I have never contended that a Mac was for EVERYONE, anymore than I would insist that a Mercedes is the best car for everybody.

What I feel do strongly about is that a Mac is a better computer for MOST people who use Wintel machines — and the main reason that they are using Wintel boxes is that they have never truly tried out a Mac. All I would expect of any computer buyer is that they give a Mac a fair trial.

Fortunately, that seems to be happening more these days, primarily for these four reasons:
1 - Many of the people who have bought the runaway hit, the iPod, are also considering
     a Mac. The press had dubbed this the Halo effect. This USA Today article is typical.
2 - Apple has been in the news a lot, and has received a substantial amount of positive
     publicity. In addition to the iPod, many articles are about the success of its stock,
     and there continues to be favorable projections from numerous financial analysts.
3 - The low price Mac mini has likewise been widely and well-reviewed, and many
     price-sensitive PC users are giving it a look. It is particularly attractive to PC switchers
     as they can throw away their bland beige box, plug in the Mac mini, and keep their
     existing monitor and keyboard.
4 - The primary switch cause (in my experience) is that PC users have simply had it with
     the incessant viruses and spyware that they are subjected to in the Windows
     platform. The facts are that in the last four years or so there have been some
     80,000 viruses identified for Windows, and ZERO for Mac OS X. Here is a
     sample discussion of the situation. This profound difference is a powerful motivator.

Of course none of these reasons would be effective if people were genuinely happy with their Wintel experience. Not surprisingly, many are not.

In other sections of this site I have referenced many of the inherent shortcomings of the PC choice. But, just in case you feel I have an unreasonable bias here, please read the specifics of our short summary about Microsoft — most of which is from Wintel people.

Peter Burgel says it well: “Probably the most irritating aspect of the ongoing Mac and Windows debate is the fact that people who have never worked in a Mac environment are the most outspoken about how ‘bad’ the Macs are. Go figure! ... People are creatures of habit, and what we’re comfortable with is always considered better than the dreaded unknown. Some people equate comfort level with quality (ya think?). If I don’t understand it — I don’t like it! That’s why most of our parents drove either a Chevy or a Ford in the 50’s and 60’s. A Chevy owner wouldn’t be caught dead admiring (or worse yet, driving) a Ford. We’ve just taken this debate to the next level.”
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Here is a sample of some recent stories appearing about people who have made the forward migration switch:

In April of 2005, Paul Graham says that “All the best hackers I know are gradually switching to Macs. My friend Robert said his whole research group at MIT recently bought themselves Powerbooks. These guys are not the graphic designers and grandmas who were buying Macs at Apple’s low point in the mid 1990s. They’re about as hardcore OS hackers as you can get. The reason, of course, is OS X.”

Charles Cooper (an executive editor for CNET News) recently wrote Switching to a Mac — ain’t ever going back, in which he says: “Twenty years after logging on for the first time, I’m logging off — forever. No, I’m not retiring but I am finally through with that soul-stomping repository of bad karma known as my PC. And after chucking the machine down the dumpster, I won’t ever look back because, folks, I’ve switched to the Mac... So it’s goodbye protected mode. Shalom Ctrl-Alt-Delete. Auf weidersehen application registry. Meet me at autoxec.bat’s silver anniversary party.”

At the LegalTechnology website, this January 2005 report from a Linux and PC user says “...As an experiment, I started playing with a Mac this year, and the experience has been an eye-opener. Over the course of the year, I’ve found that the Mac has a number of advantages over Windows-based systems, not least of which is the fact that most viruses and spyware are specifically designed to exploit weaknesses in Windows... After six months of using an Apple PowerBook as my primary computer, I am sufficiently impressed that if forced to select between a Windows-based system and a Mac, I would chose the Mac.”

This is a well-written story (Feb 2004) about virus and spyware experiences on Macs and PCs... In Remembering Why I Switched, this former PC person tells a painfully similar tale.

Up until May of 2004, David Blumenstein was the Chief Technology Officer of a global advertising agency. As he relates: .“A good portion of my life has been spent managing enterprises running Microsoft Windows and Unix networks, and while the latter never ceases to amaze, the former has proven to be an endless parade of mind-numbing and costly annoyances. The amount of time spent fighting worms and viruses, combating spyware and malware, and applying countless security and system updates finally took its toll on me... I am now a Mac-head. Somehow it crept up on me. Now I cannot envision myself latching on to an Intel/AMD machine running Microsoft Windows.”

According to a 2004 survey of iPod users by financial analysis firm Piper Jaffray, Macs are basking in the reflected glory of the iPod, with some who own the music player saying they have already or are intending to ditch their PCs for Macs. Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray senior research analyst, said the iPod halo effect will make a difference to Apple for a while to come. “We’re in the very early innings of a multiyear trend,” he said.

