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Please tell me of your expeiences, first-time mac owners!

R

Ryuukumori

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 18, 2008
467
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Particularly former pc users, how has your first fresh taste of a mac with osx been? What do you love most about switching from a pc? What do you dislike?And finally, what do you see yourself do most on your MacBook?

Was your switch easy or not so? Enlighten me, a pc user thinking about switching for college. Sorry for any typos I'm typing on my iPod touch.

*Maybe I should add this...*

Also I'm a bit upset because last year I got in a car collision and smashed the front end of my car. Worked 2 summers to buy it (Toyota Camry), and in the first 10 days it got wrecked. Looks like only the radiator, battery, bumper, side fenders, and lights/ signals need replacement (plus $350 paint job to match the parts). I am really really upset and concerned that these repairs will lower my chances of convincing my parents to get a MacBook.

I am a good student, held a very strong 3.9 GPA with honors and AP classes, my insurance didn't go up from the collision, and it paid for the two other cars but my own (no collision insurance since it costs so much for a teen).

What should I do? I have the money to repair the car, but still, I am very concerned about the MacBook, since its premium cost will shove a big fat NO in my face if I present myself wrong here.
 
Ryuukumori said:
Particularly former pc users, how has your first fresh taste of a mac with osx been? What do you love most about switching from a pc? What do you dislike?And finally, what do you see yourself do most on your MacBook?

Was your switch easy or not so? Enlighten me, a pc user thinking about switching for college. Sorry for any typos I'm typing on my iPod touch.
Click to expand...

My first mac experience was in 2007, September about; A guy in my year had a macbook, but his cat jumped on it, and I was like hey I'll buy it for $100 without the screen, so stupid enough as he was, I purchased basically keyboard, But I purchased a screen and 2gb of ram for it and all systems are go.

I didn't know much about macs, but because my sisters boyfriend (now fiancé) was a corporate manager at an apple retail store, he helped me out with the basics and now I know more than your basic mac user.

The saying is true, once you go mac you never go back. I later purchased a white screen top half for the macbook and put white keys on the black top-case, with a black bezel around the screen, so now I have a fully working macbook for $200AUD.

I basically just taught myself everything; I've learnt ALOT on photoshop, and OSX itself, pretty much I know it like it's the back of my hand The UI of the whole system is easy as can be, and organizing yourself is alot easier than on a pc.

well that's my 2c.
 
My wife and I switched in April. To start, let me say that, barring some monumental event (the likes of which I can't imagine) I will never go back to PC's. I don't say this as a fan-boy. It's just that I have had such a pleasant experience thus far. And to prove that point I can say that I just bought my third Mac since April. :) One for Us, then one for my wife and then one for me. So sweet.

I found the switch relatively painless. Yes, there is certainly some stuff to get used to and some stuff to "unlearn" but overall it went smoothly. These forums have been very helpful for me (this one and another called www.ehmac.ca ... I'm Canadian).

My wife, who couldn't care about learning the intricacies of computers, is by far more at ease with the Macs in 9 months than she ever was with PC's.

So, to answer your questions specifically...

My first taste... Great.
What do I love most... The ease of use of the Mac. (Not to mention the "coolness" factor) ;)
What do I dislike... That I use PC's at work. No choice.
What do I do most on my Macs... General consumer stuff. Nothing pro. Email, surf, TV, iTunes, iChat, some light word processing, download some torrents, convert video, photos; simple stuff.
Was the switch easy... Yeah, pretty much.

Everything just works so well together. It's great. I know that phrase is overused but it's so true; at least in my experience.

The toughest thing for me, still, is to get used to Pages over Word and WordPerfect. I have no doubt that Pages can do everything the other two can, it's simply that I'm still learning how to make it do those things. Although, a few Google searches and using the Help file finds most of the answers.

I have no regrets. So much so that I plan on buying a netbook this weekend with OSX installed on it. I won't buy one that either doesn't come with OSX already hacked onto it or one that can't be hacked for OSX. Mine will be a Dell Mini 9. :)

If you have any specific questions let me know and I'll respond.

