Ex-PC users: What influenced you to consider and (if applicable) buy an Apple?

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Cloudane

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What influenced you to consider and (if applicable) buy an Apple?

I'm just curious if others' influences into buying an Apple computer were similar to what mine were. My main "channels" (for lack of a better word) through which I found out about the quality of Apple hardware and software were:

Slashdot
iPod and iTunes
Piro's 'rants' (Megatokyo)
Random rumours

Slashdot was a very big influence, as people there are highly knowledgable, very much into UNIX-related operating systems, hacking (the nice version) and getting the most out of their boxes. They're also into cool, sexy stuff. Since Macs nowadays tend to involve both those factors, there are endless articles on /. praising Apple's products and giving good reasoning as to why.

Whilst that was great for background drooling, it was the iPod that I recently bought, when used with iTunes, that made me see Apple quality in the flesh and finally believe all those rumours about how good they are. The interface on both, as well as the excellent build quality of the iPod (still not one spec of dust under the screen like most similar devices I've had) and great looks inspired me to lust over an Apple computer until I couldn't stand it any more and just *needed* to get £1300 more into already large debts and grab one in order to stay sane.

Piro, when he got his desktop Mac and huge screen, did a very fair review (negatives as well as positives) and it still came out on top. He seems to still love it. Well, if I'll believe anyone, I'll believe a Japan fanatic geek :)

Then there were all the rumours over the years about how they "just work", are great to use etc. Never enough on their own, but they helped to back the decision.

What made you take Apple seriously and consider an Apple computer?

I'll put up a few poll options just to get a vague idea, but I'm sure people have all sorts of different reasons.
 
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s_ton

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The reason I switched was because of my girlfriend. She used an iBook for school and has an eMac at home so I had plenty of chances to play around with it.

Another reason why I switched was because of my iPod. I love my iPod, and now I love my PowerBook.

The last reason why I switched was because I'm not into computer games as I used to be. Reformatting my computer every couple of month is not a viable option anymore. I'm a college student and I need something that works. When my computer started getting buggy and riddled with spyware, etc. It was time for me to switch.
 
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I knew I was gonna switch after trying OS X in a CompUSA. I decided that I would speed it up a bit when I had a hard look at the bloatware a certain other OS was becoming and how much system resource was being wasted on apps that should not even exist
 
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TylerMoney

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Well I don't fully fit into any of the categories, so I just chose the closest. I was obviously tired of using windows, but before I used a mac, I had no reason to change. I heard about their ease of use and what not, which at the time, didn't matter too much. Then I went to school for graphic design, and all I used were macs. I began to love their ease of use, their style, and their stability..even though the ones at school aren't nearly as stable as anyone's personal mac..for they are extremely abused..so sad. So, I guess school was the main factore, and after using them for a while, I really got tired of windows.....though I still use it almost everyday, just to say I can/do. And that's my story.
 

rman


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I have never owned a wintel box. I have been using Apple products, since the Apple ][ plus days.
 
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Icarus

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I'm going to be a multimedia major - and macs are the only way to go if you want to do that. I also wanted my ipod to have a calender on it! (I know it sounds stupid, but that's my logic)
 
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Joeytpg

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well the reason i switched to apple products (yeah, cuz not only i own a powerbook, i also own an ipod, and when it get time to own a display, it'll be an Apple! :D hehehe)

getting back to what i was saying......the reason was this....i got sick and tired of windows inestability, having to reformatt all the time (Lost a lot of important and valuable things, including my ENORMUS live music video collection TWICE! because of this!), plus the VERY difficult way of doing things....like having to restart the system for ANY minor thing... i was just sick of it.......BUT, i didnt have much trouble with that because i had my mom's husband who's somewhat of a Window's genious, so he used to fix my machine EVERYTIME.

but it finally happened, i got accepted at a university in Spain, meaning, that my "hero" was not going to be around to save my butt, whenever windows would crack up!........so, i used to hear a couple of friends of mine that own apples and they were extremely happy with the OS and the overall Machine, so it made me think a little and start reading and investigating more about apples/macintosh ..i found this site and a couple other more forums and the "mind washing process started hehehhehe so after 4 months of reading/investigating i made up my mind, and bought this powerbook, and i couldn't be happier!.....

i got an iPod too, and it's the cutest thing in the world, i already have 100 songs in it and it's only two weeks old......(and i still have to transfer the playlist that's on my PC, and there's A LOT of music there.) eehehehe

Mac's just simply RULE my computer world! :D
 
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I was happy with my toshiba laptop with XP. I just thought the Powerbook looked much more sexy so I went ahead and got it.
 
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sirlan

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I was fed up with Windows, adware/spyware, webpage hijacks, reboots, service packs and new service packs for those service packs, driver incompatibilities, etc. Basically, I was fed up with all the MS BS.
Mac just works.
 
