I've had this debate a million times over with a million different people and I thought maybe I should try and explain it in a bit more depth. I often speak at great lengths to convince average PC users to switch to Mac and they always want one simple answer.
The simple answer is a simple question: How much is your time worth?
WHY SHOULD I LISTEN TO YOU?
Let me explain a bit about myself before you go off saying "Oh, he's just another fanboy." For 20 years of my life I lived and breathed on a Windows-based machine. I've gone from Dos, to Windows 3.1, to 95, ME, 2000, XP, to Vista. XP was by far the best. All that time working on a PC and I never thought there was anything wrong. All those computers I fixed. All the times I've had to fix my own computer. And all that time...
I WAS AN AVID HATER OF APPLE!! I HATED Apple! I made fun of my friends who had Apples. "Haha! You can't play video games!" They looked funny, the hardware is harder to upgrade, software is harder to find. I didn't see why anyone would want to switch to Mac. What good is stability if you can't even do what you want to do?
I started on a PC at the ripe age of 6. Windows wasn't even out yet. I was in first grade and I LOVED video games. We had an Atari. At the time my sister was about to start High School so my parents bought our first family computer. It was the magic box that could do math problems, print things, and best of all it played computer games! From there it was all downhill. I learned everything I could figure out to do with a computer in my quest for more games. I wrote my first Q-BASIC program in 4th grade. As I grew up, it became more about trying to squeeze as much juice out of my magic box. New games came out requiring more processing I didn't have/couldn't afford, how could I tweak my system to get more out of it?
This went on for years. Eventually I went to college to study Computer Science. While at Georgia Tech, I got a part-time job as a computer technician, fixing a network for a small company. Eventually I realized that I didn't want to code for a living for the rest of my life.
After dropping out of Georgia Tech, I realized I wanted to be on the designing side of technology rather than the programming side. So I packed up and went to Art School, studying to become a Graphic Designer.
This is where Apple comes in. Obviously you know Graphic Artists and Macs go back a long ways. After getting frustrated with compatability between my Dell at home and the Apple computers we used every day at school, I got my first Mac. A 1.33Ghz iBook G4 notebook.
On my 2.6 Ghz PC I was playing Half-Life 2 and Doom3, the two most processor-power-hungry games available at the time, but I could NOT run Photoshop and Illustrator at the same time without massive slowdowns.
This little laptop with half the Ghz could run Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Flash, a browser, whatever. It could easily keep up with whatever it is I wanted to do. Not to mention OS X was a sight for XP users to get jealous of. It was pretty, but it couldn't handle games. I tried Halo and Command & Conquer Generals. Both worked fine until a lot of enemies got onscreen. Then they became really slow.
Now, I must say that I am NOT the average user. I use my computer for EVERYTHING. I work on my computer, I pay bills, I order pizza, I watch movies, I listen to music. I google anything and everything I've ever wondered in life and how to do everything. I still don't understand why people ask me how to fix their PC. GOOGLE IT! Google's a verb now, it's ok.
I'M NOT A GRAPHIC ARTIST OR A GAMER, WHY SHOULD I CARE?
Have you ever had a virus?
Have you ever had Spyware?
Do you hate defragmenting?
Do you even know what defragmenting is?
Ever mess up your registry?
Have you ever hit ctrl+alt+delete and wondered what the hell all that crap is running in the background?
Have you ever lost internet access because you couldn't configure something properly? Have you ever lost a peripheral (printer, camera, scanner, etc) because you couldn't configure it properly?
Have you ever had so much trouble trying to install something new that you had to give up and return it?
Have you ever had your computer become unreasonably slow after a while that you had to re-format?
These are THE BIGGEST reason for switching to a Mac. As a PC User, I got accustomed to having anti-spyware and anti-virus software running and interfering with things in the background. I got accustomed to defragmenting once a week to keep my PC running smooth. I even got accustomed to re-formatting and re-installing EVERYTHING once or twice a year. It never bothered me that much. I was always happy to see my PC running like new again. These are things that PC users are used to doing. Why not? You HAVE to do those things to keep your PC healthy and running.
However, MOST PEOPLE DON'T EVEN DO THIS! Most people don't defragment, if they know what it is. Most people don't know if their software missed a virus or spyware. Most people don't know how to remove a virus or spyware if they even knew they had one! From my experience, about 70% PC users will say they don't use their computer very often anymore because something is wrong with it. I've seen MANY people just go out and buy a new computer because their old one is "too slow" or "Has too many viruses on it."
Then there's the 20% who has spent hundreds even THOUSANDS a year on their PC to get it checked up or fixed. Yes thousands! My old boss told me she just spent $10k to have a technician come and backup 7 computers and reformat. Her logic is that these were "special server machines" and they needed a special expensive technician. C'mon. I know she has 4 "Home Office" machines from Dell. Along with some old Dell laptops. So, for someone who doesn't know what they're doing, I guess it's worth paying somebody else $10grand to copy and delete files for you.
