Silliest Reasons You've Heard for Not Switching

[someone28624]

When talking to someone about possibly switching to a Mac, what are some of the silliest things you've heard about why they won't?

1. "I like how I can play music on my PC." Are you serious? You don't think the maker of the iPod created a way to play music on that computer?

2. "But all of our family can have their own user profile on a PC." Okay, not quite as silly as #1, but it's been a pretty standard feature on everything from Linux to OS X to Windows for awhile. I think Windows may have even been one of the last OS's to get it. But don't quote me on it.

3. "I like Weather Bug." 'Nuff said.

 

[BenEndeem]

4. "Macs are for kids though".
5. "I can't, I'm not rich!"
6. "I'm too used to using Windows, Macs are totally different aren't they?"

 

[joekix]

7. no right click button

 

[nsbio]

#8. "Macs are too... fluffy!"

 

[HLdan]

Here's my favorite one. This guy is one of the MR members and I ran across his post stating that he owns a Mac Pro. He installed Vista on it to use 90% of the time. Here's his stupid reason for not fully using OS X.
"I can't maximize the browser window to full screen by clicking the green button and that's the reason why I have not fully switched to Mac OS X."

His reason is Lame and Dumb.

 

[applefan69]

9: No third party support



(that hasnt been true for 5+ years... in fact third party apps on macs are generally better then windows programs)

 

[ajvizzgamer101]

No Right Click...(Then get a two button mouse)
Expensive for what you get...(Expensive yes, but worth it yes)
Lack of games...(That a valid argument)
I don't like change...(Change yes, but basically in a few days you will be a Mac Pro)

 

[allmIne]

No Right Click...(Then get a two button mouse)
Expensive for what you get...(Expensive yes, but worth it yes)
Lack of games...(That a valid argument)
I don't like change...(Change yes, but basically in a few days you will be a Mac Pro)

Whatever mouse you have, you an can go into Mouse preferences and change the right click to to secondary (right) click

andy.

 

[Beric]

Here's my favorite one. This guy is one of the MR members and I ran across his post stating that he owns a Mac Pro. He installed Vista on it to use 90% of the time. Here's his stupid reason for not fully using OS X.
"I can't maximize the browser window to full screen by clicking the green button and that's the reason why I have not fully switched to Mac OS X."

His reason is Lame and Dumb.

As a Mac user all my life, having never used a PC, I find this issue extremely annoying. I wouldn't put it down so fast.

 

[tibi08]

As a Mac user all my life, having never used a PC, I find this issue extremely annoying. I wouldn't put it down so fast.

It's beyond belief that Apple don't give you an option in System Preferences to change the function of the green "+" button to maximise like in Windows - it;s such a regular complaint. I fully understand the reason for it working the way it does - but I work differently!

 

[belunos]

I think gaming and pricing are the two I hear the most, and they're honestly valid reasons. What's funny is it's completely in Apples power to fix both of these rather easily, but they still have that dogged 'we only want a small niche' attitude.

 

[cherry su]

How about Anti-Switching?

 

[EV0LUTION]

multi-touch scares me...

 

[rychencop]

some people think Apple is still designing computers from 1998. the old "Apple sucks" excuse. they are just clueless, so i pay them no mind. oh and the "nothing works" with a Mac excuse.

 

[macrem]

Here's my favorite one. This guy is one of the MR members and I ran across his post stating that he owns a Mac Pro. He installed Vista on it to use 90% of the time. Here's his stupid reason for not fully using OS X.
"I can't maximize the browser window to full screen by clicking the green button and that's the reason why I have not fully switched to Mac OS X."

His reason is Lame and Dumb.

I wonder if he recommends holding a ruler up to the screen in order to find the next line of text in maximized browser windows

PS aside from being a lame reason it is also false. There are a number of browsers for OS X which Maximize instead of Zoom (despite being inferior behavior) one of which is Firefox.

 

[chill.]

ok, besides the OP, 80% of the reasons listed are perfectly valid and good reasons for not switching

 

[ZiggyPastorius]

ok, besides the OP, 80% of the reasons listed are perfectly valid and good reasons for not switching

Really? Gaming is a legitimate argument, so are small parts of a few of the others mentioned...but to not give an entire Operating system a chance because you're too used to the green button maximizing? I guess that's legitimate, but it doesn't make much sense. Not to mention, "switching" doesn't necessarily have to mean not owning any Windows computers. I've technically "switched," but I still have an Inspiron and an old desktop.

I guess I'm just wondering...which of these are legitimate reasons? There's no modern Mac out that doesn't have the ability to right click...Pricing is only a concern if you don't understand false economics...There is third party support...Macs aren't for kids...

 

[chill.]

here's a list of the reasons i saw and just my opinion of them

"Macs are for kids though".
silly reason, though i think the main target user base is 12-24 year olds and i remember every computer in elementary school being macs

"I can't, I'm not rich!"
i see this as valid. i guess i don't understand false economics because in the long run i don't think macs save you more money compared to pc's. the build quality on macs has been under a lot of fire recently (i think stemming from the intel switch), and i have bought great pc's that have lasted a few years

"I'm too used to using Windows, Macs are totally different aren't they?"
valid, some people just don't have the time/patience to learn about a new os

"Macs are too... fluffy!"
silly reason i don't even understand it

Green button does not maximize
valid, this can get very annoying

no third party support
half valid, i think macs have come a long way in third party support and are doing great, but windows is still the king of compatibility. many programs are also optimized better for windows than macs

no right click
silly reason, just not true!

lack of games
valid

multi-touch is scary
silly reason, i don't think multi-touch hurts the user in any way, it just provides more options that you don't necessarily have to use

 

[derryquinn]

...but basically in a few days you will be a Mac Pro)

I'd rather keep my PC and stay being a human.

