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How I got my parents to switch to a Mac.

K

kingpikey

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 25, 2007
59
0
My parents recently switched. Their 6+ year old Mid-Tower (which I built) recently died. Coincidentally I'd recently bought a used Mini from martinmartin (who was awesome to deal with, by the way) on the Marketplace forums. I suggested that they get a Mac, but also priced a cheap PC replacement for them.

When my Mini came in, I set it up at their house for them to use until they decided what to do about their computer situation. When my mom came in and saw the Mini on the desk she said, "Thats it? Thats the whole computer?" I confirmed that it was, and showed her a few things about it. She was grinning the whole time, then called my dad into the room telling him he "had to see this."

I showed them how to get around, and how to do the things they were used to doing in Windows. That night they asked me to help them order a Mini to replace their dead PC. I've since set up their Mini, complete with iChat for screen sharing, and Time Machine. No more virus problems or "I think I deleted something on accident" calls, and anything else I can handle with Screen Sharing (which I demonstrated with my MBP and my mom LOVED).

Its been a few weeks now, and my mom and dad have had nothing but good things to say so far. My mom apparently tells all her friends about how small it is, and that I can connect to her computer to help her over the internet.

Windows -1. OS X +1 :D
 
It's always great to hear people switching though.

Kudos to your parents as well, for wanting to. I know mine are not interested in learning anything new like that, so great stuff. :)
 
Yeah, I'm excited about them learning something new. Always good to establish new neural pathways. :)
 
Nice work. Back in October, I tried to get my parents to get an iMac but they kept insisting on a Vista PC because they didn't want to learn new stuff. The first night, we got a BSOD. Within three days, the whole thing was dead. Yet after we returned it, they still wanted a Vista computer. Now I get those calls to come to the rescue.

You- 1 Me- 0
 
I got my grandparents to switch from Gateway to Apple (20" iMac) two years ago. I felt pretty good about myself :cool:
 
I got my mom to switch last month after someone stole her 4+ year old Dell desktop. Funny thing is they stole the 15 in Dell monitor that wasn't even hooked up to the computer and left the 24in monitor that was:rolleyes:. She wanted another cheap dell or whatever $400 dollar or less computer that was on sale somewhere. I told her that those computers will have Vista installed and that if she had ANY problems with it I wouldn't be able to help her because I didn't know how to use vista. I said if she got a Mac I could help her and that with the screen sharing feature I could easily help her if she had a problem.

Anyways, since she already had a monitor I suggested a mini but when we went to the apple store my mom said it was too small, and that it wasn't a real computer that could do all the tasks she needed (word processing, very very light internet use). I told her because of it's small size she could easily hide it and no one has to know it's there but she kept insisting it was a toy computer.

She then saw the iMac, loved the fact that the whole computer was behind the screen and after debating the benefits for 2hrs (to the chagrin of the apple store employee helping us) we finally bought it and a security cable to secure it to the desk and of course convinced her to start using the deadbolt locks on the doors at home.
 
tammy418 said:
I got my mom to switch last month after someone stole her 4+ year old Dell desktop. Funny thing is they stole the 15 in Dell monitor that wasn't even hooked up to the computer and left the 24in monitor that was
Click to expand...
Is the robber stupid for not stealing the 24" monitor or for stealing the Dell?
 
akonradi said:
Nice work. Back in October, I tried to get my parents to get an iMac but they kept insisting on a Vista PC because they didn't want to learn new stuff. The first night, we got a BSOD. Within three days, the whole thing was dead. Yet after we returned it, they still wanted a Vista computer. Now I get those calls to come to the rescue.

You- 1 Me- 0
Click to expand...

I told my dad I wasn't going to help him with his computer anymore (in a very nice way) unless he got a mac. (too many calls)
 
Take them to the Apple store and let them play. I wasn't gonna buy an iPhone until I went and checked it out.
 
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