With all due respect to silverforth for her and her husbands sacrifice, which I do apprecitate, I am always amazed when I hear someone (about macs)saying this sucks, that sucks, that sucks, this sucks...etc....
Here is the bottom line from a long time windows user / admin / computer + network builder:
1) Low end apples don't cut it for gaming, while the high end models will do it.
2) For engineering people like myself not being able to run AutoCAD on OSX stinks, but you can do bootcamp if you have to have everything in one computer.
Aside from that, I am going to have to call people out on this "I can't do (fill in the blank) on my mac".
What you really mean is you just gave up without really trying. I hate the quitter attitude.
I swear there is more (expletive delteted) free or very affordable software for macs than there is for windows. Every little niche / need I have has been filled by one program or another. I do tons of photo, video, and audio editing, as well as filesharing, capture, conversion, and a ton of other things.
Mac people are very creative, and many are willing / capable of writing programs to fill needs, and they do just that. Most are free, and I have been known to drop $15 or $20 here or there for a really useful one that I find. It took a bit of googling to find a few of them (read:effort). But I am SO SICK AND TIRED of the windows viruses, security scares, spware, lockups, and other hassles, and am so glad to come every night to a mac, after working on a windows / dell junkbox all day.
When I saw that MS office for mac was $400 or whatever, I said SCREW THAT! I installed openoffice (free), and it works fine. It does everythig office did. Problem solved. There is so much software for media editing on a mac it is enough to blow your mind!
But her post makes one thing clear. Some people are not capable or willing to forget the old and learn new things, even though they might be better. Some people throw up their hands and give up too soon.
During the first week on the mac, I was a bit steamed a few times, but I dug in my heels and was determined to find solutions. And that is what I did, with patience, and persistance. Now, I am yet another who has broken the microsoft stranglehold.
Please don't be offended if I mention your favorite brand here, but look. People for the most part don't smoke a marlboro because it is the best cigarette, the started smoking them because everyone else was doing it. The same goes for drinking budwieser. While it is ok to drink, and sometimes I am in the mood for it, anyone from Germany would laugh you out of the room if you tried to tell them that was a real beer. People drink it because everyone else does.
People are in general, sheep. They are herd animals. Mac users are typically the sheep who keeps leaving the herd, the one the sheep dog has to chase down all the time. Microsoft has been crammed down everyone's throat for so many years people just accept that this is how things must be done.
I laugh at that notion now. No regrets.
In fairness, in my opinion, for a person with minimal computer aptitude, who has only known windows, who gets frustrated easily, the mac os is really NOT "easy" to learn. It will probably be difficult for someone fitting that description, despite the usual reputation of being "easier". I think that where a great deal of confusion comes from. While it might be "easier" to learn as your one and only OS, it isn't really "easy" if you have to first un-learn windows, for the more technically-challenged among us at least.
