“You went ahead and bought that iPod for your daughter’s birthday. You borrowed it while she was at school and got yourself addicted, so you went out and got one for yourself. Now you’re wondering, if the iPod is so well designed, is it time to look at a Mac? Apple’s latest Operation System [sic] – Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger – is out and the best version yet. Apple profits are soaring with a second quarter net profit of $290 million. Apple recently did a 2 for 1 stock split and the Macintosh’s market share is growing. Considering how well things are going for Apple, they must be doing something right,” Jake Fowler writes for infoZine.
“Before you run out and get that iMac G5, you’re going to want to know a few things about compatibility,” Fowler writes. ‘Will I be able to open all my documents and pictures?’ you ask no one in particular. ‘What about email with attachments? Will I be able to open them?’ The truth is, you can open just about anything anyone will ever send your way, and every file on your old PC, including your pictures and the letter written to grandma by your daughter when she was only 4 years old. Microsoft makes a version of Office for Mac, that some consider superior to the PC version. MS Office 2004 for Mac offers full cross platform compatibility for all your Word, Excel, and even PowerPoint presentations. There is even a version of Entourage, Microsoft’s email and calendar client.”
“Would I recommend a Mac for a life long PC User? Most certainly, after having used both platforms for many years, I realized that the main difference between the two was that PC’s make you fight your computer to get anything done. Simply put Macs are a pleasure to use; they get out of the way and let you get your work done. One of the things that Apple care the most about is good design, they pay attention to how people use their systems and design the OS accordingly. One of the hardest things for almost every switcher to get used to was how easy things were, so easy, it was sometimes difficult. PC simply aren’t used to things being designed well; they assume that anything they want to get done will be a time consuming task and contrary to common sense,” Fowler writes.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Excuse us for dreaming, but lately it seems to us that the world might actually be waking up. We’ll take more of these types of articles, please. Perfect for the “Average Joe,” and right in his local paper; this is the kind of article that really can engender switchers.
For our Windows-only friends, there really is a better way, so for more information about smoothly adding a safe, secure, powerful, and fun Mac OS X machine to your computing arsenal, please click here. For inexpensive entry into the Mac platform, you might want to take a look at Apple’s new Mac Mini which starts at just US$499 — it just might be the perfect machine for you. And don’t forget to order it with 512MB RAM, you’ll want it.
A smooth story, Jake old buddy.
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somewhat on topic:
it’s amazing, how some people cling to PCs as if they are the only real option. a friend of mine uses a pentium 4 PC in his music studio, and i told him about how i’ve been real happy with my mac mini, and that he should consider getting a mac with logic express… he told me he would NEVER touch that garbage. a few moments later, sonar 4 crashed and we lost all the progress we had made mastering his track. i looked at him and said “yeah man, i can see why you’d never touch a mac. you’d MISS those crashes, wouldn’t you?”
“‘ The truth is, you can open just about anything anyone will ever send your way”
Except viruses and other malware, which weren’t mentioned in the article.
And He STILL won’t even try a Mac because he will be proven wrong.
I own a large, high end, swimming pool company. We have been in business a very long time and do everything, I mean everything, the best ways, engineering, materials used, safety in plumbing designs, zero subcontracting – all in-house crews, offering the best options, etc., etc., etc. It is absolutely amazing how clueless people are. There is no barrier of entry into the swimming pool industry. The building inspectors for towns have no clue what they’re looking at. They only check the steel to make sure it is grounded properly so no one gets electrocuted. Not to make sure it is structurally sound. Everyone one of my competitors, every one, cuts major corners in construction of their pools. They build very unsafe spas. Tell people all of the great options available are garbage and don’t work (a complete and absolute lie, they’re too lazy to learn something new and in most cases these products have been around 30 + years and are very popular in other parts of the country) and basically snow these people into sales. We actually wind up losing sales sometimes because we offer these great options. Never mind that I give great references for people to check out and ask questions and see our options. Potential customers will rarely follow through and call the references. People also love to do what their “friend” did. If their friend bought POS pool and tells them that it’s great that’s all the potential customer needs to know. It’s almost impossible to convince them not to use the their friends pool company. I think people who know they’ve been ripped off don’t want to let their friends know and have them potentially get a better pool than they bought. Sort of like people getting jealous that their friend has a nicer car, house, clothes, better looking wife, etc. They steer their “friends” in the wrong direction. Same thing goes on with Windows and Macs. Luckily for Apple the press is starting to publish articles explaining the differences. That doesn’t happen for the pool industry very often.
Please the same old take on a mac…
“Simply put Macs are a pleasure to use; they get out of the way and let you get your work done.”
This is the propaganda that all Apple users try to push on the “real IT world”. The truth is you can not open all of the email attachments from you grandma. Most all of the fun little animated joke files (some that contain viruses and mal-ware) only work on a PC. Furthermore the PC OS is not in the way we have tools that allow us the user to control and maintain the OS something you can not do on an Apple computer.
I would much rather be using an OS that has software that ask me:
“are you sure you want to open this Access Database file it may contain code that could damage your system”
That is not in the way that is a well designed OS!
And by the way why is spotlight such a big deal. Windows has a very powerful and fast search system with a dog (spot) and a flashlight (light) all ready.
It looks to my like Apple is once again copying Microsoft.
©
Hey Mark,
Good story. I’m not in the market for a pool right now, but will be for my next house. Could I ask you some “What to look out for” questions. Click on my name and email me if so.
thanks!
I have a Mac G5 sitting here next to my Dell Inspiron laptop. I’ve been a Mac user since 1990, a Windows user for the past 16 months. I move between the two platforms with ease during my day. I couldn’t give up either. There are things that work better on the PC, and things that are better on the Mac. I pick the best tool for the job I have to do at that moment. Both crash from time to time, both require care and maintenance to run at peak performance, both take time and patience to get the most out of the experience.
