Poll: Are you a potential Switcher and What are you Buying?

[MacRumors]

Vote: Poll: Are you a potential Switcher and What are you Buying? (http://www.macpolls.com/?poll_id=207&ref=forums.macrumors.com)

[pyrotoaster]

What a confusing poll, arn.

Why couldn't you have used one of my ideas like "Paper or Plastic?" or "Exploding Beavers or Drunken Hippos?"

[arn]

Originally posted by pyrotoaster
What a confusing poll, arn.

Why couldn't you have used one of my ideas like "Paper or Plastic?" or "Exploding Beavers or Drunken Hippos?"

Heh... don't you sleep?

Anyhow - I think this is actually a very interesting poll - esp in the days before WWDC. I think there's a floodgates waiting to purchase 970 PowerMacs...

arn

[pyrotoaster]

Originally posted by arn
Heh... don't you sleep?

Anyhow - I think this is actually a very interesting poll - esp in the days before WWDC. I think there's a floodgates waiting to purchase 970 PowerMacs...

arn
It is interesting in that aspect. I think it could do without the switcher part, though. Have one poll about whether or not we're looking to buy and what.
And another poll about whether potential switchers are awaiting a WWDC announcement, and if so, what.

I voted in the waiting for a Powerbook (12", I don't have the cash for a 15") section.

BTW, I'm currently sleeping about nine hours a night. :)

[synthetickittie]

right now I all ready have a powermac(1.42ghz) but I want to leave this thing home for when I go off to college in september and looking for a 17inch powerbook to be able to both bring to class and still have a large enough screen that wouldnt leave me still needing anything more for when Im in my dorm working. But I dont want to buy all ready Id rather wait for the next update even its not a 970 and just something little of an updated because I dont NEED the thing till semptember.

[vwcruisn]

Bring on the damn 970 powerbooks! Id love a 17 incher... but would settle for a 15.. cmon apple... take my money! :D

[vniow]

I already have a Mac but I'm probably going to sell it soon due to finances (or rather lack of them) but I hope to pick up a Powerbook when I can afford one, those refurbs are looking mighty tasty...mmmmmm......

[job]

I 'switched' from a Rio and picked up a 15GB iPod the other day.

By mid-July I should have roughly 1200 dollars although I'm not sure if I'm going to spend it on a new Mac.

[gerror]

I never switchted because the 1st computer I bought was a Mac.
Probably after 1 1/2 years I will buy a new one.

[maradong]

where is the ibook option ? ;-)
if the 15'' Pb is not release on WWDc, i ll sent my command for a maxed out ibook 12'' on the following day. Sadly i will not get bluetooth than. :(

[MacFan25]

I am already a mac user, but I'm not looking to buy right now. :)

[Centris 650]

The first mac I used (a IIse) was in 87/88 in college. I bought a Centris 650 in the early 90's and have never had to "switch". I guess I was raised right! But I AM drooling over the posibility of the 970's though my next purchase will be at the end of the year. Still plodding along with the iBook 466 unitl then...




Centris650

[hvfsl]

I have 3 macs, but I am a potiental switcher. I will switch to Windows (totally) if Apple does not bring out fast and cheaper Macs within the next few weeks. It is just becoming hard to justify getting a Mac now because I am not rich and I can get the cheapest iBook for £770, but a 1700XP laptop with ATI Radeon/DVD player/14in screen for £540 The ibook is faster in games, but the machine would be used for just office and the internet.

I just hope Apple can increase speeds/lower prices soon or they will be dead (or at least no longer a hardware company).

[flahiker]

I am a potential switcher looking to by myself a 15 inch powerbook and a 17 inch imac for my kids.

My biggest holdup has been the lack of available engineering software. I an an electrical engineer and schematic capture or layout software is mostly on windoze or high end unix boxes. Unfortunately it is highly probable that the new mother boards were designed on windoze boxes. :(

Apple, now that OSX is a *nix, PLEASE PLEASE see if you can get Cadence , Mentor Graphics, Autodesk, Xilinx.... to port their software. Hell even if it would require X11, it would be an alternative to M$.

