Post your Apple "Switch" story...

Born Mac... Living Mac

I had kicked around getting a Mac since the Sawtooth, but could never really find something that made me see the benefit over my PC's.

A month before Panther came out, I mentioned to my then-girlfriend that I liked the iPod, but could never bring myself to spending that sort of money on an mp3 player.

A month after Panther came out, she gave me a 30gb iPod for my birthday.

The next week, I went to the Apple Store just to see what Panther was like. I had no intention of buying anything, because I knew I'd get an education discount as a university staff member (I didn't know they honored that in the store). 30 minutes later, I was walking out with a 15" PowerBook 1.0.

I quickly found that I was hardly using my recently built P4 3.0/C (complete with 2GB and a GeForce 5800), in favor of my PowerBook. So, I parted out the system in some forums and on eBay, and got myself a PowerMac DP 1.8.

That was about a year ago next week. In that time, I've shown OS X around the IT Department, and just last week ordered three DP 2.3 XServes, two 2.8TB XServe RAIDs, and two 15" PowerBook 1.67's (along with a ton of other goodies like iSight, some iPod shuffles, etc.) for work.

And it all started with an iPod.

People who dismiss the halo effect are insane

Halo Effect

Brother get an iPod 20 GB, Went to the apple store, was amazed at the products. Got an iPod mini, now I got my mini Mac

My Long Story!

In late 2003, I had just started a band with another guy and I decided that I was going to make a "documentary" about the start of the band, writing the first songs, and everything else that would lead up to our first open mic performance. So I buy the cheapest Canon MiniDV camera out at the time (ZR60) and start shooting.

At the time I had (actually still have) an eMachines Celeron 666 with 128 MB of RAM. So I had a video camera, but no dvd burner, no editing software, and no computer on which to edit the movie.

But then I got a new job and they gave me Thinkpad T42 P4 1.8 Ghz with 256 MB of RAM. So I think I can save some money on the PC and just get an external DVD burner and I am good to go. I used that setup for a while, but I had to get a PCMCIA firewire card to hook up the camera (which didn't work without a call to Maxtor tech support), the PC would only see the camera if it was plugged into a certain firewire port, I could not daisy chain any devices from the external burner to the PC, I would drop frames, it would take forever to render stuff in Premire, I couldn't burn straight from Premire to DVD. The DVDs menus and stuff I was making seemed too amaturish for my tastes, the hardrive on the Thinkpad was too small, etc.

So now it is the summer of 2004. I still had not finished my movie and I think it is time to upgrade my personal PC. I start shopping around for custom configured PCs from MPC and the like. It seemed to me that everyone was crowing about how cheap PCs were these days, but everytime I spec'd one out, I wasn't overly impressed with the value and I would still be bothered by Premire's "shortcomings". I posted on the straight dope message board asking for advice on a good setup for amatuer video editing and someone posted a link to an eMac. I hadn't even considered a Mac, but had heard things about the iPod and iTunes recently and I was even in the market for an mp3 player.

So I do a little research around the internet and learn about and am astounded by OS X and iLife (especially iMovie and GarageBand) and that sold me. I was getting an iMac G4. Literally, the day I was ready to place my order, they stopped taking orders because the G5 was on it's way. Man was I lucky. So I found my way here to get the info on the new iMac and have been here ever since. I ordered the iMac G5 the day they were available and have not looked back. I only touch my old PC when the wife needs some help with something.

Since the iMac, I also bought an iPod, AE, and iLife '05. I also "switched" one friend so far. And my wife will be switching on her birthday in May (iBook) and I will decommission the PC for good.

I still haven't finished the movie, but have finished a bunch of other ones!

Sorry this was so long, but I have been wanting to share this for a while.

I always love reading these stories. It's hard to believe that I was missing out on such a positive experience for so long... you'd think everyone would want one of these.

At a summer camp I volunteer at, we use older equipment, currently a tangerine iMac running OS 8.5. (Yuck. Sorry, but I'm just not a fan...) We had a lady come up as staff and published a camp newspaper off the iMac. All week she kept on cursing this machine, proclaiming "I hate Macs" and "I'd never use one of these..."

