Convincing my significant other that a Mac is the way to go....

[pilotError]

Recent Switcher

Tell her that her Dell computer makes her ass look fat.

LMFAO at that one...

It really depends on what you want to do with it. I have both in my house (recently bought an iMac 20") and find myself using the Mac more and more. I have an IBM laptop, a Dell laptop, and a few other machines lying around. I have to beat my kids off of it and my wife has started to use it more and more. I think if I moved her email to the Mac, I'd never see it again...

One person hit it on the head, OSX is unix for the most part. So far in my 3+ months of owning one, I haven't had a single issue other than learning the interface and some odds and ends.

The down side; software for the Intel Macs is not all there yet. Some stuff isn't Univeral Binary (UB) which allows it to run natively on the Intel chip. Currently a bunch of stuff still runs under Rosetta, a translation layer. Things that are Microsoft Only, ie. video and audio codecs are getting there. There are still some issues and usually always a way to work around them.

The upside; you can get Microsoft Office, which is a big plus if your doing document work. If your doing internet, you have a bunch of choices, and it hasn't hindered anything I do as of yet. If you want to use it in your personal life, ie. music, movies, etc. it just blows windows out the door. I tried doing small home movies and stuff on my windows boxes and it was a labor of love. The Mac is 10x easier for stuff like that.

If your a tech head (or your spouse), OSX is Unix based. You can run all the popular utility software (perl, ruby, apache, etc.) without too many issues (if any at all).

If your really stuck, you have two options to run Windows XP (assumingly Vista in the future) on it. The first is parallels (http://www.parallels.com) which is a virtualization software. It allows you to run windows and OSX side by side. There are some caveats here, mainly having to do with graphics, but for most software its a very good solution. So if you already have a non OEM office XP, you install parallels and XP and office XP and you can work in Office withouth having to buy the OSX version.

If you need full blown windows performance from the machine or your software won't run well under parallels, Apple provides dual boot software called bootcamp that allows you to boot the machine either into OSX or Windows XP. Either solution requires you get a copy of XP though. You can look at the full description at http://www.apple.com/bootcamp

I used to be a hard core windows guy for years, mainly because of compatibility problems with common software. I used to make fun of my friend who worked at various Apple vendors. I actually talked him into leaving the Mac platform after many years. Now that I am a Mac person, I've had to eat a little crow, but I'm happy with my decision. The dual boot thing convinced me to try it. I figured I would always just install windows on it if I didn't like it. I haven't had to install XP yet FWIW.

Mike...

 

[Josh]

Different strokes for different folks.

Don't try to force your preferences on your sig. other.

Not everyone likes Macs, not everyone finds them more productive, and sometimes people are very particular when it comes to computers.

Think of it this way: Did anyone have to twist your arm and make you like Macs before you went out and bought one?

No. Chances are you were naturally just drawn towards them because they fit what you're looking for in a computer.

Let your significant other use what they're drawn to, not what you were drawn to.

 

[poppe]

Hey I'm in same boat man. I love macs, but have always been a PC user except at highschool back in the good ole days of green screen monitors (not sure what that was) and early 90's.

My girlfriend, however, hates change. She would rather deal with problems she already knows than loose the start menu.

I asked her if she would get one and she said only if I can always use windows and don't have to use that "other thingy you like"

I just gave up... Its not really worth it to me... It'd be nice becuase I know she'd love it, but not at the expense of learning something new.

(Sorry if i say what has already been said, i didn't read all posts) - The best switching method though is to just get your Mac and soon enough she will realize its time to go Mac.

 

[jeremy.king]

This thread reminds me how lucky I am that my wife loves and prefers Macs....

 

[Glen Quagmire]

So, she objects to you buying a Mac for yourself, but was more than happy for you to buy her a Dell? Doesn't sound fair to me.

You say you "try" to make purchase decisions together. To try doesn't mean you have to. I'd just buy the Mac. If she doesn't like it, then that's her problem. You'll be happier buying a Mac: surely she wants you to be happy?

 

[poppe]

So, she objects to you buying a Mac for yourself, but was more than happy for you to buy her a Dell? Doesn't sound fair to me.

Sounds like most women I come across ( no offense)

You'll be happier buying a Mac: surely she wants you to be happy?

Does the significant other truly ever want your happiness over their own... Perhaps i'm just more of a "half empty" type of guy, but i can't say I've come across this either in men or women...

 

[Foxglove9]

Just have her sit and play with one for a while. These machines sell themselves! Never met anyone who regretted buying their Mac, however I can't say the same about my PC user friends.

 

[Foxglove9]

I'd just buy the Mac. If she doesn't like it, then that's her problem. You'll be happier buying a Mac: surely she wants you to be happy?

Well said.

 

[fall3n]

I'm sure someones said this already, but I'm to lazy to read through all the posts.

Just go buy it and then create a bunch of really cool things on it and then show her what you did with it, especially since you did it with just a few clicks of the mouse. It'll only take a matter of time before she see's what they are all about. Don't waste your time trying to convince her, but rather just get yours and she'll see

 

[mini.boss]

Say you win and she goes mac. Whats next? Are you going to decide which car she should buy, which direction the toilet paper is supposed to be facing and what gender kid she should push out? Macs and PC's work together just fine so why cant Mac and PC users?

Maybe you won't understand this yet, but theres something great about a woman who can make her own decisions.

 

[aquajet]

Tell her that her Dell computer makes her ass look fat.

Nice.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I concur with everyone who said that the thing will sell itself. Best thing you can do is not convince her. I'm sure she'll eventually use it and then see how wonderful they are. If you do want to show off, seek out a virus and try to infect your Mac. If you want to be a real show off, you could never shut the thing down, then one day declare that you haven't had to reboot in a month. Hey, plus, they are the sexiest computers evah. Sex sells, my friend.