Good luck with the switch if you go for it. I feel confident saying that I doubt you'll look back.
 
I came over from a custom-built machine running XP back in 2007, and my experience overall has been very positive. I love OSX in general, but I have to say that when it comes down to it, I will most likely get a Windows machine when my MacBook eventually dies, mainly because of cost. I got the MB because it was comparably priced to others at the time, and I got a huge rebate on both a printer and iPod at the time.
Anyway, back on subject:

Positives:
> Things really do "just run" nicely, most of the times.
> I have had fewer crashes / BSOD's (Kernel Panics) in general, but that is compared to a SP2 machine that had some cheap hardware that didn't always like to play nice.
> Warranty is bomb (while it is active. just walk into an apple store and they will replace things with few questions asked)
> I LOVE spaces. It really is a wonderful way of organizing things in my mind.

Negatives:
> Cost. I had lots of graduation money when I bought my MB. Now I am in college, and am thus poor again. So I think I would ultimately not be able to afford / would not want to pay for a new Mac...
> Lack of options. Windows lets you customize the bejesus out of things. Mac does not. Also, there are of course certain pieces of software that are windows only, which I have had to install Boot Camp for.

Overall, I am very happy with my Mac, but not ecstatic or anything. Also, just so you know, you are likely to get a pretty biased answer asking the question you are asking on these forums :D
 
to sum it up: it just works. i've been a PC user for 10+ years and was tired of the headache of setting up a new system (driver installs, troubleshooting hardware, etc.). the one major advantage of a mac is that it is ready to go out of the box.
 
When I switched, my Santa Rosa Macbook Pro became my only computer. It replaced what had been a powerful "gaming brand" desktop, and a companion cheap 15in notebook. Switching was easy, the people at the Apple store made things very simple in the transition. I installed Windows XP with boot camp which made things comfortable initially, but quickly I came to not use it and moved all my work to Mac programs. All the use I have for windows now is the occasional BlackBerry system update, infrequent use of Paltalk when the Mac version isn't working, and some specialized software for interfacing with my vehicle. And that I now do with a virtual machine.

I'm a designer. Car designer at heart but I make my money in furniture. Go figure, its where the money is for me, and I enjoy it. The Mac is a great fit for me, for home and business. Coincidentally for me, my studio is in my home, so work and home are largely the same place. But I work mobile. The Macbook Pro is good for bringing to a client's home, fits in my bag and is powerful enough to work on the go and in the studio.

Could I work with a PC? Of course I could, heck almost all the programs I use are the same anyway. But in all honesty, the Mac works better. Its a better operating system and the quality of both the machine and the service are outstanding. Applecare simply isn't matched by anyone else.

Do I wish some things were different? Of course. I'm not some blind fanboy hanging on every word that comes out of Cupertino. Personally I'd like to see Apple take some of their excess billions and invest in local production and some real new products and true innovation. And I'd like to be able to buy a keyboard that matches my new Macbook Pro, and maybe a black or aluminum Mighty Mouse, purely for aesthetic reasons, and a 30in ACD that actually works with my new MBP without adapters would be nice.

Tell you the truth, nearly none of that is related to your inquisitive process... But I don't much care.
 
illegallydead said:
I came over from a custom-built machine running XP back in 2007, and my experience overall has been very positive. I love OSX in general, but I have to say that when it comes down to it, I will most likely get a Windows machine when my MacBook eventually dies, mainly because of cost. I got the MB because it was comparably priced to others at the time, and I got a huge rebate on both a printer and iPod at the time.
Anyway, back on subject:

Positives:
> Things really do "just run" nicely, most of the times.
> I have had fewer crashes / BSOD's (Kernel Panics) in general, but that is compared to a SP2 machine that had some cheap hardware that didn't always like to play nice.
> Warranty is bomb (while it is active. just walk into an apple store and they will replace things with few questions asked)
> I LOVE spaces. It really is a wonderful way of organizing things in my mind.

