A comment about switching

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Yesterday I was talking to a co-worker as I used my MacBook Air. She said that she had discussed Macs with her computer "expert" nephew who commented that "Macs are quite good, but it is so much easier to use Windows, everything is where where you can find it". This thought occurred to me. When I was growing up in England, we had the old currency, twelve pence in a shilling, twenty shillings in a pound, coins came in half, one, three and six pence, one, two, two and a half shillings etc etc. It all made sense to those who had grown up with it and we used it effortlessly. For some reason those pesky visitors could never understand something so utterly simple. Their hundred cents in a dollar seemed over simplified and designed for inferior intellects. Windows is like the old English currency. Computer "experts" who have used it for years think it is simple because it is familiar and often have difficulty understanding that what has become familiar to them is not necessarily the most straightforward for the newcomer.
 
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I agree wholeheartedly. Switching to a new operating system is always challenging, and sometimes daunting. It really is easier to stick with what you know. When I switched, I reveled in the challenge, and enjoyed being excited about technology again. I loved the newness. But that's not for everybody.
 
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Windows is like the old English currency. Computer "experts" who have used it for years think it is simple because it is familiar and often have difficulty understanding that what has become familiar to them is not necessarily the most straightforward for the newcomer.

I think this is a great way to think about it.

And for what it's worth, I think it applies to the Mac as well. Those of us who are used to the Mac are often (on this very forum!) surprised at how hard "simple" things can be for people who are not experienced with computers, or are accustomed to Windows. I believe that the Mac, like decimalized currency, is more intuitive than the alternatives. But that does not mean it's intuitive in and of itself.

For that matter, why do we have dollars (or euros) and cents? The Japanese get along fine with just the Yen. Similarly, there are many things about the Mac that are complex, and Apple has, of late, been adding layers of complexity rather than removing them.
 

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