Posted on 03/07/2009 6:44:52 PM PST by Swordmaker
"Apple's compelling advertisements may have you believing that moving from a Windows computer to a Mac is both a simple and a rewarding experience. I certainly believed it. In my circle of friends and co-workers, I observed that Mac users were to a large extent happier with their equipment and software than the Windows users. Most people I know who have moved from PCs to Macs never regretted the decision," CNET's Rafe Needleman reports for CBSNews.com.
"So figuring that I was going to be in good company, I made the switch. In December, I bought a new MacBook for myself, and a second one for my wife. We both needed new computers, and I thought it'd be a good time to move up to what everyone told me would be a superior experience," Needleman reports.
"Here's what we found: In many ways, the Mac experience is indeed superior. But the process of moving from the PC to the Mac is not nearly as easy or as straightforward as the advertising leads you to believe," Needleman reports.
"Before making the switch, I studied the Mac, read blogs, talked to friends, and learned about the changes I'd be forcing on myself. Going contrary to popular advice, which recommends running the new Mac and the old PC side-by-side for a while, I decided that the best way to make the switch would be to go cold turkey," Needleman reports. "In practice, I couldn't do it. There's only so much immersion a person can take in a day before he or she gets fatigued. And when your income relies on using a computer, you cannot afford to mess around with a new platform all the time. Sometimes, you just need to work. "
MacDailyNews Take: Don't ignore the advice, potential switchers. Windows-only sufferers have been steeped in the warped world of "upside-down and backwards fake Mac" for up to well over a decade. It'll take you a bit of time to unlearn poorly-conceived UI kludges that Microsoft's imposed upon you. Back in 2005, SearchSecurity.com's Winn Schwartau explained the issues of switching from an inferior OS with a mishmash UI to a superior OS designed by people who actually think and care about minute details when he admitted there was still much to learn about his newly adopted Apple Mac OS X operating system and wrote that Windows had made him "too stupid to use Macs." Don't worry, it wears off; you won't be a Microsoft Windows dullard forever.
Schwartau explained: After battling the WinTel world for 15 years, I am still overthinking my computer usage, and that is a sin. So, in front of the world, I confess my newly recognized sins:
• I assume the computer is going to fail. There are so many problems, my first reaction is the technology has failed yet again. I confess to this sin.
• The network is to blame. Other than a lightening strike the other day which did in fact fry the main router, our network is highly reliable. (Yes, I do have UPS and surge protection. But crap happens, OK?) So why do I blame the network? Some WinTel wireless and LAN and dial-up networking configurations are a nightmare (read: less than automatic). For some unknown reason I could never decipher how DHCP, and other advanced networking configurations get changed by the office Poltergeist. He seems to have gone away since we switched to Mac. (Saves a bunch of time, I'll tell you!)
• I have not run antivirus software in more than three months.
• I have not run any spyware software in three months.
• I have not defragged.
• I have only checked the integrity of my firewall three or four times.
• I forget that there is a simpler way than I am used to. Somewhere, there is an easy button to do 99% of what I need.
• We're good now. Mac is my office.
Needleman continues with his story, but there's no need to bother slogging through it now since we know why he's having his problems. He didn't listen to basic advice. So, learn from his mistakes instead before you embark on improving your computing life by dumping Windows for Apple's superior Macintosh:
Things every Windows to Mac switcher should know upfront:
• Apple Mac came first, Windows came a distant second.
• Microsoft copied Apple's Mac, but couldn't copy exactly due to legal concerns, so they made everything upside-down and backwards.
- It will take time to unlearn Microsoft's poorly-conceived, legal-inspired bad habits.
- It's not your fault; it's not Apple's fault; it's Microsoft's fault.
• Microsoft is a company that, at its very best, strives for and achieves mediocrity. It's rare, but it does happen.
• Apple strives for and often delivers "insanely great."
• Don't over-think on the Mac. Drag and drop instead! (You'll understand this one soon after you make the switch.)
• The "Help" feature actually works on a Mac. Use it frequently. You'll become a very good Mac user if you do.
• The Mac community is the strongest tech community in the world. We and millions more Mac users will be happy to help you. Just ask.
• Microsoft knows they are outclassed, so they invent file formats and manufacture convoluted traps to try to keep their sheep in the pen.
- Let Apple do it. If you buy a Mac at the Apple Retail Store and bring in your old Mac or PC, a Genius can move all your files for you.
- If you want or have to do it yourself, one good hint is to use Little Machines' $10 Outlook2Mac (O2M) to transfer your Windows Outlook Mail and folders to your Mac.
- Read and use Apple support document: How to transfer data from a PC to a Macintosh
• You have no right to utter one word of complaint if you haven't first used Apple's excellent free online guides:
- Switch 101
- Mac 101
• Use you local Apple Retail Store. Become a One to One member and you get a year’s worth of personal training sessions for just $99. Sit down for in-depth, face-to-face sessions with your very own personal trainer. Experts in all things Apple, our Trainers help you get the most out of your Apple products. Just tell them what you want to be able to do, and they’ll teach you how.
Don't be a Rafe, er... naif. Don't "go cold turkey." With a modicum of preparation and some basic knowledge/common sense you'll be able to switch from Windows to Mac much, much easier than the Needlemans of the world.
