone is using a Mac and has looked at the features of Leopard, do you think OSX and its components could be used as a PIM? I have never used a Mac before.

I have been using InfoSelect for years and recently ventured into do Organizer, mainly because they are all in one packages with good search capabilities (and include built-in email). But looking at Leopard, it seems that the search function is much more useful and integrated than in Windows. It looks like you could find documents pretty quickly if you produced them in any software, possibly negating the need for a program with such a search function.

I was wondering if the built-in Calendar, email, etc. were integrated enough so that you could link lets say email or appointments to a contact? If there is not a good outliner could you purchase one and link to these in any way? Omni looks like it has great products (OmniFocus looks especially interesting for GTD) as does Devonthink and Tinderbox. Could I use one of these products as my main repository and be able to link in email, appointments, etc.?

Sorry for the ramble but I don't see an all-in-one package (including email) for the Mac and that has me leary of a move.

Thanks,
Vince

Vince,

I bought a new MacBook a month ago to supplement/complement my Thinkpad T60p with Vista. In the beginning, I was using the Thinkpad as my main laptop and the MacBook as a backup (about 80 to 20%). However, after about a month, I noticed something interesting. I was using my MacBook about 80% of the time, and my Thinkpad, 20%. So, over the weekend, I bit the bullet, and switched over to Mac completely by installing Parallels with my Windows XP copy. So, far everything is working great! I love my Mac and all the programs I've been using (e.g., Mail, Tinderbox, Notebook, Opal, etc.).

What drove me to this? Of course several Mac programs that are unique to Mac, but it's probably my overall experience and enjoyment level. Let's just say that whenever I tried to do something with my Mac (such as wireless file sharing, wireless networking, etc), it worked for the first time, whereas in my Thinkpad with Vista, it took me several times, and some features never worked right even though I worked on it for a few days. Also, I don't know what it is, but I was enjoying computing again in my Mac (strange). Futhermore, when I upgraded my Mac from 2.0G to 2.16G (I bought it right before Apple came out with the upgrade, and I returned my previous one and got a new one instead), the transfer from my previous to the new MacBook was so easy, painless, and fluid that I almost felt guilty (it took me less than 30 minutes). On the other hand, when I got my current Thinkpad, it took me 3 days to get the system back to where I want to be from my previous Thinkpad.

In fact, when I was typing this reply in my Thinkpad (I happen to be using this at school to reformat my NTFS drive), my browser mysteriously quit and I had to retype most of this reply again.

So, I'm a happy Mac camper now. In fact, I have come home since my first real PC was Apple II and IIc.

Ken

Just to say - go for it, Vince.

I migrated to a MacBook a couple of months ago, and like Kenneth I haven't looked back. I can't address the specifics of your questions because I don't use the Mac for PIM functions, except tasks - of which more in a moment. What I have noticed is that the general sense of coherence and "playing nicely together" is significantly greater for Mac programmes than for Windows. Two indices of this: pdf's, which on Windows of course require Acrobat Reader to be read, on the Mac can be read and saved in just about any notes or information management programme you care to name. This is no big deal - but it contributes to a sense of, as I say, coherence. Also, it's clear most Mac developers use basic building blocks provided by Apple, according to rules of style drafted by Apple, so they all have a similar feel (and so of course you find the same little virtues and vices cropping up again and again - for example in the Apple text-editing engine.)

Mac PIMs: there is of course Entourage which is MS's Mac equivalent of Outlook. I've not used it; I'm told it's very similar. I too have heard that Leopard itself will be more PIM-ish than its predecessors. But I believe that most Mac mail programmes already play happily with iCal and the Apple Address Book.