She's in seminary now in Boston... and guess what kind of computer she's using? A 12" Powerbook... and she swears by it.

I'm not sure exactly what made her do it, but I'm glad she decided to try it.

So to all the Mac-haters and fence-sitters out there: have you tried OS X? Because if you haven't, you're missing the point.

1. Got iMac G4 a while back about a year after it came out. Dad was "incompatible" with it so returned after a day. I wanted to explore it.

2. Stuck with crappy 825Mhz PC until Nov-2004. Birthday came around and been using PearPC for a while, coudn't take the slowness any longer and got an iBook. Been loving it since, But I plan on building a new gaming PC sometime this year.

3. So many people at school with iPods so I had to get one also. Got one for Xmas. Now I have a mini iSuite. Just need the iMac G5 now...

Since I never did this, why not!

Well, I firstly used a Mac when I was about 7, it was the old Apple IIe I think. Ok... never liked them then... lets skip ahead to when I was 15. Well, I got into a graphics design class and that. It was the first new Mac I'd used. Actually when I went into CompUSA, I'd always, who'd use a Mac? Well, one day I just went over to see what it was like, after hearing about the G5 - 64-bit processors. Well, in GD (Graphics Design) I used a Mac with Mac OS X.3 and I love it. I fell in love with it then and started my journey on getting a Mac. I talked to the teacher about them and started looking up sites where I could buy one. I told myself I'd buy a brand new on and that, but never saved up the money to do so. Before the year was over, I found out about Basilisk II - Mac OS 7.5-8.1 OS Emulation. I tried it, had fun with it, and thought about Mac OS X. I bought a Powerbook G3 233MHz off of here (the forums that is) and bought Jaguar (the highest version of Mac OS X that would run on the PB). I installed it and just learned more about the OS. I knew some bash terminal commands from using Linux about 2 years ago. After that, I sold the PB and bought an iMac from MacAztec off the forum. Its 333MHz and I bought Panther for it also. MacAztec was so willing to help me with buying this new iMac I was impressed. He replaced the CDROM drive cause it didn't work, and he sent a mouse and keyboard with it. From then on, I've learned more about the Mac OS, and that. And now for the big finally------

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The teachers who are Mac users are now asking me for help with their Macs whenever something goes wrong. They want to talk to the Administration about putting me on part time to help with it all and that. Just from using a mac with in less than 2 years, I've recieved so much attention! I'm amazed. With PC's everyone knows I know about everything with PC's and that so a lot of the teachers are asking for my help with them too, and my Network Admin teacher wants me to be an Inter for him next year if I get a CNA Certification. All in all, ever since I started to use the Mac, everything has been going really well. GO MACS!!!

I used Macs all through school and couldnt stand Macs pre-OSX so had Windows boxes at home. But when OSX came out, I played with it at a CompUSA for about 5 minutes and fell in love. Later bought an iBook in July 2003 but still had a PC as my main desktop. In October, I bought my PowerMac G5 to replace my PC, becoming Windows free and loving every minute of it

Well...I've been using computers since I was knee high to a grasshopper. My stepdad got into computers in the early 80's, and he came into my life when I was only 3, so I they were around since I could remember. Of course, we always had a PC, and I always hated them. I never really got into like my brother had. Computers were always a necessary tool for papers and stuff like that. We used crazy out-dated Apple 2's at my school to play games and stuff, untill they upgraded to some Dell's when I was in the 6th grade. Then we got the internet in the mid 90's, but I never really used it for more than research until a few years ago. I had my PC that my stepdad gave to me after inheriting from work. It was an old POS then, and hasn't gotten any better in the last couple years. So in preperation of going off to college, I decided it was about time to buy a new computer. I decided to get a laptop, because space was going to be a little limited. I used a friends iBook and got addicted. I had to have one. So I bought one. 12 in G4 iBook. I can't give you more specs than that, cause I don't know, and don't really care.

