“Nearly 22 years ago, like the rest of the world, I first heard of the Mac and, like many, I was immediately smitten,” Chris Howard writes for AppleMatters. “For many many years I watched the Mac world with envy. But for all my wants and desires, I never seemed to get a good enough reason to change. And it was getting harder as I invested more in Windows applications. But then one day, I decided I could.”
“I switched for software,” Howard explains. “In a sense, people buy PCs just because. There’s no real decision involved in continuing to buy Windows PCs. Folks buying Windows computers don’t go shopping thinking ‘Ooooh maybe I should really be buying a Mac.’ We hope one day they will, but for now they don’t. But buying or owning a Mac is different. Mac owners and potential customers tend to know exactly why they’ll buy a Mac. They make a conscious choice. Even in this day and age of the resurgent Mac, anyone buying a Mac could still feel they have to justify it – if only to themselves. And so back to the original question, why do you own a Mac? What’s your reason, your story?”
Full article here.
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You know the feeling; You just want to go home to your family and have a good time, relax after a day at work.
After a hard work day taking care of a Windows network, I just want to go home to system that just works…! Not having to worry about patches that don’t work or brake all you settings, (about hackers, spyware, or the 70,000 plus Windows virus out there), feeling safer from attacks and then just working with nice looking apps that simply do what they are supposed to do. It’s just relaxing!
I went to Mac because I got fed up working to keep all the viruses,spyware,trojans,worms,etc. out of my machine. Anyone that says they don’t spend a lot of time working on it is full of it. Got sick of wondering what was coming next. Also for better stability. even though XP improved Windows a little in that department you still have to reboot every few days to free up memory and resources.
Windows is just too big a pain in the butt to use IMHO.
I was starting a small video production business from home and was going through the process of deciding what equipment I was going to get (cameras, computer, etc.). I had spent my computing life on Windows and work in IT so I am very familiar with Windows. I have had so many issues with Windows locking up, slowing down over time, etc. that I was worried about getting a Windows machine for my editing. I didn’t want to be half way through an all night render and then have my machine lock up.
So, I did some talking to someone who is familiar with the business and he said, “Buy a Mac”. I listened to his reasons, did some research of my own, and bought a PowerMac without ever having used one (an unusually stupid idea in retrospect, but it must have been divine intervention!). Anyway, got it last November and within 30 days I was hooked. Quiet, fast, and rock solid reliability. I finally understand what people meant when they said Macs were easy. I never thought Windoze was hard until I got a Mac, now I see what everyone was talking about.
I have now turned into the Mac evangelist in my circle of friends and have been trying to erase some of their long held fallacies regarding Macs vs. Windoze. I finally got one to buy an iMac last month. I’ve told all the family members whose PCs I support that they will be buying Macs next time so I don’t have to support them any more!
I’m hooked. I was blind but now I see!
I own a mac cause its the BEST. Simply
Have you used Windows?
MDN word: ask
I bought my first Apple product, a 500mhz G3 iBook in April 2002 because I was intrigued by OS X. I had become a Linux fan since 1999 and was interested in OS X. 6 months later I upgraded to a 700mhz G3 iBook and sold my other one on eBay. In the summer of 2004, I purchased a Dual 2.0ghz G5 PowerMac. It is the best computer I have ever owned. It is quiet, powerful and does everything I want. I use it for development, video editing, storing my music and photos.
I do plan to build a Linux server next year because I do like how certain applications install and run better on Linux than OS X (i.e. Apache 2, PostgreSQL, Subversion) etc. But nothing comes close for desktop usage. OS X rules. Now if only I could afford Final Cut Studio and Adobe Creative Suite and Aperture.
Really the question should be “Why did you buy a Windows machine ?”. Most of the buyers won’t have an answer, or it’ll be, “Because that’s what everyone else gets”.
It’s very true that buying a Mac is usually a real decision rather than a thoughtless action.
I own a Mac because design and technology are important to me. Unlike my PC using counter parts, a computer is not simply a piece of office equipment. It’s more than a 3 hole punch, or a 50 button receptionist phone.
I own a Mac because when I use a computer it becomes an extension of me. It is a mind augmentation device. It assists me with my efforts, it does not become an impediment like a Windows device.
Getting my work done is what the Mac is about. With a PC, with Windows specifically, getting the machine to do what I want becomes the focus of the exercise.
When I look down the hall and I see the G5 sitting next to the 30″ monitor, I feel as though I’m being invited. I want to work. I walked into a client location the other day, saw a room full of PCs. I got a sense of chaos, and indeed when I waded in each machine had it’s own set of unique problems.
