“I lost a good friend today. After an extended loan period, Apple finally asked for its iMac evaluation machine back. Now everyone in this household is going through withdrawl,” Robert L. Mitchell writes for Computerworld.
“Apple originally sent the iMac as background for a feature I wrote on the future of the GUI. It was supposed to be here for a month or two. As the weeks and months ticked by no one wanted to see it go home. Apple didn’t ask. We didn’t tell,” Mitchell writes.
“Meanwhile, I kept trying to find time in my schedule to set it up as my primary work machine, as Scott Finnie did recently with a MacBook Pro. He never went back. Between other deadlines I never got around to the project,” Mitchell writes.
Mitchell writes, “But for 10 months we have had Windows XP home computer and the iMac test machine running side by side. And for the kids, the iMac became the preferred machine – even for Web browsing. I have repeatedly asked them why they prefer the Mac and they don’t have an immediate answer. They just like it better.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Robert, they like it better because it is better.
and they are smarter….even more than their father
Out of the mouth of babes…..
Time to stop moaning and fork out a couple of grand for one of your own. You know your kids deserve better than to be left with nothing but Windows XP home.
MW “rather”, as in who wouldn’t rather have a Mac?
It just WORKS!! I was talking with a person the other day about creting an iMovie for my sons school. She turns around with over twenty people standing near us, and says “So, you are one of THOSE people!” I replied yes, ONCE YOU GO MAC..YOU DON’T GO BACK! She then opened the door, and ask WHY?? I proceeded to tell her all the benifits. I found out a few days later, that about 6 or 7 people went to the local Apple store, and 4 of them purchased that day. The others, did not have the money at the time, but were going to purchase. Word of mouth is everything!!
It’s because they say the light. They know now how much Windows sucks after using a real OS!
The better question for the kids would be “Why would you use XP over the iMac?”
I bet you wouldn’t hear anything about how great it is for enterprise deployment.
my grandson prefers dirt and a stick over a PC.
It is amazing what he does on my iMac, though.
Not even 4 yet.
MW:needs
It’s simply a better experience.
Amen brotha…
Isn’t that how the mac change happens to PC people? I was forced to use a mac in the computer labs back in college because the windows machines didn’t scan images very well. Restarting after 2 image scans in windows but could scan images for hours on the mac. So, after years of trashing macs I actually found that they were better. My graduation present to myself was an ibook. Now years later I try to get people to switch and wonder why I waited sooooooo long.
Mr. Mitchell should have spend some money and kept the iMac for themselves..
Coloured labels for folders, smart folders, expose, simple and straightforward software updates. There are so many big and small useful features that, combined, make an excellent OS. OS X can still be improved but it’s the best OS out there for me so far.
MacDailyNews Take: Robert, they like it better because it is better.
Hillarious! That was a chuckle, thanks MDN.
The generations growing up now and in the future will increasingly not want Windows. We’re seeing it happen. Finally.
Why is it that not one person in the whole history of the universe has ever switched from a Mac to a PC? How do I know it hasn’t happened? Because such an unprecedented event would undoubtedly be plastered on the front page of every PC rag on the internet before you could say “Bill What’s-his-face.”
In the late 1980s Apple had a scheme where they ‘loaned’ Mac SE’s and Mac II’s to large companies for free for 3 months, but left them for 6 months. The orders poured in after the Macs were taken away.
Sounds like time for a re-marketing of an old idea – “Test drive a Macintosh”. Pay for a Mac on credit card on Friday. You can bring it back and cancel on Monday – most don’t.
My sister had real trouble with her PC a couple of years back, so I gave her an old Dell of mine running Windows XP. Shortly afterwards she got a Mac. After awhile her kids simply stopped using the Windows machine. At first, one of them would use it if another was on the Mac. But after awhile I think it rarely got switched on. If the Mac was in use by one of the others they’d just wait till it was available. But I bet they couldn’t tell you why they preferred the Mac.
One could talk about the advanced nature of the Cocoa frameworks, the superior usability, and stuff like that–or point to specific things the Mac does better than Windows, as a blogger does here:
http://blog.frater.com/apple/top-10-things-os-x-does-better-than-windows/
But that’s not relevant to a kid. It was probably totally unconscious: they just enjoyed using the machine more, owing to its better design, without really knowing why and imperceptibly gravitated that way.
“…even for web browsing”
I don’t quite understand that thought. Perhaps if it said “even for gaming”. Is there some sort of perceived flaw with Macs and web browsing?
Forcing a child to use Windows should be considered child abuse.
“I don’t quite understand that thought. Perhaps if it said “even for gaming”. Is there some sort of perceived flaw with Macs and web browsing?”
I’m guessing he meant that web browsing should be about the same on any platform, so it shouldn’t matter what computer they surf on, and yet they picked the Mac.
I don’t quite understand that thought. Perhaps if it said “even for gaming”. Is there some sort of perceived flaw with Macs and web browsing?
If memory serves me correctly, back in the early years of the internet Macs rendered graphic images in web browsers less efficiently/accurately than did Windows. But … that’s ancient history. Sadly, some people seem to hang on to the saber-tooth-tiger beliefs about a Mac and just refuse to consider that Macs are BETTER than Windows is most things. This is particularly true today of surfing on the internet. Indeed, the kids probably much preferred using the Mac over Windoze because the Mac didn’t get infected, or even pinged, every 20 seconds.
@ oh my. Did you begat rugrats?
“I don’t quite understand that thought. Perhaps if it said “even for gaming”. Is there some sort of perceived flaw with Macs and web browsing?”
Well, the idea is that web browsing is platform independent. But we know that isn’t quite true. Every website I’ve ever built looks better on my Mac. I don’t know why – it just does. The pisser is having to check the site on a pc to make sure it looks the way it’s supposed to.
Anyway, OS X is a very refined, modern looking OS. XP (and Linux for that matter), by comparison, looks rough and cartoonish (more specifically XP).
The author of that article should have asked his children what there favourite food was.
Once you have sampled excellence, why should you settle for less if you can help it?
Garlic bread, smoked salmon, Sild, chicken kiev, chicken tikka, Beef wellington, roast potatoes, chips, live yoghurt, Ice cream, chocolate, coffee, Whisky, wine, women:-) & song!!
Get the idea?
@ alansky
“Why is it that not one person in the whole history of the universe has ever switched from a Mac to a PC?”
Shockingly, this *does* happen. I come across this in my job sometimes, though it’s a little like a bigfoot sighting – rare, fleeting, and when it’s over you wonder if you really saw it. But it does happen. Sometimes I’ll ask the user why they would do such a thing, but I’ve honestly never gotten any sort of intelligible reply, mostly just clicks and grunts, or perhaps a few MS trade show talking points.
But out of this small number, a fair portion do come back, eventually. Maybe it’s something in the water. Maybe it’s a strange low frequency oscillation in the heating system, maybe it’s a mind control ray from the secret Illuminati satellite network. Whatever the cause, be vigilant!!! De-Switching is real.
Tell your children.
-c