What Changed You???

[Rhisiart]

In 1984 I bought a BBC computer. Basically it was a keyboard which you connected to a TV. It had no GUI. I did learn a little code at the time, but goodness knows what language it was. Perhaps others on this forum might know.

Exactly ten years later I loaned my father's Amstrad (of Alan Sugar fame) to write up a MSc thesis for a chinese friend who couldn't cope with a QUERTY keyboard. By today's standards it would drive you to drink (all that fiddling around with discs), but it did the job.

In 1998, I was introduced to the AppleMac PowerPC 7600. It belonged to the director of R&D in my hospital who was devoted to Macs. However, the darn thing drove the IT department mad. They eventually won out and he had to switch to a PC (for security reasons they said). It was a disaster. Totally unreliable and out of action for half the time. It left him a broken man.

Even though I have had no choice to use Windows at work ever since, because every hospital and health institution in the UK use PCs, I always knew the Macs were superior thanks to my R&D man and eventually took out a loan and bought my G4 QuickSilver. All history now.

[Lt Major Burns]

I remember an 'argument' with my uncle and my cousin when i first saw their mac sitting in their study. possibly a quadra. i immedietly bombed in with the "a mac! ahahahahahaha no-one uses them they're rubbish get a proper computer!' to which they retorted, and within two days i was theory-based mac zealot, try to gain some practical experience on my cousins eMate, which he (rightly) claimed had been design to drop 12 feet onto concrete without a hiccup. i spent all weekend making the thing talk everything in Fred's voice. this was about 1997 or something

the next phase of my conversion was my brother. he got taught how to use a proper graphics machine, in the college's suite of brand new PowerMac G4 450mhz, all with dual 21" crts, and OS 8.6. i then followed in his footsteps and also learned on the same machine... just how dated 8.6 was...

then my brother bought his very own Powermac G4, with the last 17" CRT Studio Display, new. when he upgraded that to Jaguar it was brilliant again. i went to uni, had to use the panther eMacs, before spalshing out all my hard-earned on the computer in my signature. i love this bitch.

[ben72227]

I had always thought of Mac users as liberal/avant-garde and that really wasn't me. I mean, Mac hardware is more expensive than say, a Dell, and from the outside looking in, it seemed kinda like Mac users were a tight-knit group, kinda uppity and had an "I'm better than you because I use a Mac" mentality.

But, with the popularity of iPod and Apple becoming more..."traditional"? I mean, having computers that look modern but not too "out there" like the old iMacs did. So I bought an iMac G5 and a couple of iBook G4s because I wanted to start publishing documents (i.e. Indesign stuff) and Mac is basically the way to go for publishing.

Anyway, I got them, realized there was no blue screen of death, no need for virus/spyware protection, etc. and I was hooked. There are somethings that bugged me at first (like having to drag everything to the trash can, and having to get stuff like Sharepoints to share your stuff on a network, and it was hard getting used to a one-button mouse (Thank God for Mighty Mouse!))

I don't think I'll ever completely abandon(sp?) PCs though, because I'm a heavy gamer, and Mac's just don't have many games I like (i.e. Half-Life 2, etc.). Other than that, everything is great...

It will be interesting though, to see how Windows Vista compares to OS X 10.5 Leopard when it comes out...

[knight885]

Hi, I just joined here, I'd be more than happy to explain my switch. I spent over two hours creating a new Windows XP partition for use as a Windows/Internet development drive. Once I got it up and running, nothing worked - no USB ports, it even got the time wrong. On a new, freshly installed XP with Service Pack 2 and al the drivers, I was not impressed. After half an hour trying to use Internet Explorer to download drivers, I gave up, and decided I'd switch to Apple by the end of the year. By a stroke of good fortune, the new Intel iMac had just been announced, so I ordered one, and here it is!

I'll be keeping the XP box kicking around as it does a few things the Mac won't handle - I use it for 3D graphics with Cinema 4D, and Reason software synth didn't work too well on the iMac, but I'm gradually going to move everything else over.

So far - with two days' experience - I like it a lot!! I just can't get used to the @ being in the wrong place, and the Home and End keys don't do what I expect...

[dmetzcher]

I initially switched because I love the look and feel, and the security is really nice. I fell in love because my Mac lets me do what I want, when I want. I don't have to scan for viruses, or spyware, or defragment my drive, or spend time getting networking up and running. All these things, though they may only take 30-minutes here or there, are a problem for Windows, and my time is my time. I shouldn't have to adjust my life to fit my operating system. It should adjust to fit me. Apple puts a lot of though into this.

I also love AppleScript. The ability to script not only the OS (which you can do with Windows and VBScript - but it sucks in comparison) but most of the applications on my system makes life easier. That's what computers are supposed to do - make life easier.

The industrial design. What else can you say here? Apple knows how to design beautiful products.

And by the way, prior to the Mac, I NEVER wanted to use anything to manage my music collection. iTunes changed that. Apple designs beautiful software, and iTunes is not only nice to look at, but is the best application for managing a music collection ever dreamed up. Ever. I converted as soon as I got my external hard drive.

So, there are a few reasons why I love my Mac. Before I bought it, I thought that people who loved their computers (a.k.a. Mac Users) were strange. I thought of the computer as nothing more than a tool. I still look at my Mac as a tool, but I consider it to be a partner in the tasks I want to tackle. I was one of those people who used to mock the Mac users, and now I find myself on the other end of that treatment. But, hey, that's just fine. My Mac is nicer than their Dell.

[fryke]

I switched to the Mac several times, somehow. Came to computers through the C64, then saw some PCs in a store and was amazed at all this technology (this was 1983 or 1984 or something...). Then came 1987 (I was 13 back then) and the school I was in had a couple of Macintosh Plus machines. Didn't have the money for my own computer 'til, I guess, 1988 or 1989. Bought an Atari STf 1040, because it was similar to the Mac and the Mac was about double in price (and the Atari had a better display, too...). Then bought Spectre GCR for the Atari (Mac emulator). After that came an Amiga 2000 with an Atari ST emulator called Chameleon (What did I _think_?!) and then an IBM PS/1 with Windows 3.1 in 1992 or 1993, don't remember exactly. Windows was, well, you know. It sucked. Then, finally, Apple had a heart and offered a nice computer for less money. I wanted a notebook, anyway, and so I bought the PowerBook 150. This was my final switch to the Mac (and the first Mac I actually bought myself). Never looked back. (Well, constantly, but in a good way. Nostalgy...) I built some PCs myself, too. Played with Windows versions, SuSE Linux etc., since I was working as a network admin in a mixed environment. But for _my_ work, it was always Macs since then. And mostly notebooks. (PB150, PB180c, PB520c, PB190, PB5300ce, iBook300, eMate300, TiBook500, iBook G3/800, my current PB, iBook G4/1.2.) Mac desktops: I had a Performa 630 with the TV card, a Colour Classic (still have that, actually), a PowerMac 8200/120, a PowerMac 9500/200. That's it. Wow.

[powermac]

As I am reading the posts, it is interesting to see what brought people to the Macintosh. Even more interesting is the variety of computers we all had. Apple has gotten a lot of money from us over the years LOL. Don't regret a dollar of it.

[fryke]

Well, I _do_ regret _some_ money I've spent. For example, I bought the Newton 120 right before the 130 came out (not much rumours going on back then, so I didn't know...), so I sold the 120 again and bought the 130. Also, the 180c. I shouldn't really have bought that, since it wasn't really a true notebook with its 40 minutes of battery life. (But the screen was gorgeous for the time.)