If you converted to Mac mainly because of the OS or a specific Mac software, I'd like to hear the details. Thanks.
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Who converted to Mac mainly because of the OS or a software specific to Mac?
- Thread starter Reminisce32
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It was quite a while ago, but I was a software developer using X-Windows under Unix System V back around 1990. I loved windowing systems, but still had a PC running DOS. I waited for Windows 3.1 and it was so horrible, that I switched to a Mac and have never looked back.
I converted to a mac because of all of the things I heard and multiple people telling me I would never want to touch a PC again. I was familiar with the ipad, iphones and ipods - so it made since. Unfortunately that transition has not gone smooth for me. I do not regret owning my imac, but my next purchases have been PC's. I will probably try and sell my imac and pick up a mac mini because I think that it will better better as our media server - but I will no be using it as a computer. still undecided on that
I converted to a MacBook when it was nearly the only choice to natively run XP at the time. Everything else in the new PC notebook world was with Vista. It was Microsoft marketing pushing Vista to PC manufacturers that drove me to Apple products.
I've been through two or three MacBook Pro upgrades and although the new equipment doesn't have XP drivers last I checked, XP is still viable and getting updates from Microsoft. My other OS' are primarily run in virtual machines now.
So you are basicly saying you switched to Mac to run Windows XP?
Software was only one of the reasons why I switched 1,5 years ago. I used to run Windows and experimented with Linux a lot. Windows always felt so unproductive with only one Desktop and the way it manages windows. Linux (Ubuntu) was always nice but I need MS Office and some other tools also the battery time with Ubuntu was always an issue.
So the ultimate merge between the both is OSX. It has a lot of features that help me to keep my work organized (Spaces, Expose, Spotlight) and I can still use Office and most of the other programs I need for university.
I too started in the DOS world. I still love DOS and find that while it has limitations, the command line was far friendlier than Unix which still remains with a rather archaic structure (due to limitations of ascii in the early days of Unix). From DOS I worked with Deskview, Windows 3.x up to XP and my fav OS of all time - OS/2. At work, I had to examine the value of enterprise-wide upgrade to Vista. After several days with Vista, I knew* personally I had my last personal days with Windows. Apple had already moved to Intel, the OS was robust (somewhat based on BSD/Unix) and was a good choice for me.
I still run XP in Virtual for 3 applications. The rest of my apps are all native to OSX and my only real complaint is the arrogance of Apple and the pricing of "yesterday's hardware" being sold at high prices today. I'll also say that Thunderbolt is not for the average Mac user due to costs and that Apple should have put USB3 out before or at the same time as Tbolt.
Just my two cents.
Mac User since iBook G4
Hi,
I switched to Mac mainly for the OS and battery life. I was/am a tinkerer with a few years of UNIX under my belt so Windows (even with cygwin) and the still hobbyist status of Linux at the time meant that OSX represented a nice way of getting access to the environment I wanted in a machine that was ready for mainstream use.
I like the OS because it is essentially UNIX at its heart. As for apps, I have since moved on from working so much at a command line and scripting in vi. The only applications I have found that I cannot get reasonable alternatives for are MS Visio and One Note. I know Omni Graffle and some others are available but for personal cash, they are too expensive for mere mortals and by OneNote, I mean OneNote synced to OneNote on my work PC - Circus Ponies etc are fine for personal stuff that stays on the Mac but it ends there.
I still like OSX but lets be honest, post Jobsian Apple is starting to show the cracks. Quality is wavering, we are getting more issues and things "just DONT work" now, updates on products are not so revolutionary so often anymore. However, Windows PCs are still struggling to catch up while Macs set the benchmark for the current desirable designs, so they still have the edge.
I do despair though as I look at the prices of the new devices and they are getting too expensive. They are straying too far into the realms of designer computing. I look at my MBP and Air and think how much I need to pay at refresh time for them! I may reconsider my platform choice then as I now have kids so my spending power has diminished.
Hi,
I switched to Mac mainly for the OS and battery life. I was/am a tinkerer with a few years of UNIX under my belt so Windows (even with cygwin) and the still hobbyist status of Linux at the time meant that OSX represented a nice way of getting access to the environment I wanted in a machine that was ready for mainstream use.
I like the OS because it is essentially UNIX at its heart. As for apps, I have since moved on from working so much at a command line and scripting in vi. The only applications I have found that I cannot get reasonable alternatives for are MS Visio and One Note. I know Omni Graffle and some others are available but for personal cash, they are too expensive for mere mortals and by OneNote, I mean OneNote synced to OneNote on my work PC - Circus Ponies etc are fine for personal stuff that stays on the Mac but it ends there.