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Dual 2.2GHz powered by AMD Opteron - *Sends G5 & 8Gb Ram to scrap heap* Yeah! finally switched BACK!
[air-con anyone]
I haven't really 'switched' as they say! Still dos around on wintel systems, render the odd triangle using sgi's and so forth... just prefer the mac platform to others, maybe it's nice to use something without annoying windows protection errors or other strange and whacky errors from windows.
[/air-con anyone]
 
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Orion119

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My first experience with a mac was my mother's G3 ibook which I used for photoshop out of deperation because my PC was impossible. I could never get the colors between my moniter and PC to correctly calibrate and any request that required more processing power than "rotate" would cause any file above 30mb to freeze.

I went in without any expectations and was gradually blown away as I became more fully in tune with the machine and it's capabilities. I know everyone says it and it sounds corny but everything simply...worked. The colors automatically integrated, it followed my filter and layer duplication requests, (as long as some of them may have taken) and the 800mhz processor was only a fraction slower than my 1.6MHZ P4 With half the fricken ram!

Eventually it came to a point where my tempermental PC was hardly touched and I was doing all my work and play on the ibook my mother gave up trying to get back. It was then I decided to get a powerbook for college and I've Had it fo nearly a month. I'm fully integrated, fully switched. And so far no problems or regrets.

I'm still getting used to not having to run any virus scans or reboots from faulty sleep problems, which is welcome icing on the cake
 
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Cloudane

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It's interesting to see so many converts because of Windows and wanting to get away from it. I'm what some seem to call a "genius" with Windows (and computers in general), though it's all relative... a genius to one person is a dimwit to another... anyway, if you know your way around Windows and know what makes it tick vs. what makes it go boom, you can have quite a reasonable experience with it.

Also if you pay the same sort of money you pay for an Apple on PC hardware, you get quality components instead of cheap, unstable ones, and get much better reliability as a result :)

I have both a Wintel and a Mac, and I must admit the XP box very rarely crashes. Personally I think it's due to the quality of the components... Abit motherboard, Crucial memory, decent PSU rather than some cheap one that comes free with a case etc. But there has to be a certain amount of software-based crashing, and that seems to come from spyware and other rubbish that litters the system and leaves bits of itself behind when you remove it.

If there's anything I was tired of with Windows, it isn't necessarily the fault of the OS itself - it's the fact that it's *targeted* by all the viruses, spyware and security exploits meaning that you have to use half your resources on an Antivirus, Adwatch and Zonealarm, taking a massive chunk of your computer. A possible OS fault though, is that it does seem to also encourage programs to litter themselves all over the desktop and system tray, bringing up umpteen startup items for quick access to programs that you don't care about, which is incredibly annoying. Windows takes forever to boot once you have a few of those. Keeping it tidy is a pain the the rear and difficult to keep on top of.

Funny enough, I don't *want* Macs to become massively popular because then we'll also be targetted with all the viruses, spyware, adware and such.
 
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Been a Mac user for a while now...First computer I used was an Apple IIe long time ago. Did use Windows briefly, but my heart was never in it; always considered myself an Apple/Mac user in exile :)

I regularly dip my toe back in the PC waters, though, mostly because I have to, and partly because I want to keep up with what's going on over there. And I must admit, Windows has improved dramatically over the past decade.

But so has the Mac. :)
 
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Nightblade

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rman said:
I have never owned a wintel box. I have been using Apple products, since the Apple ][ plus days.

Same here. From what I know, my parents have never owned a computer that was not made by Apple or anything, but I think it would be interesting to own a PC. A lot of people on this board own both PCs and Macs, and I think it'd be useful just to have one around and see what I think. Get the best of both worlds.
 
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Cloudane

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Surprising also how many have never tried a PC. I heard about Apple's users being loyal, but I always assumed they'd at least have a healthy *look* at the alternatives even if they'd just go "ugh!" and never try it again :)
 

rman


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Cloudane said:
Surprising also how many have never tried a PC. I heard about Apple's users being loyal, but I always assumed they'd at least have a healthy *look* at the alternatives even if they'd just go "ugh!" and never try it again :)

I have a healthy, understanding of computers.My background just did not include pcs. I mainly use different favors of unix.
 
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I have a hard time when people say how awesome their computer is and how bad other computers are.. when they have not even tried the other computer for any given amount of time.. which as you know happens in all circles, apple users, ms users, *nix users, although *nix users do not seem to be as bad at that as apple and ms users are.
 
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Cloudane

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Aye.
Despite any signs of a bias (like most people, I'm quicker to point out the flaws of an OS or anything else than its good points) I view the OSes pretty equally, although they're better for different purposes. Well, see one of the other heated threads for my input on the comparisons between them.. to sum up, like many wise people have said in the past: use the best tool for the job. Don't just use 1 tool and expect it to do everything well.
 

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