I use a Mac because I like what I do. People who use PCs for work, don’t like what they do, generally speaking, and therein lies the difference.
I played with / toyed with an original Thin Man Mac (nickname for the original 128k Mac after the 512k came out) back in ’84. However, I didn’t get one until I tried Microsoft FORTRAN (actually Absoft’s FORTRAN being resold under the Microsoft name) on a 512k Mac.
The windowing environment for the editor and debugger and being able to do such things as having a window open and showing the current state of variables as I stepped through the program were truly new and innovative. No system I worked on at the time (from the IBM 3090-600VF to the Cray XMP to the CDC Cyber to the Dec-20 to the different PDPs & VAXes and many differend DOS machines [PC-DOS by IBM, MS-DOS by MS, DR-DOS by Digital Research]) had such a system. Sure, it was not in the same league computationally as the big machines, but the ability to debug code in a completely new, windowed environment sold me on the Mac. It saved me a lot of time and stress. I’ve never looked back.
This type of development environment seems antiquated by today’s IDEs, but it was truly ground breaking over 20 years ago. For once a computer lived up to its promise of making my life easier — something often promised but in reality extremely rare.
I don’t do much hard core coding anymore, but, for me, the Mac is still much easier to use than all the other machines and operating systems I need to deal with. That’s why my personal machines have all been Macs for over 20 years.
I needed an additional computer for my students to run phonics software on. The software was developed to run on both Windows and Mac. I was handed one of the black PowerBooks running OS9. This was just after OSX came out. I used it once and was hooked. I had a PC in my classroom that I quit using. I would wait until the students were done with the software so I could use the PB instead of the PC. I took the PB home everyday to use instead of the PC I had at home. Eventually I scored a G3 iMac for my room in addition to the PB.
The next year, Apple released the iMac G4. I got the first model that came out for my house. My wife was pregnant, and I wanted to make home videos. The PC software offerings were very expensive, and did not compare to iMovie.
I tossed the PC at home, and have never looked back. I now have an iceBook, and I am hungry for a new Mac but I am waiting to see what the future holds. I can’t afford to buy a new computer just on a whim, so I am waitng on the optimum buy.
Eh? You mean there is a choice other than mac? Where? I can’t see one… nothing compares to a mac.
Why did I buy a Mac?
Simple – I have absolutely no interest in computers.
I work with photography and graphics on my Mac, and I am not forced to work on my Mac in order to work on my art. My Mac enhances my art, not impedes it.
We missed the iPod’s fourth birthday on Sunday the 23rd.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2001/oct/23ipod.html
There’s several reasons why I’m a Mac user.
Firstly I got into using Macs because I knew some people that had them. Since I was only a school kid at the time I could never afford one, and neither could my parents at the time. We ended up getting an Acorn Archimedes (itself fairly expensive, and was based around an ARM chip) which was pretty cool – but I would still have liked to have a Mac too.
Eventually Apple released the Newton – based on an ARM chip. ARM meant Acorn Risc Machine before it meant Advanced Risc Machines for those that don’t know. I wanted a Newton, and I wanted to program for it. The only way to program for the Newton though was through a Mac, so I had to get a Mac. Still a student at the time, I managed to pull together some money and get a bank loan to start up a business writing Newton software. The Mac I got was a Quadra 610 – one of the cheaper Macs at the time, but still expensive compared to a PC.
The rest is history – been a Mac user ever since. In part I’m a Mac user because of being tied to the platform for a tool I wanted/needed (Newton Toolkit). I stuck with Mac tho because it’s that much better than Windows.
I own a mac because they are superior both visibly and in terms of use. The only problems I ever have with it are problems in terms of actual work, problems that due to the mac’s ease of use I am free to work on without having to handle problems generated by the system I am using.
I needed a new machine cos my windows box was getting on for 5 years old and I needed more performance, buying a new windows box (or even just upgrading) depressed me since I wouldn’t be getting any tangible benefits for my money, other than speed. I bought a mac out of curiosity, as an experiment, fully expecting to use it side by side with my old windows box – the windows box was turned on less than half a dozen more times before being consigned to the spare room where it now gathers dust.
Thankfully I may well soon be able to use my mac at work due to the software we have to use now running via remote desktop connection, I will so love it if I can use my powerbook at work. Although that will of course mean I end up using it something like 18 hours a day – oh well any excuse to buy a new machine…
simplicity, functionality, and elegance
Truth. Beauty. Freedom. Love
me: “Have you used Windows?”
