Are you a PC convert?

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
the topic of pc --> mac users seems to be pretty popular right now, so lets see how many long time windows users have converted recently. i'll start with me and my description. if applicable, reply with your's. hope this isn't too cheesy:



Name: Progmac Progestein

Age: 20

Occupation: Student

Other Occupation: Windows Systems Administrator

Old System: university provided 1.4 ghz gateway wintel box. 128 ram. nothing else interesting about it.

Old System Comments: it was a 1.4 ghz, and i guess that is fast, but the thing ran like a piece of poo. My gf 500mhz Celeron with equal ram ran better. Figure that one out.

New System: 800 mhz 2002 quicksilver w/17" crt graphite studio monitor.

Reason for switching: tired of reformatting my crappy computers, get sick of seeing wintel boxes all day at work. Also I was (and am) confused about the inconsistancy of PCs with equal specifications. (One 1.2 ghz duron may run significantly better than another 1.2 ghz duron with same ram, etc.)



So that's my story. Reply please!
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 28
    andymacandymac Posts: 11member
    I converted from pc to mac a little over a year ago. I started a new job as an office assistant at a university and all they had were macs. It took a few weeks to adjust and have loved it ever since. I'm not sure what the first mac I used was. One of the old beige towers. About two months after I starting working we got new 466 mhz PowerMac G4s. I fell in love. when time came buy my home computer I bought an 500 mhz indigo iMac. I love how easy it is to use a mac and how everything just seems to make more sense, how it is set up, etc. My wife has now convert to macs and we're hoping to purchase an ibook before too long (going back to school). I never thought I'd use a mac, but now I can't ever see myself buying another pc.
  • Reply 2 of 28
    progmacprogmac Posts: 1,850member
    i always tell people that if they use a mac for three weeks, they will never want to use anything else
  • Reply 3 of 28
    marsmars Posts: 51member
    I converted back in 1988. From a 286 running the superior DOS to a MacII running OS4.1.
  • Reply 4 of 28
    tristantristan Posts: 79member
    Name: Tristan

    Age: 25

    Occupation: Unix System Admin

    Old System: Where do I start. 2 many to count

    New System: ibook 600 combo (just to see if i liked this apple thingy), 800 superdrive iMac (yep i like this apple thingy) soon to be powerbook 800

    Reason for switching: Got tired of trying to find the right version of linux that had a nice GUI. Red Hat is okay. Mandrake is probably the easiest to use (GUI that is)..and tried other flavors, slackware, FreeBSD, etc. But I wanted something that had a really nice GUI that my Fiance could use and that gave me the power of Unix and scripting. I will admit that I like NT 4 workstation and server....2000 advanced server has some really really neat tools, espcecially after they incorporated Terminal Server into the OS and XP is way better than 9x anything. However, none of them seem to have a personality and just aren't darn fun to work with...seems like work! My 2 cents
  • Reply 5 of 28
    cubedudecubedude Posts: 1,556member
    Name: Trocks

    Age: 13

    Occupation: Student

    Old sys: Dell Latitude laptop

    Comments: Ran like crap

    Why I switched: Tired of the windows interface, what the f*ck is an illegal opperation , and hackers/viruses.

    When: 1 1/2 years ago



    [ 06-14-2002: Message edited by: CubeDude ]</p>
  • Reply 6 of 28
    sizzle chestsizzle chest Posts: 1,133member
    I'm a PC convert but not TOO recent



    Name: Sizzle Chest



    Age: 36



    Occupation: IT Manager (NT and Unix)



    Other Occupation: ambient record label owner



    Old System: Many Windows PCs



    Old System Comments: Every version of Win sucked rocks until Win2k, by which time I had already moved most of my activities over to the Mac in frustration. I still use a PC for a few things -- and of course use these machines at work all day.



    New Systems: iBook 600 combo, Powermac G4 450 dual



    Reason for switching: Built up a strong hatred of Windows over the years (though the fact that it's so high maintenance is keeping me indispensible at my day job), and had to buy a Mac (an el-cheapo closeout Performa 6200) because I started a record label and the package designs had to be submitted to the print people in Mac format. The rest is history!
  • Reply 7 of 28
    stevesteve Posts: 523member
    I'd been a Mac admirer for a while before I actually bought one. I believe I began my obsession in the summer of 2000, after I watched the Steve Jobs keynote in which he unveiled iTools. After that, I wanted to learn as much about the company--and watch as many of those archived keynotes as I could. Working on a crap Gateway from late 1997 with a 266MHz PII, I so desparately wanted an iMac Special Edition (and a Cube that I could never afford).



