Why make the jump to Mac?

[samfrog88]

I'm a native PC user and throughout the years I have loved and hated Windows. I'm not going to lie, I love XP. I guess you could say I am into more of the technical aspect of computers, so OS X appeals to me. Over the past year I have started to get into linux, and linux has issues of its own. My question is, "Why switch to OS X?" The reason I am seriously considering switching now is Macintosh finally got an OS right. OS classic might just be the shame of the computing industry. I use it (OS X) casually at school sometimes. From what I read, OS X users are parading its reliability around. From what I've experienced, it is quite reliable, but then again, so is my pc. When I boot up my PC I usually don't worry about it crashing and losing my data, simply because with a little work, many of these problems can be avoided. I am not considering making the switch completely, but considering a Mac for a main work machine. I do a lot of web design, video editing, and image editing (Photoshop). My pc is not a cheap box, and I have not had hardly any problems with it. Besides the beauty of OS X (and its unix base, which intrigues me, and its stability) I would like to know what reasons, if any, are there left for me to switch.

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Because it's cheaper than ever now:

http://www.apple.com/macmini/

While I wouldn't use that computer for any heavy image editing or heavy video cutting, it should handle medium-weight work quite well. I design websites on an old G4/500MHz machine -- and from my experience, the speed and quality of development doesn't come from the speed or power of the machine; rather, from your abilities and skills.

[mw84]

I'm not ging to pretend I know a lot about computers or various OS but I recently changed completely from a PC running Windows and Linux Redhat 9 to my Mac and I couldn't recommend it highly enough to anyone.

It has a lot of the things I loved about Linux like the stability, security and the mass of FREE, quality, open source software available to you, yet I can still do all of the things I had to rely on Windows to do when I was using Linux, mainly gaming, all without the hassle of dual booting. It's all so easy to grasp too, I found myself ripping out hair trying to get to grips with Linux but os x is super user friendly.

Aside from that the visual appeal alone for me is massive, it has to be the best looking operating system I've ever used along with the hardware. All the Apple systems and other products look great. My new mac has become a decorative feature

Get one !

[Jeffo]

if you are a serious web designer you should already have a mac so that you can test your stuff on more then just windows. to be complete you should also have a linux box kicking around too for testing. that macmini that was previously mentioned would be a great way to get your foot in the door. with the mac mini you could even partition the one drive and put OS X and yellowdog or something like that on it. and to take it one step further, if you did not want to get a second monitor for cost/space reasons you could probibly get a kvm box or something to use both machines with the same monitor.

[quiksan]

everyone else has made good points that I'd have made also.

couple other things to keep in mind:
OS X is unix based, but with a sick GUI over top. So whether you're a power or a new user, you can get along with it simply, or get into the guts under the hood with the terminal and bash shell. either way you go, it just works.

A nice dual environment. While the KVM switch would work, you could also use MS's Remote Desktop Connection on OS X, to connect to your pc (running in a closet, or wherever) over your network, and run it in a terminal services style window, WHILE having immediate access to everything OS X.

Since it doesn't sound like you'll drop the pc for the mac completely (I thought the same thing a couple years back...I was wrong), most software vendors (like adobe, macromedia, etc) usually let you trade your windows license of software in for the os x version. worth a look at least.

As was also mentioned, the open source and freeware available on os x is awesome. there are so many great free and nearly free shareware apps out there. It boggles the mind. 43folders.com has a great listing of peoples' favorite little apps for OS X. will take you hours to peruse them and find what you like best. there's so much out there, and so much of it is just so useful, beautiful, and simple. great stuff.



It's not so much that you can do things on a mac that you can't do on a windows pc. The thing is, you can do it EASIER and BETTER on a mac. That's my feeling as a somewhat recent switcher. Ther are some things (based on the open source software and apple software) that I can do on OS X that I can't on a PC, but mostly it's just that it's so much easier, and the end product is that much more satisfying when you've used a fraction of the effort/time, and gotten twice the results.

the mac mini is a great way to try it out for a very minimal investment. probably a great place to start IMO.

[Zammy-Sam]

I am a "quite" fresh switcher. I was also used to all windows versions and fell in love with the ibook. Now I simply love the operating system and the harmony between hardware and software. I saw so many ppl switching and not even one regretted this step.

[nixgeek]

After watching the Macworld keybote, I think that would be reason enough to switch over to the Mac. No virus issues / spyware issues also, but I think that everything that was introdeced at Macworld this week is enough to get anyone to switch. I still to this day have not seen anything on the PC world, be it Windows or Linux, that can do what Apple's offerings can. Nuff said.

[symphonix]

Simple:
- Efficient user interface. Do with 1 click things that take 5 clicks in Windows, like ejecting a Flash memory key.
- Better software. Better management of movies, digital photos, and so on.
- Lots of high-end software exclusive to the Mac (Logic, Final Cut, Motion).
- Stability to run multiple high end applications continually, without need to reboot, ever.
- Not a single virus issue on Macintosh for over 10 years.
- No need to maintain the computer's software. Forget adware, spyware, disk fragmentation, vulnerability to hackers, mismatched DLLs, or hunting down drivers for your printer or CD drive.
- Better build quality.
- One supplier, one warranty.
- All components and accessories (digital cameras, printers, anything) work natively, without ever needing to load a driver.
- A software update process that actually works.
- A system that allows a crashed application (and it can happen, especially with beta stuff) to be closed without causing any disruption to other apps.
- Lots of features and software "out-of-the-box" that are expensive and poorly written extras or shareware addons for Windows, such as FTP/Web servers, Java, development tools, compilers & programming environments, and so on.
- BlueTooth support that works consistently well.
- iPhoto. A great way to handle all your digital photos effectively, regardless of what camera you're using and so on. If you buy an Olympus camera for instance and plug it into a PC, you have to load up Olympus software. If you later change to a different brand, then those thousands of photos are in the wrong program! If your camera turns out not to be supported in Longhorn for 6 months after its release, do you think anyone will be able to help you?

What sums it up best is that since I've had a Mac, I've always been able to do the latest and greatest things and never have to worry about whether this printer or that camera is supported. When Tiger comes out, I can confidently install it and not have to worry about whether my Wacom tablet or my SonyErriccsson phone will work: they WILL.
When Longhorn comes out two years after Tiger, minus a lot of the features they'd promised (they've already scrapped WinFS, their own answer to Spotlight), can any PC user honestly tell me that it'll install flawlessly and all of their hardware and software will continue to work flawlessly? Or will all those people who rush out to buy Longhorn be telling me "Wow! Longhorn is GREAT ... but my mobile phone no longer transfers contacts with Outlook, but the new drivers are just around the corner!"

Finally, I'd have to rate Apple's attention to detail as being without parallel. On the first release of 10.2, the address format for Australian addresses in Address Book had the postcode incorrectly placed before the town/suburb. A week later, the first update was released and this was one of the several hundred minor fixes. I've never seen a serious problem with Apple software, only a handful of minor quirks like that, all of which are corrected very promptly.