I used Windows for many years (at work). It was a piece of crap at the start and it was still a piece of crap at the end. Even if Windows had no issues with stability, viruses, etc., it would still be a piece of crap.
For me, there is no choice except a Mac and, fortunately, it is an excellent choice.
Because I’m not a nerd and could never figure out that c prompt shit.
Why, oh why do I own a Mac? Hmm… Why do I own four others besides the one? Why do I eke out an existence as a Mac net admin guy taking care of 65 whining users, pelting me daily with such sobriquets as “hey, four-eyes!” and “yo! Dude!” for the favor of setting up their new pen tablet or curvy new mouse? Why do I wake up early each morn to once again enjoy the thrill of sneaking into my still-dark office… where my own Mac awaits? Why do I love to see it spring to live, bathing my sleepy eyes anew in Aqua-pearls of beauty: windows and objects of transluscent delight?
Why, when I have to work on my wife’s PC, do I tear out fistfuls of my own hair? Could it be because, without exception, on such occasions I have to reach for at least one disc with the word “installer” written thereon? Why is my wife a realtor? Why does the MLS yet refuse to play nice with any Mac web browser? Oh why…?
Why have I loved my Macs, from the days of Lisa, to my 128K, through System 7 (Multifinder — yeah!)… and right to the present days of glorious OS X? Why do I tear up when I hear or see the string “IIci” or “IIfx?”
Why do I yet thrill in the delight of running games on my little Mac, though I haven’t the luxury of time? Why did I love Dark Castle as much as Halo? Why is my greatest joy that of unpacking a new Mac and putting it on my desk? Why do I tediously, lovingly unwrap each piece, feeling as if I am unearthing some priceless treasure? Why am I unwilling to share these moments?
Why was this answer composed entirely of questions?
Where are my meds… and why don’t I care?
Why, oh why…?
Because anything else would be uncivilized.
“… simplicity, functionality, and elegance”
Oh yeah – And I want to.
COST. Plain and simple. Macs in the long run save me money, time (which is money), and frustration (which may be more valuable than money).
Culture.
in 1984 i was attending artschool in my 4th year, becoming a designer and was intrigued by the possibilities a computer could give me.
the computerworld was based on mysterious languages i didn’t master, although i was capable to read/write/understand/talk 11 languages to a certain degree… dutch (born i holland), english, german, french, danish (my mothers tongue and the country i live in today), norwegian and swedish were the languages i mastered well and in school i also learned the classic languages latin and greek, which in turn helped me to be able to read/understand italian and spanish magazines about architecture, design and fashion.
but C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT or whatever it was didn’t make any sense to me! at all.
along came Macintosh and my world changed when i was playing with Aldus Pagemaker for the first time around 1986! i was hooked right away!
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throughout the years, my employers made it possible for me to be working/experimenting with other platforms like amiga (just for big fun!), windows (worst platform of all – i hated it!), hp-unix (for serious 3D CAD in the early 90’s) and NeXT (my second favorite platform!), SGI (it had “dreamworld” 3D apps – but way to expensive for me!), but i always had the Mac as my main platform.
i’ve had my own design-studio since 1994 – based on Mac only.
a full-time Mac user by choice since 1986.
At one of my early jobs we were issued the latest and greatest technology: and IBM XT with two floppy drives. Although it revolutionized the way we worked, I could not imagine any reason why someone would want one of those things in their house. I bought a TI-99 as my first home computer ($50 plus a $50 rebate) with a 300 baud modem so that I could dial in to our VAX and run MASS-11. Then I saw the 128K Mac and it was all over. I never looked back. I still had to use DOS machines at work, then Windows 1, then Windows 3. They were a joke compared to that Mac. I convinced our department to give Macs a try for doing documentation with Frame Maker. They were all sold and never looked back. Windows 95 through XP (which I’m forced to use now) are still sad jokes. I had to bring my G5 iMac in to work to do a video editing project recently and no one here could believe what it could do. Once again, I’ve convinced them, and we’ll be getting the first Macs ever purchased by this company in the next few months. Perhaps in the corporate environment Windows is so deeply entrenched that they just can’t leave it behind, but for my personal work, I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole.
Magic word= clear, as in “The choice is…”
My first mac was an apple IIc. Sweet little machine at the time. I’ve kept buying macs, even when Steve was in exile.
It’s always been about the user interface…. it works, it’s better, and since the advent of OSX it rocks.
Video and music producer, music arranging and notation…. nothing else works as flawlessly as a mac.
