# Did you switch from PC to Mac?



## azosx (Jul 15, 2002)

Despite using Apple computers since the release of the Apple II, I never purchased an Apple or Mac but went the PC route instead.

This is the first year I've owned a Apple Computer.  Both a Cube and a PowerBook G4.

I don't know if you can consider this a "switch" though, since I still continue to use my PC with Windows and Linux.  I own other computer platforms as well but I consider my PC desktop and PowerBook my main computers.

What I though would be interesting to find out is what users of this forum made the "switch" from the PC to Mac or have never used another platform other than Apple Computers?

I think it'll be fun to hear the "Real Stories" of this website's users.  Be as creative as you want but please try to keep PC/MS-bashing/trolling to yourself.  Just let us know why you switched or haven't in a Apple-esque commercial sort of way.  "Horrid little machine", "blue screen of death" stories totally expected and acceptable.

In the unlikelyhood that you switched from Mac to PC or any other platform, let us know as well!


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## Torz (Jul 15, 2002)

I switched from M$ Win ME to OS X early last year. Before that, I've never been interested in Mac, I was really interested in RedHat back then... still am actually 

Before I switched to OS X, I've only *played* on Mac OS9 at school. To tell the absoloute truth, I wasn't planning to by my iBook lol, I was actually gonna get DELL Inspiron but my order stuffed up so I got angry and bought an iBook. Come to think about it now, I'M REALLY HAPPY THAT I GOT iBOOK. My view to computing have really changed ever since 

ciao
Torz


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## hazmat (Jul 15, 2002)

I voted that I switched from a PC to a Mac.  Maybe I should have chosen that I use both, though.  I still have my PC networked at home, but 99% of the time, I use the Mac.  All because of OS X.  Windows (2k is what is at home) just gets worse and worse for me, more and more intrusive, and Mac OS just gets better and better.


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## voice- (Jul 15, 2002)

I switched from a PC to a Mac, back to PC and back to Mac again. Didn't find a satisfying choice till OS X came along


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## fbp_ (Jul 15, 2002)

i bought a tibook a year ago because it was just the coolest laptop around, but i didnt start using it instead of my pc until 10.1 came out...  10.0.4 was a mess and using macs at school had scared me off of os9 and below forever


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## chemistry_geek (Jul 15, 2002)

I switched...twice...

My first computer was a Timex/Sinclair 1000 with 2K of RAM, 8K of ROM, and running a Zilog Z80A at 1MHz.  I later purchased a 16K RAM pack that allowed me to run Chess and Flight Simulator.  For storage I had to use a cassette recorder and the transfer rate was 300 baud.  One of the frustrations of loading and saving programs on cassette is that the line input needed to be set correctly so that enough signal was recorded on the tape.  Too little and nothing was saved, too much and there was distortion.  In either case, you lost data.  A similar situation occurs if you want to load in a program.  If the volume on the cassette recorder is set too low or too high, the program won't load.  Since it takes 15 minutes to load the Flight Simulator, having the wrong settings can lead to a lot of wasted time.  Another frustration was the 16K RAM pack.  It was basically a slot connector relying on friction and physical contact to maintain stability of the data.  One bump of the 16K RAM pack or moving the computer resulted in loss of data and a total system crash.  In an attempt to reduce this sensitivity to vibration, I used cellophane tape to anchor the RAM pack to the computer, which worked very well for some time. In addition to overcoming this extreme sensitivity of the RAM pack, the keyboard was a flat membrane with no tactile response.  Thus, one had to constantly look up at the black and white TV screen to make sure the key presses were accepted.  It got to the point where I just couldn't work with this "horrid little machine", so I upgraded to the Timex/Sinclair 2068, a Sinclair Spectrum clone, with a 2MHz Zilog Z80A, 48K RAM, and 16K of ROM, a cartridge slot, joystick ports, and an expansion slot in the rear in addition to the cassette save and load connectors and TV out.  The TS 2068 was a step up, it had chicklet-styled keys, COLOR!, a 4 voice synthesizer and internal speaker, and saved and loaded programs at 1200 baud!  WOW! 4X what I was used to!  In 1983, Timex/Sinclair ceased making computers in which case I eventually *switched* to an Apple IIGS, Woz Limited Edition, 2.8MHz processor, 256K RAM, a 3.5" 800K disk drive, a 5.25" disk drive, ImageWriter II, Apple RGB Color Monitor, ADB Keyboard and Mouse.  After the Apple IIGS, I *switched* to a Macintosh PowerBook 520c, and then to my current PowerMac G3.

