Why'd You Switch

Hey guys,

new to the forum...hope this is the right spot for my post.

I'm looking at purchasing a new laptop down the road. At the moment I'm torn between at MacBook Pro or a Thinkpad. Both great companies, both great machines.

My question is geared mainly towards former Windows users: What made you switch? Why? What do you use your laptop for? Pros/Cons? Comments.

Any thought you guys or gals may have would be greatly appreciated. My purchase is probably still a ways off, but I'm always looking at the two trying to decide....

Thanks
Lucas

I agree, both the Thinkpad and Macbook are very good machines. The thing that would more than anything else make me buy the Macbook Pro over the Thinkpad is OSX. I feel OSX is in a class all by itself and the real reason I moved to Macs quite a while ago now.

On it's own the Macbook Pro is a great computer and the fact that now with Bootcamp you can run OSX and XP if you need certain applications that only run in windows, makes it the Notebook to get. A lot of people who have gone to the new Intel Macs have loved OSX so much they never felt the need to install XP Via Bootcamp.

I am a PC Computer and Network tech by the way, but for anything I do much prefer OSX, but work with Windows systems on a daily basis. I don't hate XP at all and in fact think it's a fine OS, I just feel that OSX is that much better.

arghhh... if only i could get both....
bootcamp is a pretty big advantage for the pro.

I switched around a month ago. I am net admin so i still have to deal with PC's on a regular basis. My wife and I tried an iMac about 5 years ago but couldn't get the hang of OSX. We didn't give it enough time to learn OSX. When Apple moved to the Intel chip and bootcamp I decided to switch thinking that if i needed XP i could dual boot. I got my wife a Macbook and myself an iMac. We have never installed bootcamp nor do we think we are going to. I have heard about how easy OSX is (when you give it a little time to learn the new OS) and how stable it is as well. It took me a week or two to get used to it. I really enjoy it and it is so much easier than XP.

I mainly browse the net, edit pictures and copy video from my MiniDV camcorder and OSX is awesome for doing these things.

I was a DOS/Windows guy for nearly 20 years. I never "chose" Windows, it was just always there. I had seen Macs before and was always impressed with them. However, the always seemed to be out of my price range. Last year I made the switch. The reasons are pretty basic.

1. OS X. Just an awesome operating system. Took me about 6 months to "stop thinking Windows". Once I crossed that hurdle everything was easy.

2. Elegance. Elegant is a great way to describe the Mac. Case in point, how many laptops have a slot-loading drive? Answer: one (Apple). Magsafe is another. Disk images. Ability to create PDFs embedded in the OS. Spotlight. Expose. Each of these things on their own is cool. Together they are huge and they are what make the Apple experience so much better than my Windows experience.

3. Software. I have not run into too many scenarios (two actually) where I could not find a Mac equivalent. Normally, Mac software is often cheaper and better (again, my experience).

Just my .02

I switched because I got sick of updating spyware programs and such. After switching and using my PB I realized everything for some reason looks better on my Mac. I have booted up my PC laptop to compare side by side. Another reason is my PB is as fast as when I bought it, my PC slows down after
awhile, not much but enough that I notice it. I also like the fact of not dealing with a registry, bios, add or remove , with a Mac all you do is drag the program or whatever to the trash, a lot easier than wondering if the program will uninstall. No defragging is another plus, there are just to many reasons to list here why in my opinion Mac is a much better OS. I will be buying a new Mac but always wait until the bugs are gone.

My boyfriend and I use computers a lot mainly for school related purposes.. word powerpoint, excel, internet and chatting.... I always had in the back of my mind that I wanted an apple, so one day we walked into the apple store and one of the sales people showed us what the os x can do! and we were amazing.. after my boyfriend asking the sales rep every question he could think off ( he is very computer savvy) we walked out with 2 macbooks, one white and one black for him ... He also left with the intention that if he needed too he could use bootcamp.. and honestly I don't really think we are ever going to. It is sooo friendly everything WORKS! nothing is bug as windows sometimes is. We set up a network as easy as 1.2.3.... honeslty if you go with Mac you willl not be dissapointed...

I switched many years ago, because my old 486 Compaq 25mhz PC had finally died. I decided to get a Mac Centris 610. I used the 610 well, and still have it today. OS X is great!

If you wanted to see the macs advantages over PC's, see apple's mac ads
http://www.apple.com/getamac/

Like many Windows users, I was sick of driver issues, spyware (not so much viruses), the GUI was boring (Although Media Center is somewhat better)... I love OS X, it's user friendly, it looks great, its functionality is through the roof... It performs the same way as the day I got it and it hardly gets shut off (G4 Ti 667mhz Powerbook).

The only real reason I have Windows still is for gaming, and I don't even use that system anymore. So I'm thinking of selling it to buy a new MacBook/MacBook Pro.

