It's a Cold Day in Hell: I just Bought a Mac
As a businessman who grew up with DOS in the 1980s, used all the versions of Windows, left my beloved WordPerfect to switch to Word, I have now done the unthinkable: I just spent $4,552 on a top-of the line Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz desktop computer with a load of add-on software.
I used to chuckle at Macs. They were only used by graphic artists, oddballs and foreigners. Only 5% of all computer users own Macs. I told my math-genius son Ted to avoid Macs because I considered them orphan technology. Macs were the computer equivalent of Betamax.
The straw that broke the camel's back was when my computer got hacked last fall. Someone driving through me leafy suburban neighborhood with a packet sniffer found my wireless network, got around the encrypted security login, bypassed the firewall, slipped past the windows logon password and vandalized my computer. He nearly put me out of business. However my fastidious backing up and off-network extra computers saved me. A triple layer of security did not protect me.
When my tech support goddess picked up my ravaged computer, she said, "Why don't you get a Mac? They never get hacked or hit with viruses. And I think you're Mac person."
Her last sentence hit home. I looked in the mirror, saw a guy who left senior management at age 50 to be an entrepreneur. I like learning new software, so that makes me non-mainstream. I speak German, have a parrot who says "Guten Tag" and "Achtung", so there's plenty of foreigner in me. I do spend time snipping, cropping and enhancing photos, so there's the design element. I realized the tech goddess was right.
Also:
* Macs have equivalents to Outlook, Word and PowerPoint. Files created in Mac are fully transferable to PCs. My HP printer, flat screen monitor and Treo PDA will work with Mac.
* I am sick to death of viruses, worms and Trojan horses that routinely cripple my PC. I have to run an antivirus programs constantly -- and it gives me warnings ever hour that it stopped a cyber intruder. Viruses, worms, Trojan horses are unknown in the Mac world.
* I despise the browser hijackers, malware, adware and spyware that attack PCs. These snakes don't bite Macs.
* I am tired of making Bill Gates the richest man on the planet.
Sure, a PC would have been a fraction of the cost. But I'll gladly pay extra to be free of hackers and viruses. So call me a turncoat, a prodigal son or an early re-adopter, but I'm in the Mac world now.
Will my new colleagues please introduce themselves to me? Do you use a Mac? What made you decide make the switch?
I switched to Mac's last August. My only comment has always been, "why did I wait so long?" Best of all, I am no longer under the influences of the Dark Sith Lord Gates. Welcome to the good side of the force.
Great Move!!!
And check out the MacLawyers mailing list at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MacLaw/
Don't look back!
Our law office has been on Macs for seven years; prior to that the partners used Macs at their old firm.
We are sold on Macs. I am able to do 99% of the IT work in the firm, including hardware upgrades, networking, and software upgrades.
The Macintosh platform and operating system are are simple to use, intuitive, and rock steady. Our Macs have never been whacked with a virus, although we constantly had problems with our Windows-based server (which has been replaced with a Mac server). The Mac community is very helpful and collegiate, and the MacLaw group mentioned in the earlier comment is an incredible resource.
Interestingly, I just received the weekly email newsletter "Kibbles and Bytes". It's written by Don Mayer, the head of Small Dog Electronics, an Apple shop. He's makes a very impassioned, succinct argument regarding the benefits of running Macs. You can sign up for his newsletters at smalldog.com.