MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

May 31, 08 - 09:36 am Comment from: MaLvado

Open your eyes, I see your eyes are open...

Jonathan Blum, "tech guru" for Fortune Small Business needs to read this.

May 31, 08 - 10:07 am Comment from: HMCIV

I have a confession. Back in 2001 I was a hard core Mac guy who switched to Windows. Reason: Engineering Grad School, and I needed to use/learn the tools of the trade.

Why world still uses the term "swears like a sailor" instead of "swears like a new Windows user" is one of life's great mysteries.

This is HUGE!!!!!!! Someone switched from Windows to Mac...

Thanks MDN, great SCOOP!!!!!!!

This article is great–it puts into words what I struggle to convey to the Windows apologists at work. I switched in 05 and have never looked back. I still wish I could use the "home" and "end" buttons on my keyboard in non-Microsoft applications. That's my only complaint. Why are the buttons there if they don't do anything?

People usually switch after they move from Roseanne to Cindy Crawford.

May 31, 08 - 10:31 am Comment from: Ampar

" . . . after they move from Roseanne to Cindy Crawford."

Like a silk puss from a sow's rear.

Slow weekend coming up ... the calm before the storm?

" . . . after they move from Roseanne to Cindy Crawford."

They thirty-something, the cultural referents have changed, fyi.

May 31, 08 - 10:55 am Comment from: derekcurrie

Where to Digg Alison's article:

http://digg.com/apple/Why_switching_to_Mac_was_the_right_move

Geeze, I read that three times as "a sow's ear" - it makes a whole lot of difference.

It's kind'a like enjoying Shana Hiatt in the WPT then watching her Playboy video ... and regretting it for a while before selective amnesia blocks it out. I'm interested in @Poison Mouse current cultural referents though ... any names?

May 31, 08 - 11:01 am Comment from: Cubert

(sniff, sniff) I love these stories man! (tear in eye)

May 31, 08 - 11:02 am Comment from: Ampar

"They thirty-something, the cultural referents have changed, fyi."

True. Retro is in, It's more like going from Lillian Gish to Theda Bara.
Wait, no. More like Tawanna the Big Slave Girl to Cleopatra. Too far back?

May 31, 08 - 11:06 am Comment from: Ampar

"t's kind'a like enjoying Shana Hiatt in the WPT . . . "
And who doesn't love the Would Poke Her Tour?

" . . . after they move from Roseanne to Cindy Crawford."

OR, if you're a gay man or a straight woman, like switching from Larry Craig to Daniel Craig.

May 31, 08 - 11:13 am Comment from: MCCFR

So, he managed to find the power button.

He must be one of the more evolved Windows users.

Shana is more tridimensional than Cindy. Cindy's lips are interesting as sculptured stone; Shana's ever changing facial expressions are delightful. Below the neck, it's a toss-up for both, or a wash if you prefer.

Make that ex-Windows user, MCCFR.

You must've meant going from Theda Bara to Lillian Gish; one doesn't go in the opposite direction except under extreme duress from IT.

May 31, 08 - 11:28 am Comment from: Harvey

I didn't start out as a switcher, either. My first Mac was supposed to be a backup machine. Since I continued to use OS X and Windows at the same time, it took me two years to get comfortable with the Mac—mainly because of keyboard muscle memory. Then one day I woke up and discovered my Mac was my main computer.

With Windows, late at night I'd suddenly remember a 15-minute essential task that I had forgotten, and get out of bed to do it. Hours later, in the wee hours of the morning, I'd be banging my fist on the desk, saying, "Why won't it work?" On the Mac, I also find myself up until the wee hours of the morning, but now it is because the Mac is so much fun, I don't want to stop.

One day an opportunity will present itself on MDN for me to go on and on about my specialty - concrete structures in marine environments.
Until then, I have to read about frickin' 'cultural referents', I suppose.

Thread hijackers - coming to your computer very soon......

" . . . after they move from Roseanne to Cindy Crawford."

Or, like switching from George W. Bush to... anyone else...

Porn is so much more civilised on a Mac.

Ah Windows 3.1, I remember it well. So well in fact that it was the reason I switched to Macs. I guess that makes me one of the early switchers.

The home and end buttons work in Safari, Firefox, the Finder, and I'm sure other applications that I haven't tested it on. Where don't they work?

May 31, 08 - 12:06 pm Comment from: Woody

I wonder if that Fortune Small Business goober Jonathan Blum will read this. Probably not, since his "Ethernet enablement unit" probably can't be plugged in at the same time has his mouse or something.

@i4Design.... Wow, Daniel Craig. Yup, that's exactly the right analogy.

Skipping 10.5.3?

Real® ZT calling fake ZT for help... our beloved Microsoft ship just might be tilting a bit...

Ahem, excuse me for that brief faintness; now, I am happily using a real man's® computer that runs a real man's® operating system - Windows Vista! Not some MAC lemming's toy artist so-called computer.

Your Potential. Our Passion.™

Or, like switching from George W. Bush to... anyone else...

The Nazi party still exists. Perhaps we should vote for them?

Americans are never happy where they're at. Make sure the greener grass you're looking for doesn't belie a minefield...

Welcome aboard, Allison!

The very same Apple vs. PC arguments held when I switched.

25 years ago.

May 31, 08 - 01:59 pm Comment from: James

@ Joel:

The home and end buttons work in many applications to take you to the top or bottom of a page or window, juts like in erm . . . Windows. And it's always been that way. Where do you think Microsoft got the idea, hmm? They can have other, program specific functions in some cases too. There are such a myriad of keyboard commands on the Mac that many of them can't be found just by browsing the menus.

No offense to anyone but it always baffles me that Windows folks don't think there are keyboard shortcuts on the Mac . . . again, they've been in there from the start. It's only recently, in my opinion, that many shortcuts in Windows have actually become useful. . . .

