1 Million Windows to Mac Converts So Far in 2005

UltimaGuy writes to tell us AppleInsider is reporting that according to one Wall Street analyst over one million Windows users have switched to Mac in the first three quarters of 2005. It is speculated that these numbers are a direct result of the popularity gained through the iPod and related technologies in addition to security concerns from Microsoft. From the article: "According to checks with Apple Store Specialists, Wolf also said a larger than expected percentage of Windows to Mac converts appear to be purchasing Apple's higher-end systems and that their transition is fueled by the epidemic of viruses and malware on the Windows platform."

Comments

Re:No Surprise Here

[njyoder]

If only I had mod points right now, I'd so mod you up and the grandparent down. It just goes to show you, views on Slashdot are moderated based on the strength of their conviction, not based on actual FACTS. It's very well known that OS X is based on ther FreeBSD kernel, it's gotta suck when even the "lesser" lay people than an alleged know-it-all.

Re:No virus = competence

[happyemoticon]

I have been working with PCs for 17 years and I have never had to deal with a virus.

Clearly you've never been connected to a college lan. I've only been working with PCs since I was 8, so that gives me a piddly 14 years of user experience. I had a really nasty worm/rootkit problem when I was in the dorms, and it caused me no end of problems. Since they I connect from behind a NAT most of the time.

Your argument is a fallacy. It's a bit like saying, "I've been smoking for 50 years, and I've never gotten cancer," or perhaps "I've had sex with at least 100 Southeast-Asian prostitutes, and I don't have HIV"." Just because nothing bad has happened to you does not mean you haven't been engaging in risky behavior.

...those switching are lazy, incompetent and conformist, a sad blend of handicapped common sense, self-loathing and kinked vision of what having a computer means...

• Lazy: Making 40k straight out of college with an English degree. Clearly I must be doing something.
• Incompetent: See above. I think landing the job had something to do with saving an entire man-month of tedious labor in my campus job with a problem that an entire phalanx of programmers in another depart said couldn't be done.
• Conformist: I'm a goth. It's a clique that's self-consciously anti-conformist. Beat that, rebel!
• Self-loathing: Just had my engagement party yesterday, I'm actually feeling pretty good about myself.
• Kinked: Well, yeah, I am kinda kinky, but why is that your business
• What a computer means:

You know, I loved Linux to death when I was in college and I could devote the time and resources to debugging obscure problems. However, after a while, concluding that I was pretty much the grand pimp of the universe and had learned everything I needed to about *NIX, I decided that cuddling with my fiancée was more appealing than hunting down weird shard library locking problems in Gentoo, and I got a Powerbook. I've never been happier, and plus, I spend most of my time in Emacs and Terminal. My boss, who's a doctor of physics, a former assembly hacker, and the biggest Linux nerd I know, is very jealous. I've decided that debugging is not what a computer means. I've decided it means actually using the damn computer.