PC Users Switch to Apple

JHromadka writes "Apple has setup a special website with real users explaining why they switched from the PC to the Mac. There's a full compliment of commercials, Mac OS X reviews, the works. Now we know why they didn't renew that agreement with Microsoft. :)" I like the commercials, they're funny, though probably not so much intentionally. Apparently the commercials begin airing this week.

Comments

Question #4...

[Enrico Pulatzo]

Does my software work on the Mac?
Speaking as a mac-convert within the past year, this point holds a lot of people back. Not will software run on the Mac, but will software I have previously purchased work on the Mac? If Apple had some service where they and the vendors had a PC for Mac trade-in program (and some do, like Adobe), it would get more people over the hump to switch.

Apple has compelling products

[shunnicutt]

My office is in the middle of consolidating from one floor of our office building to one, necessitating a great deal of shifting about for almost everyone.

One of my co-workers was annoyed that she'd be without music while she was re-assembling her office, so I loaned her my iPod for a couple of hours with a pair of speakers that was lying around.

I was simply amazed at how ecstatic she was over this little device. She had no trouble figuring out how to use it.

She was so smitten that she is now planning to purchase an iBook, Microsoft Office, more RAM, 3 years worth of AppleCare (due to one of Apple's promotions, buying the AppleCare and MS Office at the Apple Store with the iBook is actually $11 less than without AppleCare) and, of course, the iPod.

She wouldn't hear of waiting for someone to finish a program to interface the iPod with a PC. She was already contemplating a new laptop, and she's very excited with the features of the iBook.

I was never sure that I truly believed the stories of people buying Macs just to use an iPod, but that's exactly what she's planning!

I'm switching this week

[swagr]

Quite honestly, I love Linux. I use it as a destop and a server on several PCs.
Laptops are another story...
I've owned 3 PC laptops in the last 5 years, and never had Linux working 100% on any of them.

Power management has never worked 100% properly for me. Even though I can get hardware video acceleration, switching to a tty, then back, breaks XFree and freezes my machine. etc... Basically the Open Source community can't keep up with the proprietary innovations going into new laptops.

Enter OSX. Now I know I can get a cutting edge Laptop, who's hardware is 100% supported by a UNIX based OS, at a reasonable price. I don't remember an opportuinity like this existing before.

I'm trading my (almost) new PC laptop for an (almost) new iBook this week.

Re:marketing lies - let me illuminate you

[blakespot]

I'll surely try...

• Robust UNIX core built on Mach + FreeBSD (evolved from Mach + BSD implementation of NEXTSTEP which has been around since October 1988 (yes, eighty-eight)). The most stable OS many (myself included) have ever seen.
• The first viable "desktop Unix" merging the power of UNIX with full featured application support (Photoshop, MS Office X, Dreamweaver, Quicken, etc.)
• One company, Apple, providing both the hardware and the robust UNIX OS providing the sort of appeal that has been previously obtainable mainly through Sun (but show me Photoshop and Office for Solaris...)
• Compelling vision and strategies ("Digital Hub" - iPhoto, iMovie, iTunes, iDVD--all free) as well as unique hardware offerings, lots of which are in the lost cost brackets (eMac, iBook, iPod, etc.)
• Arguably the most robust application development environment ever created (Cocoa) given away for free. The "developer" version of the OS on which OS X is based, NEXTSTEP, used to retail for $6,000. Now all that and so much more comes bundled on each Mac (or for $125 for the OS purchase). (Yea, you've got to download the dev tools, to be fair...)
• Promise of a bright future--Xserve (excellent value), eMac, and iPod are all clearly wise moves. Oracle is currently being ported to OS X. There's advancement by Apple on all fronts--this likely is Apple's finest hour and the future has never been brighter.

When I learned that 1) NEXTSTEP was the basis for Apple's new OS and 2) new Pro towers were forthcoming, I decided to go Mac (from PC), and did in Jan '99 w/ a G3 400. I've since upgraded to a dual G4 800 PowerMac for just shy of a year now, running OS X exclusively. I have had two kernel panics. (One stemming from plugging in an unsupported USB device.) When I had the other kernel panic, I was horrified. I powered the machine off and started recalling the memory upgrade I performed a few months earlier--wondering if it could be the culprit. I checked the LED clock at my side to see if there had been a brownout. I felt the FireWire connection to my external 160GB drive to make sure it had not come-aloos and somehow caused the problem...

...you see, I assumed it was a hardware failure. I have been running OS X for a year and it has crashed twice. It has been so stable that when the system locked up, I assume it was the hardware at fault. When you find yourself in a situation where an OS freeze is so rare that you fear your hardware has failed, you are in a good place. That's about all the testimony I can offer.

Oh...I just picked up an iBook 700. I have no practical need for this, as I am behind a machine all day at work (developer) and my G4 is there when I get home. I simply wanted to be able to bring OS X with me. On a whim, I can make use of it. It's that good. It is truly a shame what so many people are missing.

blakespot