Why did you get a Mac?

[irock]

Personally, I got sick of Windows XP crashing on me every 2-3 hrs of multi-tasking 5 different apps: 15-tab FireFox, iTunes, Photoshop, Word, eBook Reader.

Then I thought... hmm... people seem to be okay with Mac so far... no compliant regarding multi-tasking except all the apps run a bit slow due to the OS itself and slow CPU.

I got a PowerBook 17" 1.33Ghz 1GB RAM. Yes.. it's slow compared to my Windows... but it didn't crash on me like hell. So, I could live with that. I only have the stock 5400-rpm HDD...

What's your reason for switching over?

 

[mpw]

Best value laptop at the time when I got my iBook. I stayed for the OS and Apple software but MS Vista might win me back, we'll wait and see.

 

[beige matchbox]

Had macs for years, switched from atari and at the time macs of all kinds were lightyears ahead of anything X86

Apart from games theres nothing for me in the windows world, so here i stay

 

[Blue Velvet]

Is there any other realistic choice for a graphic designer? I think not.

 

[JeffTL]

Like mpw, I couldn't find a better deal on a laptop than an iBook -- and I believe that's still the case. I'd never even used OS X (just short hitches with classic Mac OS, mostly System 7) when I ordered my iBook, and was seriously thinking about using Linux on it if OS X didn't work out. However, I discovered that I actually liked Mac OS X -- and therefore, I stuck to it.

 

[iSaint]

Here's one reason. Here's another.

There are many more, most of which I'll agree with once there are posted here.

 

[Jaffa Cake]

Is there any other realistic choice for a graphic designer? I think not.

Same here. I've never known anything else, save for the ZX Spectrum me and my brother had when we were much, much younger.

 

[Benjamindaines]

I've always been on a mac but here is my story:

I started out on the original Classic and was happily using macs until 1995 when i bought my Gateway PC. I bought it because work switched over from macs and I needed it to be "compatible" but I always kept my mac around (a Quadra 610 at the time). From then on PCs were my main computers until a few years ago when i bought my G4. Then macs became my main computers again. Then came the TiBook, then the 12" PowerBook and G5. And just recently I acquired the Cube and bought the iMac pictured in the setups thread. Now I have no PCs, not even at work other then my IBM laptop they made me keep (the Cube is at work).

 

[TheMasin9]

ease

itunes is what got me to switch. I figured if a simple piece of software could work this well and do so much. The computers and Operating system must be great as well. My cousin also prodded me along....

 

[Ambrose Chapel]

i've been using them since 1992 or so...apple // before that. i've had to use windows more and more (for work) and having to use that daily makes me appreciate the mac all the more

 

[20rogersc]

Went for work experience in a Graphic Design Studio, and worked on PowerMac G4s. Fell in love with them and OS X, so worked all holidays to get enough for an iBook.

::20ROGERSC::

 

[Laser47]

Ever since I saw the original imac g3 and the cube ive wanted to get a mac, but when computer buying time came around I got a pc. Ive never really had a problem with XP, I took care of my pc very well, but I always wanted to see what the mac was all about. Last summer when the mini came out I decided that its time to switch, but since I was only 15 I didint have any money, so I saved and saved. When it came to purchasing time my parents were suprised that I saved so much, since I usually spend my money right away. It was a month away from my birthday, and knew I really wanted an ibook they said that they would give me the rest of the money I needed for the ibook. On my birthday I opened my first mac ever. It was the coolest thing in the world.

 

[Eidorian]

- Exposé
- iLife
- No need to pay Norton Extortion every year.

 

[law guy]

When I purchased my IIsi in '92, it was light years ahead of the PCs - I could print clip art graphics - not just word perfect text! (It cost a zillion dollars - looking back adjusted for inflation, you'd expect a quad for the money today, but it was cheapest II series - the IIFx was something like 10 grand) I didn't need to figure out the ins and outs of DOS. It had so much personality for a little computer.

When I've purchased my recent Macs - because I wanted to get things done. My macs have made all the difference in simple things like our family website and making home movies, burning them to dvd and sending them around.

 

[liketom]

i switched back when nachi virus wiped out all my digital photo's and movies on my then Xp PC




and never looked back

 

[risc]

I got my first Mac because Linux sucked on notebooks and I needed a notebook that ran a UNIX like OS perfectly. I used an iBook and had a few Linux PCs for a while, then I got completely addicted to OS X and dumped all the PCs and replaced them with OS X boxes.