I still like OSX but lets be honest, post Jobsian Apple is starting to show the cracks. Quality is wavering, we are getting more issues and things "just DONT work" now, updates on products are not so revolutionary so often anymore. However, Windows PCs are still struggling to catch up while Macs set the benchmark for the current desirable designs, so they still have the edge.
I do despair though as I look at the prices of the new devices and they are getting too expensive. They are straying too far into the realms of designer computing. I look at my MBP and Air and think how much I need to pay at refresh time for them! I may reconsider my platform choice then as I now have kids so my spending power has diminished.
Way back in the day, I became a Mac user because it was the only platform for Avid Media Composer (before they fell out and Final Cut was acquired). I got into television when some shows where I worked were cut on Steenbecks in 16mm film, with assistants and apprentices.
Stayed with macs at work in video and film, while my girl got excited by the G3 colorbubbles when they came out for home. Then a white G5. Now my own Avid at home, doubled on a laptop (Avid system plus computer used to cost many tens of thousands to set up, maybe over 50 grand, and rent out for 1500 a week as well)
Of course, before that i used the Macintosh II in the college computer labs (when only a few rich kids had their own pcs, looking at one who had that MacII and realise it was a 6 grand system he had back then, for probably less power than an iPhone).
Stayed with macs at work in video and film, while my girl got excited by the G3 colorbubbles when they came out for home. Then a white G5. Now my own Avid at home, doubled on a laptop (Avid system plus computer used to cost many tens of thousands to set up, maybe over 50 grand, and rent out for 1500 a week as well)
Of course, before that i used the Macintosh II in the college computer labs (when only a few rich kids had their own pcs, looking at one who had that MacII and realise it was a 6 grand system he had back then, for probably less power than an iPhone).
Not because of any specific piece of software, but because of music software in general. All the important music software (well, except Logic) is cross-platform, so that's not a reason to go Mac, it's more about latency and stability. Apple always prioritized low latency audio out of the box, while Microsoft never gave a damn until Vista when they developed APIs that virtually nobody ended up supporting... so in my PC days I had to use those pesky third party ASIO drivers which come with various shortcomings. And even with those I was never able to get 100% glitch free low latency audio without the occasional dropout. There were these guides for setting up the ultimate audio PC which involved stuff like disabling all network adapters, minimizing GPU load by using 16-bit color (or even 8-bit, before Vista made 16 the minimum) and various other ridiculous tweaks. The whole concept of sending your computer back to the 1950's to make it work with audio software is deranged and I refuse to support it, out of principle.
However, I didn't want to leave Windows completely behind, but Boot Camp sealed the deal. And then of course aesthetics... timeless, sleek and functional design that turned out to be very durable. My Dell laptops used to look like crap after a couple of years, my 2009 MBP 17" looks brand new.
However, I didn't want to leave Windows completely behind, but Boot Camp sealed the deal. And then of course aesthetics... timeless, sleek and functional design that turned out to be very durable. My Dell laptops used to look like crap after a couple of years, my 2009 MBP 17" looks brand new.
I Converted to Mac thanks to Microsoft Windows 7 Beta, i believe they called it Windows Vista, and, now that Microsoft are trying to sell a touch based OS as a desktop OS with windows 8 im even happier on Mac OSX
I remember those days. I had a Northgate pc at home, and a Mac II at work, both running FrameMaker 3.0. The Northgate was pretty expensive for a pc, but the Mac was crazy expensive. I just couldn't afford one, though I could get work done with much less hair-pulling on it. I didn't get my own Mac until the 7100.
The Northgate did have a great keyboard, though.
(my first personal computer was an Apple II+, bought with parental funds. I still remember, though, the machine I wanted next was not a then-new Mac, but an Amiga, which was way ahead of its time. Didn't get one though.)
I upgraded to a 27" imac in June last year. My HP desktop of close to 4 years had been running slower and slower, and I believe it was only a matter of time before it kicked the bucket (took 10 minutes just to boot up and load all the requisite desktop apps). Also, my local apple retailer was having a promotion, and my imac came bundled with a lot of freebies like a printer, external HDD, free ram upgrade, keyboard cover and flash drive (obviously trying to clear inventory).
Don't regret it one bit (save for the expensive price tag). The huge screen is gorgeous and great when you need to work with multiple documents open side by side. OSX is smooth, responsive, and I am loving the simple yet elegant features like mission control, multiple desktops and the flawless integration with my ios devices. I bootcamp to windows7 for gaming, so I am not really losing anything.
