We all have tales about it: the days when our most used keyboard command was Ctrl + Alt + Delete and our whole life could Blue Screen away in an instant. Fortunately, those days are long gone, as our Macs have fixed those irritating problems we used to have with Windows PCs. But we got to thinking the other day here at the Mac|Life offices: when was the last time we actually used a PC? Most of us don't remember because we've blocked those memories, so that's why we want to hear yours.
And we're so excited to hear your stories, that we're giving away a Mac-formatted hard drive and tough enclosure from Western Digital to the best story. Leave us your comments and next week, we'll narrow it down to the best and vote on a winner.
Mac|Life's Do You Remember Your Last PC? contest rules: One entry per person. The winner will be chosen at random from qualified entries. All entries must be received no later than 12:01 PM PST, September 14, 2011. By entering this contest, you agree that Future US, Inc. may use your name, likeness, and website for promotional purposes without further payment. Employees of Sponsor, its respective parent, subsidiaries, affiliated companies, and agents, and foregoing employees¹ household or immediate family members (defined as parent, spouse, child, sibling, or grandparent) are NOT eligible to enter Contest. All prizes will be awarded, and no minimum number of entries is required. If two or more people enter identical designs and that entry is selected as the winner, the entry received first will be awarded the contest prize. Prizes won by minors will be awarded to their parents or legal guardians. Future US, Inc. is not responsible for damages or expenses the winners might incur as a result of this contest or the receipt of a prize, and winners are responsible for income taxes based on the value of the prize received. A list of winners may also be obtained by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Future US, Inc. c/o Mac|Life Contest, 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080. This contest is limited to residents of the United States. No purchase necessary; void in Arizona, Maryland, Vermont, Puerto Rico, and where prohibited by law.
teach5
September 08, 2011 at 6:46pm
I just purchased an iMac:here is why. I purchased a Gateway PC last July, after reading multiple reviews about how good the machine was. After only having it for 30 days it crashed. Kept rebooting itself trying to load the OS. I couldn't even get to the Blue Screen of Death! After bringing it in I found out that it wasn't worth fixing so they replaced the unit. Had to wait 1-2 weeks for the replacement. The machine was replaced. Had the typical Windows issues from time to time, but then this past July, slightly over a year from initial purchase. The machine crashed again. Brought it in, supposedly a software issue. Was fixed, brought it home a week later, used it for a half a day at the most and the machine crashed. Brought it in, service dept worked on it for a week and called stating it needed to be sent out for work. It has been out for service since July 4, today is Sept. 8. I still do not have the machine. Technically I have had the machine for a year and 2 months, but have actually been able to use it for about 11 months. The only reason I hope I get it back is so I can take advantage of Apple's recycling program. I'm loving my new iMac and look forward to many years with this and future Macs.
Lupin_Mendoza
September 08, 2011 at 6:11pm
I've been using PC laptops one after the other for quite a while up until last year. The last one i had was a Toshiba and it was the flimsiest, junkiest piece of junk ever. it got to the point where it would bluescreen of death every 3 out of 4 times i'd boot it up. If it did load up, it would freeze at the windows loading screen. So anyway, I had a huge final paper due in my english class at Santa Monica College awhile back and after doing tons of research and finishing up my 10th page of my essay (at around 2am no less), I watched in horror as it suddenly flashes to that infamous bluescreen. It was at that moment i realize i hadn't saved the document in a few hours....Needless to say i didn't sleep that night at all and got an awful awful grade. After saving up and getting a macbook pro and upgrading to Lion i have no worries about losing huge amounts of work suddenly haha.
opiapr
September 08, 2011 at 6:07pm
Wow those days weren't fun at all. My last PC was a Gateway NX860 purchased on 2006 and I got rid of it in 2006. I just hated purchasing a new PC every 6-12 months.
That same year I purchased an iMac and it still running strong I went to get 2 macbooks pro and and Air all except for one are still in the family the other one had a coca-cola accident.
jagepro
September 08, 2011 at 6:06pm
Thought I'd get a little netbook. How bad could it be? Great Black Friday deal, Windows 7 is supposed to be better...that was last Thanksgiving and I regretted the decision after a week of updates,updates,updates. Every time I started the thing updates,updates,updates. My Mini taunting me, laughing every time..."You should've gotten a Mac".
Sweet bliss got a MBP last month...why did I torture myself?
The netbook? Sold to a PC sucka-good luck luck bud I could never connect to your wi-fi!
JDG63
September 08, 2011 at 5:56pm
I was a long time PC user both out of necessity (work) as well as what I could afford. My last PC was a Dell. It was my first laptop and the worst POS I have ever known.
It ran fine for two or so years. I have always been good about maintaining my computers (backups, antivirus and updating)and felt I had a good grasp of my machine.
One day the screen went black. Flat black. Still powered up but not responding.
Restarted a few times and got her running. Life was happy for a month then BOOM! Black screen of doom. At least with the blue screen you knew you were screwed.
Then two months later, the blue screen of death that I'd hoped for appeared. Called "customer support" I later discovered was India. Spoke to "chad" who tried to help me. No go. Done. She's a goner.