Negatives:
> Cost. I had lots of graduation money when I bought my MB. Now I am in college, and am thus poor again. So I think I would ultimately not be able to afford / would not want to pay for a new Mac...
> Lack of options. Windows lets you customize the bejesus out of things. Mac does not. Also, there are of course certain pieces of software that are windows only, which I have had to install Boot Camp for.

Overall, I am very happy with my Mac, but not ecstatic or anything. Also, just so you know, you are likely to get a pretty biased answer asking the question you are asking on these forums :D
Click to expand...

Very true.

I got my macbook for christmas, and i have to say it's not all i had it cracked up to be. Granted i am running tiger, but i will be upgrading to leopard soon.

Pros:
- OSX is very smooth and stable, haven't had any freezes or crashes yet
- I love the look of my black macbook, i think it's so dang sexy!
- A random little thing, but i really like how all applications have the "preferences" in the same spot
- Osx looks great, and it's fairly simple to learn and use

Cons:
- If you like to use torrents, it's a decent bit harder to find software torrents for mac, i huge turn off for me
- Apple's hardware, plain and simple, it's very hit and miss. I got mine off ebay so i couldn't buy apple care, but it's pretty much a must. Check on ebay for apple care too btw
- Apple's proprietary crap. They are, like any other company, about making money, but alot of things you might need are made only by apple, and if you want them, you will pay dearly.

I normally do recording, guitar and some vocals, graphic design
, and i watch alot of movies. It hasn't missed a beat yet and so far i'm satisfied. However i will say the saying "once you go mac you wont go back" doesn't apply to me. I still love windows, and windows 7 is awesome and my next laptop could very well be a windows machine, mainly from a compatibility standpoint. Cause for me, there's nothing i do on a mac that i couldn't do just a well or better on a pc.

All that being said, i still think a macbook with applecare is a good buy. :)
I mostly
 
I got my MacBook in November 2007 and I almost didn't switch. I had used some iBooks in the past and loved them. My wife and I decided to each get our own laptops. Because I did not use our Dell desktop all that much, I planned on getting one of the Dell laptops advertised at around $600. I couldn't justify spending almost twice as much on the low-end MacBook.

After doing some research on suggested specifications and seeing the final cost of my wife's laptop that she ordered from Dell, I saw that the MacBooks weren't all that expensive - their low-end models weren't really all that low-end when compared to low-end PC laptops.

About a week after I picked up my MacBook, I took over the children's program at my church and my anticipated usage of the machine more than doubled. So I am very glad I made the switch.

My first taste of OS X:
*It was great. Everything was so much simpler! I quickly set up Spaces and that was the most beautiful thing I'd seen on a computer. No more multiple windows. I also loved the organization and the lack of of icons on the desktop.

What I love most about switching:
*In addition to Leopard and specifically Spaces, I'd have to say iLife and iWork. I had tried to use Microsoft programs to make presentations and movies and I failed miserably. It was too complicated and frustrating. And the photo program I had sucked eggs. I have used iMovie HD and Keynote '08quite extensively and both programs are very user friendly. Another favorite is iCal - it is by far the best, cleanest-looking electronic/online calender I've used.

What I dislike:
*There isn't really anything that I dislike about the machine itself or programs. I have noticed that web pages load slower than my wife's Dell. The only thing that disappointed me was the lack of options from Apple. I realize that they are a smaller company but I was reallly hoping for a 15" consumer model as I prefer larger screens.

What I do most:
*Being that I'm on a computer at work, I use Pages the most on my MacBook. However, I do use iTunes, Mail, Camino, Keynote, iMovie HD, iCal, MacSword, iPhoto and Yahoo Messenger several times throughout the week. iDVD is another very easy program, though I don't use it all that much - just to burn imported/created movies.

To the OP:
*Definitely make the switch if you are in need of a new computer. I also suggest going with iWork for your school work. I have no issues in getting them into PC formats. In fact, one day I worked from home and used my wife's laptop because she had Excel on it. Her version is '07 and my work uses '00. The reports I created with '07 would not open in '00 no matter how I saved it. In the end I used Numbers and my clients were able to open the reports just fine.
 
