While Russ just laid out his reasons for a possible reverse switch (Mac to PC), I’ve been missing my PowerBook just a bit lately after voluntarily deciding to switch to the PC when I started the new job (I still use a Mac at home, though). Working with the PC is going ok, but sometimes I kick myself, honestly. I mean, I’m getting my work done, but it’s those little things. Here are a few of them:
- To put the Mac in sleep mode, I used to just close it. On the PC, I have to go to the Start Menu, select “Shut Down,” then choose “Standby” (this process might not be described perfectly because I don’t want to bring my PC laptop out of standby right now to check. That is slow, too. I’m typing this post on a Mac!)
- I really like Mail.app, and still use it at home. I have not yet figured out how to effectively search my mail in Exchange like I did effortlessly in Mail.app. (Yeah, yeah, Exchange can be kind of lame, but the GoodLink software that pushes mail to my Treo is all worth it. And I know you can get POP/IMAP mail with SnapperMail on a Treo, but been there, done that — GoodLink is WAY better.) Exchange isn’t required in the Windows environment, just thought I would mention it anyway.
- I spent part of the weekend fooling around with the Bluetooth on my PC and it didn’t quite work. I’m sure I’ll get there, but I doubt I’ll be very well-positioned for Bluetooth heroics with the PC. Stranded families are unlikely to appreciate the slow wake-up of the PC when every moment is critical.
- I can’t type very well in the dark any more (that backlit keyboard. . . oh, how your memory haunts me!)
- I didn’t know how much I would miss the built-in Terminal (though it’s not perfect by any means)
- Man, it was nice having gcc and my own dev environment running on my laptop.
One good thing about using a PC at work and a Mac at home is that I can try out pretty much anything out there, but I think the best thing is that I can bitch about them both on a regular basis.
Chad Dickerson's blog 
Your first gripe is easily fixed. Inside control panel is a Power Options tool. There is an Advanced tab that should let you set what to do when you close the lid (I like it to do nothing since I often carry it around the office) and what should happen when you hit the power button (I like hibernate).
You may run find that the panel is replaced by a hardware specific tool. In the case of my Toshiba, I need to select Toshiba Power Management Utility to actually perform the changes.
If you are using a non-MS client or even OWA it can be difficult to search e-mail. When searching my Exchange mailbox with Outlook I always use the advanced find tool, located under Tools | Advanced Find. You can search your whole mailbox or just one folder.
If Yahoo is using Exchange 2003 then searching your mailbox can be significantly enhanced if you enable full-text indexing.
Yes, typing in the dark is hard without a backlit keyboard. Have you tried one of those USB lamps?
MS has services for UNIX free to download on their website. You’d get C and Korn shells, gcc, and the rest. Be warned, it takes forever to install. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/sfu/productinfo/features/default.mspx
Chad,
Being a newbie at my job now too, I have the exact same gripes as you. The standby thing is the worst, by the way. Also, until I changed my power-saving settings, the darn PC was going onto stand-by mode after sitting idle for something ridiculous like 15 minutes…meaning I would have to then wait while it started itself back up from scratch…not to mention the fact that I’d then have to reopen all of my applications. But…at least I can play with Yahoo! Music…
PC…bah!
-Cody