Comments on: Why I Didn’t Buy A Mac

By: Frostbite

Frostbite — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:27:14 +0000

I don’t get how people want to switch due to Macs being “safer” considering I haven’t been using antivirus for close to 5 years now straight. I have gotten trojans, and they were direct downloads that I stupidly opened manually, then removed manually. I guess if you’re a total newbie and don’t plan on learning how a real computer works, a Mac is fine for you. Though I’d suggest something like openSUSE or Ubuntu years before I’d suggest a Mac.

By: Angus Kidman

Angus Kidman — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:48:08 +0000

I think there’s often a danger of confusing the notion of “intuitive” or “simple” with “what you’re used to”. Would the same outcome have held true if the tutorials were in reverse order, or would the Mac stuff have taken longer as people tried to apply the PC principles they learned today? (Windows was not dominant in 1990 in any case — had the same think happened in 1995, I doubt the contrast would have been anywhere near as great.)

In your Pages example, I don’t think dragging and dropping is any simpler than clicking on an Insert Picture button (or menu item) — it’s just a different approach. What I’m certain of is that it’s slower than if you know the keyboard shortcuts.

And you can definitely take any interface metaphor too far. The example that always struck me was ejecting a disc from the Mac by dragging it to a garbage bin. That’s a drag and drop action, but a stupid one that always has to be explained to people.

By: Peter Gort

Peter Gort — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:15:56 +0000

I find this article very interesting…. when I went to Uni back in 1990, the whole class sat down in front of a lab of Mac SEs. Put in tutorial disks, and turned on the Mac SE’s…. and a couple of hours later everyone was proficient. The same class went into the IBM lab the next day, and it took about twice the time for the same group of people to reach the same level of proficiency. I was a poor student who was looking for a cheap secondhand PC, after that experience I spent my tax return on a second hand mac plus instead. It’s no longer true that the learning experience for beginners is so extreme, but it’s still there to some extent. The other thing I have noticed is that die hard windows users forced to use a mac, will invariably try to do things the complicated way, instead of the simple way. For example, my wife used Word for ages at work, and was used to using a dialog system to select a picture she wanted to insert. First time she wrestled with Pages on the Mac, she couldn’t figure out how to insert a picture. She was shocked when I showed her how to drag and drop it. I know it’s not a scientific study, but it’s a perfect example. Ultimately Angus, if you are happy the way you are, good for you. If you want to use a complicated wizard to do some task that on a mac can be done with a simple gesture… then that’s your thing. And learning the keyboard shortcuts CAN be difficult because they are “muscle memory”, but it’s worth it once you do.

By: MP

MP — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:12:42 +0000

Had to jump in and add my two cents. I changed to a Mac about 12 months ago, and still scratching my head as to why. I have avoided using iPhoto as I want to control the way my photos are organised, not allow iPhoto to rule.

I have had 2 major faults within the past 12 months, the first being a power supply issue and the second being a faulty main board. Plus I have also seen this OS crash and often get the spinning beach ball and have had lots of weird things happen in OSX (equal to Windows).

My next machine will be a windows machine as at least trouble shooting is easier when things go wrong (to fix my wifi issue the apple engineer suggested I “whack’ it and see how that goes).

I use the OS that best suits my overall needs, and at the moment that is still windows.

By: josh

josh — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:53:57 +0000

Good article. I’ve been using Windows PC’s for years, and earlier this year started a job in an all Mac office. After several months on this new job, I can assure you that you’re not missing anything. There is nothing about Macs that is easier, more convenient, faster, or better than PC’s. All these years I’ve wondered why Mac people are so passionate about their OS. Now that I’ve used Mac OS extensively, I’m even MORE baffled by their passion. It’s different for sure, but it is absolutely not better.

And yeah, the “size the window to the content” behavior is the worst! I can’t stand working in one program, while being able to see background applications below the window I’m trying to focus on.

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:54:22 +0000

I would not touch a Mac for so many reasons, not least of which is price and hardware restrictions. Mac Pro from $4499. I spent $1500 on a Core 2 quad 9550 with 8GB RAM, 2×1TB HDD, 800W PSU, Antec 183 case, 1GB Video card and a good motherboard. Running Windows 7 RC1 x64 with no page file and the system is rock solid and lightning fast. Oh yeah, it “just works” too (I have not had to download a single driver). No eyecandy that cannot be turned off either. Is a Mac Pro three times the machine. Not likely.

I ran Ubuntu exlusively for 9 months and had a macbook for 4 months to play with for work testing compatability with the work system. I went back to windows. Mac was all pretty but not better IMO. For home use it makes no difference, everyone should just get over themselves and use whatever the hell they want. For business use it is another story. The Outlook/Exchange combo has no peers, plain and simple and email is important.

I would never buy a Mac, for the same reason that I wont be sucked into the marketing hype around the iphone/ipod. All is overrated, there are far more capable and cost effective options around. The iphone/ipod touch does have a nice screen though…

By: SoundsGood

SoundsGood — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:50:38 +0000

Sorry, a few more things I remembered that keep me from switching to a Mac:

3. There’s a Delete key, but no Backspace key. I use both quite often. Sure, there’s a way to replicate this with a keyboard “shortcut” by pressing an extra key… but isn’t using just one finger a *better* shortcut?

4. No dedicated Home and End keys. I use these keys A LOT. Again: There’s a way to replicate this with a keyboard “shortcut” by pressing an extra key… but isn’t using just one finger a *better* shortcut?

5. Software. I already have a lot of software (for Windows, naturally) and switching over to the Mac equivalent would be expensive and a hassle — (plus some software I use is not made for Mac). This means I’d have to use Parallels or VMware for much of my work… but if I do that, why bother with a Mac, right?

Believe me, I *want* to try a Mac. But there are too many gotchas involved (expense, time, hassles, etc) to actually pull out my credit card.

If anyone has any reasonable solutions for me, I’m open to listening. :)

By: SoundsGood

SoundsGood — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:08:21 +0000

I’m a (very long time) PC user, but I’ve wanted to try a Mac for years now. There are two things that always stop me:

1. Price. I just can’t justify the added expense, especially when I’m not even sure I’ll prefer it to a PC. Frankly, if Apple offered a great deal for first-time Mac buyers I’m sure they’d get a LOT more switchers… but we all know *that* won’t happen!

2. The text on a Mac always looks a bit blurry to me. Every time I tried reading text on a Mac (in Apple stores) I would practically get a headache. I finally looked into it and found out that I’m not alone… lots of people have complained about this problem. (Don’t believe me? Search for ‘mac blurry fonts’ or something similar.)

So, even though I’m very curious about a Mac, it looks like I’ll be stickin’ with a PC. At least for now. :)

By: McoreD

McoreD — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 01:30:14 +0000

I need Visual Studio 2008 for my day to day tasks. End of story. :)

By: Angus Kidman

Angus Kidman — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 06:29:32 +0000

I promise I’m not sad at having to lug a machine of that minimum size and weight. That will last me for quite a while.