Law Technology

Eric Rhodes of Triangle Immigration recently switched from PCs to Macs for his practice.  He wrote the following about his "conversion experience" on his Visa Tech Law Blog:

As a working attorney from 1999 onward, I gradually became more and more frustrated with Windows constantly crashing.  Other shortcomings of the operating system (security issues, frequent updates requiring a reboot, installation hassles) were apparent, and I was beginning to use more and more non-Microsoft products such as Mozilla?s Firefox web browser.

More importantly, many software applications that were previously Windows-only were migrating to an online subscription model accessible to computers running a variety of operating systems.  As an immigration lawyer, it is now possible for me to access AILALink (a compilation of statutory, regulatory, and secondary materials compiled by the American Immigration Lawyers Association) online, and most online case management systems are also accessible by Mac, including the system I use at my firm ? LawLogix.

The tipping point for me was the discovery of a truly amazing software product called Parallels Desktop for Mac. Parallels allow you to create a virtual Windows machine on you Mac this is accessible while running the Mac operating system.  Thus, with the new Intel-based iMacs, it is possible run Windows programs using XP or Vista from a partitioned drive on Boot Camp (built into the Leopard OS) by rebooting or instantly by running Parallels.

I now own my first iMac, a maxed out 24? 3.06GHz machine with 4GB of RAM.  It?s been two months and my Leopard operating system hasn?t crashed once, although XP has crashed several times when accessed via both Boot Camp and Parallels.   My iMac is also extremely quiet when running - a nice quality touch ? and it has been easy to learn the new keyboard shortcuts in Leopard.  But, when I really need to access a Windows program, I still have that option.

If you have been dissatisfied with your PC, I encourage you to consider a switch to an Intel-based iMac ? you can always launch Windows using Boot Camp or Parallels (and even use it as a purely Windows machine, although Apple purists would cringe!).