That said, anyone who thinks that you can go 100% one to the other without pain is feeding (or being fed) a line of propaganda crock. It can be done, but it’s not nearly as painless as this blurb or anything similar suggests.
Many Windows users have their data in Quicken for Windows. The versions for Mac OS X are a joke and while most of the data transfers, it’s not simple by any stretch. Many Windows have their contact info and years of email in Outlook. Entourage is a poor substitute for Outlook in many, many ways and don’t get me started on what’s wrong with Mail & iCal in comparison. Many sites require IE on Windows to work and Virtual PC is not a suitable answer. Yes, you can easily open Office files on either computer, but expect font issues. I could go on, but I hope you get my point.
Yes, you don’t have to worry about viruses and malware and sometimes software installation is easier on a Mac, but you lose something in the Mac world as well. You have to go into it with your eyes open and not believing everything you read from sites like this. Compatibility is mostly there, but it’s not 100% and if you convince a Windows user to switch on that promise you’ll have an ex-Mac switcher before you know it back in Windows XP and complaining about how bad the Mac is. Is that really what you want?
the imac mini at 1.25 is a really zippy computer! my mom owns one now and it does what it’s supposed to do!
While you’re right that a big switch is never completely painless, most switchers would say you’re overstating it. You sounds pretty agnostic between the two platforms, but most former Windows users who are now on Macs would say the benefits far outweigh the switching headaches. I have one piece of advice though, as one who switched an all-PC small business to a mixed environment (with me moving to 100% Mac): find a knowledgeable Apple certified tech. person to help you the few times you will need it–we were led astray by IT consultants who didn’t really know Macs into spending extra money we didn’t have to, only to still be told that a few things couldn’t be done with Macs (months later, an Apple technician solved those issues in about an hour). Happy Switching!!
Yea, he’s right about this “Simply put, Macs … get out of the way and let you get your work done.”.
Sometimes too much knowledge is dangerous tho. I’m a software developer and *should* know my way around Macs & Windows, yet…
A number of times I’ve been stumped on how to do something on the Mac system… then I think … ok, how would a moderately ignorant person do this? And usually, by dumbing myself down, the result turns up straight away (if not there’s always the online help). Yet on Windows I’d usually have to know a lot more, as things aren’t always logical or made for a moderately ignorant person. I’ve spent more time working things out on a Windows OS, than on any Mac OS.
The one big issue in Apple’s online doco is related to the reply called “To:biplatform” – sometimes Apple’s help assumes you’ll have a certified tech on hand (something I am not, nor do I have around)… this can pose issues since you might be really stuck, look in help, only to find “see your adminstrator”… but I’m the adminstrator so I look in help… hehe, their address isn’t at 1 infinite loop for nothing.
I was a windows user from 94 to 2003. I have had very few if any problems in my switch. I have a lot more free time now than I ever did on my windows machine. But for all the stories about switching platforms the same can be said for updating windows. There are many companies who wont update their systems cause of the compatibility problems between versions of windows. As with any transfer it needs to be done well and carefully organized. Sometimes an efficient transfer will require hiring a temporary IT person to program a replacement application for the old one and transfer the address info to the new systems.
Mark! Man I KNEW IT! You don’t know how many times I’ve seen tiny little pools with diving boards with the slant RIGHT WHERE YOU DIVE IN! I’m just shy of 6 foot but I’ve almost broken my neck at least twice from cheap, badly designed pools. I don’t understand how it’s legal, there’s gotta be a law against that, yet again and again I run into this… and what do people say to me? “Oh, well we don’t use the pool very much”. No kidding! Cuz you’re afraid to break your neck. And those rough abrasive floors they get that shave the skin off your toes if you slip while walking, was it made for sharks or what? Of course you ALWAYS see the cheap plywood diving boards breaking on AFV, and those that don’t break simply don’t spring at all. Mark I really hate using certain people’s pools, I don’t complain cuz they’ll just think it’s me instead of the pool. Glad there’s people like you out there who take pride in their work and do a good job. More often than not we end up going broke cuz nobody wants to pay for quality. Anyways, Kudos to you Mark!
“And He STILL won’t even try a Mac because he will be proven wrong.”
You can drag a camel to water but you cant make it drink.
check out http://www.wagnerswimmingpools.com
They do it right and run their business completely on Macs.
Sputnik .. the sarcasm is cute, but.. somehow I doubt that everyone will get that you’re being sarcastic (until the line about spotlight).. You’re not the best comedian..
To: BiPlatform
You say you’ve been using Macs since 1990, and then go on to comment that both your Mac and PC crash from time to time, implying (at least to me) that they both crash with similar frequency. Tell us, are you using OSX on your Mac, or still using OS9? On average, a crash in OSX happens once in a blue moon, if that often.
To: Wingsy
Of course I’m running OS X, and have been since 10.1. My Tiger order is in, but I may not rush to install it until I hear that there are no major issues with the applications I rely on. I dont’ even have OS 9/Classic on any of my Macs (we do have 3 in the house). By “crash” I mean applications. And if you’re saying that you don’t see “Unexpected Quit” type messages from time to time in OS X then you are a rare breed. Or you don’t run many apps not written by Apple (and even those fall down sometimes). OS X as a whole is very stable, as is Windows XP.
These stories keep getting lamer and lamer, This website is my home page but lately the bias of it all is just rediculous, do you really want everybody switching to mac, isn’t part of what makes it special is the small community. And this is a lame story, i’m sorry but it is just plain lame.
It would be great if everyone switched to Macs or at least a vast majority. Businesses would benefit the most with more applications and not being locked out by Windows only apps and web sites.