If I wasn't the black sheep of my family before, I certainly am now. I am the only one to use a Mac, and my brother and stepdad don't let it go. Most of the time it's just some friendly banter, but it can get ugly.

I switched to Apple by bought an Apple iBook, and I have never looked back. I will never go back to PC's.

Well, I will be posting my story sometime tomorrow as it is a work in progress. I was so moved by the switch that I actually wrote a very long story about the whole process. I think its about 2-3 pages long, haven't touched it in awhile. I will probably attach it so I don't upset those forum real-estate police.

Brand new switcher, brand new member.

Like most everyone else who switches, I've become extremely frustrated with Windows, crashes, viruses, drivers, inexplicable screen freezes, etc. As soon as I transfer my files from my Dell desktop, it's death by firing squad.

The Dell is a five-year-old Dimension, which I purchased before freshman year of college. It's been through numerous hard drive reformats and virus attacks.

I wrote for the sports section of my school paper, and we exclusively used Macs for copy, pagination, design, etc. I fell in love with OSX's ease of use, and the overal beauty of the UI. Around campus, I'd see iBooks and PowerBooks and get increasingly jealous, especially on days when I was frantically trying to keep my own crap computer from having kittens.

Last night, my 12" PB arrived, and I love him. He's the first major purchase of my budding adulthood, and I couldn't be happier.


Go Sox

I was first introduced to a computer - my dad's 16Mhz Dell laptop running 3.1 - when i was 7. At the time, it was only for playing simple games (can't remember titles). It wasn't until i was 12 that i really started using computers. I started at a new school and they gave all their students laptops as part of some experiment. I used to carry around a 14" Toshiba Satellite, 800Mhz celeron, 128Mb ram running Windoze 98. I had that laptop for two years and used it for most of my school work.

When i again switched school, i was suddenly missing my computer so i bought myself a desktop a year and a half ago. It was quite a big purchase and i had saved one year worth of my paperboy pay for that computer. I ended up with an athlon 2600+, 512MB ram, A7N8X non-deluxe and a GeForce Ti4200. I used to reformat my HD every month and reinstall XP, Firewall and anti-spyware software so that the computer continued working at an aceptable level.

Everything worked fine for about 6 months, then my computer stopped working. My Mobo was aparently trashed. The repair took a good 3 months and it was during that time that i started exploring the mac world. I was hoping that a mac would solve my continuous software/hardware problems. The thing that stopped my from buying a mac then and there was that the - back then - current ibook with 384MB ram and Combo Drive cost AU$2300.

So i remained a windoze user for another year. However, during that year, i started talking my parents (who were looking for a new computer) into buying a mac. It took some time and a few trips to the apple store to convince them. They ended up buying a factory return ibook G3 900Mhz, Combo, 60Gb HD, 640MB ram and AP for a killer AU$2290 (a saving of AU$600).

Ever since my parents got their ibook, i used it whenever i could and i probably spend more time in front of it than my parents. I had been hooked before but using the ibook in my daily life got me addicted

When my computer died yet again - this time the Power Supply was a goner, I decided something had to be done. My computer was on eBay the next morning. I was going to buy a 12" ibook G4 1Ghz but my parents decided in the last minute to update their own ibook so i ended up with the G3 ibook.

I have been working on this ibook for 6 months now and have never been happier in my life! At first it was quite slow, but then i discovered OnyX and OS X Panther and it has been blazing ever since

I had to get my logic board repaired last week but that is the only real problem i have ever had (plus one kernel panic 2 or 3 months ago). My next computer will be a mac and the one after that as well. Nothing is going to turn me back!

I'd always admired the design of Macs in department stores since about the time of the iMac. But it was a case of "look so cool, but can't compare in power, usability and depth of programs to a PC".... and the obvious thing of "what the hell is the deal with a single mouse button?!?!?".

