Reader Poll: Tell Me Your Most Surprising "Switcher" Stories

Confidence ... that's the reason the switchers are making the move now. Mac users have quit being as evangelical as they once were. They are, in a word, confident and have quit trying to "convince" wintel users. They know the switch is on and no longer feel compelled to "urge" the switchers. When the pressure's off, the move is on. It's a classic case of "Do as I do, not as I say," particularly effective when the doer resists the urge to "say."

Being a "switcher" in 2005, and a 55 year old (at that time) long time user of PCs, what started as a dabble grew into a full time change over, as I discovered more and more applications for the kind of work I do (creative technical, including writing and presentations) that just work really well, and don't have PC equivalents. (I've been using PC's since 83, quite familiar with what's out there, both normal Apps and CAD).
Probably there's a lot of folks like me, who influence less adventurous others, or support them in their computing technical issues, who have now switched or are switching over others (about a half dozen in the last year) - I gave my PB17 (first Mac) to an old artist friend recently (she loves it), and a number of guys at work have tried out Mac's at home after seeing mine- most are pretty enthralled. So, there's a multiplication effect as switchers create more switchers, perhaps, and the Intel changeover and the Mac momentum and publicity around iPods and iPhones make it look pretty risk free. Which it is.
People are picking up on the fact that main stream consumer PCs are built as cheap as possible, and are getting tired of it. There's a significant segment looking for quality that lasts, and rather then buy an enterprise PC or laptop from HP or Dell (in order to get good build quality), they're buying Mac's in many cases. The younger the person, the greater the trend.
After two years with a Mac, my 24 year old daughter would never consider a PC again. It's the software, and the overall experience.

~Jon

On the plus side my mac has run almost without a crash for three years. On the down side, I cannot buy a new iPod touch or iPhone unless I upgrade my operating system to the latest and greatest, and I am not sure my older hardware is compatible. And another negative is that the Superdrive DVD burner has never worked well. I have to manually shut down the computer to eject a burned DVD. And it quit burning CD ROM's just recently. Apple's idea of support is to send you to a user discussion forum on these issues. So all is not sweetness and light but it has been a good machine for the most part.

I am a mid-40s, professional family man. Bought my first Mac in February. Had been considering a Mac since 2000, but first I wanted to wait for OSX, then I was waiting for Office to be updated to universal, then I was waiting for the Intel chips, etc., etc., etc., until finally I was waiting for Leopard and then Office 2008. In the end, what really did it for me was that we had a child, we started doing a lot more with music, pictures and video, and I got really comfortable that I could port everything into Mail, Calendar, Address Book and Office 2004/8 and not miss a beat. We did, and I am not looking back. Really painless switch. 20 Gb of old Outlook .pst files going back to 1996, painlessly ported to individual files via O2M, and I have my full history available. Additionally, I have three options for Office files: MS Office 2004/8, iWork and OpenOffice.org. Plus, iLife, iTunes, etc. are dreams of simplicity and power. Finally, I really can't believe how much piece of mind Time Machine has brought with virtually no effort on my part.

I am a fifth year senior in college and I bought My first mac after hating them for years beforehand. I had previously built my own PCs and talked family members out of purchasing a mac, after all they only have one mouse button. I know a lot of mac owners now and few of them are the formerly known mac snobs people used to complain about. Myself on the other hand switched from a Computer Science to a Graphic Design degree and Learned quickly that I would rather do homework at home than at school. My initial switch was out of necessity but my most recent iMac purchase was to upgrade the old one. I run Vista on it (for some reason) too, so why not?

I am a 35 year old married male with a six year old son and a practicing attorney. I have been a PC user since college when I started using computers. I didn't chose to use a PC, it was simply what was available where I went to school. I use a PC at work and have a PC laptop.
Over the last couple of years I have been intrigued by the Mac platform based on the MAC/PC commercials and the emergence of the iPhone. The concept of having a computer that "just worked" interested me. One barrier to trying a MAC was the cost: paying 2-3 times as much for a MAC compared with a PC with comparable specs. Nonetheless, About a month ago I took the plunge and bought a used MacBook Pro to try it out. I was able to get into the machine fairly easily and use it for many of the functions that I would normally do on the PC laptop such as web browsing, word processing etc. I purchased Microsoft Office:MAC 2008, downloaded Firefox (the browser I use on my PC). However, there were several programs that did not work on the MAC the way they do on PC. The MacBook did not crash during the two weeks I had it. However, ultimately I could not get comfortable using a Mac as my home computer on which I worked often while using a PC desktop at work. Little things like how the delete button works bothered me. I really don't have a need for the media and graphics functions of the Mac so I was probably missing out on the some its best features.

I sold the MacBook and went to the PC. I am happy with my decision, willing to deal with applications crashing from time to time in exchange for being able to use the platform with which I have comfort.

