[Philistine]

Great story Phil. Thanks for posting that. 

     My wife is still on a windows machine (HP) and though it is a tank (outlasted my previous iMac) random crashes, freezes and general frustration are all present and accounted for.  She is ready to make the move, I'm thinking a Macbook (maybe MacBook-Pro) would make a nice birthday present for her in a couple of months.
-Greg

Greg, I would consider checking the Apple store for a refurb MacBook.  I've bought all my ipods here and an iMac, you get the full warranty, cases and batteries are all replaced.  Might save you few $ that you can put in your new DAC fund!
As an aside I printed Christmas card labels today, no extra software required - they printed out of Address Book which is included as a utility on the OS.
Phil

[Watson]

I love Macs...at first, I thought they'd be too limited and expensive to be worth the switch...but I was glad when I did it.  I've had a Macbook Pro G4, two Macbooks, and an Imac.  Currently, I'm using two Windows 7 machines...one I built myself and the other is a netbook.  I switched to these because I wanted a machine for gaming and the other for extreme battery life and low price (can be swapped out every year or so at the netbook prices).  I have to say, Windows 7 is far far far better than anything from the past from Microsoft.  I've had no issues with viruses, spyware or anything in the year+ using it.  They do still have some of the typical Windows annoyances...bootup, background processes, etc.  Still though...I think both Windows and Mac are good options currently. 

The biggest reason to shy away from Windows-based machines currently is that there's just a lot of junk being made.  HP, Compaq, Toshiba and some others...put out garbage, at least for lower-end stuff.  Even with Netbooks, only a few are any good (I only buy Asus myself).  Apple controls their own quality...and that approach means you know what you're getting.  When it comes to something you're using every single day, that's important.

It's a lot of money but it's safe money...and I hope everyone at least tries one once.

I agree 100% with this post. My last two personal machines (three if you count a free replacement machine from AppleCare after 34 months of ownership) were Macs, but I'm platform agnostic. Windows 7 combined with the free MS Security Essentials is roughly on par now--they each have their advantages and disadvantages. I use the cross-platform program "emacs" to do a lot of things most people use specific software for, so I'm not wedded to one platform or the other.

The real problem is buying quality PC hardware... there doesn't seem to be any real quality hardware from the major vendors. I'm partial to ThinkPads (and am typing this on a work-provided T-series machine), but even on these relatively costly machines the attention to detail isn't there. On this machine, the wrist rest is made of plastic and creaks every time I press down with my right palm. I used to love the TouchPoint-style controllers 10 years ago, but these days a touch pad done well with multitouch, the way Apple machines do it, is just so much nicer. Because most ThinkPads have dual input devices, the touchpads are so small as to be unusable. And this is a full-size machine. I've been shopping for a smaller laptop, and the input devices on most of the netbooks are just abysmal. Then there's the problem of getting a quality screen. I'm not referring to resolution, but to color accuracy and viewing angles. (And you can't even use color correction on most netbooks to help a little, because without Aero, Windows 7 won't color correct the whole display.) More annoying, most vendors are not shipping panel-specific color management profiles with their machines. Asus does make some high end machines that appear to be fairly decent (the bamboo line, etc.), but their website is abysmal, most North American vendors don't stock the high end stuff so you can't try it, and they don't have the kind of repair network in North America that you need to quickly get a machine serviced. It's just a real hassle to find quality Windows hardware. There is undoubtedly a business opportunity here. For now, Apple appears to rule the high end segment.

[SET Man]

Hey!

   Switched to Mac almost 7 years ago and I've never look back. I tossed the Window out of the window.

   Actually I'm still using the first Mac I bought back in early 2004, a 12" 1Ghz PowerBook G4 Well, to be honest it wasn't trouble free all this these years. The stock HDD died in 2006. But I always back up everything , twice so I didn't loose anything and I managed to change the HDD.

    But I might get a new one soon.... maybe next year.

Take care,
Buddy

[Bemopti123]

I tossed the Window out of the window.

  Take care,
Buddy

As long as it landed square in the garbage can rather than landing in some poor dude who was actually a Mac user!

[jrebman]

Love this thread!  I've been at this computer thing since the 70s when I designed and built my own machines and then bought one of the first IBM PCs when they first came out and until this past October, I have been almost completely a PC and linux user.  For me, the real barrier was the lack of a decent screen reader for the Mac platform, at least for the past 21 years since I lost my sight.

I was sort of dragged into the Mac thing as I really, really wanted to get the most out of my Tranquility dac, and I honestly believed that the 2010 mini was the ticket, and when a couple of others I know and respect told me it was the real deal, I lept.  Then I started doing more research on VoiceOver and found that it had matured considerably since the last time I looked at it when Tiger came out.  Well, then I bought an iMac (which I returned unopened as I wanted a laptop) and bought a 13" macbook Pro, which is getting an OWC 120 gb SSD installed in it as I write this, and I also went and bought a 4g iTouch, a wireless keyboard and magic trackpad, and when this monster of a windows box dies, I'll probably replace it with an iMac.