MDN word is “feel”… as in it just feels right to do my work on a mac.
it started with a mac plus at school. and a uncle that had a mac SE and would bring it to my house to let me play on it. Oh yeah, the classics like Crystal Quest and Dark Castle. How many hours I wasted playing those great games! And macpaint…crafting my own masterpieces.
but I didn’t own my own mac until i was in middle school. The decision was between the LC and the Classic. I got the classic and never looked back.
my mac ownership lineage
LC
Powermac 6100
Powerbook 140c – with the passive matrix scren. Man that screen sucked.
Powerbook Wallstreet G3
iMac g4 (sunflower style)
iBook g4
Can’t wait to adopt the new Macintels when they arrive. Finally going to get me a tower with a nice 20″ screen now that I have a home and am no longer a transient vagabond.
My father had one of the early Fat Macs (512k) and I was sold the first time I saw it and used it. They were not cheap in those days (1984 ish , $2000 bucks in real money!). Sadly my budget would only stretch to an Atari ST for my first computer in 86, but I finally got my first Mac in 94, an LC630, after modifying and tweaking the old Atari for as long as possible. Went from the 630 to a 6500 in 97(also souped-up mercilessly over time), and an eMac in 2003. Got my daughter an iMac this spring for university. For me the question has never been what kind of computer do I get next, it is what kind of Mac can I afford this time? As for computers in general, the very first one i used, (high school in ’73), ran on punch cards and filled a room.
Apple products have always seemed to just make sense to me. I am stuck using XP pro at work (ick), with the bulk of my time spent on an AS400 emulator(makes XP look Mac-like)
Hywel was right…
Mac users KNOW why they use a mac, they thought about their choice.
PC users just go with the flow and don’t think.
Ask a PC user why he chose a PC and he won’t even understand the question… “Choose, er what is there to choose”?
Why does someone buy a Leica or Hasselblad instead of some cheap mass market camera? If you can’t see the difference you would not understand. The mass of PC users want ‘good enough’ at the lowest possible price.
Ain´t going to be any interesting Apple news until around late November, Decemember when speculation on Macworld in January start. Until then its going to be bubble gum articles like this filling up MDN—–Bye, bye for a few months MDN!
I’ve never owned anything other than a Mac. In gradeschool, due to Apple’s education program, I only worked on Macs. In college, I was a design minor, so all I ever used was Macs. And in the future, all I ever will use will be a Mac.
My Mac lineage
IIc
Mac Plus
Mac Classic
Quadra 610
G3
Current Macs (Including imediate family)
G4 350 (still works great, in the kitchen at the wife’s desk)
G4 1.25 imac
G4 dual 1.8 (modified)
Mac Mini (son’s at college)
12″ Powerbook (son’s at college)
15″ IBook (daughter’s at college)
Emac (daughter’s at college)
plus 4 ipods and various and isights
Is there a 12 step program for this addiction?
I own a mac because its enjoyable to use, and its reliable. it allows me to work on projects in a non-intrusive way, it allows me to be the best I can be. A windows machine isnt even in the picture, and it never will be.
I use a Mac because I love working with the best, its the most imaginative, and it the most human.
its designed to be user-friendly, its designed to work in synergy with you and help you create, work, and live.
Thats something you realise when you use a Mac.
i own one, because my first mac was an apple IIe and after having a lifetime of Windows machines, I decided to come full circle and end it with a power mac G5.
“Mac users KNOW why they use a mac, they thought about their choice.
PC users just go with the flow and don’t think.
Ask a PC user why he chose a PC and he won’t even understand the question… “Choose, er what is there to choose”?”
Sheesh – are you people all such arrogant, know-nothing airheads???
I own both Macs and PCs – both do their jobs very fine.
They are just tools.
Back in the day, I needed a Macintosh to run my desktop publishing business. Sure the original Laser Writer was slow and expensive but together with Page Maker on the Macintosh, we were able to turn out some pretty impressive work.
Now I need a Macintosh to be productive. Staying away from poorly written OS’ like windows helps me to get things done – enjoyably.
That’s why I need a Macintosh. In 1984, I wanted a Macintosh to satisfy my techno lust. It still does that today.
I just got sick of having to fix my computer. I don’t even have enough time for my real job (medicine) let alone fielding “tech support calls” from my family (two-piece Windows network), my aunt (2003 Toshiba laptop) and my friends.
As soon as I opened that sleek black box with the “designed in Cupertino, California” on the side and pulled out my 12″ Powerbook, I left the grey world of dirty hard drives, McAfee, Ad Aware and quarterly formats for a bright and sparkling future in comfort and style.
MW: small
Because I have no interest in computing. Simplicity.