For example, I am taking to recording screen-casts for my pupils (I am a school teacher). Normally, this would be a very troublesome process on a normal computer (because I can't write smoothly using a mouse or trackpad). What I am doing is using the educreations app on my ipad to quickly and efficiently record and upload screencasts of my lessons. When I need to insert images, what I do is send the documents to my mac from goodreader via printopia, crop the image using cmd+shift+4, which then gets saved to dropbox, to be inserted into the educreations app on my ipad.
The few times I needed to edit a simple video, imovie worked wonders because of its very low learning curve. Just copy the recording from my iphone to my imac, open in imovie, drag and drop the parts I want to use, select a theme, and save. Done! And it looks impressive enough to impress my less tech-savvy peers!
I know you could do this on a normal windows computer, but Apple just makes the process much more streamlined and intuitive.
Though to be honest, I sometimes still wonder if I would have been just as well off getting a mac mini. 1/3 of the price, and my screen, keyboard and mouse were all still in good working condition, only the internals were dying. I ended up donating my old PC to my neighbour; it conked off for good 2 months later.
Don't regret it one bit (save for the expensive price tag). The huge screen is gorgeous and great when you need to work with multiple documents open side by side. OSX is smooth, responsive, and I am loving the simple yet elegant features like mission control, multiple desktops and the flawless integration with my ios devices. I bootcamp to windows7 for gaming, so I am not really losing anything.
For example, I am taking to recording screen-casts for my pupils (I am a school teacher). Normally, this would be a very troublesome process on a normal computer (because I can't write smoothly using a mouse or trackpad). What I am doing is using the educreations app on my ipad to quickly and efficiently record and upload screencasts of my lessons. When I need to insert images, what I do is send the documents to my mac from goodreader via printopia, crop the image using cmd+shift+4, which then gets saved to dropbox, to be inserted into the educreations app on my ipad.
The few times I needed to edit a simple video, imovie worked wonders because of its very low learning curve. Just copy the recording from my iphone to my imac, open in imovie, drag and drop the parts I want to use, select a theme, and save. Done! And it looks impressive enough to impress my less tech-savvy peers!
I know you could do this on a normal windows computer, but Apple just makes the process much more streamlined and intuitive.
Though to be honest, I sometimes still wonder if I would have been just as well off getting a mac mini. 1/3 of the price, and my screen, keyboard and mouse were all still in good working condition, only the internals were dying. I ended up donating my old PC to my neighbour; it conked off for good 2 months later.
I used PCs for 15 years, mostly Dell but I worked an HP and Gateway in there as well. I've had to do reformats, hardware replacements, all kinds of stuff. I've had computers shipped to me with 2 bad parts that needed replacing as soon as I opened the box, and i've had parts go bad well under a year. I could also get Windows to slow down on me within 6 months. Windows is just a horrible mess of problems, errors, and drag. It's also never appealed to me visually, which I think can be a huge factor in what you use...if ur the type that's on a computer 6-12 hours a day.
Switched to OSX and my first Mac about 18 months ago and haven't had an issue yet. No hardware issues, no OS slow downs, no errors, no nothing. OSX and Mac, at least so far, has been a buttery smooth experience that allows me to get my work done and not have to worry about anything else. It's also much more appealing visually IMO, and if there was any issues that arose, i'd be much more understanding given my happier attitude with Apple overall. Worth every penny I spend on it, and I feel worse for PC/Windows users everyday that they don't get it.
Switched to OSX and my first Mac about 18 months ago and haven't had an issue yet. No hardware issues, no OS slow downs, no errors, no nothing. OSX and Mac, at least so far, has been a buttery smooth experience that allows me to get my work done and not have to worry about anything else. It's also much more appealing visually IMO, and if there was any issues that arose, i'd be much more understanding given my happier attitude with Apple overall. Worth every penny I spend on it, and I feel worse for PC/Windows users everyday that they don't get it.
Well, I did, but my story is probably not the one you want to hear
I switched to the Mac in 1985, because at the time, there was nothing like Mac OS to be found, on any other platform.
The ease and simplicity, the fun, was just unparalleled.
Well, and I have not switched back since then
Alex
I switched to the Mac in 1985, because at the time, there was nothing like Mac OS to be found, on any other platform.
The ease and simplicity, the fun, was just unparalleled.
Well, and I have not switched back since then
Alex
So you are basicly saying you switched to Mac to run Windows XP?
Yes and now I only use Windows about once a week, if that, in a virtual machine.
Apple was smart switching to intel hardware and providing windows drivers. I also used OS/2 Warp because it supported windows and multitasked much better than the windows solution at the time. Many of the BBS doors I ran at the time required dos/windows and the main system was an OS/2 application.