Dru, at his Druware site, says ”I am a developer. I am a ‘Switcher’ to a Mac. I am, for the first time in a long time, happy with the computer that I do my day to day work on. Oddly enough, this comes as a complete shock to me. You see, I am a Windows developer. I write code that targets the Windows platform every day. I have been doing so for several years now. Over the years, I’ve used, and developed on the Microsoft platform, because it was what I could afford and what I knew. It was not because I was happy doing so. I can say that at times I enjoyed working on the platform. These times are usually followed by bouts of severe annoyance and anger at poor design, poor documentation, or more often the Microsoft Marketing Machine pulling the rug out from under the legs of the small developers...”

This revealing article talks about hidden switchers, or voyeurs. “A cabal of Mac fanatics is working at Microsoft, and Lenn Pryor, a director of Windows platform evangelism, is one of them.” Phillip Torrone, director of product development for advertising company Fallon Worldwide, says “I live in Seattle and know a lot of Microsoft people. Lots have Macs. I see tons of Microsoft people at the Seattle Apple stores. I’ve heard Microsoft people admire and talk about Apple a lot, and sport iPods.... I think a lot of Microsoft people want Microsoft to be more like Apple...”

Ernie the Attorney is now over one year into his Mac switch. His position is clear: “computers should be easy to use and they should, as much as possible, configure themselves. Having used Macs and PCs extensively over the past 10 years, I can tell you it’s not even a close contest. Apple computers are easier to use and configure.”

In mid 2004, in what may well be Apple Computer’s largest coup in the Australian enterprise space, the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) announced that it will deploy 1200 Apple G4 iMacs across 140 registry offices. A statement Computerworld obtained from the RTA reveals the G4s will be used as point-of-sale terminals for its counter staff to handle RTA customers transactions across “prepared business applications” as well as for “collecting data and payments and issuing licenses, registration certificates and receipts for various transactions”. The move away from Wintel desktops also appears to reiterate the recent strong stand by the NSW government to seek alternatives to wholly proprietary operating system kernels — and the licensing models that go with them — where cost effective and viable alternatives exist. To this end, the RTA is making no bones about its preference for open standards and open source, with what appears to be more open source action slated for the near future.

James Kahan is the IT Director for Cegedim USA (Philadelphia), and is a recent Mac convert. He explains his reasoning in a detailed three page article, which includes “There are quite a few functions in OSX that allow you to do things that are unimaginable in Windows. For example if you want to grab a picture off of a website you just drag and drop it to your desktop... Of course there are always the Linux benefits too. There are almost too many to mention. The Apple download section is filled with great freeware or shareware and if you are a developer the possibilities are endless. RealBasic (pro version) will allow you to convert your existing Visual Basic projects into OSX or Linux executables... I know this article seems like a long advertisement for Apple, but now I understand why Mac users are such zealots. I am so amazed by the fact that everything just works that I feel the need to convert everyone I know. ”

This server user relates his experiences here. He started out trying a Mac by getting an iBook. “My Sony notebook weighed twice as much and lasted a third as long.... It took me a year to go from a die-hard Windows user and Apple dissident to a proud Mac user... Right now (December 2004) the Mac is the tool that works best for me.”

At Amazon they are reporting that a VERY high percentage of Apple computer buyers are former Wintel users — maybe as high as 48%. (PS - Amazon has very good prices for Macs.)

Also at Amazon, this is a typical purchaser’s review (this one posted December 2003): “After 15 years of PCs, I got a Powerbook last year and fell deeply in love with it. Then I decided to get the dual G5. At work, we had just bought PCs for all the software developers (8 months before) and the bloody HELL we went through when we had to take them from 1GB to 2GB of RAM was insane. Since getting my G5, I’ve easily gone up to 3 GBs of RAM. Having the room to go to 8GB is wonderful. I have NOTHING bad to say about this machine, it’s the best setup I’ve ever used, and I have a database loaded on it, doing Java development, and using Final Cut Express and iTunes, etc. Connectivity is superb. And Panther is a joy — no question the best OS I’ve ever used.”

Dr. Barrall is the CTO, Executive Vice President and co-founder of BlueArc Corporation and the principal architect of its core technology: the SiliconServer Architecture. He has found the light. He explains here how a diehard PC person was amazed at the power and ease of use of a Mac.

Ken Newquist, a webzine editor, posted Why I Switched To Mac in July of 2003. In part, this long explanation says: “What did the Mac offer that got me to spend my hard-earned cash on their computers instead a Windows box? It’s a lot of little things that added up to one towering incentive, and that incentive can be summed up in two words: user experience... I use PCs and Macs every day... Despite all the hype to the contrary, I find Windows XP Pro to still be crash-prone... for me, Macs are about as perfect as a computer can be.”

Stuart MacKenzie is a software engineer and a self-proclaimed geek. He details his 2003 oddessy in a three page article on OSNews. In recounting his switch he says that “... There were pleasant surprises around every corner.” He was won over by the “beauty, functionality