There's a furious amount of activity in the "orthodox" and "reformed" GTD areas, with the development of Actiontastic, Midnight Inbox, iGTD, Omnifocus, Ghost Action, Frictionless and others. I'm sure the Omni Group will make a good job of Omnifocus: all its products look terrific and, I believe, perform well. iGTD (http://bargiel.home.pl/iGTD/ ) is designed to play with just about anything you care to name and is being developed at such an extraordinary pace that it makes one wonder what any virtually other developer does all day. (Or maybe the pre-existing Apple framework makes the developer's task much easier - whatever - he's tossing out a new version per week at the moment, with significant changes and improvements each time.)

There are exceptions to the general harmony: for example, DevonThink's databases can't be searched by Spotlight under Tiger, but the developers have promised that they will launch a new version under Leopard where the databases are opened up.

Kenneth Rhee wrote:

"... the transfer from my previous to the new MacBook was so easy, painless, and
fluid that I almost felt guilty (it took me less than 30 minutes). On the other hand,
when I got my current Thinkpad, it took me 3 days to get the system back to where I want to
be from my previous Thinkpad."

Ken,

How did you do it in ONLY 3 DAYS?

P.S. My son has also become fed up with Windows and Compaq and has switched to a MAC.

-c

That's funny.

How did I do it in 3 days? Let's just say I didn't sleep much during those 3 days and worked on the laptop full time. It's good thing that I usually have download files on my hard disk, not on CD's or other media. In fact, this brought me the bad memory of doing this while using floppy a long time ago!

In fact, even after those 3 days, I was still trying to get the system to work the way I want to work . . .

Let's just say those 3 days weren't much fun for me.

BTW, one software I discovered while using the Mac that I think is great is Daylite 3.x. Right now, it's my perfect project/calendar/task management software for me, and it integrates well with Mail and my Palm.

Ken


Cassius wrote:

Kenneth Rhee wrote:
>"... the transfer from my previous to the new MacBook was so
easy, painless, and
>fluid that I almost felt guilty (it took me less than 30
minutes). On the other hand,
>when I got my current Thinkpad, it took me 3 days to get
the system back to where I want to
>be from my previous Thinkpad."

Ken,

How did you
do it in ONLY 3 DAYS?

P.S. My son has also become fed up with Windows and Compaq and has
switched to a MAC.

-c

I asked Ken how he "moved" in 3 days. He said, "That’s funny.

"How did I do it in 3 days? Let’s just say I didn’t sleep much during those 3 days and worked on the laptop full time. It’s good thing that I usually have download files on my hard disk, not on CD’s or other media."

I do likewise, except that I have every program setup file on my hard drive, even the ones that originally came on CD. Similarly for the registration keys. Of course, I also have these backed up on an external hard drive.

-c

Kenneth and Hugh,

Congrats on biting the bullet with the Macs. Sounds like you are both loving them. I may be doing so very soon. The more I research them, the more I am impressed.

It's funny but back in college and my early days as an Engineer, we used to make fun of the Apples because you could not upgrade (tinker with) them. I guess as I get older I am looking to tinker less and just get the job done. Boy I feel old now ;)

I am going to look into many of the programs mentioned, especially iGTD and Daylite. I guess I won't get a really good feel about them until I just purchase one.

Thanks to everyone for the help,
Vince

Btw Kenneth, my first reply to this was mysteriously deleted also! I had to retype it again.

Captain CowPie wrote:

... Btw Kenneth, my first reply to this was mysteriously deleted also! I had to retype it again.

I try to remember to frequently use CTRL-A and CTRL-C as I am writing so that I don't lose too much.

-c

Cassius wrote:

Captain CowPie wrote:
>... Btw Kenneth, my first reply to this was mysteriously
deleted also! I had to retype it again.

I try to remember to frequently use CTRL-A and
CTRL-C as I am writing so that I don't lose too much.

-c

Whenever I'm writing a forum reply (or a weblog post, etc.) that's more than a sentence or two, I open my text editor (EditPad) there, turn on realtime spell checking, and compose there. When the post is complete, I then copy from the editor and paste into the text box in my browser.

But thankfully Firefox is much more stable than previous browsers (the old Mozilla comes to mind), and I rarely have browser crashes these days.

- Wes