I used a Mac for the first time around 1998, and wasn't all that impressed with the usability of the OS compared to Windows, and despite Apples design this stayed formost in my mind.
Then the iPod happened. After again thinking that here was a product that looked cool, I found myself thinking "why don't they make a Windows version?", and around a year later they had.
I bought a 20GB 3G Ipod about 2 months after they were released, and was floored by the usability of it. Even more so when they got iTunes up and running for Windows, and it was a combination of this Mac-centric program and the design of the iPod that got me thinking of Macs again.... but it was only still a slight consideration - I had thoughts of this old clunky OS in my head still.
I bought an iPod Mini in August that replaced my 20gigger - I needed something smaller for gym work and found that I'd stopped using the larger iPod so sold it on. So I was already onto my second Apple product.

Then in September of last year a friend of mine came back from the states with an iPod and an iBook, which he had bought solely on looks (it matched his iPod after all!) and he wasn't the most IT orientated of people. I ended helping him out set it all up, and in doing so had my first experience of OSX. Not clunky at all.... a fluid, quick, and natural feeling OS, I was blown away! My only reason for not getting a Mac was the OS (oh, and the fact that Macs aren't great for gaming - and I'm talking about wealth of titles here).
I needed a laptop for work and had been looking for quite a while. The PC offerings were either too big, or small, ecceptionally expensive with external drives. I wanted something fairly compact, able to do everything I wanted to do work based and have fairly decent multimedia capabilities. And so after my iBook experience, I began to look into Macs properly - and joined MacRumors to field any questions I may have.
Originally the iBook was what I wanted. But the extra spec of the Powerbook, combined with a superior keyboard finally pursuaded me.
In early October I bought a 12" Powerbook Combo. Couldn't have been happier! I had the software I needed on it (Office) and even the programs which I needed, but wasn't available for Macs (MS Project & Visio), could be run on VPC, although it did mean I had to boost the memory.

Four months on I've just bought my second Mac - another 12" Powerbook (Rev D) but with Superdrive as I'm using iDVD a lot these days. My original PB is off to its new owner later this week, and I am suitably gutted to see it go.
Even though I don't need one, I find myself considering an iMac too....

So despite having the iPod and could put this down to the Halo affect, I'd say it was the Apple software that made me switch - iTunes and 30min on OSX is all it took!

When I finished school and went to University, I got an LC575. We had always used Apples in my house growing up. The LC was a great computer for the word processing and other miscellaneous stuff that it did. In about 1996, the Mac OS started to stagnate. There was no decent changes to the OS that made me want to upgrade to a Mac, and anyway, my colleagues at my new work had Windows anyway. I started to like Windows, and all it could do, and the look of the Win 95 interface, so, I stick with Windows until 1998. My fiancé (at the time) was using Windows, so i decided to be 'difficult' and get an iMac, running 8.5. In 2002 we got married, and my parents, who were still using Mac OS, bought us a PowerMac G4 DA, to use as a switcher vessel, but alas, that was not to be. I started to use Mac OsX, and before I knew it, was trying to move the Mrs. into Mac. It was not, and is still not the case, although she bought me a PowerBook for our anniversary last year. She likes the computer, and when her Packard Bell laptop finally dies this year (i am going to kill it) she will get a nice shiny new PowerMac G5 with a 23 inch monitor.

To sum up, I started with a Mac that is still working today (it doesn't get used, but it gets turned on every now and then), switched to the dark side, and then switched back in 1998. I am NEVER using windows for pleasure (if that is possible) again. I have a Dull laptop, and never want to see it again. I am not a lover of the Windows OS.

