“My Switch to Apple [Mac OS X]. Creating a ‘switch’ post is starting to seem a bit cliche. Generally speaking, the overall tone of all “switchers” is a very positive one. When XP came out half a decade ago, I would have hoped reading all of these posts, they would all be negative. Now I can say, almost fanatically, I will never go back to a Windows PC and all of these switchers are right, it feels very nice. What entails is my background in computers, the road leading to the switch, and the time post-switch,” George Huff writes for Eleven3.
“I don’t know what it is about using these applications, or the operating system in general, that feels so right. I never knew this until I spent significant time in OSX, but it is much less rigid than Windows,” Huff writes. “Within OSX I feel like I am working laterally across many applications to accomplish whatever the task at hand may be. Whereas on Windows, it feels like everything is a vertical move. The multi-tasking isn’t as well thought out and intuitive in Windows. That’s not to say you couldn’t accomplish the same tasks, it just feels fluid and clean when doing it on a Mac.”
“My Mac feels pristine, my Windows work machine feels dirty,” Huff writes. “I do not expect a Windows user reading this to understand. It takes experience in OSX to really feel the difference. If this sounds like fanboy zealoutry, it’s not. I am curious to see Vista, I ordered a free beta 2 install disk today. I don’t hate Microsoft, I was let down.”
Huff writes, “It would take much more than an operating system to attract me back. I’ve become a fan of culture. And the Mac culture feels nice, I am happy here.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Welcome, George!
Yet more proof the whole Switch campaign worked. Would we be reading, hearing, seeing testimonial after testimonial if not for the high-profile Switch campaign from a few years ago? I don’t think so.
The Switch campaign made talking about the switch experience popular, even necessary. Sure, it didn’t “work” in terms of driving immediately driving sales to Apple, but strategically, it was a brilliant piece of work.
Thus, the Switch campaign was very similar in spirit to Think Different. When the first of the Think Different ads appeared, many Windows and Mac users had an immediate negative reaction to it. “They don’t even show the Mac!” came the the whines. “How dare Apple associate the Mac with Einstein or Ghandi!”
Which was totally missing the point because Think Different wasn’t meant to sell boxes. It was designed singularly to be inspirational, to remind people to forget about dollars and cents, features and megahertz. The bad ’90s had gutted Apple of all the creativity that had resulted in the the Apple II and the original Mac, and Steve Jobs was determined to do something to make the employees of Apple and Mac users believe in the Dream again.
So I think the Switch campaign was a spectacular success because of one very simple fact – it caused people to think about Switching, with a capital “S.” Making “the Switch” is now de rigeur among the alpha set and once a good fraction of them have done the deed, the masses will surely follow.
The fruits of the Switch campaign are only being realized now, with testimonials like this, because it’s literally taken this long for the Microsoft mental block to be broken down in so many minds….
Welcome aboard!
very much like my experience.
Doesn’t it make you wanna hug a rainbow and ride a teddy bear?!?
Love you Mac! Love Life!
Peace.
Microsoft is dying the death of a thousand (or a hundred million) switchers
Actually NewType, I’m not sure it has as much to do with the Switch campaign as with the iPod’s halo effect. The success of the iPod has given people a familiarity with Apple products and made them seem a safer choice. The Intel switch hasn’t hurt either.
Welcome to the fold! The grass really *is* greener on this side of the fence.
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MDN word: talk, as in, the more people talk about how great Macs are, the more people can leave the Windoze world for good!
What’s he curious to see in Vista? How much was stolen from OS X??
Ballmer, send in the hounds.
MDN word: “clearly”
“I can see clearly now that the stockholm syndrome is gone,
I can see exactly the obstacles Microsoft was placing in my way.”
“Gone are the frustrations that kept me blind
It’s going to be a bright, bright, sun shiny day”
Not disagreeing with you, MacJack. The iPod halo effect is very real and undeniable, but all I’m saying is that the Switch campaign created the basic mental framework that is now resulting in millions of people to make the switch.
If not for the Switch ads and how quickly it became a part of pop culture, the iPod halo effect would be much weaker today. Why? Because the Windows iPod user will think, “I love my iPod, too bad Windows is so sucky.” It would never occur to them to actually consider making a move to the Mac because without the Big Idea of Switching, the whole idea of getting a Mac would largely be unknown. The Switch ads made sure that everyone who wasn’t living under a rock was accutely aware of the idea, essentially acting as a seed crystal that was waiting for a catalyst to be introduced in order to suddenly grow.
