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Switching to a Mac - Motivation
By Dave Peterson | February 3, 2008
I’ve been a PC (Microsoft OS) user since sometime around MS-DOS version 3. My first PC had 1 MB of RAM and a 40 MB hard drive, to put things in historical context. Numerous people have told me that Macs are the way to go. Most Windows users have heard that from time to time. We get used to it. Understand, I’m not dissatisfied with Windows. It works for me, like a shovel or a wrench. And it’s just about as exciting. When I hear Mac users talk about their computers, they have passion in the voices that I just don’t hear from Windows users, who are unlikely to say anything much more enthusiastic than, “
I’m not completely inexperienced with Macs. Back around 1984, one of my friends got a first generation Macintosh through Apple’s student discount program and it was the first computer with a mouse that I ever used. In 1995, I was teaching and schools were big for Macs. Our school decided to put computers on all the teachers’ desks. I got some good daily experience with a Mac then, and I found it to be highly comparable to a Windows PC, in both good and bad ways. It was able to run similar productivity software and it was completely capable of throwing near-indecipherable error messages. I didn’t see that the Mac was that much more user-friendly than the PC, and I did see that there was a big gulf between the two platforms in available software. I had no interest then in trying a Mac at home.
Recently, though, I’ve been exposed to a number of people, both online and in the real world, who speak very highly of the current state of Macs. These are people who used to be Windows users and have made their own conversions. Their reasons for preferring Macs sound convincing and I respect their opinions on multiple other subjects. This combines with my past three years or so using iPods and the Apple TV, both of which have really impressed me. So maybe there is something to this whole Mac business, and I’m ready to try a computer that inspires such passion.
So now, as Apple would ask, which Mac am I?
Topics: Switching to a Mac |
February 13th, 2008 at 12:34 am
I’m intrigued. I’ll be following your progress on this. As an illustrator, I am laughed at by my fellow artists because I’m not on Mac, and apparently ALL artists use Mac. It’s just that I’m such a “comfort zone” creature. It usually takes waterboarding to get me to change my ways.