In his latest "Technology Update," Joe Kashi bemoans the current state of Microsoft’s operating systems, noting that Vista is "not hot," Windows 7 is "years away," and XP is "being killed off." In fact, he sounds like he’s "almost" ready to be a Mac convert, when he says
Were I starting over and had no Windows-only legal software
constraints, I’d go with the excellent Mac OS 10 or some form of Linux,
both of which are based upon the powerful Unix operating systems that
have been constantly improved and refined since the late 1960s, an when
Bill Gates had not yet dropped out of Harvard. Unfortunately, most
legal professionals don’t have the luxury of changing operating systems
because we are tied to Windows-only legal software.
I’m glad that Mr. Koshi is such a fan of Mac’s OS X, but I disagree with his assertion that it’s difficult for attorneys who use Windows to switch. As I’ve written over the years, there are many excellent legal software options available to Mac users, and through the use of virtualization software, Mac users can also run any necessary Windows-only programs.
Source: ""Technology Update" by Joe Kashi, published in the ABA Law Practice Management Section‘s Law Technology Today.
I tend to disagree about the point on virtualization software. If you do rely on Windows software for billing, timekeeping, document management and template systems, you will probably have to stick to Windows unless there is a native Mac alternative. Imagine exporting a document from XP formatted by a proprietary office plugin, importing to MacOffice at home and exporting back to XP.
It is confusing to work between OSX and Windows on the same machine. For example, [CMD]-[N] is different to [CTRL]-[N].
We can only hope that legal software developers will publish compatible software in future. And you, Mr. Stevens, must continue to spread the word 😛