Jaredistheman said:
Cons:
- If you like to use torrents, it's a decent bit harder to find software torrents for mac, i huge turn off for me
- Apple's hardware, plain and simple, it's very hit and miss. I got mine off ebay so i couldn't buy apple care, but it's pretty much a must. Check on ebay for apple care too btw
Click to expand...

- dont discuss downloading software illegally here.
- huh? you bought it off ebay so you couldnt get apple care...?:confused: that makes no sense.

---------

My experience:

Well, I have 2...

My first wasn't really too good. I was given a brand new iBook G4 and at first I liked it, but this was back in 05. I started hating it because I was too lazy to figure out how to do things the Mac way. So I sold it and bought a PC laptop.

So I went from an Acer to an HP and then bought a Dell in Aug of 07. I returned it within 30 days because Vista was a turn off and I wanted to give Mac OS X a try again.

So I stumbled upon this forum after returning my Dell in late September, and I waited for the SR update. Once the santa rosa Macbook's were released, I went out and bought the 2.2GHz Whitebook. I fell in love because I actually wanted to give it an honest try so I dug deep to figure out how to do basic things that I would normally do under XP.

Anyways... one thing that really bothers me about Mac OS X is the lack of a good MSN client. And DON'T even say Adium because to me it sucks. The fact that I can't save custom emoticons is lame. Another reason I hate it because it's too (yes too) customizable! There are so many options, it takes FOREVER for me to configure it the exact way I would like it all to work... And aMSN and Mercury are ugly as hell so don't even get me started there.

Other than that, everything on the mac is perfect. :)
 
My experience :)
i got my very first macbook early december 2008 .. i got the 2.4ghz model and let me tell you , as a former pc user im glad i bought it.

I decided to purchase my very first macbook when i saw the apple convention in october when they introduced the macbook and i fell in love hard. the macbook stole my heart and refuse to give it back and im totally kool with that.
I was a bit skeptical at first since i never used an apple product before . never even saw nor touched a macbook inm y life. my friends were telling me to not to get it cause i was gonna experience problems i don't know anything about the operating system...my head was spinning like crazy thinking of what to do. i was in love with my Hp Pavilion dv6575us but, i wanted something new, something stylish,something that performed better and something with an apple logo on it :) i read and read and read , joined this forum, and searched everthing i could on apple and their computers and i was impressed with what i read soo... on black Friday i just closed my eyes and jumped , knowing of all the problem i read of people had with their new computer, with keys, performance, dead spots, scratched, wi-fi issues, trackpad issues and more i just ordered my laptop from amazon
Now i was going through the longest waiting period of my life and when i got it ..unwrapped that baby (ahhlaluha) truse me angels from heaven sang.. it was beautiful ..more beautiful than all the vids. and pics i saw and issues???? i had none everything was PERFECT up to a day like today i am pleased with my decision ..
performance is amazing, leopard is fantastic compared to windows, the new trackpad ive never used before was like something ive been using for years ..installing software is a soft breeze, and the great thing is that i can still use windows via bootcamp or vmware fusion..talk about the best of both worlds.
Basically, this is a great computer and i love it , my very first macbook and apple product and i love it ..did i day how much i love it :) i would recommend everyone to get one especially if your off to college :)
 
This is my first mac ever and I am very happy I made the switch. Before this computer, I had everything from compaq to dell, to HP to packard bell (i know... OLD) and had nothing but problems, will all of them in one form or the other. Though to their defense, the issues I was having (except for compaq and HP) were OS related like freezing, crashing and random rebooting.

