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 for the reply, but I have a wireless mouse.
I never thought of that. I wonder could the wireless
deal cause a conflict of actions?
I will do that, thnx! We do have an external harddrive that was used for music. It has plenty of space. It just annoys me that we have to back up the backups. ;)
No, Wooly, you stated on this very thread on FreeRepublic that:
There is only one problem with Apple, they screw you on the price! If I were to duplicate the computer configuration that I am on to a Mac Pro the price would be $3449. The computer I am on cost me less than $1500 to build."
I am merely pointing out that for that $3449 price for your hypothetical Mac Pro, you would get DUAL Nehalem XEON processors, and ridiculed your assertion that YOUR machine was somehow a match spec wise to that Workstation grade Mac.
I however am quite happy with my Quad Core PC
So, your "less than $1500" PC really is NOT the equivalent to an eight core Mac Pro Workstation? Were you just exaggerating for effect? Or did you intend that your fellow freepers believe your hyperbole?
Besides the fact that nobody really cares that you chose Apple.
You apparently do... enough so that you insult all Mac users.
Like the joke about the hot-air balloonist asking directions of the guy on the ground:
What you say is true, but not particularly useful.
“Macs are nice, but I switched from Windows to Ubuntu...Windows-looking and acting, but everything works, and works much faster.
Linux is the true way.”
True! Ubuntu works great. The only setback would be for gamers. Windows and Mac are becoming rather intrusive on personal info, IMHO. I think that this will continue to be the trend...sigh. Ubuntu is free and they don’t treat you like a criminal if you need to reinstall.
It’s what I observe ... I just see what’s presented.
They forgot “you’ll have to give up on gaming forever.”
That’s why a desktop running Linux on one hard drive/partition and Windows on t’other (just for gaming) is the best rig. :-)
How often do Apple fans mention that Apple DID NOT invent the GUI, that Apple made major blunders throughout the 80s and 90s that put them in a distant second (it wasn’t mean ol’ MS), and that Apple would be a footnote in computer history right now had MicroSoft not bailed them out when Steve Jobs came back? Not that I have any animosity either way, I actually think the Windows/Mac wars are stupid. I just think that Apple constantly gets a pass on valid criticism from its rabid fanbase.
What you observe... and what you think you see presented is at least ten years out of date.
Rush is one of the reasons that I checked out Macs in the first place. I used to hear him talk about his Macs a lot when i was thinking about getting a computer. Then I saw the iMac. I was sold.
bump for later.
More myth. Microsoft did NOT bail out Apple when Steve Jobs came back.
In late 1997, Microsoft bought $150,000,000 of non-voting three year restricted, preferred Apple stock as part of a lawsuit settlement that MS essentially lost.
According to the settlement's three interlocking agreements, signed by Apple and Microsoft, instead of going to trial, losing and paying a major financial penalty, Microsoft capitulated and would:
On Apple's part, the agreements specified that Apple would:
At the time of the purchase, although they had posted a single quarter $67 million dollar loss, Apple was not in danger of going under. Apple had already posted a small profit in the most recent quarter and had $1.4 BILLION dollars in cash in the bank and in short term liquid assets. Ergo, it was not a bail-out. The myth that it was, was started about a year later by Microsoft. Microsoft, after the three year restriction on the stock was lifted, sold the stock for about $700 million... a nice profit.
After the five years of the agreements were over, Microsoft dropped support for Internet Explorer for Mac and Apple stopped shipping it with their New OS X computers.
These agreements have long since been made public and you can find them on the internet and read them.
Why? There are many games available on Mac... and the Mac will also run all Windows games as well as 95% of all Windows machines except extreme gaming rigs that have real high-end graphic cards.
Also, lest anyone peg me as a Wintel plant - I used a Lisa before there was such a thing as a Mac, in 1983. Lisa was a $10-12K version of what Mac would eventually become.
Mac was essentially a useless toy until they figured out VM with OS9 or so. I got so tired of having to allocate memory between programs by myself. Mac had a pretty GUI before Wintel did, but Microsoft was better able to handle huge files and data sets. Now it’s just whatever religion you were born into.
Here and on all the Mac threads that I’ve read in the past 8 years it is plain to see that Mac users generally talk about computers and operating systems. Windows folks, however, almost immediately talk (disparagingly) about people. Kinda like you just did Minn.
if you find that your Ipod is over rated why did you waste the money to buy one?
everything works better on a MAC, The emulation Parallels (virtual machine) works very well and yes you have to buy MS windows if you are going to run it on a Mac,(I know its strange and unfeeling that evil MAC makes you pay for something you want to use) why would Apple give you another companies OS.
I was misinformed then.
But I’m a Linux man so I don’t really care. :-P
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So with virtually equal hardware performance you will pay a little over $2100.00 more for the Mac. and the only thing that you will get for that $2100.00 is the logo (remember there is no operating system in the price).
Other than the Apple instruction set programming, all of these parts are on the same level of performance and quality.
If it is worth $2100.00 to be a bore, then you buy the Mac. But I prefer the savings.
Also by learning to build your own computer you will find that for the most part retail computers are poor preforming junk, since they are into maximizing profits while keeping the price down.
Bah.
I've created a supercomputer utilizing Zunes and FreeBSD.
I can now report, that the answer to the ultimate question is not "42" as has elsewhere been reported, but "El Paso", by Marty Robbins. (?)
Wanna buy a used supercomputer?
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