My eMac switch story

I have been using Macs for as long as I can remember. We used them for AR Reading tests in Elementary school and in Middle School i used them for research. Well in 8th grade last year my teacher had a Blueberry iMac 350MHz in her classroom; I was addicted to that thing. She always had to pull me off the thing so I could do my classwork. Then I started thinking about getting a new computer for myself. My parents had a 2000 Compaq Presario running Windows 98SE but it wasn't cutting it for games anymore. So I asked them for Christmas to get me a new computer. Since my brothers were getting dirtbikes, they said yes. I originally was going to get a cheap Dell Dimension for $500. But, when my teacher brought in her new HP laptop I fell in love immedietly. It was fast, nice looking, and affordable. I asked her about it and when I got home from school that day I went on the internet and did some research about the HP. Well my parents told me that they didn't want to get me a laptop, but when Wal-Mart was selling HP laptops for $899 with a printer they said they would think about it. At this point, I just wanted to play my Need for Speed games so a Mac was out of the question. Christmas Day 2003, I opened up the box containing the laptop; I loved it. It was sleek, clean, and pretty fast. 2 days later, it crashed. I didn't think much of it and reformatted it. 2 weeks later, it crashed again; I still didn't care and reformatted it. 4 months later it was starting to bog down with all the extra crap on it and I reformatted. By that time it was April '04 and I was curious about Macs. I had gone on the Apple discussions board and asked about the eMac and Panther. I couldn't afford a new eMac so I was looking at a 800MHz G4/128MB RAM/40GB/CD-ROM and no modem for $499. Many people said that you would miss having a Combo drive since the laptop had one. I even went to the Apple store and looked around and the OS felt wierd and different. I didn't like it. I decided to keep on using Windows. Then, in Oct' 04 my parents said I had the chance to get a new computer. Well, I was going to get a nice gaming PC but I looked in at getting a Mac instead. I looked at the iMac G5, PowerBook, iBook, and eMac. They all seemed to be nice but the eMac had something that the others didn't: a affordable price. So to make a long story short I got a eMac 1.25GHz/256MB RAM/40GB HD/Combo and I have never had so much fun using a computer.

well... i went over to my friends house one day and he had a mac. at first it looked rediculous and i laughed and virbally abused him. but after he showed me expose not to long after, i became really interested and wanted to find out more about the mac and when i did i got hooked. i drueled over any mac i saw till one day this same friend called me up and told me he was going to buy me a mac and i of course thought he was joking... two months later i sat at his house waiting impatiently for my computer to arrive... at first i was still a bit skeptical but it didnt take long for my worries to be unfounded.

life with my mac is great, whats funny i never really wanted to talk about my windows but i love talking to anyone about my mac, even if they do get annoyed

Switchback - Return of the Mac?

Pre-86 was Apple IIe. Then college was Mac-Plus (8mhz) no HD. Halfway through college purchased an external 20 meg - that's right meg HD for ~ $500. Used it for school and everything else. Turned to the 'Darkside' and got a PC after I met me 'eve' and PC was all she knew - plus there was a need for something and the $$$$ was a factor since we were paying for wedding and house. That was in 1996. Now, after several PC's - a gateway, 2 dells (1 Laptop), and 2 home made one's - I anticipate returning to the fold as my interests in video and music have frustrated me to no end on the PC. Through my frustrated rants or my introductions to my wife on the other benefits of the Mac - it seems that she will welcome it when it comes home too. I await the next PM rev. to pick up a dualie. BTW the Mac Plus still runs fine and my father actually still uses it - as well as the printer - back when Apple made them. So hopefully, 2005 = return of the Mac for me.

switch, ha, what switch? I've had a mac my whole life. A few years ago my mom got a dell through her job. it was our first windows machine and we still had a few macs as our main computers. It was nothing but trouble. Now i have my new iMac G5 and she's switched back to an iBook. My brother and sister have powerbooks for college. Now all that's left is my dad who uses a crappy dell laptop.

A year ago I worked in a mall selling Dell's at a Dell kiosk. One of my coworks always talked about Macs and about how much better they were than the Dells we were suposed to be selling. About that same time I had become sick of Windows and was willing to entertain ideas about other platforms; linux, ect.
What impressed me most about macs was his description of isync. I was totally impressed. Then he suggested that I download iTunes for windows. At that point I was sold. I started researching macs and a couple months later I bought an iBook! I'm a much happier computer user now.

