Just curious after reading the thread about switch stories if anyone had any great stories about influencing someone else to switch.
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Anyone have any good conversion stories?
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Mitthrawnuruodo
Moderator emeritus
Nah... not really, I just tend to wear them down, too the point where they actually buy a Mac or stop asking me for help fixing their worminfected pieces of cr... æh... PC's... either way I'm happy... 😉
I converted my dad; a die hard business consultant who uses Windows because that's the business standard on Bay Street (Toronto, think Canadian Wall Street). He was sick of Powerpoint presentations and their similarity to each other so he asked what alternatives are out there. I brought up Keynote 2 with the caveat that it is only on Macs. He was unsure but when I brought my Powerbook home and showed it to him he was almost convinced. I ran through all the other cool features on the Mac, stressed perfect Office compatibility; still not convinced. I plugged my PB into our home (wired) network and it just worked, no configuration required. Our last computer we hooked up to the network was my old PC (P4 1.8 GHz) and it took half an hour to get it working. Badly.
His next computer is a 17" Powerbook.
I was sitting at a table at Starbucks (Free wireless via Videotron in the city of Montreal) and the table next to mine was this cute girl. She strikes up a conversation and she asks me about computers; she's going to Future Shop (think Best Buy my American readers) to buy a computer. I ask her budget, what she actually needs, etc... I suggest that the computer store at my school (which is like ~90% Mac) and an iBook would suit her perfectly. That's what she buys 🙂
Also at Starbucks some other day; I was at the counter around 6 PM and this dude comes up to me and asks if I know about computers. Naturally I say yes. He asks me if the computer he's buying off a friend is a good deal (200 MHz Pentium from some budget computer maker) for ~$200 CAD. I say maybe; for email and web browsing with some anti virus/firewall stuff. I ask him what he needs it for.
Turns out he's a professional photographer starting the transition to digital cameras. The computer his friend is selling has like 1 USB ports plus a parallel port. I mention that sure he could probably slowly transfer photos and run his printer and scanner but he'd need a hub or switch them a lot. He's thinking he can live with the slow transfer speeds in return for cheapness. He's been living in New York for a couple of years building his portfolio and doesn't have a lot of money.
He mentions Photoshop. I'm like good luck on that old beast. Suggest a used iBook G4 at around ~600 CAD and mention that Adobe will stitch copies of Photoshop if you promise you destroy the current disks.
He gets an iBook off eBay.
Those are mine anyway
His next computer is a 17" Powerbook.
I was sitting at a table at Starbucks (Free wireless via Videotron in the city of Montreal) and the table next to mine was this cute girl. She strikes up a conversation and she asks me about computers; she's going to Future Shop (think Best Buy my American readers) to buy a computer. I ask her budget, what she actually needs, etc... I suggest that the computer store at my school (which is like ~90% Mac) and an iBook would suit her perfectly. That's what she buys 🙂
Also at Starbucks some other day; I was at the counter around 6 PM and this dude comes up to me and asks if I know about computers. Naturally I say yes. He asks me if the computer he's buying off a friend is a good deal (200 MHz Pentium from some budget computer maker) for ~$200 CAD. I say maybe; for email and web browsing with some anti virus/firewall stuff. I ask him what he needs it for.
Turns out he's a professional photographer starting the transition to digital cameras. The computer his friend is selling has like 1 USB ports plus a parallel port. I mention that sure he could probably slowly transfer photos and run his printer and scanner but he'd need a hub or switch them a lot. He's thinking he can live with the slow transfer speeds in return for cheapness. He's been living in New York for a couple of years building his portfolio and doesn't have a lot of money.
He mentions Photoshop. I'm like good luck on that old beast. Suggest a used iBook G4 at around ~600 CAD and mention that Adobe will stitch copies of Photoshop if you promise you destroy the current disks.
He gets an iBook off eBay.
Those are mine anyway
Applespider
macrumors G4
I converted my sister to an eMac after she called asking for advice while actually online at the Dell store trying to figure out what all the 'Dell recommends' actually meant. 10 minutes later, she was on the phone to Apple education!
I converted my aunt to a Mac in the System 7 days. She struggled along with it for many years - but the concept of conflicting extensions confused her and she managed to get more system bombs than I did. So she bought a PC and struggled even more... Over Christmas she decided that my cousin's new laptop would be an iBook and her next computer would be an iMac.