BTW, no matter how many of these testimonials I read, I never seem to get enough of them. There is always something new and exciting in each Switch experience, even if they share many common elements.
I switched in ’03. Where Macintosh feels like an “Operating System”, Windows feels like “One Big Application” now. Maximized windows on MS now seem like a joke, an ironic one at that. Does that make any sense? That’s how I’ve always felt after the switch.
I agree with this author. For me, Windows XP “feels” like I am working. Mac OS X “feels” like I am having fun, even when I am working.
“If this sounds like fanboy zealoutry”
Yeah, it’s only zealoutry when… um… one of the other 20 million Mac users recommends Macs…
“My Mac feels pristine, my Windows work machine feels dirty”
This is EXACTLY how I feel… But, very few people I work with would understand. I think it is because they think of OS 9 when they think of a Mac. The OS X experience is quite different.
I started to use Mac 2 months ago ( after 6 years with windows ) and i feel so good !!!! no stress to work, i feel organized , i feel when i saw the screen like i was seeing a beutiful lake with mountains and no a jungle like windows ( ugly desktop ) and this is the begining….
( sorry for english mistakes )
i feel when i saw the screen like i was seeing a beutiful lake with mountains
Microsoft thinks it can give you that feeling with desktop pictures!
It’s funny what he said about having that *urge* to keep his desktop so neat.
I think it’s something alot of us are compelled to do. On Windows, I thought I kept a clean desktop, with maybe one full row of icons and a few moe in a second row.
But in OS X, my Desktop consists of my Hard Drive, 4 folders, my external, and a few things I’m currently working on. Sometimes it could contain more, but normally, this is what’s here. i always hate it when I have something in there that makes the row bigger, and I always love it when I find I don’t need to keep something on my desktop anymore.
There just is nothing better than the Mac.
MW: The world’s most advanced operating system.
Welcome to Peace of Mind.
I’ve been a Mac user since about ’93. After the release of OS X and iLife, I’ve successfully “switched” 7 people and they all feel the same way. They’re never going back. A few years ago it was a bit harder, considering the cost, but since the intel switch and the cost reductions half of those ‘switchers’ have been in the last few months.
It took twenty plus years before I took the personal computer purchase plunge, with an iMac (Early 2001, [toes in OS 9]), & then a late 2004 iBook.
I’ve always had a feeling that Apple makes the Computing Experience easier/safer, thanks to Unix, NeXT, software ‘acquisition’, and Mac’s GUI.
It is as if Windows XP/Vista is the Titanic, and OS X + future versions, are/will be more like a Hydrofoil.
Ok ok… I know “7” doesn’t seem like that much, but seriously…
The last 2 people that switched, came to me asking about my computers. Both of which said they went to their local Apple stores and the sales people “didn’t sell me on anything.”. They thought they were just preaching some blind faith and didn’t give them any real reason to dish out the cash for a new Mac. After about 10 minutes of running thru some things on my iMac G5 and my MacBook (running both OS X and XP) they were SOLD!!!
It’s incredible satisfying when they call me up and say “MY NEW MAC CAME TODAY” with so much excitement in their voice.
One of the biggest arguments I used to make for trying a Mac is that the difference between a Mac and a PC is that most people who use Macs do so by choice. Most Windows users do it by default, or because that is what they were told to use.
Welcome to freedom.
stock market crashes tomorrow. not apple tho.
“One of the biggest arguments I used to make for trying a Mac is that the difference between a Mac and a PC is that most people who use Macs do so by choice. Most Windows users do it by default, or because that is what they were told to use.”
I heard something similar over 10 years ago. The guy basically said people love thier Mac, people tolerate a PC.
Or the more famous, people work on a Mac and play games on a PC.
BTW, my first experience was on a Mac II playing Lode Runner.
“How ya gonna keep ’em down on the farm
once they’ve seen Paris?
If this sounds like fanboy zealoutry, it’s not.
I also noticed this one. Soon George will realize that is “I am from Windows, I am not a Mac zealot” will not work anymore. All the others will simply label him as ZEALOT, Machead, fanboy, cultist and drinking Jobs kool-aid.