I always loved iPod. But I viewed the computers Apple made to be bad. The only experience I had had with Macs at the time was with an iMac G3, which I hated. But OS X came out, and I wanted to see it, but decided to stick to trusty old Windows (which I hated).

Then, one day I was on an account on my windows computer that wasn't an admin, and was not supposed to get into the control panel, and yet I still got in. I could have changed the admin password, and everything. And I didn't even mean to. That very day, I bought a 12 inch PowerBook

Didn't switch yet, and don't think I'll ever entirely switch, as my school is "Windows Only," i.e., only 1 teacher owns a Mac, and doesn't know how to send us homework (AppleWorks... didn't know to save it in .doc for windows)

ANYWAY, here is why I want to switch, and what I think it will be like.

When I was 4/5, I learned how to use Windows 95 basically perfectly. I learned to type by myself, and learned MS-DOS by myself, with the occasional, "Dad, how to I do this...?" By 7/8, I got a computer in my room - couldn't stop myself from installing anything, learning about computers. I was fascinated by any computer.

I went to my friends house, and he had these purple and orange computers. I was like, "what the hell is that???" (admit it, seeing a bright orange Mac for the first time is like, shocking, because PCs then came in one beige color) He said it was an Apple computer, and was using it... I thought it was SO COOL!! I kept trying to use it but he wanted to do other things...

At age 11, my local mall expanded to include... get this... THE APPLE STORE!!!!! OMG!!! All these awesome Apple computers... by age 11, Apples were on OSX like 10.1 or something, they looked great - the OS and the machine. I quickly asked my dad for one, but he looked at the pricetag, and said no.

I got a new Windows computer, because, i was little and did not want to abandon what I was familiar with... but then Apple released everything new and cool...

My first Apple purchase: the iPod. This was easy, because I loved music, and my CD player just broke - so my dad said yes. I got a 20 GB 3G iPod.

Once I got the iPod, I needed a Mac. I don't know why, just because it was so cool!! So I hung up "posters" all around my house, with the Apple logo and then the computer (3: iMac, PowerMac, PowerBook) and pricing... there was still one left last week which I found hidden in the kitchen which I sadly took down .

Well, my dad and mom said no, b/c of the price.

The Mac mini was just released, so you know what happened now. price was not an excuse anymore!

...


The rest is a mystery. Will I get an Apple? Doubt I will this year. In fact, I doubt I will until this Windows machine breaks, which won't be for a while because I love computers - I would never purposely break one (my friend did that to his, and his parents said tough luck, you won't get a new computer...)

BUT today, I got a PC Mag with a GREAT review of Mac mini and iLife, and copied it and gave it to my dad to read... maybe that will change his mind!

I switched from Mac to PC then from PC to Mac. I posted it earlier, but the thread and the forum it was in got moved to the archives for some reason.

EDIT: Extra http:// in link removed

iGary said:

My favorite Mac VS PC story was one night when an old roomate came home with a brand new IBM Thinkpad from his new job.

"Look at this."

"Heh, this ain't no Apple."

Then he tried to hook up his Lexmark Z45 to it.

After an hour of effing with driver disks and downloading patches from the Internet, it still didn't work.

(I sat watching a movie the whole time as he was cursing this computer.)

I walked up to him and said: "Wanna see something neat?"

"Sure, whatever."

I unplugged his printer from the wall, plugged the USB into my Mac's keyboard and did a CTRL-P on the Safari window that was open.

Out came the document.

"That Thinkpad sure ain't no Apple," I said.

I still give him crap about it.

Click to expand...

Awesome. Love that one. I'll have to remember that.

I am a lifelong mac user myself, but i do love reading these stories. The one about roommates is great and reminds me of the story of one of my college roommates watching my trouble free time and contemplating a mac purchase himself. As he was agonizing on a windoze ME!!!! machine. I had no clue he was watching me at the time, but he is as addicted as i am now. What i wanted to know is if anyone remembers that great article on macbytes a little while ago about a linux user switching to mac. I believe it was on slashdot too. Hope people keep posting great stories.