[jkojima]

I think you could have added to this poll "I am a recent switcher"

I switched from an Acer laptop to a 15" PowerBook G4 in December, and last month sold off my PC Desktop. If Apple can provide a compelling reason for me to buy an Apple desktop (i.e. release the 970 at a price point matching the current crop of G4s) then I'll start saving my pennies.

Having just spent the better part of a day rendering and encoding video, I would love to see how 64bit computing could be used to speed up this process.

[Laslo Panaflex]

I use a mac at work for 2 years now and I love it. I am a PC guy primarily, I have used them my whole life and have 3 at home, 1 laptop 2 desktops. I am waiting for a mac with faster bus and proc speed, like the 970. I voted that I am a potential switcher that is looking to buy a powermac. I do video edting and a tower would be better for that since I already have 2 21" CRTs and can't hook them both up to a powerbook. We will see, maybe the powerbooks will be real fast and real cool, money isn't really a factor for me, I will be taking out a loan to buy, but of course the less expensive the better. Can't wait for Monday.

[ozubahn]

Originally posted by flahiker
My biggest holdup has been the lack of available engineering software. I an an electrical engineer and schematic capture or layout software is mostly on windoze or high end unix boxes. Unfortunately it is highly probable that the new mother boards were designed on windoze boxes. :(


I know how you feel. I am in the same situation, except that I was a Mac user first, then an electrical engineer. I've never been very happy with any of the EDA software I've used (PowerView, Cadence, HSPICE, etc), but I'd still love to see it available on OS X. At least we have Matlab now. That's a start. I've thought about writing my own schematic capture software, but it's a big job. :(

[rotlex]

Potential switcher at this point IF the 15" powerbooks actually hit within the next 6 months AND if they are priced within reason. (Read, not $3000+ for what should run around 2K) Pricing will be the biggest factor for me, as I need a laptop. It's also the main reason I wound up staying on the Windows platform for my recent desktop replacement after the death of my old PC. Just couldn't justify $3200 smackers for a desktop when less than half of that bought me a more powerful, fully loaded workstation.

Come on Apple, I WANT the powerbook! :D

[Ambrose Chapel]

I want to see 970s as soon as possible, but for the good of Apple, not for me. I got a Ti last year which I intend to hold onto for a few years...by the time I am ready to upgrade any of my options will likely destroy my current PB...mmm PowerBook 980s... ;)

[JonL]

I still consider myself a Mac user because I have an old PM7500 gathering dust with a broken monitor, but I use two different Win98 machines all the time. I'd like to buy an iBook soon, an altivec enabled G3 would suit me fine. Would like to then switch to the 970 for everything else in a year or two.

[Regular Joe]

I am a potential switcher. Current system is a 1GHz homebuilt special. It's getting old, so an upgrade is necessary. Main use for the computer is DV->DVD encoding/authoring and digital photo mangement, which is the Mac's sweet arena according to Apple (http://www.apple.com/powermac/superdrive.html).

I also want to try my hand at programming, and recently dug into the GCC C++ world and wrote a command line utility to convert Mozilla generated .LDIF files to iPod compatible vCards.

I've completely de-Microsoft'd (except for XP, of course) my machine, running these applications to get all my work done:

Vegas 4 + DVD
Photoshop
Photoshop Album
WordPerfect Office
Mozilla
Quicken

I'd switch to Linux, but find the lack of a professional level DVD authoring application prohibative.

Just about purchased a dual 1.42 system about a month ago, until I started reading MacRumors... now I am forced to wait for the 970. It better happen soon, because encoding MPEG-2 at P3-1GHz is killing me.

The bad deal about switching is the cost of software. Adobe doesn't allow for cross platform license exchange, and Vegas set me back a good some of money. Hopefully I can recoup most of these costs through eBay and pick up FCP and PS. I am hoping iPhoto handles all the great tagging options PSA does. I wish Apple would support upgrade paths to switchers like myself, getting discounts on FCP and the like in exchange for our Windows' product licenses.