"Make sure the greener grass you're looking for doesn't belie a minefield..."

No, it's the greener "gas" Ermericans er looking for....

May 31, 08 - 02:32 pm Comment from: LinuxGuyAndMacProdigalSon

While there are some on target posts, most of this thread has been hijacked by snarky humorists and juvenile political posturers. This severely damages the usefulness of MDN. We ought to be able to discuss the subject of the thread without wading through the off topic crap.

after they move from Roseanne to Cindy Crawford.

Roseanne and Cindy must look about the same by now.

I'll switch from Cindy to whoever modeled for the Esurance chick advertising here. :D

This is at least the third time you've "shocked" us with this never-heard-of developer switching to Mac...

Slow news day?

This is at least the third time you've "shocked" us with this never-heard-of developer switching to Mac...

Dude, every switcher counts. So whaddya want? MS to switch their software development to Mac as well?

Although MS's development is so fscked up I doubt Macs could even help. A tool is only as good as the person using it...

LinuxGuyAndMacProdigalSon,

I agree. It's just the way MDN is–unfortunately.
Sometimes you get interesting and intelligent threads and other times you get the juvenile rubbish which dominates here.
The posts of posters like 'oopsie child' are as silly as their names.
Nomen est omen.

Well said. Once again, he proves my point that folks that have Macs love their Macs ... something you'll never hear a Windows user say.

Welcome aboard ... join the legions.

May 31, 08 - 05:53 pm Comment from: Asmodeus

@@jake: the grass never seems to get any greener these days, does it? :(

BEST QUOTE EVAR!!

"I was fascinated by the Mac Pro and the power it had. OS X screamed on my little MacBook - I wondered what it would perform like on a Mac Pro. It met or exceeded my relatively high expectations," Alison writes. "Three days after I got the Mac Pro was the day I technically switched to Mac. Why? Because after transferring my files from my Windows machine to my Mac Pro I shut down the Windows XP machine. Turned it off. Stopped using it... I spent 17 years using Windows."

Alison writes, "Computers are fun and exciting again to me."

"most of this thread has been hijacked by snarky humorists"

Some people come here for the humor. Are you more important than them?

"The posts of posters like 'oopsie child' are as silly as their names."

Said "The Muffin Man". Are your muffins fresh?

Yes. I concur that all attempts of humor, along with even the slightest HINT of "topic drift", have absolutely no place here, and should be immediately deleted.

Short posts should be banned as well. Only 500+ word postings that contribute meaningfully to the discussion should be allowed. And there must be ZERO tolerance for divergent angles, we all must toe the gung-ho Apple line.

Nevermind the irony of this off-topic short post that doesn't praise Apple...

lol this is basically my story too... been using windows for 8 years before I brought my MacBook Pro back in August and now hate using windows... its so hard Great article :D

What's there to discuss about this thread? Where's your intelligent, on-topic observation? A fellow using an obsolete OS samples a more modern OS X and gets seduced by it. Eventually he realizes that he doesn't need the buggy old POS any more, that he's become a convert. What do you want, a chorus of Amens? You pathetic, humorless, scrooge, pull your finger out and lighten up a bit.

@another it...

"Dude, every switcher counts. So whaddya want?"

What, you're counting them? For the sake of all of us, I hope Apple never gets beyond 50% market share. I care about Apple making reliable, reasonably priced computers with useful, stable and powerful software. A switcher anecdote is a curiosity, but as some comments indicate, a rather boring topic.

Go ahead and ask MDN to eliminate all off-topic posts. Without them this site wouldn't be able to support itself.

I switched my 'personal' computer to Mac this year after almost 18 years with Windows--my first computer was Mac SE. My work is strictly in UNIX/LINUX land at the office except for its mail server which is the MS Exchange. After four months, I'm pretty much relying on the Terminal and Spotlight to navigate within my Leopard after finding out that I disliked using the Finder and Dock completely. I use my personal computer for my own photos and music and expected that my experience on Mac would be a leg up over the Windows. Surprisingly, I can't say this is the case. For the purpose of browsing images, I found my self still prefer to look for images via the thumbnail folder view on my XP running on the hypervisor (VMWare Fusion). My reliance on XP is, of course, due to the fact that no true business collaboration solution exists on the Mac and I must continue to use a Microsoft solution even on a MBP. I hope the new course set by Apple to engage seriously with business collaboration client (albeit intially with Exchange on iPhone) will eventually have me dumping the extra 10 GB of VM file.

No offense, love this site, love the takes and all that...but who gives a fuck about conversion stories? It;s all a matter of time before they go away

May 31, 08 - 09:56 pm Comment from: Ampar

To @LinuxGuyAnd...:

Nicely said. And to LGandMPS I hope you're doing o.k. these days all things considered. MDN is a mixed bag. That may be its attraction. Sometimes a laugh is good too. In the grand scheme, it doesn't matter. Love. Be loved. Hate. Be hated. Everyone has their choices. It's been a pretty cool magic carpet ride. Cue . . .

May 31, 08 - 09:59 pm Comment from: Ampar

To Jackie Aprile:
" . . . but who gives a fuck about conversion stories?"

You did by commenting. I may love irony more than anything.


</self-referential contradiction>

Sweet!

May 31, 08 - 10:39 pm Comment from: Macromancer

"Why a 17-year hardcore Windows vet switched to Apple Mac"

Probably for the same reasons the rest of them are.

May 31, 08 - 10:43 pm Comment from: Macromancer

"Or, like switching from George W. Bush to... anyone else..."

I'm pretty charged about politics this year, but I personally would really love it if people would leave the politics off this board, particularly if the article has nothing remotely to do with politics.

We are awash in it every day. I, for one, like to come here to escape it.