I'm in the process of switching myself. (Waiting to see what new stuff they are about to release first). Why now and not before? A number of reasons.

1) Vista - Seems like MS has made a roadblock in the upgrade path and it's one I am no longer willing to travel. I'm tired of all the PC headaches and right now I have a machine that barely works. So, my sights turned to Apple.

2) Gaming - Something I never see mentioned but that I do think is playing into this switch thing is console gaming. While MS tanked with Vista, they got it right (mostly) with the Xbox 360. So all my gaming needs transfered to that, making Apples lack of strength in gaming a moot point to me now, whereas it once was something that held me back greatly.

3) Value - A lot is said about higher cost in the Mac world, and while I think things like the Airport are ridiculously overpriced, I don't think the Macs are bad. When you consider their style, a decent operating system, and the inclusion of software that I will actually want to use instead of the shovelware that can be found in the PC world, I think it is all worth it.

4) The switch ton Intel chips - This was huge as it provides me a way to run a Windows program in the event I have to. Also the fact that more software is being ported to the Mac itself then used to be the case which was a limiting factor for me before as well. Still unhappy that Mac versions take longer to come out, but at least they are more than in the past. And I think that situation will only get better the more units Apple sells.

Not that things are perfect in Appleland. I don't like the way I can't just slap in an extra HD on a desktop (not counting that ugly PC-like Macpro which I have no desire to get) and some RAM limitations on some models. And I'd probably have to take it in to Apple rather then work on it myself if something goes wrong, but these are things I guess I will have to learn to live with.

Will I end up happy in the end? I dunno, check back with me in a year! But I think the answer will be yes.

Here is my story: I'm a 27 year old Chemical Engineer who works for a transnational company. I live in Guatemala, Central America. During college and at work I used PC's because it was the only thing available. I had used Macs and loved them. But they were too expensive and there was not support for them.

Last year I bought a Macbook. I like it, the design is amazing and MacOs X is brilliant (Windows has been imitating it for years). I like to "think different".

I love my computer and I shall not go back to PCs.

I've been a hardcore PC user since '89 and have been fighting mac owners as long as I can remember.

4 years ago something happened. I first saw the Macbook and OSX Tiger. I was still very skeptical and I was claiming that there weren't enough programs and so on. I remember so many times of discussions where I was "winning" over evangelist mac users...

1 year ago I caved in to the pressure and bought a Macbook, and I'm speechless. Working with web development and business, I cannot think of a better platform to use. As our development servers are using Linux, and I sometimes need to use Windows programs.

Having a mac with OSX and Parallels I get the best of all worlds.

Easy shell access to run Linux stuff through the freebsd base in OSX, access to windows programs through Parallels and around it all have it wrapped in the most beautiful "just-working" OS there is.

I admit... Macs are too good to be avoided any longer.

Apple has always had brilliant hardware and software design that combined for the best user experience. Yet it took the success of their retail Apple Stores to unleash the pent up demand among my relatives and friends. I had sold them on the fact that Apple is the best. The Apple Stores finally helped me close the deal.

Apple Stores convey a vibrant Apple with a permanent presence. They showcase the superior Apple experience. (Mac OS X is better than Vista, while still being compatible with PC's!) Apple Stores employ friendly staff available to educate and provide support when I'm not available. They're the greatest ally to Mac advocates like myself.

I was forced to use a Macbook Pro at my new job and I've absolutely loved it since. I am a web developer and I am able to have 2-3 Windows images on the same Mac machine running simultaneously with my Mac software. I have had very few if any crashes, and the speed of my Mac loading at any point has made my PC seem like a burden to even start. I am able to use all the best of my development software over to the Mac platform on top of some great programs developed by Panic Software which are for Mac-only. Plus I love the active corners, the drag and drop easy installs and the multi-touch functionality. The Mac Book Pro is much lighter than my PC laptop, much faster, easier to work with, and I am spending much less on headache medications as a result of not dealing with PC crashes. What is not to like?

I am a 40 year old computer system engineer, and an MBA student. I have used Windows as my primary desktop since version 3.0, but as an IT professional, I have of course, used many other operating systems.

Macs have always seemed very appealing hardware-wise, but as a heavy computer user in a completely Windows oriented job, industry, and school, the Mac seemed like a nice toy. Until they got Intel processors and VMWare and Parallels.

In my opinion, now there is no risk. Buy a Mac, and if you decide that you prefer Windows, install Windows. If you love the Mac, but just need Windows occasionally, you can do that too, with boot camp or one of the virtual machine solutions.

The Microsoft Office tools on the Mac are not perfect for me, and have their share of frustrations, but when I try working in a Windows VM for a day, I realize that I am much happier on OS X.