 

[gnasher729]

She insists macs are stupid and I just want one as they are the new fad of the day ...

You haven't posted how old the two of you are, but it is quite possible that I have been using Macs since before you were born, so they are definitely not a new fad.

 

[gloss]

Tell her that her Dell computer makes her ass look fat.

Nice.

 

[mahonmeister]

Sometimes you just have to let it go and use your mac and let her use her PC. I have a family who swear by HP and even when my sister was looking for a new PC my family pushed her to get an HP. I am still the sole mac user in the house and they taunt me at every opportunity and exaggerate any thing they see as negative about Apple.

You poor soul! If there is one company I truly hate, it's HP. Much more then Microsoft. I have had such a terrible time with their computers, printers and Support. Right now there are two HP pavilions in my room that I don't know what to do with. One is ours and the other is a neighbor's whom I convinced to get a Mac. We had our HP printer exchanged 4-5 times, seriously.

 

[echeck]

Just before I bought my PowerMac I kind of went through the same thing. My wife wasn't against having a Mac, as we had had a TiBook a couple years before and currently had an iBook (which has become hers ), but it took some convincing to get her to agree on spending nearly $2,000 on a new computer when I had been building new PC's for around 500 bucks up to this point.

But there was one thing and one thing only that convinved her to get the Mac. The Baby Mobile template in iDVD. She absolutely loves that thing. I think she's burned three or four DVD's using that template over the past year. Which is saying something since our son's only eight months old.

If your girlfriend likes the whole media thing, photos, movies, dvd's, web..etc.. Then give her a tour of iLife and show her how absolutely easy it is to use. It might be enough to sway her to your side so you can purchase your new Mac in better conscience.

 

[poppe]

Say you win and she goes mac. Whats next? Are you going to decide which car she should buy, which direction the toilet paper is supposed to be facing and what gender kid she should push out? Macs and PC's work together just fine so why cant Mac and PC users?

Maybe you won't understand this yet, but theres something great about a woman who can make her own decisions.

WAIT WAIT WAIT!!!!

Women make their own decisions?! No way... Tell me your lying...

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Before we call in the Feminists please understand. Some people can be very bull headed, perhaps this isn't is girlfriend, but my girlfriend doesn't want a Mac just because I insist she would like them. It has nothing to do with a control thing or anything like that. My girlfriends dell has broke now 3 times since january because of the viruses she has gotten. She also loves to customize everything. So I thought man just think she could have all kinds of pink icons, and cool girlie icons like she likes. Let alone she hates having to deal with all the problems of Windows. Her brand new Dell 1505 lags for about ten minutes when she wakes it back up.

So I really doubt this man is trying to decide anything for her. He just knows what truly would make her happy if she would get off her high horse...

 

[CANEHDN]

You just need to say "Hey woman, I'm the man. We're getting the computer. If you don't like it then....we won't" then you can bow your head in shame.

 

[Foxglove9]

Well if it makes you feel any better. I'm the mac user and my boyfriend (at the time) used strictly PC. No way will he ever switch to Mac, since he builds inexpensive PC's and overclocks the heck out of them for gaming.

Of course I did get him to install OS X on his AMD system to see how it works. He does love OS X. So at least I made some progress

My family is a different story, because they like to buy whatever is cheap. Even though over and over again they get burned by buying cheap PC garbage that doesn't last a year and crashes all the time. I try to push Macs but the initial cost always scares them away.

 

[Reaver]

I am buying a new MBP when the new meron's come in and I went tonight and looked at the 15" and the 17" side by side and I took my brother with me since he has been wanting a new computer (hes been wanting a laptop for sometime now). when we got back in the car all he could talk about is the MB and MBP how awesome they were and how he has that at the top of his list along with a Dell 1505 laptop. he was asking me all kinds of questions and stuff about what kind of programs does apple offer and what can you do on them and this and that, I think I converted my brother to the MAC world.

 

[netdog]

Buy her a diamond necklace.

 

[FFTT]

Just get the computer for yourself knowing that curiosity will eventually get the best of her when you start showing her the cool stuff you can do.

You'll have a better presentation program. Keynote (in the iWork suite)
Office apps 'a plenty
System wide spellchecker!!!!!!
You can run her apps AND connect to a P/C server.
And you have more time for her because you're not wasting time
maintaining your system.

Your timing is pretty good right before an important revision, so you should
end up with a long and happy relationship, at least with your computer.

 

[SuperSnake2012]

I have to beat my kids

Talk about a hardcore Mac user

 

[Nuc]

Luckily my wife didn't care one way of the other... But if she had, I would have said (in Cartman's voice): "Hey you get your b***** a** back in the kitchen and make me some pie!"

Yea if I had said that I would be sleeping outside in the dog house.

Nuc

 

[ddrueckhammer]

I would just get it personally. The worst that can happen is that she will make you take it back. I remember my Dad bought a bright red Nokia monitor back in the early 90's and my Mom made him take it back for a beige one because it didn't match her room decor...

As an earlier poster said, most of the apps for everyday use are universal now with the exception of Photoshop and MS Office. I would recommend getting iWork if you must buy before MS Office updates because it really does produce nice results and Pages isn't as bad as some people would have you believe if you customize the toolbar at the top. I decided to get it about 6 months ago because I didn't want to have to wait for MS Office to run under Rosetta. I have now gotten used to it and like it better because the resulting documents look better and it doesn't have the performance lag of Word. MS had better watch out, there are starting to be many Office alternatives that are almost as good for us non-pros. I have really enjoyed iWork now that I am used to it but Neo-Office, Open-Office, and Google Spreadsheets and Writely are all very compelling as well unless you need a specific MS Office only feature.