Order of computers acquired:
Timex/Sinclair 1000
Timex/Sinclair 2068
Apple IIGS
PowerBook 520c
Power Macintosh G3 (Blue & White)

I still have them all and they work.


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## xoot (Jul 15, 2002)

I use both. But I use my Mac 99% more than my PC.


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## edX (Jul 15, 2002)

i voted for 'always used a mac' which i interpreted as 'always owned a mac'. of course i have used pc's - friend's, relatives, schools, buisnesses, stores, etc. it is impossible to avoid "using" them. 

I will admit i even considered buying a pc at one point but then the macs gave up the original "all in one" design and i stuck with apple. i've never regretted my decision.


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## voice- (Jul 15, 2002)

Ed, let me get this straight, you concidered switching to PC, then Apple gave up the all-in-one design and started with separate monitor and computer. This made you stay? Why the heck do you have an iMac then???


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## mrfluffy (Jul 15, 2002)

i used wintels at school for 2 years, but i've only owned macs.


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## edX (Jul 15, 2002)

voice -  after using the seperate configuration, i wasn't as thrilled with it as i had thought - other than the fact that my monitor was color and big enough to see. when the imac was introduced with a full size color monitor, it gradually won me back over and i've loved it ever since. sure, i occasionally get frustrated that i can't upgrade my vid card or something like that, but really that's minor to me.

(we are talking a loooong time ago when i considered it - we all take color monitors for granted now, but that wasn't always the case  )


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## voice- (Jul 15, 2002)

I hear ya, I have a 14" black/white/grayscale monitor here sitting in the attic...I tried playing Quake 3 on it once, but the screen went all black and I had to navigate on memory and sound to get out...I have another one with 16 colors...almost as bad...buying a computer based on monitors seem kinda extreme thou...


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## j79 (Jul 15, 2002)

I used Windows for about 6 years (from 1994 to 2000, previous to that, I was using a Commodore 64/128.. and before that I was too young ).. 
I was that kid who NEVER owned a Mac, yet, felt as though I had a right to throw in my .02 about how horrible Macs were. I was as loyal to Microsoft as the Redmond employees were. I was totally "PC'd" (I always apologize to the few mac friends I had back then, for being such a bit@h.. hehe )
Summer of 2000, I decided to take some courses that required a Mac. I was hesitant to actually take the course, but then decided I could just sell the Mac after.. When it arrived, I just let the thing sit in my room for three weeks before even opening it.
When I finally did open it, me and my friend laughed at the 1 button trackpad. The overall design was a different story though.. 
That week, the only thing I did was start it up, fill out the set up info, and turn it off. For 6 years, I had used a PC with Windows. Mac OS 9 was foreign to me, and prefered my PC and the OS I was comfortable with.
It wasn't until school started that I realized how great my Mac was. 
The first thing that ever made me go "WOW!", was when (and this is going to sound corny) I was installing software. When I opened the installer folder, I was instructed to "drag the folder over"..
"Drag the folder over?"
Where's the 100's of dll files that are scattered on my HD???

Then I purchased some hardware.. which was even cooler! I'd read the instruction manual, that would have 3 pages for Windows users (insert cd, follow prompts, restart computer) and 1 column for Macs (Mac users just plug in..) - Great!

And of course, the user experience. It wasn't until I owned my Mac for about a year that I started remembering my "experiences" with my PC. Before this Mac, I was happy with my PC. Sure it crashed (ALOT), BUT, so did everyone elses PC. Those sleepless nights, as I toiled over my pc that wouldn't boot up because of a virus.. It was great times!! I'd call my friend up "hey Robbo, computer crashed! wanna come over and give me a hand" - which was really "hey rob, computer crashed, come over so we can b.s. and chill, while I reformat the HD and install all the software agan.." 
But, my Mac.. everything worked.. well, the majority of the time, everything worked. I'm not going to sit here and lie, and say "My Mac is perfect!", because its not. I have the same typical Pismo problems as other Pismo owners (pink screen, battery that doesn't charge, occasional vague weird numbered errors), but overall, the Mac OS has been just great!