Sit down next to a PC laptop users at an airport, break out your Mac laptop, flip one the lid and start working within 10 seconds. Then watch the PC user through the corner of your eye...they will start to look at you in awe as they wish their computer would just work like that.

I am a re-switch, used to use the Mac back in the early 90's and then switched as I was given PC after PC by the companies that I worked for. I switched back to the Mac last year when I finally got frustrated by all the time I wasted waiting for the PC (to boot up, to awaken from sleep--if it did at all, to return from it's strange pauses as I switch between applications that I needed to have running).

I asked my company I worked for last year to purchase me a new laptop and for it to be a Mac. They refused on the Mac part, concerned about support issues (actually, it was the lack of control they would have over me). So I bought it myself used it as my work laptop...work IT never knew it. I never contacted them once with my Mac; after years of contacting them every other week with the PC. If only more IT departments operated like Google's and let you chose the technology platform you were most productive with instead of forcing one upon you...

Now, I won't switch back to the PC. I'm too productive with my Mac. I actually long for the day I can purchase another to retire the PC laptop my wife uses...I'm tired of having to always provide IT support for her...it's killing my productivity!

As an Apple fanatic from my Apple II+ to my purple imac I was a lone advocate. Finally my son made the switch after trying to network two windows machines to an iBook and our first OSX mac. Next we took on a software (and confirmed Windows Dell hardcore user) to try a MacBook pro (he still does development for the web but can try all different browsers on his mac). Next an interior designer and Windows Photoshop junkie who had numerous problems with her Dell. Still trying to get her to forget Windows and Parallels and use the Mac versions. Next one of my son's friends - got an iMac. Then his brother -age 17. And most recently his father (a small business owner - rentals and retail stores) who after only three months is working on another property manager person with the words - "Get a mac, it'll change your life. There are others too.

I am 56 and a sales manager. I used Macs in the 1980's and early 90's, but was forced to go full-time to Windows. Three years ago, I had enough and bought the first of two Macs. I can do everything that my work requires faster and easier, even Exchange stuff. Nobody at the office can tell the difference. I will never buy another Windows box again.

I am a tech support employee for the Feds, and have been frustrated for years trying to get folks to accept the idea of using Macs. Then last year, I got two co-workers to try them and they both switched - and have each switched others in their turn! Ease of use, better security and less tech support needed were the reasons I got them to switch - and that was on Tiger! One of them also got an iPhone and is even more excited by that than his MBP!

I built my first computer in 1993 and build every computer I owned until 2006.
Since 1998 I have worked in retail electronics store that sells both Macintoshes and Windows computers. In 2006 I started to get a lot of recommendations from various people towards Mac. One thing all of these people had in common was they all seem to be very bright people. So I started using some of the ones they had on display to just try them out. First thing I noticed was how much quicker they were. Then I noticed how good the programs were compared to the mostly trial ware that comes with Windows computers. Around that time, Apple announced the new 26 inch iMac and I made a decision to get a 26 inch iMac sell all my Windows computers. My only regret is that I didn't make the moves sooner

I think it's a combination of factors:

- The switch to Intel has opened-up the possibility of running Windows (natively or using virtualization) as a "last resort" for users who are worried about compatibility.

- The Unix underpinnings have given allowed it to be both secure and reliable while giving old-school *nix users another way to interact with both their Mac and other computers.

- The increasing trend toward Software as a Service. Most applications are moving to the web, and the web is typically OS agnostic. Most web apps (barring ActiveX), if properly made, can run on any platform in any browser. Flash and Java have also helped make things cross-platform.

- The maturity of virtualization such that it's a very viable alternative.

- Microsoft's stumble with Vista, along with the easy crapification of XP.

My Story:
I'm 26 and work as an IT consultant (and have a BBA in MIS). I grew-up playing with the Apple ][e throughout elementary school and have fond memories. My first computer had Windows 3.1 and was a Windows user since then. In middle school I got to use a few Macs with OS 7.5.1. While I only used them a few times a week, there was something intangible that I liked about them, but everyone I knew used PCs, etc.

Fast forward several years to 2005, when Tiger came out. A friend of mine had an old white iBook G3/500 that he didn't use anymore. I bought it from him for $150 so I could dabble in OSX. Even though that machine wasn't very fast, I was hooked. I took the machine everywhere and would get lots of compliments on a laptop that was over 4 years old. Then came the switch to Intel, and things were getting more exciting.

In February 2007 I bought a Core2 Duo MacBook Pro and the rest is history. I'm so happy, and I haven't looked back. Don't get me wrong, I fix Windows networks, servers and workstations for a living, but I get to do it all from the comfort of OSX. Best of all, I don't have to "bring my work home with me" in the sense that I don't have to deal with Windows all day at work and then deal with it at home (too much maintenance needed). I get to relax at home and actually USE my computer. Imagine that, a computer that works for you and not the other way around!