MW; “didnt”. I didn’t like headaches.
To “Own Mac and PC”
No, if you had read many of the replies above, you would have had the answer to your question without having had to post it. You merely attributed one person’s statement as a blanket indictment upon all the rest of us – poor choice of words.
While I may agree with your assertion that both Macs and PCs are “just tools” – having used both, I happen to believe that I can do better, more efficient work with a Mac than a PC.
So, who’s the arrogant, know-nothing airhead? Maybe the one unfortunate person you quoted? Or did you just join that group, too, with your arrogant, short-sighted toss-off?
Maybe Old Stogey will get a kick outta this …..
My first Mac was a Performa 460, with an ‘030/33 mghz processor, 80 mg hard drive and 4 mgs of RAM…and OS 7.1 … At considerable investment (at the time) ….I upgraded to a (whopping) 1 gig hard drive, 36 mgs of RAM, a COMM-Slot ethernet card (which probably blazes at 10-based zilch !! lol) and OS 7.6.1
Recently, just for kicks, I dug the old girl outta the closet, and hooked it up to my network, just to see if it still works (or not) … other than a dead PRAM battery, and the old Netscape 3 Gold not able to display many websites properly …it worked great !!
I was able to go to the Mac Garden — http://mac.the-underdogs.org/ and download a few of the “Abandonware” games they have there (Scarab of Ra was one of my favorites) and I spent a few hours in nostalgic bliss !!
Why do I own (several) Macs ??
Because they just work …. for a long long time !!
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Because
– Cheaper. I have an MBA and know what ROI means.
– Stability. I have a small business and can’t afford to ‘be down’
– Color. My business deals with design and color and only Macs do it right
– Great software. Fantastic OS.
– Gorgeous 30 inch display. Why would I want to stare at a Dull all day?
– Excellence. Everything about the Mac experience is striving for excellence. It encourages me to do the same… Never, never, never hire a designer of anything that uses Windows as they are not interested in excellence and have settled for what is ‘good enough.’
I use a Mac because I have common sense.
“Sheesh – are you people all such arrogant, know-nothing airheads???
I own both Macs and PCs – both do their jobs very fine.
They are just tools.”
Sounds like Beeblebrox in disguise.
Because I can get things done and not have to restart every 30 minutes or even 30 days. The OS is still easier to use. I can drag copy an application anywhere I want and it will still work fine. I get no spyware, malware, or viruses. I actually have fun working with my Mac instead of getting frustrated like I do on a PC. Oh and I work with PC’s all the time because my job is a desktop support technician. Macs now come with almost all the software you need to do most things at home like making DVD’s, photos, movies, email, surfing the web,calendar,working with documents,video conferencing,instant messaging.
It may be Beeblebrox in disguise, but they are just both tools and I agree as such (as much as I have issues with some of Beeblebrox’s comments and tactics when he’s pressed).
I find it interesting that MDN actually linked to an AppleMatters article considering the general disdain many of its posters (rightfully) hold against MDN.
It really just comes down to Trust!
Let’s assume you have a presentation tomorrow…You have no idea what equipment will be on site, (i.e. VCR’s, DVD’s, Projectors, TV’s, HDTV’s, & an ill-placed sound system). Your stress builds because your not even sure you’ll be able to plug into a power source to demo next quarters catolog design. You’ve got key decision makers expecting several developments from your team!
Would you trust a laptop running Windows 2000 SP2 or an Apple PowerBook running OSX (the swiss army knife for your digital hub – it plugs into practically anything)???? Not to mention all the built in iLife (Eye Candy), applications ready out of the box……
Even if the Windows machine worked….The audience would fall asleep before you made it to the second slide…..HA HA HA…
And so, the decision really isn’t up to me…what would you do?
My first computer was the Commodore Vic-20 back in the days when you loaded your programs from a Dataset (Cassette Tape). Wow, those were the days! I moved onto the Commodore 64 and then the Amiga. All great machines that are no longer with us.
Being a Graphic Designer, we used Macs at work. I loved our Macs at work, but OS 9 was nowhere in the realm of AmigaDos. Then came OS X and my dreams came true. Real multitasking and applications that blow everyone else off of the map.
So I bought a TiBook for home (and an iPod), and now I have a dual G5 too… and the world of Apple keeps getting better. While Windows (we use Windows at work too) strugles to keep pace.