If IBM was as good at marketing as Apple and supplied sufficient device drivers, we would probably be running new OS/2 Warp instead of Windows in the PC world. IBM also used Windows to leverage their product but failed, or rather just gave up and lost interest in OS/2.
I switched from PC (XP) to Mac just before Tiger came out. I had used XP for my desktop needs (email, browsing, word processing) and Linux systems for serious work (coding, data analysis, modeling). I had wanted a Windows alternative for many years, and waited until I thought OS X was mature before switching to an iMac for my desktop. I'm still multi-OS, but OS X is the desktop, with Linux running in VMware virtual machines.
I ran OS/2 Warp for a short amount of time, but didn't have a great experience with it since the compatibility from what I remember stopped at Windows 3.1 for Windows applications and I owned several Windows applications.
Since I didn't spend too much time in it, how did it compare to Windows NT at the time? Seems both were very stable and both 32-bit. I seem to recall that many ATM machines ran OS/2 for some reason.
I have been a Linux user since 1998 but I still ran some flavor of Windows as my desktop until roughly 2005 when I got a G4 Mac mini. I started a gradual slide over to OS X at that point that culminated in purging all microsoft products from our house by mid 2009.
I used to get a constant litany of "Dad I can't print" and "Dad I caught a virus" and "Direct X needs to update so you can run this game" and "Please extend your antivirus subscription" and so on. OS X hasn't been perfect but I'm so glad to be rid of all things Windows. Ironically, I wound up buying a copy of Win 7 so I would be able to run it in virtualbox. I also have XP in a virtualbox. But other than those 2 testing platforms, I don't let that dogvomit under my roof.
The one PC app I didn't want to leave behind was paint shop pro. I tried getting it to work with crossover and finally gave up. I'm using seashore and gimp now. As for Mac specific apps, I'd say that now I rely on iPhoto and photostream to manage my photography as my iPhone has become my main (always with me) camera. I ported a license of dreamweaver CS over to my Mac but I finally stopped using it.
When I first got iWork, I had to type in a key number. Now it's in the app store and key number based software DRM is no longer a part of my life.
I used to get a constant litany of "Dad I can't print" and "Dad I caught a virus" and "Direct X needs to update so you can run this game" and "Please extend your antivirus subscription" and so on. OS X hasn't been perfect but I'm so glad to be rid of all things Windows. Ironically, I wound up buying a copy of Win 7 so I would be able to run it in virtualbox. I also have XP in a virtualbox. But other than those 2 testing platforms, I don't let that dogvomit under my roof.
The one PC app I didn't want to leave behind was paint shop pro. I tried getting it to work with crossover and finally gave up. I'm using seashore and gimp now. As for Mac specific apps, I'd say that now I rely on iPhoto and photostream to manage my photography as my iPhone has become my main (always with me) camera. I ported a license of dreamweaver CS over to my Mac but I finally stopped using it.
When I first got iWork, I had to type in a key number. Now it's in the app store and key number based software DRM is no longer a part of my life.
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For the past 12 years of my life I've been a Windows user, I have always been sceptical towards other Operating Systems and so I've had my fair share of Linux too, after relentlessly trying to turn my PC into a Hackintosh to no avail, I recently purchased a MacBook Pro 15" i7. And well, what can I say, I've used a Mac prior to buying this and having used it for a while now, everything just works, and always runs smoothly without a problem, no maintenance needed, it's slowly changing my life. I'm still going through the change process from Windows to Mac, but the Macintosh Operating System itself is making this change so easy and just natural to me.
Safe to say, I think I'm going to be using Mac for a long time to come!
Safe to say, I think I'm going to be using Mac for a long time to come!
I switched to Mac for a simple, yet fundamental reason. Apple answered the question "Where do I store my contacts?" On Windows, it seemed every app wanted to have their own contact list. Apple said, "Use Address Book". And they have kept the same answer across their whole product line.
Northgate Keyboards were my single most fav of that era. Truly great feel and sturdy. Glad you reminded me of those days!
I switched to Mac cause I got tired of all the constant anti-virus updates and the hassle of keeping track. I wanted a change after 25 years of using Windows systems. I researched OSx and decided on a change.
that being said, I used Windows systems going back to 3.0 and crashes were rare, but this was in an environment with no games involved.
that being said, I used Windows systems going back to 3.0 and crashes were rare, but this was in an environment with no games involved.
My husband also used OS/2 Warp about the same time that I switched to Mac. It was a really nice OS.