Now with the mac, I have not had one freeze up, one crash, one random re-boot and also no hardware issues so far. As for the OS X platform, its much easier to navigate than XP or Vista was. Its a breeze to use and makes my life easier.
 
this is my first macbook (2.4ghz blackbook w/4gb), and i LOVE it! The simplicity and minimalism of the whole macbook is phenomenal. The laptop itself has a real quality feel vs. windows based computers which tend to feel cheaper with the harder and shinier plastics.. The interface is excellent and is incredibly smooth to transition from one program to the next. The ability to jump through pages, camino, preview and other programs is so fast and easy with the command + tab feature as well. All in all if I have any complaints I wish the battery would sit a little more flush with the computer, I also wish the isight light wouldn't turn on randomly, and last but not least I seem to have a soft spot in the plastic shell that squeaks if I touch it.. other than that I'm sold on apple :D
 
Ryuukumori said:
Particularly former pc users, how has your first fresh taste of a mac with osx been? What do you love most about switching from a pc? What do you dislike?And finally, what do you see yourself do most on your MacBook?

Was your switch easy or not so? Enlighten me, a pc user thinking about switching for college. Sorry for any typos I'm typing on my iPod touch.
Click to expand...

I was a dedicated PC user up until about a year and a half ago, but I'd been thinking of switching to a mac for about a year before that.

I was a bit skeptical about switching in final year of uni because I was so used to a PC and, to my shame, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to do everything I needed to do on a mac that I could on a PC.

HOW ... WRONG ... WAS I!? ... The answer is VERY! lol

I bought a black macbook and it's quite possibly the best thing I've ever bought, from fresh out of the box it was a complete breath of fresh air and I'll admit that at first I was a bit stumped as to how I would do things on OS X that I'd been doing on windows ... I was blown away with how responsive the whole system was, how easy it would be to add more RAM, it was grand for me being a music lover as I'd owned an iPod for years and was comfortable with iTunes and such.

What do I dislike? not a lot ... I'm actually struggling to think of things atm, I guess I'm sometimes just disappointed with Apple as a company rather than their products ... perhaps the price of Applecare which I decided not to go for was just extorsion in my opinion for an additional 2 years of warranty? That would be one for sure.

What do I do most on my macbook? Well, music junkie = iTunes + Store, I use the iLife package mainly for iPhoto which is great for keeping my photos in order, i use iChat with a friend of mine (who only lives down the road, but it's a bit of a laugh), a lot of web-surfing and media stuff, and writing out study notes and presentations ... I'm more than happy with my macbook and far far in the future if I decide to upgrade, I'll see if Apple can once again produce something that'll blow me away.

The switch was so much easier than you think, if you can get yourself to an Apple Store and just play about on one of the computers you'll be able to get a feel for them before making a definitive decision ... It is blatantly more expensive than any PC-laptop would be, but over time I've definitely seen the value of the product compared to the usability a PC would have after so long.
 
Bought my first mac when the new Macbooks came out in late 2008. I have been a PC user my whole life - and since outside of work I only use a computer to surf the web, iTunes, and record some music - I figured I'd be okay diving into the world of Mac. I love my new Macbook - MacOSX is nice, but I don't necessarily think it's better than XP or Vista. The thing that puts the Macbook over the top is the new trackpad. No buttons is amazing, 2 finger scroll, 2 finger right click... all amazing. I have always hated using laptops in the past, but I absolutely love this trackpad, making the whole experience enjoyable. If I had XP/Vista on this MacBook, I'd have the same review. I don't use iPhoto, iMovie, etc. I use iTunes, Firefox, Garageband, and Transmission... that's about it!
 
okay... here's my lame switch story...

i was you!
I was in my junior year of college at Pitt and every freaking time i went into the computer lab to use a computer to print or do something... There wasn't one single PC available but there were rows and rows and rows of apples available with no other pitt student butts in the chairs before them!

so the one day, i was like... that's it... this is nuts... i NEED TO PRINT! LOL
So i slowly started getting more and more comfy with them and then became quite comfy with them.
My first Apple was a Powerbook G4 12" and it was awesome!!!
What did i like about it? Everything!
(but mostly that i never had to do anything even remotely resembling a "system restore" (gah!)
What did i dislike about it? The connectivity and compatiablity isn't always there (especially when your texts come with CD--those tend to be for PCs only and not Mac compatable).

but it was rare.