Like Philistine's wife, I too found that it just worked, and amazingly enough I was able to set the entire thing up by myself with VoiceOver, And I can also independently install the OS (without a complex and failure prone install script), which is huge in and of itself.  The Touch is totally cool and I was somewhat skeptical how a strictly touch-based interface could work for a totally blind person, but it does, and does so very well.

I still need a windows box for my work, and I love my little Acer netbook for what it is, but when these machines cashin their chips, they will be replaced by suitable Mac/Apple devices.

Yes, the initial cost of ownership is high, but I have to say, so far, there seems to be very little in the way of extra software I need -- I bought the MBP with iWork an Bento3 installed, as well as a Mobile Me subscription, and after that, I'll be evaluating some of the knowledge/concept mapping solutions out there, most notably Aqua Minds NoteTaker and NoteShare, and Devon Think Pro Office, along with their agent and Devon Think to-go.  I've never been able to use any of the windows based concept mapping tools like this as most are innaccessible, and the ones that are tend to cost about what a used car does.

If these two applications work well for me, then the game is over once and for all and I won't likely even bother upgraing my XP machine to win7.

There are also a few things about VoiceOver that the windows screen readers cant even touch, like the ability to explore the actual layout of a web page with the touch pad.  The windows screen readers all process the html and linearize it so that the screen reader can make sense of it, but in doing so, the page resembles nothing like the visual page and trying to work with a sighted peron is really, really tedious.  VoiceOver also supports Java apps, and none of the windows screen readers do that well, or at all.

And finally, the quality of construction and engineering attention to detail on the MBP is outstanding, from the power supply to the heat and noise levels, to the feel and sound quality from the built-in speakers.

Yes, there are still things that Apple does that annoy the hell out of me, but I can say the same thing for Windows and the linux community as well.

I've been at this computer thing for 40 years now and I have to say that for the first time, I'm really impressed and actually enjoying it.

Steven Stone, good choice   We're practically neighbors you know, and I wondered how you fared in the fire, along with so many of my other frieends who live in the area that was hit.  Many of them lost their homes, some got lucky, and one person had the fire just stopat the top of the ridge behind her house -- very, very close call.  Hope you folks maede out ok.

Pardon my typing as I'm sure there are a ton of typos, but that's only because my screen reader is not telling me what I type or allwoing me to review the screen.  I want my Mac back!

-- Jim


more and more res

[Philistine]

Jim, when it comes to renewing your MobileMe subscription you might want to shop around.  The Apple price is $99.99, I picked up renewal keys on EBay for $39.99.
Phil

[jrebman]

Thanks, Phil.  I just got MM with my MBP, and haven't even activated it yet, so renewal is a way off yet.  Of course they discount it to $69 when you buy it with a computer, so decided to give that a try.

As soon as the MBP gets back from the shop with it's SSD, I'll be diving into this all head-first.

-- Jim

[Pez]

jrebman, after reading your post out of curiosity I tried out the accessibility option with voice over on my iPhone. I was blown away by how easy it was to use! I closed my eyes and was able to navigate through the interface and even surf the web with relative ease. I even read a lot of the posts here. I had no idea how much thought Apple has put in to accessibility, it is incredible that the device makes it truly user friendly for as many as possible!

[Gopher]

I'm very much a fence rider at the moment.

I grew up a PC kid and have always built and trouble shot my own issues on microsoft based OS'.  A few months back I had a power supply fail and a buddy who had just gotten a fancy new Macbook Pro through his job gifted me gently used MB Pro to hold me over as I dealt with it. 

I only really use it for surfing the web, chatting, emailing, and basic stuff but I do like the experience.  Its simple, responsive, good default power saving optimizations.  No qualms really. 

My music & movie servers are still PC based and truth be told Windows 7 64 has been pretty solid in my experience and for the rare occasion I actually want to game, the PC is my go to,  but I can understand some peoples preference.

It would be a lot easier to teach a grand parent to use a MAC than a PC, thats for sure...

[Pez]

Start using expose, spaces and some of the other great Mac only options and you'll never sit on a fence again.

[MaxCast]

can macs play the online games like at game fudge, etc?

[wilsynet]

Web and Flash based games should be no problem.

Also, if you're a bit of a computer hack like Gopher, I think the Unix subsystem of modern Macs is a better geek opportunity than Windows.

[jrebman]

Hey Jason,

Yeah, prtty cool, huh?