 

[macrem]

"I can't, I'm not rich!"

OS X vs. Vista comparison in Popular Mechanics.... Here is the link: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology...725.html?page=1

In our speed trials, however, Leopard OS trounced Vista in all-important tasks such as boot-up, shutdown and program-launch times. We even tested Vista on the Macs using Apple’s platform-switching Boot Camp software—and found that both Apple computers ran Vista faster than our PCs did.

iMac 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1 GB DDR2 RAM

Boot
Average startup 28.7 sec.
Average shutdown 4.0 sec.

Install
Microsoft Office 4 min. 17 sec.
Adobe Creative Suite 3 31 min. 44 sec.

Program Launch
Safari (Internet browser) 3.3 sec.
Microsoft Word 4.2 sec.
Adobe Photoshop 4.0 sec.

Stress-launch
Photoshop (w/ 8 apps running) 21.36 sec.
CD rip 3 min. 35 sec.

Gateway One 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 3 GB DDR2 RAM

Boot
Average startup 1 min. 13 sec.
Average shutdown 44.3 sec.

Install
Microsoft Office 6 min. 25 sec.
Adobe Creative Suite 3 25 min. 45 sec.

Program Launch
Internet Explorer 6.3 sec.
Microsoft Word 5.2 sec.
Adobe Photoshop 5.5 sec.

Stress-launch
Photoshop (w/ 8 apps running) 40.0 sec.
CD rip 3 min. 35 sec.

Aside from the Gateway costing $300 more than the Mac and having similiar hardware in the first comparison, but the Gateway has 3x more memory than the Mac, the latter of which has a little higher clock speed, as you can see Leopard trounces on Vista!

What is remarkable for businesses is the efficency gain of the Mac. Leopard boots up 4x faster, shuts down 10x faster, Safari launches 2x faster, even Microsoft Word is faster on Leopard.

Let's just very conservatively look at a few of these items that on average a company's employees do everyday: turn on their computers, turn off their computers, launch their OSes standard browser, work in a word processor. They likely do some of these things many times per day on average, but at least once and I feel like being kind to Vista today...

The sum of these actions above are 40.2 seconds on the Mac, 128.8 seconds on the PC.

Let's say your company has 500 employees that are costing the company on average $20/hour. Every hour they work earns the company some profit too, hopefully, but let's be really conservative and just add up: time per employee * # employees * cost, and and compare...

Here we see a 500 employee company is very conservatively losing $14,767 dollars a day in productivity on Windows, just looking at a few common daily actions. In other words, that is the cost of ten new iMacs per day at retail cost. So a smaller company of 50 could buy one new iMac per day. My current company would save ~$45,000 a day. The biggest company I worked for would lose $148,000 a day by this comparison if they switched from UNIX to Vista, not counting any other costs such as hardware.

 

[nanofrog]

"I can't, I'm not rich!"
i see this as valid. i guess i don't understand false economics because in the long run i don't think macs save you more money compared to pc's. the build quality on macs has been under a lot of fire recently (i think stemming from the intel switch), and i have bought great pc's that have lasted a few years

I don't see it as a result of the Intel switch. I think it has more to do with OEM's, and specifically, OEM Final Assembly. Since Apple moved everything overseas, they no longer have the ability to institute proper Quality Control.

They may not even care to any longer, rather depending on computer statistical models to predict failure rates. Just create an acceptable limit, and use Apple Care to sort out the failures. Helps to promote the sale of Apple Care, as buyers will be stuck if it fails just outside the standard warranty.

In the end, more the result of simple greed.

 

[chill.]

@macrem

your link leads to a dead page, but i don't see how you can argue that the hardware in macs is marked up like 20-80% more than comparable pc hardware

i really can't give your argument any credibility. your argument would only work if people were 100% efficient in their time management and also did nothing but sit and stare at the screen while the computers booted up

in reality, people will get a coffee, go to the water cooler, or chat while their computers are starting up.

you do know that having extra ram in the HP also increases the boot time right?

by your argument, maybe we should all be using linux splash os which has a 5 second bootup time

 

[valdore]

People for whom the deal-breaker is that there's no Solitaire or Mine Sweeper embedded in the OS.

 

[illegallydead]

for those complaining about the lack of maximizing... Do you all not realize the fact that SSSOOOOOooooo few websites actually format the rest of the "space" you open up by maximizing? Yay! you get 50 more pixels of unformatted blank space. If the website can support bigger than what the current window of safari is, it will blow the window up until it is as big as it can be, i.e. maximizing.

I will say though, I'm not sure where you got those numbers for opening word. At least on my Macbook, opening Word 2008 takes at least 15, more like 20 seconds to open a document and for it to actually be responsive. Maybe it is just the fact that Office 2008 COMPLETELY SUCKS @$$. That is the one gripe I have, and it is from Microsoft's end, the fact that Office 2007 for Windows blows the pants off of Office 2008 for Mac (when I have to chase the #%&@ window around my spaces while I'm taking notes and such, there is something SERIOUSLY wrong)

 

[chill.]

for those complaining about the lack of maximizing... Do you all not realize the fact that SSSOOOOOooooo few websites actually format the rest of the "space" you open up by maximizing? Yay! you get 50 more pixels of unformatted blank space. If the website can support bigger than what the current window of safari is, it will blow the window up until it is as big as it can be, i.e. maximizing.

but a lot of the time negative space is very pleasing to the eye. would you want all of your icons/menus/dock clumped together and located in the top left corner of your screen because you aren't using the rest of the space? i know i like fullscreening things because it helps me to focus on one task at a time and i find other windows in the background distracting

i think it all comes down to a person's personal preference, and you can't criticize a purely subjective stance