What made you switch.

[nukenorman]

I have been thinking for along time switching to the mac. However im afraid that when I buy it I am going to regret it. But the macs today look so cool and os x looks awesome.

So what made you switch?

[+Batfink Subscriber²]

Hello m8,

I have recently made the switch to mac and my iMac has replaced my PC. I didn't do straight for the iMac however, in October 2006 I bought a Mac Mini to play around with it.

I found the Mac Mini awesome (although 512mb of RAM is limiting and I would recommend at least 1Gb), OS X is the best OS I have ever used and don't forget... If you really need Windows, you can use bootcamp to dual boot.

Here are my reasons for Switching

1. No Virus's, Spyware, Keylogers exsist for Mac OS X.

2. Superb design of the Hardware - It looks great and offers about a 70% reduction is space required for my entire system (big plus because I'm moving into a small apartment).

3. OS X Rocks! IMO it is far better than XP and Vista.

4. The games I play work cross platform - Football Manager 2007, WOW etc... And if I really need to, I could boot into XP with Bootcamp (Haven't had reason to though)

5. iPhoto, iDVD, et al of the iLife package are really awesome and far better than anything on the PC Platform.

6. iTunes

7. No more Activation, Genuine Advantage, CD-Keys, etc

8. Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac, really is what Office 2003 should have been for the PC.

Hope it helps

Batfink

[Gaurav Patel]

I was in the market for a decent laptop and just by coincidence, I aways wanted a Mac.

I actually converted yesterday and I am loving my new MacBook (2GHz C2D, 1GB DDR2 (soon to be 2GB), 80GB HDD).

The level of simplicity in this thing is unbelievable. You wont regret it.

[Nocstar]

I got the same model on sunday guaravpatel

I've been using windows for 10 years and I also needed a laptop for this school season.

I have never been so satisfied with a computer right out of the box... I bought a microsoft wireless laptop mouse for it and its been smooth sailing since.

The style, speed and features have never been so great on a mac and I thought it was time to try OSX, I also have boot camp and Windows xp installed but the more I use the OSX interface the more I ask myself why..

[osirisX]

I do Graphic Design so naturally I made the switch to a Mac. 90% of the industry uses Macs so I might as well get used to what everyone else is using :p

But I do love the way OS X works. I can't live without Expose. Especially when working between Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Each document actually BEING a document so that it's affected by Expose and can be minimized separately to the Dock. The way Windows handles that makes it near impossible to multi-task properly between the applications. I've also come to love Dashboard thanks to the Wikipedia widget.

The way you can drag and drop images and text is fantastic. Yes, you can drag and drop an image in Windows. But in OS X I can drag and drop images AND text onto an app and then have the app use it. Makes the process simpler and quicker. Colour labels rock. System wide spellchecking rocks, something which Vista doesn't have. Drives being mounted onto the desktop makes for quick access. Spotlight is nice. Spring-loaded folders are something I now can't live without.

Installing and uninstalling apps is a breeze. The way you can easily look at the resources and modify the resources of an app. OS X having the ability to preview PSDs and AIs without having to open Photoshop and Illustrator is a God send. I deal with these 2 filetypes all the time so it's fantastic to not have to go into the program to just view the file contents.

The iLife suite is unmatchable. It really does need to just be added into the system. OS X is also nice to look at :p

So as you can see, it just works for me :D

Edited January 27, 2007 by osirisX

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Well, i wanted a mac for ages, since before OS X was even announced, saved up some money and brought one.

[Guest jgrodri]

here's what i did (which i recommend to you):

I had been wanting a mac for a while but wasn't sure if i would get use to OS X, so what i did was kind of dodgy (wink wink) and i got to try it. I found it very easy, as an advanced windows user i was used to formating once in a while, editing the msconfig, some services, defraging and so much other stuff that when i switched I felt uneasy cuz i had nothing to tweak...

Point is, i liked it a lot and ended up buying the macbook i had been wanting. zero regrets.

Get OS X. I'm not suggesting to do it illegally, like from a torrent or so (:devil:). you'll like it so much that you will want the real thing.

[.Neo]

• The countless problems and annoyances I experienced while using Windows: Driver issues, when one application locks up almost the entire OS is affected, way too much effort to keep the OS running properly. Overal I was just fed up with it.
  
• Windows XP's lack of additional features (you get the OS and that's basically it), no feature updates since it's release and the countless Windows Vista delays.
  
• Inability to activate Windows over the internet for no good reason, and the unwillingness of Microsoft to correct their mistake.
  
• Mac OS X just works. No activation, no genuine advantage crap, no viruses, no spy/adware, easy to set up, needs practically no maintenance from the user's end.
  