I use my mac almost entirely for Word processing (and other apps in the microsoft suite, ie. powerpoint, excel) and Sofa-Surfing. That's really it.

I'm very happy with my switch.

(Previously to the G4, I had a dell inspiron 8200 and it blew and was as big as a small appartment complex!!! Hardly "Portable") ;)
 
i got my first personal macbook pro in sept. 2008. i use macs in the office as well as pcs so i was already fairly familiar with the layout of mac os.

its a 17" so it adds as a replacement for my old desktop unit. im not bitter in anyway by the new body style as i love this classic look. i do wish for the new 17" battery life but i will survive.

after fiddling around with leopard, its been like falling in love. yes its physically appealing, but its even better once you get to know her...

ive since then switched my lady into the land of mac's. its a bit more difficult at first since the electronic world isnt kind to her, but she has gotten adjusted and is in love with the simplicity of her new macbook.

the experience was great. it really cant be explained how easily these macs have come into our life and became daily routine. no virus problems, no pop ups. no bloated os, no more twice as much work to just get an application running. no more freezing, or crashing.

what i have taken into account was that the simplicity was first frustrating to me...i didnt understand about deleting a program or something of that nature. "do i really just drop it into the trash? well...okay i did that..but now how to i remove the program?!".
 
I got my first experience of a Macbook in May 2006. I've never looked back, it is the best Computing decision I ever made. I more recently switched to an iMac as it better suited my needs. The iMac is as near perfect as I have ever got.

The switch was really easy, I had mastered most things in days and have never needed to use Windows at home since.
 
Herro

I was fedup with using windows for 6 years. I decided to get another desktop to go with my PC. Alas, along came Christmas and I opened a 20" 2.4GHz iMac

A month later I had ordered a MacBook (White) and there is nothing PC in my house. I even convinced my parents to change to Macs.

3 MacBooks (White) and one iMac in the house now. No problems so far and everything we want to use just works.
 
Got my early 2008 MBP (2.4 GHz, 15 inch, upgraded to 4GB RAM) last November.

The good:
- got it brand new for $1199 CAD.
- love the drag and drop installs/uninstalls
- OSX >>>> XP
- multi-finger gestures and scrolling!!! (esp. with the four finger gestures that can be "hacked" for the early 2008s)
- Expose is the most brilliant invention since the wheel
- no Norton AV slowing me down
- it looks so sexy!

The bad:
- torrent programs (e.g. Transmission) seems "jumpy" compared to PC torrent programs
- not good for gaming
- knowing that the NVidia cards are ALL faulty and will one day fail

When I use my friends' PC laptops I realize how much more superior mine is to theirs...I don't know how they get by without gestures. :confused:

Definitely can't go back to PC now...looking into getting an Apple desktop to replace my PC POS.:D

And to answer OP, the switch from Windows XP to OS X was easier for me than from Windows XP to Vista...took me less than 30 mins to get familiar with it. It really is an intuitive OS.
 
acfusion29 said:
- dont discuss downloading software illegally here.
- huh? you bought it off ebay so you couldnt get apple care...?:confused: that makes no sense.

---------

My experience:

Well, I have 2...

My first wasn't really too good. I was given a brand new iBook G4 and at first I liked it, but this was back in 05. I started hating it because I was too lazy to figure out how to do things the Mac way. So I sold it and bought a PC laptop.

So I went from an Acer to an HP and then bought a Dell in Aug of 07. I returned it within 30 days because Vista was a turn off and I wanted to give Mac OS X a try again.

So I stumbled upon this forum after returning my Dell in late September, and I waited for the SR update. Once the santa rosa Macbook's were released, I went out and bought the 2.2GHz Whitebook. I fell in love because I actually wanted to give it an honest try so I dug deep to figure out how to do basic things that I would normally do under XP.

Anyways... one thing that really bothers me about Mac OS X is the lack of a good MSN client. And DON'T even say Adium because to me it sucks. The fact that I can't save custom emoticons is lame. Another reason I hate it because it's too (yes too) customizable! There are so many options, it takes FOREVER for me to configure it the exact way I would like it all to work... And aMSN and Mercury are ugly as hell so don't even get me started there.