My Mac lineage:
– Mac IIci
– Power Mac 7500
– Power Mac G3 400
– TiBook G4 400 (what I’m typing on now)
– And on Friday (god watching that FedEx tracking page is tortuous) a new G5 Dual 2.3 that will have more RAM on it than my first two Macs had in combined hard drive space
I also had an iMac G3 Graphite that I had picked up for a media server, but I just gave it to one of my friends who lost his computer (as well as home, tools, and most belongings) in hurricane Katrina. Since he was a PC user before I figure it will do him some good.
My wife has a blue clamshell iBook.
My sister has a iMac G3 Graphite and an ice iBook.
My mom has owned a:
– Powerbook 140
– Performa 630 (my Dad still uses this)
– iMac G3 Raspberry (at home)
– iMac G3 Graphite (at the shop she owns)
Oh yeah, and my first pre-Mac computer was a Radio Shack TRaSh-80. Mmmm 32kb of RAM, black & white monitor, and a cassette drive.
Jim: An Apple //c is not a Mac. It’s an Apple // series machine.
Bonsai: “Common sense” ain’t very common.
I use a Mac because i understand computer technology very well, and can tell the difference between a well designed computer and a piece of crap. Those who use PeeCees, apparently, cannot.
And that new G5 cost me $800 less than that IIci.
I never owned a Windows machine. That doesn’t mean I never used one. In fact, until last year, that’s all I touched. But when it was time for me to OWN my own machine, I knew I wanted a Mac. Why? Because my father is cheap. I didn’t want to get stuck with a low-end piece of junk. So I knew if I got a Mac, no matter which one I got, I’d be getting a great machine. Turns out a got a PowerBook 12″, which isn’t so cheap anyway, so I guess it wouldn’t have mattered. But it’s too late for me now. I’ve joined the Cult of Mac.
I am a mac user – and a very enthusiastical one – because I didn´t like Macs.
But I loved NeXT and my NeXTStation which I used from 1992 to 2001. NeXTSTEP was the most elegant and stable OS around and is now only topped by OS X (which it is)
MW around – as in: NeXT was the true Mac and it has been around for so long
Rainy Day….
if it makes you feel better….
My APPLE lineage
IIc
Mac Plus
Mac Classic
Quadra 610
G3
Current Macs (Including imediate family)
G4 350 (still works great, in the kitchen at the wife’s desk)
G4 1.25 imac
G4 dual 1.8 (modified)
Mac Mini (son’s at college)
12″ Powerbook (son’s at college)
15″ IBook (daughter’s at college)
Emac (daughter’s at college)
plus 4 ipods and various and isights
Is there a 12 step program for this addiction?
Rainy…. while you at it, can you check my spelling and grammer? lol
I came to the world of computers late in life. With no need, only a desire, for a computer, I subscribed to the major pc magazines for an introduction to computing. Having no friends with computing experience, advertising led me in the direction to consider a Dell. Before I pulled the trigger, a neighbor bought the lowest end G3 iMac 500 Indigo loaded with Mac OS 10.0.4. She did not know at the time she was technophobic. Unwanting to learn by herself, she offered the iMac to me for half (400 US dollars),the cost she paid. Without any influence from the mac community, I became the proud and lucky owner of an iMac, my first computer. I was lucky. I avoided the dark side altogether.
Bought a Powerbook 12″ ’cause it was (and still is?) the only laptop available with DVI, DVD burning, and Firewire. My LCD monitors and projector are all DVI-capable, why would I ever want to use VGA?
Bought two Mini’s to replace beige box PC’s at home ’cause they’re quiet and lower power. Used to use Mandrake Linux as my mail/web server, but got sick of their constant major releases and quick EOL’s.
The only Apple hardware I own: 12″PB, Mini x 2, iSight. Not interested in iPod, flat-screens, etc.
Apple ][e
Apple ][gs
Macintosh SE30
Macintosh Portable
iMac DV-SE
PowerMac G5 1.8GHz DP
…
…
…
…
…
…
{the empty lines are being held for my next six computers from Apple; nobody knows for sure WHAT the future may bring, but I certainly know WHERE it’s coming from, and that’s Cupertino!}
][e
Lisa
Macintosh 512k (or was it 128?)
Macintosh Plus
Centris
Quadra
Powermac 8600
G4 733MHz Superdrive
12″ 867MHz G4 Powerbook
G5 Dual 2.5GHz
Never found a Windows alternative that did what my Apples could do. But honestly never really looked very hard.
Now I can’t imagine what it would take to tempt me to something else. Apple would have to intentionally make products worse than what we have now, because right now I’m pretty satisfied by what my computer can do for me. Heck, I almost can’t imagine upgrading anymore (well, maybe the PB could be a little faster). That must be a sign of aging. Oh well, I should be good for 2 or 3 years where I’m at, unless something really changes.