[iShater]

Originally posted by jkojima
I think you could have added to this poll "I am a recent switcher"

I switched from an Acer laptop to a 15" PowerBook G4 in December, and last month sold off my PC Desktop. If Apple can provide a compelling reason for me to buy an Apple desktop (i.e. release the 970 at a price point matching the current crop of G4s) then I'll start saving my pennies.

Having just spent the better part of a day rendering and encoding video, I would love to see how 64bit computing could be used to speed up this process.

I second that, an optional vote about this would be great. I am looking to pickup a PowerMac to switch my desktop.

[painandgreed]

I'm a Mac user looking at buying a powerbook, but if cool G5 machines come out monday, I may buy another desktop instead.

[astrocity20]

Switcher. Hopefully I can get up enough money to buy a new PowerMac.

[thies]

switcher. just that I switched from mac to pc until they start producing something which is not overpriced and underpowered crap in comparison.

no car analogies needed, thanks.

[SiliconAddict]

Hi all. I haven’t touched, considered, or even used a Mac since my Apple 2e days. (Well that and highschool.) I’ve never contemplated getting a Mac simply because of WinNT, 2K, and now to a lesser extent XP. (Head spins around as he vomits at the thought of XP.)
Simply put I've never crashed in W2K. Ever. Other people’s results may vary but I swear these systems don’t crash for me. My uptime on my homebrewed W2K Adv Server is easily months with the exception of having to apply damn patches once a month at least. >:-O

The other reason I haven’t considered the Mac was/is a deep seeded hatred for Jobs and killing the Newton. I still have my Newton sitting on my desk here at home hooked up to my desktop and syncing with Outlook 2K. I use it daily. Its what MS’s Tablet PC wants to be and can’t. The day they discontinued the Newton was the day I began my “Just say no to apple” campaign to anyone who wanted to talk about the benefits of owning an Apple. I’ve watched the Pocket PC mature over the last 3 years and I want to cry when I think about where the Newton could be right now if it wasn’t ****canned.

What has, forced, no a better word would be consider moving back to Mac is MS’s heavy handedness. DRM, Pallidum, product activation, etc, etc, etc. As much as I loathe what Jobs did to the Newton I hate being bullied even more. I don’t play well with bullies and MS’s actions just after W2K’s release has been nothing short of arrogant. (More so then even in the past.) >:-P

From time to time I’ve had chances to play with various version of the Mac OS. I’ve never been impressed. OSX has somewhat changed my thinking on Macs. However I never jump to any new OS until it has matured a bit. In the case of windows I didn’t move to NT until SP 4, I didn’t move to W2K until SP1. Jaguar is most impressive with its ability to access windows networks, however I’ve read on various places on the net where kernel panics have been occurring on an almost Win9x-ish frequent basis: http://www.macobserver.com/article/2001/03/28.7.shtml
Then again do a search on WinPX and BSOD and you will find a ton as well. So I’m wondering if it’s just something to be associated with bad luck. A friend of mine has had an iBook for about 6 months now and not a single crash. *shrugs*

So I’ve remained on the sidelines until now. The possible combined force of Panther and the 970 has seriously made me consider a PowerBook when they come out. At this point a desktop isn’t in my future simply because I have too much money tied into my desktop's hardware and software. Plus why the heck hasn’t apple gone surround sound yet on their desktop line?!?!?! Apple prides itself on its multimedia prowess on its systems does it not? Why hasn’t surround sound been incorporated into the hardware yet?!?! Sorry OT rant.

I’m still on the sidelines but if Panther is solid and stable, and there is no reason to think otherwise, and if the performance of a 970 based PowerBook is good then you can brand me a with a Mac logo because I’ll be picking one up.....along with an iPod. :-D Mmmmm iPod goodness. Yummy. ;)

-Jonathan N.

[Nightstalker]

hi,
what about
"No, I was using this PC since i was 8 and will do so until the end of my life" ? :D

just wondered why that was missing, not that i wanted to vote for it or anything ;) i voted for "potential switcher, but no money:( "


nightstalker

[yzedf]

powerbook 15" after the update, if there ever is one...