Why? I'd been sat in front of her computer trying to detox it and was instructing her on her new virus/antiadware programs and when/how to run them. My mother came over and looked in alarm saying that she'd never run any of those, why hadn't I put any of them on her computer. 'Calm down, Mum, you don't need any of those because you have a Mac?' Aunt converted - I didn't even have to show her the funky stuff that OS X does
I converted my aunt to a Mac in the System 7 days. She struggled along with it for many years - but the concept of conflicting extensions confused her and she managed to get more system bombs than I did. So she bought a PC and struggled even more... Over Christmas she decided that my cousin's new laptop would be an iBook and her next computer would be an iMac.
Why? I'd been sat in front of her computer trying to detox it and was instructing her on her new virus/antiadware programs and when/how to run them. My mother came over and looked in alarm saying that she'd never run any of those, why hadn't I put any of them on her computer. 'Calm down, Mum, you don't need any of those because you have a Mac?' Aunt converted - I didn't even have to show her the funky stuff that OS X does
cyanide
macrumors regular
just a list really...
a friend of mine knew i had a Mac, but laughed at me in the typical pc user fashion. then he came to my house for the first time and saw os x. i busted out some exposé with a dvd running and a quicktime movie in the dock while the iTunes visualizer was going, showed him garageband and how easy everything else was in X... yeh his jaw was dropped and he was droolilng by the time i finished my little "keynote" . he became an instant mac fan, and since i couldnt let the poor sap go thirsty for too long i broke down and bought him an iMac DV (he is younger and without work). i loaded up X and he has never stopped thanking me. haha.
my girlfriend always hated me and my "mac talk". she thought i was crazy, that there was no way it was as good as i made it out to be. for months i listened to her say how crazy i am, and that i am a cultist, blah blah blah, but about a month ago she purchased a new computer for school/home. guess what? iBook G4 latest rev. hahaha... i will never let her live it down, especially since she loves it.
my dad needed a new computer for his auctioneering business. he wanted to go e-commerce and was looking for a cheap solution. he went to the gateway store. eek! luckily through some coaxing from myself and a business affiliate of his i came home to find a brand new iMac DV in my kitchen one day after school. this was when they first came out. he hasn't made a peep about not going windows. in fact, he says he is glad he made the right choice.
i recently got a friend of mine to go with an eMac. he and i record music together sometimes, and he was thoroughly impressed with garage band when i first showed it to him, so the rest is history.
shall i continue? I am a Mac Evangelist.
REPENT, AND YOU, TOO, SHALL BE SAVED!!!
a friend of mine knew i had a Mac, but laughed at me in the typical pc user fashion. then he came to my house for the first time and saw os x. i busted out some exposé with a dvd running and a quicktime movie in the dock while the iTunes visualizer was going, showed him garageband and how easy everything else was in X... yeh his jaw was dropped and he was droolilng by the time i finished my little "keynote" . he became an instant mac fan, and since i couldnt let the poor sap go thirsty for too long i broke down and bought him an iMac DV (he is younger and without work). i loaded up X and he has never stopped thanking me. haha.
my girlfriend always hated me and my "mac talk". she thought i was crazy, that there was no way it was as good as i made it out to be. for months i listened to her say how crazy i am, and that i am a cultist, blah blah blah, but about a month ago she purchased a new computer for school/home. guess what? iBook G4 latest rev. hahaha... i will never let her live it down, especially since she loves it.
my dad needed a new computer for his auctioneering business. he wanted to go e-commerce and was looking for a cheap solution. he went to the gateway store. eek! luckily through some coaxing from myself and a business affiliate of his i came home to find a brand new iMac DV in my kitchen one day after school. this was when they first came out. he hasn't made a peep about not going windows. in fact, he says he is glad he made the right choice.
i recently got a friend of mine to go with an eMac. he and i record music together sometimes, and he was thoroughly impressed with garage band when i first showed it to him, so the rest is history.
shall i continue? I am a Mac Evangelist.