• Mac OS X' amazing Aqua interface. Windows XP's entire UI rendering engine and theme is a joke compared to it. Microsoft made a good first v1.0 attempt with Aero, but Apple has almost six years more experience with next-gen interface design which clearly shows.
  
• Overal poorly designed 3rd party applications on Windows. Take a random Mac OS X counterpart and it will look so much better and perform more in sync with the OS.
  
• Simplicity of Mac OS X, it's applications and 3rd party applications.
  
• Mac OS X' frequent updates and feature updates.
  
• iLife.
  
• Amazing computer design, which fits my needs.
  
• Overal Mac OS X 10.3 Panther looked more appealing than Windows XP.
  
• No reasons anymore not to switch.
  

Just for the record: These are my personal reasons why I made the switch to Mac OS X. I don't feel like getting dragged into a Windows XP vs Mac OS X war having to defend the above points.

Edited January 27, 2007 by .Neo

[saxondale.]

The software i used for college

[FOOOD]

I needed to do Mac specific stuff for work so bought one. I had no intention off switching to Macs, just to use it when needed & at first that's all I did.

Then after using it & getting used to it I thought how much better it seemed than Windows & ended up switching. So I never planned to but ended up switching after using it for a while. It's not perfect but for me it's much better than Windows. I only use my Windows machine for games now, I even use my IntelMac for testing web sites & installing the odd Windows app when needed for work.

There's so many reasons why I prefer Macs, & most of them have been posted before me here :)

[instant.human]

i needed a notebook and since i was a mac user until 1997 or something like that, and i love the design and osx gives me what i want (security, relyability, speed) i thought "give it a try", and i havent used my pc, didnt even power it up (except for once to tansfer some music and importnt documents) since i have my macbook.

i can carry it everywhere, i can play some games on osx and if i want to i could boot over to xp and yea, perfect for me. :)

[DrunkenMaster]

Same as the above. I think we're unanimous. Switch. You know you want to!

I switched because I wanted a smaller profile desktop system so I bought an iMac G5. And I'm not a super Unix user - but Unix base did help me as well. Much easier to use the command line.

Otherwise, I would say if you look at the core technologies in Mac OS X - built it software RAID, Applescript, Automator, Spotlight, and everything else, its got some real powerful stuff built in and its frivolously easy to use. Try and do it with Windows.

[giga Veteran]

OS X. Sure the hardware design is a plus but the software is the main thing.

[david13lt]

I have been thinking for along time switching to the mac. However im afraid that when I buy it I am going to regret it. But the macs today look so cool and os x looks awesome.

So what made you switch?

I have the same situation for about ~6 months now. But I finally decided to change, the only thing what I am waiting for it Leopard and maybe a new line of Macs. First of all, Macs have INTEL inside and one of the most powerful CPUs, they have made. Secondly it would be it's design and OS GUI. But the most important thing would be OS. I have never seen such kind of OS. It's too easy to work with it, I can feel more relaxed, because I know how it will work and I am almost sure that I won't have any problems working. Of course on Windows when you try to work on a big project, a lot of programs and etc. I cross my fingers when saving changed files.

8-9 years with Windows and I just started to hate Microsoft, maybe even without the reason. I found something more better and beautiful, easier to use of course that even saves time, when you are working.

Resume: everything (my life)

[LTD]

What they said.

I really can't see myself going back to Windows. The switch was dead easy, too. A very smooth transition.

And if for some reason you want to keep Windows for those particular games which aren't out for OS X, you've got Bootcamp (which works like a charm.)

[Rudy]

I needed to better way to connect to my school's unix's network, putty just didnt cut it anymore (i needed to be able to run X11 applications over ssh). I was dualbooting linux (i've used linux for years but never really been satisfied with the os in general.....though i LOVE the terminal, i always wished windows would have a good terminal like Linux), and then Apple announce the mac mini.....it was cheap, small, basicly everything i was looking for (could run X11) so i went ahead and bought it. My PC then started to gather dust....

At that point i fell in love with OSX and after a few months I sold it and upgraded to a new powermac......unfortunately i felt a bit guilty on spending $2500 on a computer so after a few months i sold it (for a profit lol) and at that point i became mac less....I upgraded my pc but i wasnt really satisfied, so i saved some money and sold my xbox360 and pc and got my macbook pro when they came out and never looked back.

Up to this day my macbook pro is the BEST computer i ever owned, when i move to ottawa my gf will sell her laptop and we will buy a 24" imac and we will share both computers (instead of having our own)

[suspiria]

Three years ago I was told (by my college's Dean of Admissions) that I MUST get a Mac to do well in the computer design classes I planed to take.