The one thing that really frustrated me about my PC was when it did crash.. When I'm using my Mac, I have an idea if its going to crash (silly, huh?). If I open up 20 apps, I know I'm walking on a thin line.. where as, for my PC, a crash could happen anytime.. I could be surfing the net, and *BAM*, Internet Explorer caused a GPF.. or just a BSOD from no where. 

In the two years, I've become a full Mac head. I tell all my PC friends they should switch "you guys don't know what your missing out on!!"
Anyone in the computer market, I refer them to the Apple store up here.. Its a tough pitch though, since, like me, they're so "PC'd", and have this pre-conceived idea of what Mac is..  My boss, he asked me for suggestions. I told him he should get a PC, but he wasn't interested. He didn't like the UI ("where's the start menu??") - he ended up buying a new Gateway, with all the bells and whistles.. I went over to help him set it up, and we booted that baby up. 
Honest to god, when it was booting up, the system crashed  - I took so much pride in saying "you should have gotten that iMac..."

^_^

Sorry for the long post.. didn't realize how long it was..


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## edX (Jul 15, 2002)

beautiful story jppjr  

*ed turns away and wipes the mist from his eyes*


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## voice- (Jul 15, 2002)

Did I miss something or did you think one thing while typing another? You told you boss to get a PC, he wasn't happy with the UI so he got a Gateway whereupon you told him he should have gotten a Mac...that doesn't make sense


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## genghiscohen (Jul 16, 2002)

I voted always used a Mac, never used a PC.  But that should have been never *voluntarily* used a PC.  I had to use them at work (Dells running WinNT, pure Hell).  So I'm not just some blind zealot PC-basher.  I *know* why I hate 'em!


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## j79 (Jul 16, 2002)

> _Originally posted by voice- _
> *Did I miss something or did you think one thing while typing another? You told you boss to get a PC, he wasn't happy with the UI so he got a Gateway whereupon you told him he should have gotten a Mac...that doesn't make sense *



Ahh, thanks for pointing that out 
Let me edit that.. =)
We went into the Apple Store at the Northshore Mall (for anyone living in Massachusetts)
He liked the design of the machine, but, he was so perplexed with the lack of a start menu...
What really drove me crazy though, was I asked him "what do you want to do with your computer?"
He said "i want to take pictures of my daughter, record movies and edit them on a computer and make mix of music.."

it was like he was saying "give me a machine with iphoto, imovie, and itunes..."


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## edX (Jul 16, 2002)

jppjr - since your boss is obviously not a member of this site i can only take this opportunity to point out the obvious - your boss is a moron. an idiot. a mind controlled zombie. a mental midget whose whole world would probably fall apart if he didn't repeat the same habits day after day. did i say he was a moron?  

i hope you will show more insight than he when the day comes for you to search for a new boss!! 

sorry, i've had a rough day moderating today and this just seemed like the perfect place to blow off some steam and speak some God's honest truth at the same time.


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## voice- (Jul 16, 2002)

I have an old friend who constantly want support for his Mac from me. This he needs cause he installs all kinds of crap. Among it all I once saw a TaskBar and a Start-menu on there, he loved it...anything can be fixed with 3rd party apps, rub THAT in your bosses face


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## azosx (Jul 16, 2002)

Since getting a PowerBook G4 I to have been trying to sell people on the merits of an Apple when discussing computers.

Most of them just look at me crazy with that "what the hell for" expression.

Not that they have anything bad to say about Apple, they just don't seem to understand there's a difference between a PC and Mac.

It's a tuff sale, I don't envy Apple in the least.  I just wish they could get the G5 out and give OS X and Mac some real muscle before it's too late.

The only reason I got a Cube was because it was relatively inexpensive being discontinued and ran OS X.  With OS X came the wonderful hardware and eventually the desire to buy a PowerBook G4.

I'll probably always own a PC but I'll probably always own a Apple computer now as well.


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## Dstreelm (Jul 23, 2002)

I havent decided weather or not i am going to switch from a pc to a mac yet.  I actually i ordered a new powerbook G4 800mhz 512 megs of ram (i got it in one dimm so i can double it later)  its still in the mail (im so anxious).  

