Switching: How long have you used a Mac?

[G4Man]

We've had Macs since the original all-in-one box. OK, not the ORIGINAL Mac, but ever since the SE.

[cliffconceicao]

We never owned a PC. We now have a G4 and a G3 (beige). The G3 is used by my 5 year old granddaughter. I think we will continue to use Macs for a long time.

Cliff

[yellow]

Quote: Originally Posted by yellow After 207 total votes, ranked: 1) 86v (41.55%) "I'm a Mac "Lifer".." 2) 31v (14.98%) "I switched during Panther's lifetime.." 3) 26v (12.56%) "I switched during Jaguar's lifetime.." 4) 21v (10.14%) "I've been a Mac user for more than 5 years.." 5) 17v (08.21%) "I plan on switching sometime in the near future.." 6) 16v (07.73%) "I switched prior to Aug 2002.." 7) 05v (02.42%) "I just switched for Tiger.." 8) 04v (01.93%) "I just switched for the Mac Mini.." 9) 01v (00.48%) "The obligatory "Other".."

Well, I've been quite busy, but we now have over 600 votes!

Sorry for the delay..

After 603 votes (!):

01) 279v (46.27%) I'm a Mac "Lifer"..
02) 97v (16.09%) I switched during Panther's lifetime..
03) 69v (11.44%) I switched during Jaguar's lifetime..
04) 61v (10.12%) I've been a Mac user for more than 5 years..
05) 33v (05.47%) I switched prior to Aug 2002..
06) 23v (03.81%) I plan on switching sometime in the near future..
07) 21v (03.48%) I just switched for Tiger..
08) 10v (01.66%) I just switched for the Mac Mini..
09) 07v (01.16%) The obligatory "Other"..
10) 03v (00.50%) I'm putting all my eggs in the Longhorn basket..

Interesting trend.. the Mac Mini is doing far less for Apple (encouraging switching) then I thought it would. Tiger is doing much more then I thought it would. And it seems like most "Switchers" got fed up with Windows in the Panther life time. Quite interesting.

Thanks for voting all!

[hayne]

Quote: Originally Posted by yellow the Mac Mini is doing far less for Apple (encouraging switching) then I thought it would. Tiger is doing much more then I thought it would.

All true - but only for those people who responded to this poll. The people that elect to answer a voluntary poll are often quite different from the general population - hence the reason why opinion polls are usually conducted via random telephone number lists. And of course the readers of MacOSXHints forums are already a select group.

[yellow]

You're (incorrectly) assuming that this is the only forum where people are encouraged to vote in this poll.

[macmath]

Quote: Originally Posted by yellow You're (incorrectly) assuming that this is the only forum where people are encouraged to vote in this poll.

However, it will take awhile before many of the general non-geeky people who have just bought minis will make it to any forum.

[hayne]

Quote: Originally Posted by macmath However, it will take awhile before many of the general non-geeky people who have just bought minis will make it to any forum.

Yes - especially if your definition of "awhile" includes "infinitely long" - most people with Macs (or indeed any other computer) never read (let alone participate in) any forum.
They don't google for help (if something goes wrong) either. What do they do?
They ask their "computer expert" friend. Or they take it to the shop. Or they just give up.
The people on these forums are, by and large, those "computer experts" that the other 90% (or is it 99% ?) of the population refers to when needed.

[BigDave]

Quote: Originally Posted by hayne The people on these forums are, by and large, those "computer experts" that the other 90% (or is it 99% ?) of the population refers to when needed.

Oh, Hayne. You're so wrong, my friend.

I, for one, am a long way off being an expert. I am here usually to shamelessly ask dumb questions to those of you who know their stuff so much better than me.

[hayne]

Quote: Originally Posted by BigDave Oh, Hayne. You're so wrong, my friend. I, for one, am a long way off being an expert. I am here usually to shamelessly ask dumb questions to those of you who know their stuff so much better than me.

No - you didn't understand what I said. I put quotation marks around "computer expert" to indicate that that was how these people are seen by the majority of the population.

I.e. I am asserting that by knowing enough to come to a site such as this to ask questions makes you much more expert than most of the population.
Most of the computer using population is somewhat unclear on the difference between the operating system and applications running under that operating system. They just know "I click here... and type there...". Note that I'm not intending to denigrate such people (the majority) - I'm just trying to state what the reality is.

I.e. I don't think the situation portrayed in this deliberately exaggerated sketch is so far off the mark:
http://www.deadtroll.com/video/helldeskcable.html

[CAlvarez]

Hayne is absolutely correct--those who can figure out how to find an answer are by definition "consultants." It amazes me that finding the answer to most anything is so easy, yet so few people are inclined or able to go do it. It keeps me in business though, so I'm happy about it.

If you are here, you are already above the vast majority of the public in your ability to find answers. I guarantee you can find info right here that nobody in an Apple store knows. Anecdote: I was in my local store with a problem (turned out to be an OS bug), and the "Genius" did two things... Checked Apple's knowledgebase, and then came here to search!

My top client also happens to be a market research company. I've learned a lot about surveying people. This survey is fun, but uselessly invalid as a measure of the general population.

[yellow]

Kent Brockman: "Now, here are some results from our phone in poll. 95% of the people think Homer Simpson is guilty. Of course, this is just a television poll which is not legally binding. Unless proposition 304 passes, and we all pray it will."

[osxpounder]

Stability was the fact that sold me. I have almost totally switched, but still own a PC at home and use one at the office -- reluctantly, increasingly reluctantly.