    If you had told me I was going to be a Mac obsessor back in 1999, I would've laughed my ass off at you. Funny how things change. I think it was OS X that did it for me. Sure, I had watched the QT movies, and read all about Darwin, Cocoa, and the like, but after finally USING it (edit: the Public Beta, which some fanatic employee was nice enough to install to the pleasure of passers-by) on an indigo iMac at the local Sears, I was pumped.



    In May of 2001, I bought my first Mac: an iBook, with an AirPort card and base station. It was too slow for me. I sold the entire rig a week or so later to my best friend's mom for full price. She still uses it.



    The past October, I grabbed myself a 466MHz PowerMac G4 and 15" Studio Display for $2000. It seemed like a good price, then, and it was certainly faster than the crappy iBook with the 66MHz system bus...



    Now I need a PowerBook... let's see how far they've come by 2004 (just in time for my sophomore year in college). <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />



    [ 06-14-2002: Message edited by: Jon Rubinstein ]</p>
  • Reply 8 of 28
    I just recently switched back in december. I have been using pc's all my life (i'm 18). My father works in telecommunications so there has always been a computer in my house.



    The main reason i switched was that i really dont like windows and i dont want anything to do with the inconvienince involved with using linux. Since i switched i completely feel in love with my ibook 600. I spend a lot more time on the computer now and end up doing alot more than i used to.



    currently i use my pIII450 for p2p programs like kazaa. Unfortunatley i still get stuck helping everyone in my family with thier silly pc problems, there is no escape.
  • Reply 9 of 28
    jerombajeromba Posts: 357member
    Name: Jeromba

    Age: 33

    Occupation: Graphic Designer

    Other Occupation: AI Forums

    Old System:486 DX2 66 Mhz

    New System: QuickSilver 2001 Dual 800

    Reason for switch: I was tired that all the works I do in PageMaker and CorelDRAW was not ok when i output them on an imagesetter. The service bureau was always laughing about PC so in 1993, a saturday morning, I buy my first mac. It was a PowerMac 7100/80 with a 17" Apple Display.

    And all was running well with Illustrator 5.5 and XPress 3.32 on Mac OS 7.5.1 !

    Since then I upgraded a little :

    PowerMac 7600/120, 8500/150, 9600/350, Beige G3/300, Blue & White G3/350, G4/400, iBook Tangerine, G4 Dual 533, Ti 400, QuickSilver Dual 800 and an iBook 600... that's it.



    OMG :eek: I forgot my 2 Cubes !!!



    [ 06-14-2002: Message edited by: jeromba ]</p>
  • Reply 10 of 28
    sizzle chestsizzle chest Posts: 1,133member
    That's quite a lot of upgrades, Jeromba! Makes me want to rush out and buy a dual 1ghz G4.
  • Reply 11 of 28
    frawgzfrawgz Posts: 547member
    Guys, guys! We're not called "converts," we're called "switchers."
  • Reply 12 of 28
    leonisleonis Posts: 3,427member
    Name: Pollux



    Age: 25



    Occupation: (Currently)Freelance Multimedia Guy (Mostly on illustration stuff)



    Other Occupation: AI Forums spammer



    Systems that used to and currently (in bold) own :

    Not much.....compare to Murbot



    -386 SX

    -Performa 5200

    -Beige 266Mhz G3

    -Yikes G4 400

    -Sawtooth G4 450

    -Mystic Dual 500 G4

    -Dual GHz "SlowSilver" (tm)

    -iMac DV SE

    -MainStreet PowerBook G3

    -Pismo PowerBook 400

    -iBook DVD 600

    - 200Mhz Pentium I PC

    - 400Mhz Pentium II PC

    - Athlon 950 (oc to 1.1GHz) PC

    - 1.2 GHz Pentinum III PC

    - Dual 1.2GHz Athlon PC with DDR



    Reason for switch: Currently (will alway be) using both platforms. I don't think I can either say I "convert" or "switch"



    [ 06-14-2002: Message edited by: Leonis ]</p>
  • Reply 13 of 28
    Name: Big Fil

    Age: 27

    Occupation: Ops Coordinator/corporate slave

    Other Occupation: Wakeboard cinemetographer

    Old System: 450Mhz HP Pavillion. Various computers at work and at my parents house

    Old System Comments: None could hang with video editing and OSX kills any desires to use windows ever again even though I still have to at work.

    New System: Dual 1gig PowerMac.

    Reason for switching: Needed a reliable system for video editing without the hastle. Used a friends iMac to do a video and it worked with no hastle and the final nail in the windows coffin was OSX
  • Reply 14 of 28
    cyko95cyko95 Posts: 391member
    Name: cyko95

    Age: 24

    Occupation: Graphic Artist/Web Designer

    Other Occupation: Geek

    Old System: 900Mhz Athlon TBird/Self Built

    New System: iBook 700

    Reason for switching: Needed a new challenge personally is what got me interested in Mac. OS X hooked me based on previous UNIX experience. Also, I needed a Mac for work since i'm doing Graphic Art, and Video Production now.
  • Reply 15 of 28
    I recently switched back to the Mac platform, which I had abandoned during the Performa/Quadra years. The company I worked for at the time switched to Wintel when Windows 95 came out, and I got caught up in the hype that this was forward progress...