The Apple platform has always been the go-to solution for cognitive, motor, and hearing disabilities, but the visual access issues have lagged way behind.  Actually, that was sort-of a deliberate decision on the part of Apple a long time ago.  Most of those people in that group, headed by a guy named Bob Glass, then went to Microsoft, Sun, or out on their own.  Then in the mid 90s a company called Berkeley Systems (now defunct) came out with a screen reader called "OutSpoken" for the mac.  It had it's problems, but it was somewhat usable for some things, but thenthey sold out to a European company who continued development for another couple of years and then folded.  Then, like Microsoft (but many years later) Apple got religion and decided to put some effort and talent into this problem, and now we're seeing the fruits of this.  Of course all of this was spurred on by federal legislation that effected education and government contractors, but th end result is that both major computing platforms can support users with a wide variety of disabilities, and thus have opened all sorts of opportunities for education and employment that simply were not there before.  The result is that more PWD are now off the dole and in charge of their own lives, perhaps for the first time in history.  Of course the employment rate for PWDs, is still averaging only 20-25 percent, but time and, more slowly, acceptance of PWDs into society and employment should only improve that.

Off the soapbox now, but wanted too make a point that this stuff is is so much more important than the gee-whiz factor.  That doesn't make it any less cool though

The Touch (and iPhone if I could justify it) are the first mass-market PDAs that blind people can use, and right out of the box and on an equal basis with the rest of ociety.  That's why I describe these things as game-changers.

Really glad you took the time to give this a try -- that makes me happy.  Maybe next you'll try the iPad?

-- Jim

[chrisby]

Jim - good to hear from you - yup Mr Jobs and company sure mix up a pretty tasty kool-aid.   We must be brainwashed after all, if we're convinced that a computer should simply work for us, without asking if we're sure we really want to "do that". 

My son has been a big time gamer since Sega in the mid 80's, and currently has both X-Box and Playstation - he likes them both for the available games- but after picking up a white MB about 2 years ago, has become a hardcore Applehead (iPhone/AppleTV, a couple of iPods) .   My personal favorite MS branded products of all time are Outlook and the softtouch keyboard on my work PC on which I'm typing this post.

About a year ago we started a home reno that included blowing out some walls to expand a kitchen - in the process an old bedroom where her mid 90's vintage Pentium "desktop" system resided would be obliterated.  I suggested a laptop would make more sense, and that she look at what as available through her work's employee purchase program (she works for one of the big Canadian banks).  With only a "little prodding", she picked up a 13" MBP, and never ceases to marvel at what an amazing work of integrated hard/software this gadget embodies, or how it can change one's lifestyle. While I certainly spend more cumulative time online at work and home, she definitely visits more places.   
 

[jrebman]

Hey Chris,

Good to hear from you too.  So, does that remodel have anything to do with making your listening room a bit wider too?

Yes, got my MBP back the other day and with the SSD drive, is just awesome.  Next I'll probably upgrade to 8 gb and then eventually setup boot camp and get windows installed and then I can do all my work on a single machine.

Hope you're well, and I'll have a nice piece of woodwork to show you in a few months -- built a nice box for my Stereomour out of a sweet piece of spalted birch with walnut trim.  Top plate is out getting a show chrome plating right now.

-- Jim

[Randy]

I have been using Apples and Macs for , I guess, close tp 25 years. Is that possible? Time flies. Have to use Windows at school. Hate 'em.   My only regret is not putting my money where my mouth was, say 15 years ago, by buying a pile of Apple stock.

 

[planet10]

...a home reno that included blowing out some walls to expand a kitchen... she picked up a 13" MBP

As i recall, the MBP came 1st, and the $40k MacBook ended up coming with a brand new kitchen (and a few bumps on Chris' head)

dave

[srb]

I know this is a topic about switching from "Windows to Apple" (or more accurately from Microsoft to Apple or Windows to OSX), but please, a quick sidebar:
 
I have both platforms.  Apple's Airport Utility just prompted me to update the firmware in my Airport Express'.  Which I did.  Now all three AEs are unable to connect to the network because they will not configure with their proper static IP addresses, but instead choose to configure themselves with static IP addresses totally unrelated to my network.  (Say what?!)  They all had to be re-flashed to the previous firmware version, which easily accepts the static IPs that I put in.  What a waste of time.  But I once again have music streaming!
 
Having been an IT professional for over 20 years and having worked with both platforms, I really have no emotional bias.  So I just want to reiterate that Microsoft and Apple both have the capacity to suck, and I have, depending on the occasion, loved and hated them equally!  But today, Apple sucks big time!
 
We now return to your regularly scheduled Apple fest.
 
Steve

[Crimson]

But today, Apple sucks big time!

That's because you're not using a few dual band Xtremes in a WDS environment feeding those AExs.

 

[srb]

That's because you're not using a few dual band Xtremes in a WDS environment feeding those AExs.

No, it's because their big release of the new AE firmware version is broken, busted, crippled, wounded, mangled or whatever.  When I roll back to the previous firmware version, everything works just swell.
 
But like I've said, nothing Microsoft hasn't done to me in the past, either.  Thank you Microsoft.  Thank you Apple.  All I really ask of them is that they test updates before releasing them.
 
Steve