It's all those switchers!
Yep! Although I dabble in some other stuff, I'm now mostly a C#/.NET developer and have been running Windows and Linux PCs since I can remember. I've used Macs in the past in school, but only recently got into Apple's world right before the Intel switch. Having followed the industry for a long time, I've developed a growing aversion to Microsofts products (especially consumer) which has gotten particularly intense as I've watched OSX (and Ubuntu) mature in a wonderful product. Looking around at family, relatives, and friends using PCs, I just can't stand how difficult, inconsistent and tiring it is for average people to use Windows. Literally, it is almost psychotic what is required of people to accomplish such simple tasks as:
- Managing documents (scanning, faxing, OCR'ing, indexing)
- Managing digital photos and home videos (indexing, editing, etc)
- Sending and receiving email w/ attachments correctly
- Managing music and movies (indexing, playing, getting them on your HDTV, etc)
The basic state as Windows comes is worthless. You have to go through dozens of different software programs to find anything decent, and almost everything either has a terrible interface, is completely unreliable, crashes, is expensive, etc. Just to get a basic "workflow" for each of the tasks above is almost impossible for an advanced user, and it certainly won't be user friendly --- and I can only imagine how mind-boggling it would be to a novice user. Having recently gotten into serious development work and studying user interaction and interface design, I can definitely appreciate Apple's interface work on OSX and their iLife and iWork application suites, not to even mention the iPhone. They are really in a league of their own. That is why I now always refer people to Apple to buy a Mac when they ask me about what computer they should purchase, or tell me horror stories of viruses, malware, stolen bank account numbers, email accounts, etc. Being "that guy" in the social/family circle, I'm sure I'm responsible for at least 10X the revenue that I've personally spent on Apple products.