    What brought me back into the fold? A combination of OS X and Final Cut Pro, with iTunes as the icing on the cake. After several years of struggling with Windows machines where I always felt like I was working around the restrictions of the OS, it's sooooo nice to use a computer that enhances my creative impulses rather than getting in the way of them.



    I'm now the proud owner of a 667 Mhz G4 tower and a brand new PowerBook 800 Mhz. The only time I use my two year old Dell laptop anymore is when I need to configure my wireless base station (made by Cisco) or test some HTML that I created on the Mac.



    And that former employer that switched from Mac to Windows? I hear through the grapevine that they just started allowing employees to purchase Macs again...
  • Reply 16 of 28
    dmgeistdmgeist Posts: 153member
    I started with a gateway pc with 98. <img src="graemlins/embarrassed.gif" border="0" alt="[Embarrassed]" /> Then after learning

    that my $1500.00 piece of crap cost gateway.inc around $200.00 to

    make, I learned how to build my own PieceofCrap.



    Sometime after I started helpingfriends with there pc trouble-shooting. After my free copy of Xp came out and I hacked it to pieces I was so fed up with the pc's and trying to maintain there ever increasing list of problems I sold both of them and and bought my ibook. And to think I still have'nt paid that company for that money i borrowed to buy that piece of garbage Gateway PC. <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />



    Mac users will always win, becuase pc users are dumb.

    <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />
  • Reply 17 of 28
    progmacprogmac Posts: 1,850member
    [quote]Originally posted by dmgeist:

    <strong>I was so fed up with the pc's and trying to maintain there ever increasing list of problems I sold both of them and and bought my ibook.

    </strong><hr></blockquote>



    This is the whole thing. Speaking from the perspective of the guy everyone calls to fix computers, build computers, fix windows or whatever, there reaches a point when it goes from fun/hobby to annoying/chore. For me, i reached this point about a year ago. I quit formatting and fixing my own windows machine all of the time, just because I got so sick of it. I've been a PC user for about 10 years, and have probably formatted my own machine 40 times. This is absurd!



    Uh, yeah.
  • Reply 18 of 28
    cablecable Posts: 76member
    I'm not a convert, but I have an old Macintosh SE and IICX in my basement. I used the PC before the Mac, but I did use the Mac for a while. I also had a C64, an Amiga 1000, and then a 386 clone. I use a lot of different sytems, so I cannot classify myself as just being limited to just one system.



    Linux is gaining marketshare each year, almost doubling each year. Even Wal*Mart sells Linux pre-loaded on PC systems now. But Linux has a long road to go before it can get the user friendliness of OSX or MacOS 9.X/8.X, etc.



    Still <a href="http://www.winehq.org"; target="_blank">WINE</a> is shaping up nicely for Linux.
  • Reply 19 of 28
    Name: Chris DiEugenio

    Age: 17

    Former Machine: IBM machine running DOS circa 1994

    Job: Papa Johns Pizza <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />

    Current Machines In My House: iMac 800, iMac 450, G4 Cube 450, iBook 500 Combo, Titanium 500, Powermac Dual 800 w/ 17'' Apple display.

    What Made Me Switch: The simple fact that DOS was **** , the fact that I use Windows 2000 every day in school administered by people that are supposedly professionals. My brother is also a big reason for our switching. My entire family sort of relies on us for computer know how and advice. My mom is a lawyor and therefore she needed that IBM trash to keep her law files on. Once we got our first Mac in 1995, a Performa of some kind, we were just delighted by the ease of use. Since then there has been no turning back.



    My entire family uses Macs but it is only my brother and I who are really addicted. We are all happy and would never go back.



    Windows is so bad. Nobody can say I am skewed because I have only used DOS because I use Win 2000 and have used XP and most of the other Windows OS's at my friends house or on my Mom's IBM Thinkpad. Windows Blows.?
  • Reply 20 of 28
    snoopysnoopy Posts: 1,901member
    I switched in 1995. I used Windows 3.1 at work, school and home, but when I bought my son his first computer I got a Mac, so I could learn something new, and then teach my son how to use it. Within two weeks I really preferred it to Windows. I was going to try Windows 95 when it came out, but my almost new PC (386 SX) did not meet the minimum requirements. That did it. If I had to replace a one year old computer to use the latest Windows OS, I would just buy another Mac. My current Mac is a 1997 Beige G3 running OS X. Looking forward to a G4 one of these days.
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