REPENT, AND YOU, TOO, SHALL BE SAVED!!!
mduser63
macrumors 68040
I switched last August and couldn't be happier. A friend of mine who will be starting college this fall called me up around Christmas to ask for advice on buying a computer. He said he wanted a Mac, but just didn't really have money. He had configured a Dell laptop online and the total came to $1600 or so. That was for a laptop with a 1.5 GHz Celeron M CPU, and about the same features as an iBook otherwise. He asked me if I thought it was a good deal, and if he had picked the right options. I told him that he could get an iBook for $1000 or so, and he was pretty much immediately convinced. He ordered an iBook a couple days later, and seems very happy with it.
definitely
Well I've been a power user/hardcore gamer on PC since probably 6th grade (well if you consider a PI-133MHz hardcore 😉 ) and so when I came to school, i brought my massive Inspiron XPS (with 7200RPM HDD, 3.4GHz p4, 1024 DDR 800, 128MB Radeon 9700, etc.) Well, it's been fun, but it had to go. Gaming power is basically useless when I'm trying to fit in a crowded lecture hall, or even putting it in my backpack to go to the library. The Powerbook G4 1.33 was on sale at my school bookstore for $1099 (god bless student discounts) and after only a few weeks I'm never looking back. OS X dominates XP Pro in just about every respect, and when I use the Powerbook, it just feels like I'm holding something professional and worthwhile. The computer is gorgeous, it's light, it's powerful, gets 5+ hours of battery, and best of all, it just works. All the time. 🙂 Macs4Life!
Well I've been a power user/hardcore gamer on PC since probably 6th grade (well if you consider a PI-133MHz hardcore 😉 ) and so when I came to school, i brought my massive Inspiron XPS (with 7200RPM HDD, 3.4GHz p4, 1024 DDR 800, 128MB Radeon 9700, etc.) Well, it's been fun, but it had to go. Gaming power is basically useless when I'm trying to fit in a crowded lecture hall, or even putting it in my backpack to go to the library. The Powerbook G4 1.33 was on sale at my school bookstore for $1099 (god bless student discounts) and after only a few weeks I'm never looking back. OS X dominates XP Pro in just about every respect, and when I use the Powerbook, it just feels like I'm holding something professional and worthwhile. The computer is gorgeous, it's light, it's powerful, gets 5+ hours of battery, and best of all, it just works. All the time. 🙂 Macs4Life!
I have to say my switch story is an interesting one so Ill share it,
It started with a breakfast discussion with my uncle (who was visiting me), this was when I was studying Melbourne (Oz), I was sick of winblows 2K and was looking at alternatives, we discussed Linux but at the time it was not compatible with some of my 'Gadgets' and I was not willing to put the effort to find solutions (this was in 2001) but we agreed that there was potential as it was stable and virus free, we went through the different distributions, then we looked at Mac, I said " could not afford it too expensive and it is for grafix ppl not for me and then there are compatibility issues" but after breakfast he asked if there was a Mac shop around, I knew one close-by so we went, we had a talk with one of the ppl there and he told us about the 'New Os' and how it was easier and all that, I was not really convinced coz I never read anything about it nor was I familiar with the Mac system in general, I was looking around the shop, my uncle took the guy aside and bought one ( quick sliver 867Mhz Super drive system and a 17 Apple Display 😱 ).... then he said to me Moe here!! test this system out and see what you think, report to me when you are back in Dubai.
I was 😱 😱 😱 😱 ????
it took a while to sink-in but that is how it happened..( I was using 10.0.4) and I put in allot of effort to know the system and how to use it, but I have to say I never looked back, and most of me friends are Maced-up, even though support for Macs in Dubai is dismal to say the least, but we have are own support.... 😀
Moe Over'n Out 🙂
It started with a breakfast discussion with my uncle (who was visiting me), this was when I was studying Melbourne (Oz), I was sick of winblows 2K and was looking at alternatives, we discussed Linux but at the time it was not compatible with some of my 'Gadgets' and I was not willing to put the effort to find solutions (this was in 2001) but we agreed that there was potential as it was stable and virus free, we went through the different distributions, then we looked at Mac, I said " could not afford it too expensive and it is for grafix ppl not for me and then there are compatibility issues" but after breakfast he asked if there was a Mac shop around, I knew one close-by so we went, we had a talk with one of the ppl there and he told us about the 'New Os' and how it was easier and all that, I was not really convinced coz I never read anything about it nor was I familiar with the Mac system in general, I was looking around the shop, my uncle took the guy aside and bought one ( quick sliver 867Mhz Super drive system and a 17 Apple Display 😱 ).... then he said to me Moe here!! test this system out and see what you think, report to me when you are back in Dubai.
I was 😱 😱 😱 😱 ????
it took a while to sink-in but that is how it happened..( I was using 10.0.4) and I put in allot of effort to know the system and how to use it, but I have to say I never looked back, and most of me friends are Maced-up, even though support for Macs in Dubai is dismal to say the least, but we have are own support.... 😀
Moe Over'n Out 🙂