When I use my Mac, I spend more time USING my computer, than tinkering with it or setting it up. Everything just works.

well to say the least I think I have been convinced!
Now I guess I want to shift my question to this, and it may sound dumb, but I couldn't really figure this out explicity from apple.com
What software comes loaded on the Pro?? Will I need to eventually by Office--how I hate that system...---or does Apple have an equivalent, most likely better, system?

BigSlickSuitd said:

well to say the least I think I have been convinced!
Now I guess I want to shift my question to this, and it may sound dumb, but I couldn't really figure this out explicity from apple.com
What software comes loaded on the Pro?? Will I need to eventually by Office--how I hate that system...---or does Apple have an equivalent, most likely better, system?

Click to expand...

You are going to have to buy Office and/or iWorks.

I believe the MB's come with a TRIAL of Office and iWorks (someone will need to verify this).

I bought my Mac when I was in Grad School. Got the Student/Teacher Edition for $149. Definitely recommend you go that route.

Remeber that Office is NOT universal yet and will probably not be until the next release.

Well for years I wanted a Mac. I was always tired of downloading drivers, viruses and spyware, program crashes all the time, and that kind of suff. Plus I needed more of a 'digital lifestyle' computer. PC's don't have any of the programs you can get for Mac, except Photoshop. But everything elsedid so I decided to get one. I traded a PC for an old iBook G4, which had a couple problems I couldn't afford to fix(Apple parts are expensive), and traded that for an older iBook that completely worked.

I figure soon I'll have a job and get a MacBook.

Pros? It never crashes, never freezes, programs always work, don't have to download drivers, no viruses, no spyware, has better digital lifestyle software selection, and OSX was released AFTER they worked out the bugs.

Cons? Well the main thing is that its slow(but look at my specs) and OSX takes up alot of HD space. Thats about it...

i just recently sswitched because of OSX and the software. i just got tired of trying to use windows movie maker. i also waned to get a computer that didn-t look like a big plastic box. both me and my dad got them at about the same time and it's easier than ever to nework them and to talk to eachother using ichat av.overall, macs are just great systems and thats why i switched.

A trial run of iWork and Office does come on new macs. Although I bought iWork right away because I knew it would be easier for me to use compared to Office.

I switched for a couple of reasons:
No viruses or spyware. Aparently there are some but because of the auto-updates they don't do anything.

An old Mac has a higher resale value then an old PC labtop, maybe you've heard the stories about the middle school selling old Macs for fifty bucks a piece and there was a huge riot.

I use all the apps that come with iLife. GarageBand, iPhoto, iWeb, I love it all!! Windows isn't as integrated as iLife and OS X.

Great customer support, my first Mac was a lemon. I brought it in and five minutes later I had a new MacBook!!

I love it!

I needed a new computer, didnt want to build yet another beige box, bootcamp allowed me to fall back on windows if I were to need it (havent installed it yet), bought a mini, month later bought wife macbook.

i switched because of osx. it's just a great os and it's actually fun to use. i had used windows since i was little and it worked fine. i had gotten a little tired of the malware and i needed a change. my old computer finally died and i got an imac. it's been a joy to use so far, and thanks to boot camp i can boot into windows and play any games i want.

I origionally switched cause I wanted something good for video editing and went with a powerbook. My plan was to use my PC on a regular basis and the laptop just for making movies but after I started using it the pc was turn off and not turn on for several months. Had to go back to it for like a week when my power adaptor died and I coulnt' charge the battery and that made me like OS X even more. The only issue I ran into is the 12" screen became annoyingly small for daily use. But I fixed that with my new 15" MBP.

As for software, You do get a trial of both office and iWork so you can choose which you like the best. I have office and even though it's running in rosetta, once it loads it feels just like it does on any pc i've used it one.

The one downside to iWork is there's not excel equivilent yet, so if you need excel, your stuck with office.

It also comes with iLife 06 as mentioned above.

Switched for school - I was informed that Macs were the way to go design-wise. They were right

I switched because my toshiba satellite got a virus. It made it so my computer wouldn't even open windows explorer, dont ask me how I backed up my data after that happened. After I took it back to circuit city for repair and had to pay for it despite the extended warranty, it still didn't work like it did before I got the virus. It was that combined with my prior experience with windows that I decided I was fed up with it and decided to try something new. I'm still trying to get my toshiba to work but thats just because a laptop should work for more than 3 months regardless of what OS it is running. Anyway, the only regrets I have with my iBook purchase is that I didn't have more money, I would have rather had a powerbook or at least a 14 incher w/ superdrive, but thats not really Apple's fault.

Why I Switched...

I purchased a MBP in May as a birthday present to myself and I couldn't be happier. I mainly use it for email, graphics editing, surfing, music, the entire M$ Office suite made for Macs, and instant messaging. I was a longtime WinDOZE user and this is my first Mac. I can honestly say that I will not purchase another non-mac machine