 

[blackstone]

I'd grown up with PCs running DOS, puttered around with Windows 3.1 for a while but hated it. For a while, I ran OS/2. Once IBM decided to kill OS/2, I switched to Windows NT4, and then Windows 2000. Thanks to avoiding Windows 95, 98, and ME entirely, I never had serious problems with stability. But getting hardware to work right always took so much tweaking, and it was in general just a pain to deal with. But it was the only way for me to have a modern operating system with good application support and a useful command line.

Meanwhile, partway through college, a friend of mine installed OS X 10.0 on his PB (I think it was a Wallstreet?). I was amazed at the battery life (he could actually carry it around campus for hours without having to plug it in!), shocked that it could actually go to sleep without screwing everything up, thought the OS was beautiful, and was awed by the UNIX underpinnings. Here was everything I'd been looking for: good multitasking, powerful command line, stable, had commercial software available for it (well, not so much for the first version of OS X but more as time went on), and good integration between hardware and software. I had no money to buy an Apple at the time, but I vowed my next computer would be an Apple. So -- much later, after graduating college and after saving up money from the low-paying job I got after graduating -- when my existing computer finally got too slow to stand, I bought a used 12" Rev. A PB, which I'm still using today. But if a 12" or 13" MacBook comes out this year, I'll be sorely tempted to retire the PB...

 

[RacerX]

Besides the fact that all my professors and most of my friends had Macs, back in the late 80's (while I was still majoring in physics) I was flipping through an issue of Physics Today and saw an add for this great math program called Theorist. As it turned out Theorist was Mac only, and that is pretty much what pushed me in my first purchase.

Over the next seven or so years I played with a number of other platforms... but never touched any PCs. Loved NeXT and SGI computers, but all of those were beyond my price range as a student. And I enjoyed my time on Sun Microsystems computers (though they didn't compare to the NeXT and SGI systems).

PCs were not even considered. They were the systems of home users, secretaries and people doing data entry. I felt that you couldn't actually do any real work on them and didn't give them a second thought.

These days I don't have anything against PCs, I've owned quite a few, and I use a ThinkPad regularly. But I sure wouldn't run any Microsoft software on any of them.



As for the ad that started me down this path, it was sort of like this one...

I still use Theorist (2.0) on my PowerBook Duo 2300c today, along side a copy of Mathematica (2.2.2). And have both installed in Blue Box on my 8600/300.

 

[mduser63]

We had (still have actually) a Mac II when I was young, and I used it all the time to do drawing and play games, but the main computers in the house were always PCs. In 2004, my dad decided to buy a used G4 tower for some reason, even though he is not particularly a fan of Apple. At that time my PC was in the shop because just about everything about it kept breaking, both software and hardware. It was under warranty, so I took it in to be fixed. Anyway, since I didn't have my PC for a month or two, I was forced to use the Mac. I soon realized that it was much better than the PC I had before, even though it was (theoretically) MUCH slower. I had no trouble finding software for it, contrary to what my dad and others had said. Shortly thereafter, I decided to get a laptop for use at school. At first I just planned to get an HP or something, but then I realized that a PowerBook or iBook would probably be a better choice. It took me a long time to make that final decision, but finally I settled on a PowerBook and bought the 12" that I'm using now. No chance in the world that I'll switch back unless something major changes.

 

[MacRy]

Sadly enough it was for aesthetic purposes initially. I saw the Cube and really really wanted one but it was way out of my price range. Then when the luxor lamp type iMac came out I just had to have one. It looked really different and sexy and Jaguar looked so inviting that I had to give it a go. Now you couldn't drag me back to buying a Windows based laptop with a team of wild horses.

 

[asherman13]

been usin' 'em since i was born

macintosh 128k
powerbook 160
powermac 6400
ibook g3
imac g4
ibook g4
soon-to-be macbook pro

(^ all the macs that our family (mom, dad, me, brother) has owned over the years...)

 

[California]

They had a roomful of Mac II's I believe, in the old computer room at school in about 1989-90, though my family had an Apple II that I would glance at once in a while when my brother worked on it. It took me about 2 minutes to learn the Mac II with Word. Never looked back -- owned Macs ever since. Never owned Windoze -- would never let one of those insane virii- laden machines near me or my house.

 

[revenuee]

Final Cut Pro 1.2

and i wanted a computer deemed a supercomputer sitting on my desktop

 

[yellow]

Switched? Who switched? I'm a lifer.

 

[cycocelica]

started with macs then switched to PC for a good portion of my life. Now I am back. I switched back because I do not live my parents anymore and I have always loved macs and wanted something where I knew it was reliable and safe. Plus the ease of use is much easier.