Ive always been a PC guy.  i used a mac a couple of times, but never got that into it.  my one friend was always into them, but i pretty much ignored him, to be honest, i couldnt get used to the user interface.  i didnt understand the little buttons in the corners of the windows.  i didnt understand how the top menu's items change.

fast foreward to last month, orientation for my freshman year at Virginia Tech.  my Industrial design professor says we need to have laptops.  okay, so i talk to the head of graphic design(i plan to double major) and he said he highly recommends a mac.  so i resigned myself to the fact that i needed a mac.  

i went to the bookstore and something bright and shiny caught my eye.  from across the room, i saw this beautiful piece of equipment, the bright blue screen with a matte silver rim.  right then i knew that we were destined to be together.  i spoke to the friendly salesperson, i asked him what it was, and he explained to me about the wonderful powermac.

so it was decided, and now i wait not so patiently for it to arrive in the mail.  i am excited about getting it, and i may become a convert...


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## xaqintosh (Aug 4, 2002)

I have always owned macs but I have used PCs a lot at school. They really aren't anywhere near as good as macs


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## OmegaMan (Aug 6, 2002)

> _Originally posted by azosx _
> *I think it'll be fun to hear the "Real Stories" of this website's users.  Be as creative as you want but please try to keep PC/MS-bashing/trolling to yourself.  Just let us know why you switched or haven't in a Apple-esque commercial sort of way.  "Horrid little machine", "blue screen of death" stories totally expected and acceptable.*



I shall never go back to a peecee.  *laughs*

Yeah....i just switched over to the mac side, on May 16 (Episode II release date, btw.  *l*).

Suffice to say....just about everything and everyone's story from the Switch on the apple site, I agreed with (except that lady who said that she thought it was her fault that winwoz didn't work properly).  :->

Mind you, I've always used apples (even when I was in grade school, we got a Apple IIg in our class), but didn't buy one, because of my adiment pc user brother.  

Except until the end of July, when my PIII 800 /Win98 refused to boot up, and suddenly became severely FUBARed.  That was the last straw, even though I'm good with comps, and usually fix others, Windows just pissed me off, too much, too often.   

The only thing that stopped me (for about 30mins), was the inital purchase price...but hey...now the dosh has been spent....it's niiiiiiiiiice!  *l*

Anyone else feel it odd, that the system doesn't crash (I won't say never, since i've heard others have)?  *l*  It's been almost 3 months....*l*


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## Total Konfuzion (Sep 4, 2002)

Well, I've always owned Pcs and never really thought about buying an apple until a few weeks ago when I wanted to get myself a laptop.  I work at a pc store, where I build and repair desktops/rackmounts/servers with anything from NT4 to XP to Redhat 7.3 and Suse on them.  The quality of laptops and complaints about pc laptops that I kept getting was just really scaring me and then I thought.  Holy sh*t, there is an apple store about 100 yards away from where I work(Boston).  I went there and was totally shocked at how much Apple had grown in their design and product line.  The iBook caught my eye right off the bat, I play with it some and discovered that I loved it instantly.  In my black shirt with the clear label that stated "Pcsforeveryone" the store I work at...I jumped in line and purchased the top of the line iBook while still wearing that dreaded black t-shirt(i did get a few comments on it, hehe)  I've always respected macs and actually have acquired some other macs since the iBook purchase.  I now have a MacSE and a PowerMac7200.  w00p@those   I also own about 7 pcs, everything ranging from home builds to compaqs(I got this one as a computer left it behind).  Honestly, I work with my iBook more often and am happy that my computer collection just became a lot more diverse.  Windows was totally boring me, working with it and looking at it all day was driving me up the wall, MacOSX is visually pleasing to me when i want to get home and just chat, surf the web and listen to some music.  I still love my pcs and if it wasn't for microsoft, I wouldn't have a job at the moment.  I thank Apple for enhancing the way I use a computer and Microsoft for letting me get a paycheck at the end of the week, hehe.  I love how I can build a pc to my exact specs and load windows or whatever other OS i want on it.  I like my iBook because it's reliable, fun to use, cool looking(The chics love it) and I don't have to worry about it when I'm using it.  <sarcasm>I enjoy windows for the shear fact that its keeps me on my toes at work with all it's nice little features that make it so uber</sarcasm>


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