Walter S. Mossberg answers readers’ tech questions for The Wall Street Journal in a feature called “Mossberg’s Mailbox.” Here’s one from yesterday:
Reader’s Question: We plan to buy a new computer running the XP version of Windows, not Vista. We are afraid to take the step to the Mac since we are in our 70s, and are just average on the computer. We rely on our children for help when we get into a jam, and they have no experience with a Mac. Would you recommend we venture into Mac land, fear and all?
Mossberg: No. While I believe Apple’s hardware is very good, and the Mac operating system is better than either version of Windows, I also believe that average users whose operating system works well for them, and who can buy new hardware that runs the same system, shouldn’t feel pressure to change. That’s especially true when they have a ready source of support.
MacDailyNews Take: A Mac would be “new hardware that runs the same system,” Windows, while also letting new-to-Mac users acclimate themselves to the vastly superior Mac OS X. It’s beyond us why Uncle Walt fails to clearly point out that buying a Mac — and only a Mac — gives users the capability to run any OS and application they desire.
Logic dictates that the correct advice for these people is:
You are planning to buy a new computer anyway, so buy a Mac. Run your familiar Windows XP and you’ll also have the Mac’s better-designed hardware and the capacity to learn the superior Mac OS X and Mac-only apps at your own pace. Buying any other PC would be a mistake as you would be needlessly limiting yourselves, regardless of your age, ability, or confidence.
More info about slumming it with Windows natively on your Mac via Mac OS X’s built-in Boot Camp can be found here. More info about fast virtualization on your Mac (have Windows side-by side with Mac OS X — it’s like Roseanne Barr standing next to Heidi Klum) via Parallels Desktop for Mac here and/or VMWare’s Fusion here.
Mossberg continues: However, that course of action will become more difficult this summer, when Microsoft plans to stop licensing Windows XP to computer makers for preloading on new machines. That will make Vista the only version of Windows available to new computer buyers. Buying a new Vista PC does require users to learn new techniques and to cope with hardware and software incompatibilities.
MacDailyNews Take: So, by this summer, according to Mossberg, even old, average, and fearful people should buy Apple Macs. As we’ve always said: Macintosh. Because life’s too short.
Mossberg answers more questions in his full feature here.
Uncle Walt dropped the ball on this one.
I’d say he dropped both balls. C’mon Walt.
When your are short sighted do not look ahead, buy Vista glasses !..
I’m 75 and this is Barbra Streisand.
I’d say he dropped both balls. C’mon Walt.
Are you sure he ever had two?
And the young and fearless buy a Linux PC, and the masochistic, too.
“Yeger”
We old geezers are jes’ fine with our old beige PC’s. Why I ‘member the good old days when we had to walk three miles in the snow to learn how to program command lines in DOS.
These young snipperwhappers can have their fast and flashy Macs with their beautiful Aqua desktops. We geezers are old and afraid. Anybody got a Commodore 64 they want to get rid of? Now THAT was a computer you could sink your teeth into. If I could just find my teeth….
I sell Macs for a living and one of the questions I get is, “how hard is it to switch to the Mac”. This question is usually easy to answer, but with older people like the ones described in Uncle Walt’s article it becomes a bit tricky. I usually tell customers that if they are pretty well versed in using a computer whether it be a Windows XP or Vista they should become pretty acclimated to the Mac in a short time. If they have quite a bit of trouble with using computers in general they are going to have a harder time understanding the Mac. Not to say that once they do understand the Mac it will be a much happier experience for them altogether. The question is how much are they using their current computer right now and is it worth the expense and time at their age.
With personal shopping assistance and one-on-one training at Apple stores, not having relatives who know Macs is not an excuse if you are anywhere near an Apple store.
As for age, My parents are mid 70’s and are in the midst of transitioning to Mac’s from many many years of windows frustrations, they are excited at the prospect. Age is not a limitation!
@Leader. The question is how much are they using their current computer right now and is it worth the expense and time at their age.
My motto is, “Do it now, you’re going to be dead a long time”.
The people are in their 70s… give ’em a break! Change is hard regardless of OS X being “easier.” I had a hard enough time teaching my mother to send email and surf the web let alone try to teach her how to change operating systems.
Hate to say it, but I’m siding with Scheduler on this one. Mossberg’s advice was sound. There is no reason why those 70-year-olds shouldn’t simply continue with what they are familiar with.
When MDN rags on schools that force Windows on students, I’m with them. We want kids to have exposure to Macs. But old dogs at the tail end of their computer using lives? Please, give them a rest.
ron, you’ve just pissed off a whole hell of a lot of zombies. You might want to stay home tonight.
Don’t blame Walt. He was probably on vacation and an intern wrote the piece.
So that’s what P.C. has always meant all this time….
Prune Cocktail….
“You might want to stay home tonight.”
yes, stay away from the malls.
Sure, Macs can run Windows. But Apple does not support it. The reader, who is in his 70’s, have children who can only help them when they are in a jam. So, who is going to install Boot Camp and Window XP for this elderly couple? So, I’ll say once again, sure, Macs can run Windows. But who will install it for them?
@ ron… I love your motto! “Get a Mac now while you still can… You’ll be dead a long time”
A while back, I had a freelance customer (an older woman) looking to replace her 7-year old Dell recently asked me if I thought she should change from Windows to Apple. Considering she was going to have to replace most of her archaic software anyway, the cost was going to be the same either way. Told her to visit an Apple store and see if the bundled apps in OSX would work for her needs (which were admittedly basic). She picked up a Macbook and, while she had some teething issues with networking and external drives, she’s adapted pretty well.
For all the oft-vaunted “intuitiveness” of OSX vis a vis Windows systems, there’s still a learning curve involved in making such a switch. As such, the curve is shorter and gentler going from XP to Vista rather than from XP to OSX. Pretending otherwise is dishonest.
Uncle Walt normally gets it right, but missed the mark on this one. I’ve seen friends buy PCs running XP that eventually have problems with spyware, viruses, etc. It gets to the point where they need a PC repair person to ” clean up ” the computer. You don’t need to do that with a Mac. As far as training is concerned, if this couple has access to an Apple Store, they can take advantage of the ” one-to-one ” training to get comfortable with the computer and the Mac OS. The best advice would have been ” Buy a Mac “.
@MDN
I’m not sure I want Roseanne Barr or Heidi Klum near my Mac. Time Machine wasn’t build to undo that sorta damage.
I agree with Walt. I discouraged my 75-year old father in law from switching. He reads every word of a simple installation dialogue box at a painfully glacial pace, and I can just imagine the panicked phone calls: “Where’s Windows Explorer? Where’s the START menu?” Feh.
Most people won’t do the work involved (Step 1: Buy a Book, Step 2: Read it, Step 3: Practice new skills) relying instead, as these geezers referred to in the article, on relatives to wipe their bums for them. No thanks.
I think Uncle Steve and Uncle Walt are headed toward a good, old fashioned smack down.
” It’s beyond us why Uncle Walt fails to clearly point out that buying a Mac — and only a Mac — gives users the capability to run any OS and application they desire.”
you don’t have relatives that age, do you? didn’t think so…..
at that age, with a computer, they will be damn lucky to turn it on 60% of the time.
To Bryan J Blumberg: “But who will install it for them?”
You can buy a Mac with Windows preloaded on it. It’s like being born addicted to crack.