My friend's dad says he has a guy come in once a year who, for $300, will come to his house and "make his computer fast again." Did you know that Geek Squad charges $50 JUST to come to your house. That doesn't even include services or a guarantee that they can fix it, that's JUST to call them up and say "Hey, can you come over?"
Finally there's the last 10% who knows how to fix their own computer. The funny thing is that this 10% of people are probably the ones who will find this article when it's the rest of the people that need to read this.
Now, on a Mac? You don't need any of that. My computer is now 4 years old and I have never experienced a slowdown, I've never had a virus, I've never had spyware, I've never defragmented, I've never reformatted, there is no registry, there is nothing running in the background, I've never had problems with any peripherals, I've never had problems with the internet.
Am I saying that this is a magical computer with no faults or problems? Almost. I've had 2 problems with my Mac. One time I installed Norton Anti Virus and it almost ruined my machine. Ironic huh? Don't do that. If you do get Norton Anti Virus(which you don't need), DON'T INSTALL IT. You are supposed to boot from it, not install it. I actually have not touched Anti Virus since this incident when I first got my computer. The second problem I had is my hard drive crashed and I had to get it replaced. I spent $300 on Applecare and sent them my computer. They not only replaced my hard drive, but they replaced the latch that I broke, the mother board("just to be safe" they said), and the entire screen because "it had a scratch on it." And I was at first mad that they charged me $300, but then I practically got a brand new computer in return.
MY FIRST YEAR WITH APPLE
I couldn’t tell you a big difference between my two machines. I got them networked, I was sharing files and printers. I had the most trouble configuring my Windows machine more than my Apple, but other than that no biggie. The two computers went well together and I couldn’t really give you a definitive choice at first.
Then my Dell died. The power supply died somehow and my computer kept overheating. My Dell was custom built when I got it. Apparently Dell used a power supply for my computer that was so customized that they, along with every other computer hardware supplier, no longer carried it in stock. Dell wanted to charge me $400 for a new power supply. I shopped around online and only to find that I could get a brand new better PC for the amount anyone wanted for that power supply used. So I basically stopped using it. I was using my laptop more anyways, no big deal.
Again, at this point I’m still not set that Apple is better.
YEAR 2 WITH APPLE
As my Dell lay in pieces in the corner collecting dust, I continue my life. I didn’t notice anything significant about my Mac for a while. It was a computer. It did everything I needed it to do. I forgot about PC gaming and went to my PS2. It wasn’t until PCs were kind of thrown back into my life when I started to truly appreciate my Mac.
I won’t go into the boring details, but suffice to say I was STILL the PC expert among friends, family, coworkers, bosses, clients. I volunteered myself to fix all sorts of PC problems. It always came down to the same old questions...
Do you have antivirus?
Do you have some anti-spyware programs?
Do you defragment?
I always got the same answers...
I think so...
No.
What’s defragmenting?
Oh, and most people’s antivirus was out of date. I’ve watched more than one person do this... They booted up their computer, the out-of-date notice popped up, and they just closed it without looking at it.
Slowdowns and annoyances were the most common problems. Other problems included: getting windows to recognize _______. Wireless routers, wireless cards, wireless printers, wired printers, wired internet connections, GPS system, PDA, another computer, local networks, etc. Usually it’s as simple as finding the right driver, but again most people don’t know how to do ANY of this stuff that I’ve been talking about.
One day I got a splitting headache from trying to fix my dad’s network. He just bought a new laptop with Windows Vista (after I told him just about everything you’ve just read), and it wasn’t working with anything he had. Vista wouldn’t recognize his printer, his camera, his router. Anybody own a HP or Lexmark All-in-one printer? Neither of those will work in Vista. I spent several hours trying to configure crap only to find that Vista was incompatible with LOTS of stuff and that drivers don’t exist for many things. After getting most of the things only partially working I realized that I haven’t had this computer-hate-induced stress headache in YEARS! Wow. I remember getting these headaches all the time when I was a tech guy and when my PC would crash on me unexpectedly. I used to keep a bottle of Excedrin on my desk.
Back to Mac. No problems. I stated it earlier. I’ve never had any of those issues with a Mac. There are no drivers. Most peripherals work once you plug them in. There is no need for defragmenting. No viruses. No Spyware. No headaches. No more Excedrin!
WELL IS THERE ANYTHING YOU MISS ON A PC?
Yes. I miss Winamp, I miss Counter Strike, and I miss Soundforge. And to be perfectly honest, I kind of miss my yearly computer reformatting. It was like Spring cleaning on my computer. You got to start fresh and it was so rewarding to see your computer have a high FPS! Oh well, I guess I’ll just deal with consoles and my computer not slowing down.
Enjoy your PC Headache SUCKER!