Macs are not perfect but much much much better than windows. And they are a lot of fun because so much care and thought has gone into the the user experience. I think that Mac Users are much more likely to try doing things than windows users because they try one thing – and it just works, so they try another thing – and it just works, and on and on, etc ad infinitum.
The other day I told a friend: “With the Mac you expect it work and are surprised when it doesn’t. With Windows you expect it NOT to work and are surprised when it does.”
I had always wanted a Mac, being frustrated with my Windows laptop for often freezing up or being bugged, and when it was time for me to get a new computer, I didn’t even consider a Windows.
Long live the Macs!
~Caleb
OMPC/Bb,
Indeed, Windows IS just a tool. Mac OS however, is an instrument.
Obviously, the Windows KoolAid isn’t better, ‘cuz Bill can’t get the last 11% to switch!
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The story of Why I own a Mac has already been written and is posted on my website, specifically the page entitled:
My First Personal Computer
Click on the link.
Have fun, and make sure your speakers are on!
Not sure if anyone will bother reading down this far…
Bought my first Mac in mid 1990 for music sequencing. It was an SE (FDHD for those who are anal about these things) just before the Classics were rolled out, so it was going “cheap”. At $3500 Aussie dollars it was expensive for a 4MB RAM/100MB HDD machine. I also bought an HP Deskjet+ that day as well. Together they were a great combo, and HP later sold a bucket load of those types of printers (these were the days when you could refill your cartridges with Quink ink :=)
I had seen Macs in high school, probably a Mac Plus (it was the mid 80s), but always thought they were “toys”. Despite studying Computer Science, I only really “got it” in the past few years that Macs were actually among the best of the best of the best, sir, when it came to software engineering (I mean in its very early days, and again once OS X hit the streets, the OS 7+ to 9 days were really flogging a dead horse technology wise. Despite that, they were still easier to use than Windows.) So was the Amiga I guess, not that I ever owned one of those.
What amazes me now is how I was seduced by the dark side for so long – sure I had Macs at home (since 1990), but at work it was Microsoft or IBM all the way – be it DOS, OS/2, Windows etc. More recently it has been IBM AIX.
It was always a pleasant experience coming home to my various Macs…. so pleasant in fact that I never really had entertained the thought of developing software for it until fairly recently. Such a duh moment that one. Now I have a chance to write Mac software full time so I’m going that way. No more Inte…. err, Microsoft PCs for me.
Oh, and by the way, to you NeXT alumni, I’m sooo jealous of you guys & gals. In Oz, they never existed (no distribution you see), so if there are any there, they’ll be the odd one imported by some (presumably rich) dude. Knowing what I know now (i.e. that NeXT merged with Apple), I’d have tried harder and bought one. It’s funny, but I was always torn between Apple and NeXT, but when they merged, it was kinda like The Beatles getting back together… the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
I said I hadn’t thought of developing for Macs until fairly recently… I made a mistake. I meant to say that I hadn’t thought about developing for them FULL TIME until recently. I actually bought CodeWarrior in 1995, and signed up for the Apple dev programs in 1998, not that I did much about writing.
I’m sure you were all hanging out for that bit of the story.
Because my wife thought they were cute. It’s a door stop now, because os 8.5 always crashed. These cheapo dells we have now work ok, and since they are under the desk, who the fuck cares what they look like, right honey?
why? OSX! As a fulltime ex *NIX nerd I’ve spent lots o time with odd non-GUI os’es. To make a very long vitae short…I’ve never been as productive as I am now – running OSX. I look forward to Apple’s next steps (pun intended) with added meta levels on a GUI level. This OS is indeed the holy grail for geeks. /*eof
hey Randy, did you ever pay attention to what happened with the OS, post-OS 8.5? If you have never spent some time with a recent machine running osx you…umm…should, kinda. Take it as a polite hint but they’re, like, fuckin awesome.
Uh, Miro, I think Randy was being sarcastic.
I’m relatively new to computers… I waited until Macs showed up under a 1,000 US… in early 2001 the timing was right, I had the mula, and the indigo iMac G3 was 899.00, I jumped, and have never regretted my purchase. Earlier this year I got an iBook, beautiful, flawless, and fun. I always go with the underdog, and with companies who are out to ‘make a difference’, not just out to make a buck/marketshare, and you know to whom I’m referring. As long as Apple doesn’t get too big, and forget its original mission, making life better for end users, I will be a non-paid salesperson.
