So don’t call me ignorant, clueless or easily duped. I’ve been in the business since the 1970’s. I remember the original Apple 1, the Apple ][, the Lisa and the original Macintosh. I kept an eye on Apple, but it never seemed to me to be a serious contender in the business environment. It worked well where graphics were key (photography, design, video editing, etc) but didn’t seem “serious” enough for business applications. When the Mac/PC ads started, it was amusing to watch them, but still didn’t convince me, either.

What triggered me to look seriously at the Mac was the fact that my brand new Core-2 Quad processor PC with 4 gig of memory and a blindingly quick hard drive and all the latest bells and whistles was just pig-ugly slow after loading the obligatory anti-virus stuff that you have to have to be in the Windows-nation. I visited the local Apple department in the Microcenter store just out of curiosity. I avoided the Apple store because I didn’t want to have to talk to a potential mac-bigot about it. I wanted to assess it for myself.

I sat in front of an iMac 20 inch monitor that had VMWare installed. In the dock was an icon for Windows XP! I clicked on it and to my utter surprise, windows XP Pro fired up. It booted faster than on my quad core Dell! I moved around it in for a while, then closed it just like on my Dell. It even made all the same sounds on open and close. But it was faster!

So then I explored the Mac environment and I liked the intuitive feel of the interface. I did some research later on the internet about what I had to buy, and it turned out that I needed only two packages: VMWare if I wanted XP and MissingSync to sync my Axim.

After a couple of weeks of research, I went back and bought the 24 inch Intel iMac. When I got it home, I took it out of the box, connected the power cord, network cable, keyboard and my Axim cradle. I powered it up and it just ran. It found the network, my networked printers, all of the other workstations and the internet router in about 15 seconds. It connected, asked what printer I wanted as the prime one, offered to take my picture to establish my account, asked for me to set a password and then politely dropped me on the desktop. No questions, it was exactly like in the store!

I bought VMWare on the internet, downloaded it, clicked on the .dmg file to install and it ran perfectly. I installed XP Pro and it ran. I bought and downloaded MissingSync, installed it and it ran, perfectly. I downloaded NeoOffice (free), installed it and it ran, perfectly. It opens and saves Office XP and Office 2003 documents perfectly. It opens and saves Excel and Powerpoint files as well. And it’s smart enough to know which is which and switch user interface if you open one from the “wrong” application.

OK, so now when I see the Mac/PC ads I laugh harder because Mac is so right. Mac runs out of the box, period.

BTW, I don’t boot Windows very often. There is one package I like from MobiPocket that lets me make books for MobiReader on my Axim. They don’t support Mac, so I have to boot XP to build the book. That’s it for me. I build the source document for the book in NeoOffice, export to a .doc file, drag and drop it to the XP desktop, build the book and then leave XP. Nice!

Yes, I acknowledge that the hardware environment doesn’t have the thousands of choices ctitanic referred to, but then again, I don’t need thousands of choices. I need a machine that works, reliably, at what I want, and the Mac does that very well indeed.

And I stand by my original statement about the new MS ad. There was nothing in it that remotely addressed the technical issues MS has or that in any way even suggested that I should buy an MS PC. If what they wanted was to introduce Bill Gates, that was an expensive introduction. I don’t know what is to come in the ad series, but it’s got a loooong way to go to get to the point, I suspect.

Actually I’ve been using them for over 25 years.

“Granted I’m not old by any means.”

Actually it’s very evident that you are young. Your immature attitude stands out very prominently.

“Have you ever tried to get anything to work on a Mac properly that isn’t Apple software?”

I have several pieces of software which are not designed by Apple, installed on both of my Macs without issue.

“Mac users aren’t adept at using computers much”

Right, that’s why most photo, music, and graphics work are done on Macs.

“I think you should poke around on this site ;) One thing PC users can do that Mac users can’t”

Sorry, but you aren’t the first to rely on that lame excuse of a site to support their invalid arguement. Sadly, people feel threatened by Apple. So much so, they have to resort to creating such sites to make themselves feel better. Do you feel better now?

“I dare you to try to establish a HTPC using an Apple”

SageTV. Look it up.

“I believe Apple users have this deluded sense of higher self-worth and they believe they’re part of some secret club that others don’t know about and if they choose to use Microsoft based computers they are ignorant.”

I believe the only ignorance here is being demonstrated by you.

“It takes brains not to ruin a Windows PC”

You are correct, however it also takes brains to realize that running a system which doesn’t require any Anti-Virus software is a huge benefit!

“To get a virus on a Windows PC you have to be a complete imbecile and using a Mac it might be a tad more difficult”

Not a complete imbecile. I’ve seen several very intelligent people get a virus on their computer simply because they aren’t computer literate. Not knowing a computer like the back of your hand in no way makes someone an imbecile. Your COMMENT demonstrates being an imbecile more than anything since there are very few (if any) genuine virus’ capable of infecting OSX.

No where have I said that my Apple is superior. If I really felt that way I wouldn’t still have Windows machines running in my house.

You have no grounds for your arguments and have resorted to petty insults, biased opinions, and ignorant comments.