Other than that, everything on the mac is perfect. :)
Click to expand...
I don't believe i said anything about downloading software illegally! I just said software period. There's plenty of legit software on torrents. I was just letting him know from my experience, so he gets my opinion on something that is important to me, as it may also be important to him.

Sorry i didn't clarify about the apple care deal. I bought mine off ebay, and it's almost 3 years old. Thats why i didn't have the option of apple care.
 
acfusion29 said:
- dont discuss downloading software illegally here.
- huh? you bought it off ebay so you couldnt get apple care...?:confused: that makes no sense.
Click to expand...

****. There are plenty of legit uses for torrents. Stop jumping on the anti-piracy thing just because you hear the word "torrent"!


Jaredistheman said:
I don't believe i said anything about downloading software illegally! I just said software period. There's plenty of legit software on torrents. I was just letting him know from my experience, so he gets my opinion on something that is important to me, as it may also be important to him.

Sorry i didn't clarify about the apple care deal. I bought mine off ebay, and it's almost 3 years old. Thats why i didn't have the option of apple care.
Click to expand...

+1.
Try transmission. It is working very well for me. (though I don't have a whole lot of experience with torrent software on the PC, so your point about "jumpiness" may well be right)
 
I have been a PC user since 1988 when my Apple IIc was stolen and I used the insurance money to buy a Intel based 80386 PC. I switched back then because the engineering classes I was taking at the time required using PC apps.

In October 2008 I bought my first MacBook, a 2.4 Ghz aluminum model. I have been using it for just over three months and I have to say that my experience has been quite positive. There was some inital learning that needed to be done - for example how to add and delete apps on OSX, but otherwise the transition was very smooth. I have been able to access my PC's data via networking and even discovered that Microsoft has a remote desktop app that allows me to access my old PC through the MacBook (sweet :D).

My favorite things about the Macbook (so far) are:

1. Quick startup of MacBook compared to PC. My PC would take around 3-5 minutes to startup becuase of all the programs that were running in the background. My Macbook takes less than 30 seconds.
2. Quick shutdown of MacBook compared to PC. Mac shuts down almost immediately. PC takes a while and frequently throws error messages at you during shutdown.
3. Multi-touch trackpad - this thing rocks! I have so much trouble when I have to use the trackpad on my work notebook now that I've been spoiled.
4. Lack of viruses or spyware in OS X. I did get a copy of VirusBarrier however as part of the MacUpdate Holiday special.
5. Availability of a lot of good freeware. While windows also has freeware, alot of it is spyware ridden or just plain lousy.
 
Got my first Mac in February, so my one year anniversary is almost here.

A number of my friends got Macs and so did my father. I had a rather old Thinkpad, but it was solidly built and everything. Being me, I went for the top of the line 17" which was a bad idea to say the least. It was portable and all, but I take my computer to class, so it bulky in footprint. I like the computer, but I had issues with the case warping and stuff breaking. Finally after a few complaints, I got a replacement. Then in December my computer warped again and thanks to Apple repair blunders, I ended up with a 15" unibody.

That's my experience. Computer is sweet, but the built quality on the classic models was inadequate (at least for me it was). The new ones are very sturdy and hopefully it will last me until the next design revision.

Oh I've also bought and returned a Mac Mini (too old); I have since also replaced all my routers with Airport Extremes and Expresses. I also went and bought the LED Cinema display. I had been iPods for a number of year already, so that was not new. My next acquisition will be a revised Mac Mini if there ever will be one.

The only thing I won't buy is the iPhone 3G, which is a crappy phone.
 
The switch came very easy for me. Ive been using windows over 10 years and when I switched to a mac it was like heaven! I've only had my mac for about 4 months and I still cant get over the fact that you dont really need to do any "maintenance". Keeping my Dell running was seriously a part time job. After owning a mac there is no turning back. I try to not even touch PC's now! :D
I wish I would have got a mac years ago!!
 
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