MW ‘movement’… it is almost like a political movement, isn’t it?
i never switched to a mac. my first computer was a mac and my brand new g5 is a mac. i have no reason to switch because i was smart enough to get the right computer in the first place.
sorry to all of you windows geeks
Beccause that what I use at work. So I know how to use it.
zupchuck,
Did you happen to notice that Apple Matters lists and links to MacDailyNews in their “Sites That Matter” section?
http://www.applematters.com/index.php
MDN MW: “costs” – Windows “costs” much more than Mac if you bother to think about it for more than a tenth of a second.
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nineboy,
That’s part of what my story is about.. enough long posts in here, so I posted the link to my website describing how I got my first personal computer– and that I never had to switch either, because ‘I got the right computer in the first place’, too.
My First Personal Computer
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I use Macs cause I’m “cool like that”.
The confession of a minister:
Because after 11 years of Windows, thousands of $$$ and non-stop crashes and problems, I GOT TIRED OF THE WIN CONSPIRACY and just did it. Yes, I bought a Mac and WILL NEVER EVER GO BACK to the WIN crap.
I’ve since thrown out almost every PC from our ministry base office and have talked many other friends into switching from Win. They are SOOO HAPPY, all of them, no exceptions!
I pray for Steve Jobs to live a long life and bless humanity with many more of his creative genius!
Mac Rules!!!!
“- Excellence. Everything about the Mac experience is striving for excellence. It encourages me to do the same… Never, never, never hire a designer of anything that uses Windows as they are not interested in excellence and have settled for what is ‘good enough.'”
i disagree with Sam Head. i DO know designers who use Windows. Some would love to have a Mac but don’t have enough $ or that’s what they have at work or they like to play games so a Windows computer gives them the best combo of what they want. Some people don’t know much about computers and think that Windows IS computing.
Macs are fantastic TOOLS but it’s still a human being who controls it. A good designer can create with any tool but a good tool helps a designer create better/faster/easier etc.
I love Apple products and will use them until there’s another tool that’s better for my needs. I’m glad the people working at Apple strive for excellence when creating their products and services. =)
I went to college when only the super-rich could dream of owning “personal-computers” – “Macs” were perhaps only a gleam in Woz and Jobs’ eyes then – but we all knew there had to be something better on the tech horizon than Smith Coronas and IBM Selectrics . . . I already knew I wanted to teach in grad school and that something far more practical than Commodores, Atari’s, IBM’s, and T.I.s would come along . . . now I’m a gray haired public school teacher who has used Apple IIes, Macs, iMacs, PowerBooks, digital projectors, scanners and all the great stuff I could save for and buy . . . I’m grateful to live in an era when I no longer have to scrounge skeletal PCs for parts to be able to use the www with students, parents, and colleagues . . . with Macs I can work faster/easier/smarter and not so much harder . . . I am glad Jobs survived his trials, travails, and his cancer . . . he certainly deserves to be a billionaire far more than gates or ballmer (as if anyone actually “deserves” to be a billionaire¡?) . . . I hope we all give thanks for any technology that advances knowledge, but I’ve always thought it makes better sense to work smarter, not waste time “disinfecting” or “curing” our tools . . . heck . . . even dubya can figure out how to work an iPod . . . how much more idiot proof can you get? ¿? hApPiNeSs to us all
cedreca— brake all you settings,
Whaaaat??
Oh, Oh, break all your settings,—I get it now.
I went with a Mac because I had to be productive and make my fortune.
Out of curiosity, and to play some Mac games.
I own a couple of Macs now, from an SE to a Performa 6400 (8.5). Nothing newer, since there has been very little independent Macintosh game development since the mid-90s.
Every day that I go to work, I am reminded of why I am a Mac owner. That has become even more apparent ever since I got my Powerbook, and have been taking it to work with me.
I use the PC for the programs that I have to use the PC for, and the rest of the time, I use my Powerbook.
MW: use–How appropriate.
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P.S. My post didn’t go through the first time, and now I am having to try again. My new magic word is “should.”
How about that! “Should use,” as in, everyone should use a Mac!
Why? well there’s lots of reasons, but the main reason I choose Macintosh at work, is right here:
http://themacintoshstudio.blogspot.com/2005/10/cost-of-ownership.html
Because Macs and OSX represent the pinnacle of computing so far in the 21st century.
Whether you DO know about computers ( I know a fair bit) or you DON’T know about them they are the right choice for you.
Strapline needs to be:
MAKE THE WORLD SAFER – USE A MAC.
And a few more reasons on lovemarks.com where Apple is almost always top of the pops..