A few weeks later I bought a G4 iBook. I was excited as it was my first laptop, and my first Mac. After using it for everything but classwork :p , I grew to love the way Mac OS X worked. Meanwhile, my (still very fast and well-maintained) Dell sat there doing nothing since my iBook did everything that my PC could do; And a number of things that the Dell was incapable of. So I gave that to my father, who's computer was so old and slow. He was happy with his new Dell, and I was happy with my iBook.

Obviously I didn't need a Mac for the classes. But it was a blessing in disguise I suppose. On November 11th of last year I got my 20" Core 2 Duo iMac, which was quite an upgrade. My iBook is still used as a machine for playing around and testing things.

I can't imagine ever going back to Windows. I never realized how much of a hassle it was until I started using Mac OS X. I wasn't even really aware of OS X before I got my iBook. I mean, I knew of the name, but never even looked into it. Unless Microsoft completely and utterly wows me with a Windows OS in the future, I can't see myself switching back.

[stadsport]

Windows Vista. I got tired of XP and found Linux to be too much of a hassle, and refuse to "upgrade" to Vista.

[KeR]

Its funny but just 3 years ago or so I used to hate Macs and talk crap about them all the time, especially here on Neowin. The funny thing was I didn't know anything about them so it was all BS from me. Anyhow people were posting screenshots of their OS X desktops and it was all looking intriguing. I first went on eBay and got a G3 PowerMac and had fun with it just to get used to the OS and Macs in general...after that in rapid succession I got a new iMac G5 and more recently a MacBook Pro. So there you go once you go Mac you'll never go back :D

[obsolete_power]

I don't believe a person that totally switches to Mac is a professional. Although the Mac is great, one cannot rule out the fact that most of the world is Windows based. I am afraid it has been like this since the beginning of the PC and will stay like this. A person that switches to Mac totally and doesn't touch windows is an amateur.

[C++]

<troll>

I switched because Steve Jobs is Jesus in an apple, and putting more money in his pocket is equivalent to donating to the church. We love you Steve!

</troll>

[KeR]

I don't believe a person that totally switches to Mac is a professional. Although the Mac is great, one cannot rule out the fact that most of the world is Windows based. I am afraid it has been like this since the beginning of the PC and will stay like this. A person that switches to Mac totally and doesn't touch windows is an amateur.

Wow, talk about ignorance. What are you basing this on? The fact that you have a Mac and can speak from personal experience?

I hope you see how silly what you wrote is.

[osirisX]

I don't believe a person that totally switches to Mac is a professional. Although the Mac is great, one cannot rule out the fact that most of the world is Windows based. I am afraid it has been like this since the beginning of the PC and will stay like this. A person that switches to Mac totally and doesn't touch windows is an amateur.

Yes, and the fact I'm doing Graphic Design and the majority of the industry uses Macs makes me unprofessional... Try not being so ignorant and bias. Even for people who don't work in a Mac based industry may not need to use Windows to do what they need to get done.

[Rudy]

I don't believe a person that totally switches to Mac is a professional. Although the Mac is great, one cannot rule out the fact that most of the world is Windows based. I am afraid it has been like this since the beginning of the PC and will stay like this. A person that switches to Mac totally and doesn't touch windows is an amateur.

wow.....it's been a while since i've seen someone so ignorant ......

when i started doing programming professionally i was hit by the fact that the industry's standard wasn't windows (i used to live for windows) but unix. Using a windows computer to write code for a unix workstation can be very challenging because of it's lack of POSIX compliance (cygwin can help but i didnt find a an elegant solution). Now i could have simply used Linux (i did for a while) but i found OSX to be better overall. It allows me to write code that 99% of the time will compile on any Unix flavor (sometimes the code will require a small change but this is very unusual). Now i don't know how my lack of Windows makes me less "professional" but whatever floats your boat

[Matt T]

Tiger. When I got my first iPod I started thinking about looking into a Mac but it was Tiger that nailed it for me. I can still remember how excited I felt watching the WWDC 2004 keynote. Also, when Microsoft restarted the development of Vista - it changed far too much and became a completely different OS in my opinion; that's when I decided I had enough of waiting around for Vista.

I don't believe a person that totally switches to Mac is a professional. Although the Mac is great, one cannot rule out the fact that most of the world is Windows based. I am afraid it has been like this since the beginning of the PC and will stay like this. A person that switches to Mac totally and doesn't touch windows is an amateur.

On the contrary, I personally find that I am more of a professional because of my Mac. I design and develop web sites and graphics and I find it much easier to work and be creative, and the work I'm producing now has very noticeably improved compared to what I did with my PC. The way OS X works - Expos?, brilliant multitasking, it's rock-solid performance and it's design/general functionality - make it so much easier and such a pleasure to use.