Thank you for providing me with the best laugh I’ve had in awhile! Enjoy your evening. :)

I’ve been using computers since I was 5. Granted I’m not old by any means. When I was 5 the fastest computers were 8086’s and there was no such thing as a hard drive for the average person. This meant booting all apps from a floppy-booted OS loaded into memory. I have quite a long-winded relationship with Microsoft. I know that they are far from perfect but a WHOLE LOT of things just work with Windows. The problem with Windows lies in badly coded programs. You feed garbage in… guess what… you get garbage out. This occurs in ANY situation on ANY platform with ANY hardware including your beloved Apples and OS X.

I’m not bitter that Apple is using BSD.. It’s f’ing amazing. It makes me appreciate BSD’s presence of mind to not limit their code using a stupid copyleft-like license.

Apple shouldn’t have fooled with it.. They would have had a much more stable operating system if they hadn’t…

I think you should poke around on this site ;) One thing PC users can do that Mac users can’t

By the way… I dare you to try to establish a HTPC using an Apple…. good luck ;) Oh right…. AppleTV… that was fun…

I think I’ll keep my Mini.. it’s useful… I use it to download files from cell phones via bluetooth since it’s built in.. other than that, it’s pretty much delegated to playing youtube videos on the television ;) I don’t want to give it too hard of a task, that whopping 1.5ghz single core processor was such a good idea on Apple’s behalf and not to mention the price (as is the case with ALL their computers).

However in the future, I believe it will still be useful. It makes a pretty table ornament. :]

In closing I would like to say that we will never agree on our opinions of each other’s choice of operating systems. I believe Apple users have this deluded sense of higher self-worth and they believe they’re part of some secret club that others don’t know about and if they choose to use Microsoft based computers they are ignorant. All the fallacies they believe about how inferior Windows is and how superior OS X is, is the reason why I dislike 90% of Apple users and Apples.

In truth, Apples are no more stable than a properly used Windows PC. It takes brains not to ruin a Windows PC… Apple’s are harder to mess up by the less computer-savvy… To get a virus on a Windows PC you have to be a complete imbecile and using a Mac it might be a tad more difficult… so I guess that’s their strong point. Good for dummies who can’t help themselves but to click on dumb things and execute them without thinking…

Please don’t believe your Apple is superior to a Windows PC because it’s harder to mess up… That just makes all Apple users look bad and perpetually continues the debate.

MikeyMike: So sorry for accusing you of not owning a Mac. However your comments are still nothing short of ignorant.

I am not clueless, or easily duped. I did not fall for the commercials (although they’re hilarious because they’re true). I switched to a Mac because of it’s simplicity and ease of use. I’ve spent countless hours actually USING my Macs rather than countless hours tweaking and performing maintenance on Windows to keep it working as it’s supposed to.

Macs really do “Just Work”, where as Windows requires constant maintenance and attention.

It sounds like you’re bitter or pissed off that Apple managed to profit from using an already “proven” operating system. It makes sense rather than continuing to kludge code together and calling it Windows Vista. The Wow Starts Now?? What a laugh…..I’m still waiting to be wowed by Vista (which I use every day at work and do like, however I feel that OSX is a MUCH more advanced OS in comparison). I run a Windows Home Server, and an HTPC on Windows XP so I am extremely familiar with Windows and it’s “quirks”

You can believe whatever you want about me, as I will do about you. Know this however, fanboy status is usually granted to those who blindly follow others and base their opinions on what they’re told. I’ve based my opinions on knowledge and personal experience, which exempts me from that elite club.

If you aren’t using your Mac, send it my way. I’ll gladly give it a good home.

I believe you are just another Apple fanboy who fell for the stupid commercials.

By the way here is a picture of my Mac: http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/9676/dsc0451so3.jpg

So I do have one… Just in case you think I’m bs’ing.

I have criticized Apple for making “stupid” ads. I also have said multiple times that making an OS for a closed hardware is a child play. And that from the point of view of hardware I do not like what I see made by Apple.

That’s all I have said. Please, do not put anything else in my mouth.

I do respect you and your opinion. Please respect me.

What a closed, narrow minded, ignorant attitude!

When I actually sat down and opened my mind to the possibility of using something other than Winblows, I was extremely surprised by the ease of use, and power that OSX offers.

Yes, it “Just Works”, it really does…..but like everything out there, problems do arise. NOTHING is problem free.

To use the argument “If they just worked their wouldn’t be tons of Mac help forums on the internet now would there?” is absolute rubbish. It’s an extremely poor attempt (flawed logic at best) to cast a negative shadow on Apple products. The argument has absolutely no merit whatsoever.

To MikeyMike and ctitanic, it’s painfully obvious that neither of you have ever used a Mac and therefore have no right to make any complaints about the platform or OS. In order to have an educated opinion, you must have knowledge about the subject matter……which in this case you don’t.

Fortunately, Apple’s products are spreading and becoming more and more popular… as this happens their flaws will be shown in great light and the novelty will wear off rapidly.

Like CTITANIC said above me, It’s easy to make an OS work on a proprietary platform/similar hardware and what’s sad is, they STILL have many issues… Imagine if OS X was available to all hardware models without Apple’s control… Bugs galore.

If MS would just concentrate on getting its product line to work well instead of on advertising, the advertising wouldn’t be necessary. How much better could Vista have been with an additional $300M development? How good could XP get with an infusion of $300M in improvements? How good could Windows Mobile be with just a portion of that same $300M?

So, you can stick with the huge market. I’ll stick with something that works well.