Macs are no worse or better than PC's (Windows based). Its preference and for some that I have worked with and know its a status symbol or in my opinion the coooooool factor. lol. And an expensive cool thing.
I always find posts like this entertaining... PC user tries to tell Mac users that they fit his preconceived notions of what a Mac user is. And yeah, you are still a
PC user in my book.
Status symbol? Doesn't something have to be seen by others in order to be classified as a
status symbol? Nobody sees most of my Macs, and the only computers I take away from home are my PowerBook G3 or my IBM ThinkPad. And in both cases, only my client see them and they are all Mac users, so it's not a big deal.
I don't hide Apple logos within my clients web sites or within the graphic design work I do for them, so it isn't like most people know that I've made most of my stuff on Macs anyways. So where is the
status symbol aspect for me?
Coooooool factor? Again, doesn't something like this require showing it off? Or is it because it is new? See for someone like me who has been using Macs since the late 1980's the
coooooool factor has been gone for nearly 20 years.
An expensive cool thing? What are you talking about? Macs have never been
expensive for me. My total expenditures on computer related stuff (hardware and software) since the beginning of 2000 has been $2,720. This stuff doesn't have to be expensive, but I've found that most people moving to Macs from PCs (like you) want the
full Mac experience (whatever that is)... which means you most likely dropped twice as much on your Mac setup as I've spent on computers in the last eight and a half years.
Here is a news flash for ya... the people who are most like what you envision Mac users to be are
switchers. Former PC users (not unlike yourself) who think this is the way to stand out in a crowd. Real Mac users don't care that they are Mac users because they've always been Mac users. I don't have an Apple sticker on my car, I don't where any Apple logos on my clothes... in fact the only article of clothing I own with a computer logo on it is my
SGI letterman's jacket (now there is a status symbol for ya...
not).
I have found bugs with Leopard, its not funny. I see no real benefit in moving except that Apple is more a status symbol than anything else. I hear many Apple people complain about their machines AND Leopard but then say they will always use a Mac. Gee, isn't that what Mac people always said about PC users, all the problems they have and they continue to stick with Windows. Mmmm. LOL. Welcome to the PC(Windows) world.
You've found bugs?
The number one bug encountered by PC users switching to Macs is their attempting to use Macs like Windows. And actually, I saw the same thing of Mac users switching from Mac OS 8/9 to Mac OS X. And using Mac OS X in the same way that one would use Mac OS 8/9 or Windows is the very best way to avoid finding out what makes Macs special to begin with.
It reminds me of when I met someone who said that my home town wasn't all that great. I asked him where in town he went and he said he was at the airport the whole time as he was waiting for another connecting flight. It sounds to me like you are going to be sitting in the Mac waiting terminal waiting for your connecting PC flight for the next 5 years.
To be fair, sure Leopard has bugs. Most new things do. I don't generally let my clients upgrade to new hardware or software until it's been around for awhile. And I don't let them do updates until the updates have been out for a couple weeks so I can see how they have worked on different types of hardware and software combinations. But consider this... last year I was in charge of the care of 130 Macs (besides the 20 I personally own) and I averaged about two service calls a week (which is why I also do web and graphic design work to make ends meet). I know companies with less than 30 PCs that have to have full time IT support (and we're often talking about more than just one guy too).
Personally, I think some switchers aren't worth the trouble. And I would absolutely never attempt to convert PC users to Macs.
As for why
I started using Macs... back then everyone doing real work on computers was using either Macs or Unix workstations. The only people I ever saw using PCs were secretaries, data entry people, gamers, and the odd home user. While my background is mathematics, I enjoyed touching on a number of other areas and the tools for those areas were always available for Macs first. A few examples...
Microsoft Excel Mac: 1985, PC: 1987
Adobe Illustrator Mac: 1987, PC: 1992
Adobe Photoshop Mac: 1990, PC: 1992
Adobe Premiere Mac: 1991, PC: 1993
Adobe After Effects Mac: 1993, PC: 1997
Aldus PageMaker Mac: 1985, PC: 1987
Mathematica Mac: 1988, PC: 1992
Theorist Mac: 1989, PC: 1997
3D-XplorMath Mac: 1987, PC: 2007
MacroMind Director Mac: 1987, PC: 1992
QuarkXPress Mac: 1987, PC: 1992
FrameMaker Mac: 1989, PC: 1991
And it wasn't like I spent a ton of money back then either. My first Mac at home was a Macintosh SE which I got for $400 in 1989, and I replaced it in 1990 with a Macintosh SE/30 for $500 (or actually about $100 as I also got $400 for my SE when I sold it). And I started using NeXT computers around the same time, though I didn't start seriously studying them until Apple acquired NeXT in 1997.
But the thing that really sold me on Macs was an ad for
Theorist I saw in
Physics Today that looked a lot like this one...
There wasn't anything like this app on any other platform at the time (1989) and that was exactly the type of tool I wanted for my studies. the current version of this app still has a place on my dock today.