BarTalk April 2004
Volume 16, Number 2

Once you’ve had Mac, you never go back

By Tony Wilson

Nothing seems to send my law partner and friend (lets call him “Ken”), into apoplexy more than discovering that my computer seems to work when everyone else’s in the office does not. Nothing, that is, except my regular boasting of this fact, particularly within earshot of the outsourced computer techies that seem to flock to our office with such regularity that we’re considering giving them a dedicated phone line, free coffee, and an interest in the pension plan.

You see, a few years ago, I switched to Macintosh, and no one else in the office did. In one of those moments familiar to users of Windows 98, Windows Millennium, and even the new and improved XP, I had one crash too many and caught one virus too much. I lost data I shouldn’t have lost, and bought upgrades that wouldn’t work with previously installed software. In a fit of anger, I decided to throw Windows more or less out the window. I have no regrets, although my move away from the notso comfortable world of Windows has not sat well with Ken. Mention the word “Mac” to Ken, and watch steam pour from his ears. Get a mutual friend to tell him that our friend is switching to Mac, and see Ken’s face go red. Eat an apple in his presence only with a clear, unobstructed path to the door, and Todd Bertuzzi as your bodyguard.

This is not to say I don’t use Microsoft products. In fact, in an ironic twist of fate, I couldn’t have fired Windows without Microsoft’s help. Because they make Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Macintosh, and because all Macs now seamlessly integrate into Windows networks just the way other computers do (plug it in and voila – you’re on the network with everyone else!) I can pretty well open anything that’s e-mailed to me, access an Excel spreadsheet on anyone’s directory, create a monstrously large and complicated Word document, and prepare a PowerPoint presentation, all on my Mac. In short, I can do virtually anything on my Mac that my partners can do with Windows, unless of course the specialized software isn’t made for Mac. But wait, a product called Virtual PC allows me to “emulate” a PC on my Mac, so I can run PC Law and other “Windows Only” programs without retuning to the Dark Side. (And it’s put out by Microsoft, of all things!) So switching to Mac these days is just another option, like the kind of car you drive, the music you listen to, the shoes you wear, or the accounting program you use.

I’ve become somewhat of a Mac evangelist since my conversion, taking every opportunity to explain why I switched, and why, as they say, once you’ve had Mac, you never go back. I brag about easy integration with Windows networks. I boast about my immunity to viruses that plague our office (and yours). Viruses don’t know what to do on a Macintosh, so when everyone else is “down” I’m still up. I boast about its preponderance not to crash, causing our computer techies to look despairingly at my 20 inch iMac and say “Are you trying to put us out of business with that thing or what? They never crash.” I boast about my Mac integrating my calendar and my contacts all on my iPod, (together with 1,648 songs from my iTunes library). I can even store files on my iPod, using it as a back up hard drive for all my documents.

My wife says I didn’t have to change spouses or law partners for my mid-life crisis – just operating systems. But I suppose my real reason for switching stems from my need to be a minor revolutionary in an inherently conservative business, and not feel I have to jump off a cliff just because all the other lemmings are doing it. As lawyers, our personal room for rebellion is so sliver thin, wearing sandals to work is provocative and going tieless is still novel. In a profession where we’re all educated in the same way to think in the same manner, switching to Mac allows me to tilt at a few windmills, ruffle a few feathers, stir a few pots and start the smallest of rebellions. It allows me to prove to anyone who cares, there is another way to do this job, and it works.

Tony Wilson is a Franchise and Intellectual property lawyer at Cawkell Brodie, and has written for the Globe and Mail, the Vancouver Sun and Macleans magazine. His email address is twilson@cawkell.com.

This article originally appeared in the April 2004 issue of BarTalk and is reproduced here with permission of both the author and the Canadian Bar Association, British Columbia Branch.