As I joined an office that had one Mac user, and as he and I collaborated, I learned about Macs via OS 9. Unimpressed with its instability, but I liked the user experience in general.

When OSX came out, I had a chance to use his Macs and do some reading up on OSX. Stability was mentioned over and over. I tried it. We beat our Macs hard -- capturing and editing lots of video and sound, writing and transferring huge files -- and since the Jaguar days, I became convinced, from my own personal experience, that OSX would satisfy me more than Windows systems ever had.

Still convinced. Stability and reliability are what drew me to the Mac and made me a fan. I used to be a Mac hater, even -- now I can't shut up about how great Apple computers are.

[tlarkin]

Quote: Originally Posted by yellow Kent Brockman: "Now, here are some results from our phone in poll. 95% of the people think Homer Simpson is guilty. Of course, this is just a television poll which is not legally binding. Unless proposition 304 passes, and we all pray it will."

I for one would like to welcome our new overlords!


When mac os x first came out I sat here at work and loaded it on my G4 (I actually had the beta) and played with it every time we were slow or I had a minute. I had a somewhat small background knowledge of linux. I think back now to OS X 10.0 and compare it to 10.4 and laugh. It has changed a lot.

Still, I would like to see apple change how it does business, then I might lean more towards the mac side.

[cwtnospam]

Quote: Originally Posted by tlarkin Still, I would like to see apple change how it does business, then I might lean more towards the mac side.

If they started emulating Microsoft's business practices, I'd switch to Linux.

[tlarkin]

who said they should emulate microsoft. Even though you may hate microsfot they are way far beyond apple in the business world. They have more third party support, more international support, more developers, and more options for people to go with.

If apple happened to get big, it would force more competition on the big wigs such as microsoft. Which IMO, would be good for the economy and for the technology industry to have a little more competition. It would perhaps maybe force all the companies out there to really make good products.

I mean, apple now has patches right after they release their OS, just like microsoft does. Its not much longer before they do turn into something sort of like microsoft, especially how they are charging for all their upgrades.

[fat elvis]

Quote: Originally Posted by tlarkin Its not much longer before they do turn into something sort of like microsoft, especially how they are charging for all their upgrades.

and creating a great music store that works with only one mp3 player...c'mon. Apple or MicroSoft, whoever has 90% of the market, will act like the 800 lb gorilla. Let's not forget that both Jobs and Gates are marketing masters...not open source pioneers or technical sages.

[krasi]

i started using macs back in 5th grade they were old box style powermac with the display built in. I owned PCs at home for a while then just got sick of em and finally made the switch to mac when jaguar came out and every since then i will never go back to the wintel world.

[cwtnospam]

Quote: Originally Posted by tlarkin Even though you may hate microsfot they are way far beyond apple in the business world. They have more third party support, more international support, more developers, and more options for people to go with.

Surprising isn't it then, that with all that "support" and developers, the "options" people can go with still suck. You would think that being so "far beyond apple in the business world" would translate into a much better product, but it obviously hasn't.

Bigger isn't necessarily better. In business, bigger usually means better for the business. In the long run it rarely means better for the customer. I know I get much better service from mom and pop shops than I ever do from larger corporations, including Apple. That of course is especially true of Microsoft.

[macmath]

Quote: Originally Posted by tlarkin I mean, apple now has patches right after they release their OS, just like microsoft does. Its not much longer before they do turn into something sort of like microsoft, especially how they are charging for all their upgrades.

I don't intend to defend Apple's business practices as worrying about Apple's business and their business practices is somewhat like following the Chicago Cubs. I've long ago wearied of that and no one can make me worry about it anymore.

For that matter, who cares if Apple gets big or not? OS X works very nicely for me, and its development did not depend upon Apple being big. They'll probably screw up and lose the advantage they have with the iPod too. I have more control over the results of local, state and federal elections (with one vote out of thousands or millions). I can't control certain things and so I won't bother with them.

However, I don't find fault with charging for those upgrades as so much happened between them (much of it under the hood). OS X went from a fetus to a infant to a toddler to a teenager to a young adult all in 4 years. Because of this, those upgrades leapt over a lot of ground (if you include under-the-hood improvements). I bought licenses to 10.2, 3, and 4 instead of riding on the 10.1 that came with my computer because I could always appreciate the advances.

PS: The cuteness of the hardware is lost on me, but I sure appreciate their software. I prefer OS X to Windows XP because OS X lets me do what I want to do without intrusions from wizards and in a clean, intuitive, and thoughtful way. Frequently there will be that little extra something that will show up while I'm using my computer that is akin to that little extra personal touch your Mother secretly tucked into your luggage as you left for college and you find later---it makes you appreciate the cleverness and the thoughtfullness of the software engineers at Apple. I'm not going to say that OS X does everything perfectly, or that I hate Windows because neither would be true; I just appreciate one much more than the other. Life is seldom about having everything perfectly in order, but is about how you manage the imperfections that come along. For everyone to go back and forth acting like item A should be perfect and here is why it isn't and item B should be perfect and here is why it isn't, is just silly (and at some point, annoying). I just want to enjoy using my computer and to drop in at these forums and discuss its use with people.

[tlarkin]

Quote: Originally Posted by cwtnospam Surprising isn't it then, that with all that "support" and developers, the "options" people can go with still suck. You would think that being so "far beyond apple in the business world" would translate into a much better product, but it obviously hasn't. Bigger isn't necessarily better. In business, bigger usually means better for the business. In the long run it rarely means better for the customer. I know I get much better service from mom and pop shops than I ever do from larger corporations, including Apple. That of course is especially true of Microsoft.

There is no fact in this statement only opinion.