Thanks, I’ll give ‘er a go
And now you can go get FREE Quicktime Alternative and it runs on windows. Uses less memory, no annoying popups or starting up to update (unless you want it to).
Includes RealPlayer Alternative.
Free, small, and lite on memory usage.
Your current computer is running dual Intel Nehalem Xeon processors that retail for over $2000 each? How did you get two of them into your $1500 computer?
I'm not switching from Windows ME for any price. Actually, I use Lynux and Vista Pro on my laptop, but the wife and kids all have Mac Books. My wife's last Mac Book, "Aluminum" ran great but it had a lot of hardware problems. I had to replace the screen, later the keyboard, and then the CD drive, and all after the warranty ran out. The last straw for that one was when the screen started getting white spots and I was told I needed to replace it again. That thing racked up about $2100 in repairs over it's 4 years of life. I could have built two really nice Lynux laptops for that price.
Realistically it takes what system requirements? How much memory?
Which version (distro I guess you call them) of Linux are you running?
Thanks
Your 9500 was five years old when OS X was released in 2001. Apple supported its OS9 for another five years after OSX was released. Exactly how many 5 year old PCs would run Vista when it was released?
This is gonna sound stupid but every time I’ve seen this and there wasn’t a goof in settings at some point, it was a screwy mouse. In your case, could the touchpad be flakey?
Any modern machine should be happy with most distros. The favorites are Ubuntu, SUSE, Mandriva, and Redhat in about that order currently. The cost of playing with any one of them is “FREE” except for the time investment.
Now let’s be VERY honest here. Mac OSX is a Unix derivative just like Linux is. It’s base architecture runs on a “Microkernel” that came originally from Jobs’ Next computers. (Yeah I know Mach didn’t originate with Next...it just got to Apple that way.) Linux is internally very different from OSX, but they have the same basic API as far as running software which is based on Unix. The big difference is really the GUI and the apps you get with each.
The GUI in the MAC is more consistant in how it operates. I don’t happen to care for it - but that is a personal preference. There are multiple GUI’s available for Linux - each with it’s strengths and weaknesses. Most people like either KDE or Gnome.
Now the one thing I REALLY take exception to is the Volunteer User support available for the MAC. I think the Linux world has this beat all to hell just because everything about Linux is done via volunteers.. including creating the OS itself!
Haha have you ever tried to format c with an xp? LoL
Windows is possessed....you need an exorcist to format C. :)
Your problem is editing and storing digital pix on a PC. Use Photoshop or Elements for Mac, save to an external HD, burn DVDs to save in a physically separate location, and you're bulletproof.
Here explains it better than I can ever do it
Technically, we can still behead you for saying that!
Not true. Here is a link to the true story of what happened between Xerox and Apple. Here, also is an account from Bruce Horn, someone who was there, both at Xerox and later at Apple.
Yep, you can. The creators of QT Alt did it legally. They used the same open standards that Quicktime uses and created their own app.
Shouldn’t this be posted in religion?
That's an urban legend. Read below:
In the late 1970s, Apple was experiencing meteoric growth in the mists of the success of the Apple II and significant private investment. Bill Atkinson, a software genius in charge of the Lisa project, convinced Steve Jobs to take a look at the possibilities of the PARC Alto.This gets posted on every Apple thread, so I just keep the facts saved where I can repost them.Jobs was so struck by the power inherent to the PARC that he offered Xerox the opportunity to invest a million dollars in Apple computer if the company would agree to let him and his Lisa team study Alto. Xerox felt that it had nothing to lose. After all, they couldn't sell it. They did not believe the world was ready for the advanced PARC technologies. Apple was about to go public and Xerox's investment branch, Xerox Development Corporation, sensed an opportunity to turn a quick profit. Xerox invested $1 million in Apple by purchasing 100,000 shares at $10 each. Furthermore, Xerox signed an agreement with Apple to never purchase more than 5 percent of Apple's outstanding shares. Within a year, these shares split into 800,000 worth $17.6 million when Apple went public.
With Xerox's cooperation, the Apple team twice visited the PARC facility. Jobs was ecstatic and immediately instructed the Lisa development team to begin working on a graphical operating environment like that of the Alto. The Lisa project was to be Apple's first attempt to built a computer around a graphical operating system and many of its technologies would later find their way to the Macintosh. Unfortunately, the Lisa, aimed primarily at high-end business users, never found commercial success. It has often been suggested that Apple's development of the Lisa GUI primarily centered around copying the Alto GUI. This shortchanges the hard work and brilliance of the Lisa team. Apple did not receive a blueprint from Xerox. What they got was much more profound: inspiration. Xerox had nothing to complain about. They had this wonderful creation that they couldn't sell. A 1760% increase on a one million dollar investment for two peeks at the PARC Alto was about the best the company could have hoped to achieve.
Thanks for the good article. I bought my first mac in 1984 and first pc same year - have had both pretty much all the time since. Current personal pc is a macbook pro, love it, but I have to have a Vista machine to run certain professional software. MS is high maintenance. And of course the neanderthals at the office insist on Dell but at least they gave me an i-phone. If I had to choose only one platform it would be mac.
I believe this to be a very funny satire website that makes fun of Apple products and the people that use them. I know that it is a satire site because Apple makes the world's most perfect products and the people who buy them are the most gifted among us.
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