Bought my Macbook unibody (late 2008) and have not looked back. Recently treated myself to my first iPhone. Life. Made. Simple.
lamadude
September 08, 2011 at 5:57pm
The little four foot monster that roamed the halls searching for something to bite or destroy or kill was on a mission. A mission so simple and devious its execution would be unthinkable yet so entirely simple. The little fiend scampered up to the gargantuan monitor displaying a smirking Windows XP logo bouncing off the edges of the heavily smudged glass screen. A finger creeped up to force the clunky spacebar down, causing the Windows insignia to abruptly end its monotonous and pointless endeavor to hit the very corner of its boundaries. A picture displaying three fish leisurely swimming their way towards what was surely an underwater meat grinder like a group of blind, deaf, legless lemmings was behind a clutter of files, applications, and pointless funny cat pictures. A devilish hand clutched a mouse precariously making its way to the top left corner of the screen to a icon labeled "My Computer." I strolled into the room to visit my favorite Apple news site to try to convince my parents that purchasing a Mac was necessary for my general well being when I saw a dark silhouette performing the fatal blow. I spotted the "My Computer" icon being transferred to the recycle bin, and before I had time to scream in objection the recycle bin had been emptied. Everything had been deleted. Everything. Songs, system files, funny cat pictures, everything. And then it hit me, the classic excuse, "this computer works fine," no longer applied. From then on it was Mac city, where songs, system files, and funny cat pictures need not fear the wrath of the monster that stalked the halls, looking for something to bite, destroy, or kill.
brandonwalkermedia
September 08, 2011 at 5:42pm
my last PC was in 2009 i had a dell laptop, my last year cost me $2500 in OS repairs. Then the Dell died (the hard drive had sand from the middle east in it???) so i got an iPhone (& my friends MBP) and used that as a computer till i got my MacBookAir!!!
dbolton7782
September 08, 2011 at 5:39pm
My last pc was a notebook running vista. It took forever to boot and every few hours would bug me about "important updates" it was so obnoxious trying to work and have Norton start scanning and bring everything to a halt. Right now I'm using my new MacBook Pro and my fiancé is trying to use the pc.
I'm going office space on it after she gets her Mac too.
hypersapien
September 08, 2011 at 5:20pm
My last PC was a dell that I had in college (about 7 years ago), in order to run some windows-only 3D modelling software. It broke down after a few weeks of use, and Dell sent a technician to my house to get it fixed. He failed. A second technician was sent out. He failed. A third technician was sent out. He failed. At this point they threw up their hands and just sent me a completely new machine.
theatremusician
September 08, 2011 at 4:27pm
My one and only Windows machine was an early Compaq laptop. Constant headache, constant crashes, constant fail. I think it was running Windows '95. It was basically good for working on text documents. Beyond that, nearly useless.
Its ultimate demise was rather dramatic. I was at an airport (I don't recall which one). There was some construction going on and there were temporary walkways made of slightly better than normal scaffolding. Rather than a solid wall as a railing on the second floor, it was an open railing. Well, in my haste, I forget to zip up the bag in which I had my laptop. I had to stop on the temp walkway to tie my shoe and as I bent over, the laptop came out of the bag and through the open rail to the first floor 20 feet or so below. I cringed in horror because I could imagine the 8 or 10 pound computer hitting someone in the head. Fortunately there happened to be no one below at that moment and the laptop hit the linoleum and smashed into about 30 pieces of varying sizes.
LDMartin1959
September 08, 2011 at 4:15pm
I tossed my last PC about 5 months ago. It was a Dell Inspiron 1725 laptop. For a laptop, it was a fine boat anchor. As a computer, however, it left much to be desired. It had Windows Vista installed. Not by choice, but because I missed the last XP version of the machine by just a few months and Dell simply would not down-grade me, even for a fee (which I would have gladly paid). I could have tried installing XP in place of Vista -- after all, the previous generation of the 1725 had run XP -- but because Dell uses a proprietary boot sector with an on-board restoration partition I simply couldn't take the chance: If the home-spun down-grade had worked, all would have been well and good but had it failed, the boat anchor would have become a brick. Not a good option. And knowing my luck...
Windows machines being Windows machines, of course it was unstable. Blue screens of death and system lock-ups were the rule rather than the exception. And you had better plan on shutting it down and rebooting on a regular basis. And learn how to pull that battery so that you can restart after it locks while in sleep mode...I had been using PC's for over 20 years -- since the time when they were called IBM-compatibles and ran DOS (I used DOS from both Microsoft and Digital Research, that latter of which was much better than the former) and had lusted after Mac's the entire time. Even more so after Microsoft killed OS/2 and replaced it with WIndows (which was a huge step backward in the opinion of...well...everyone). The only reason I got into PC's instead of Apple products in the first place was because I was studying drafting, CAD was growing and AutoCAD -- the premier CAD application -- was not available for Mac's. And of course I never got a job as a draftsman and could have moved to Mac's at any time. Sadly, once in the PC world, I fell for the FUD about Mac's being more expensive than PC's.
Well, I finally decided I had had enough. This Dell was the last straw. On top of that, I did some comparisons and some math and discovered that the price of a Mac and a comparably configured PC were not that much different (and that didn't even take into account other factors such as the customer service issue, which was always good for inducing a heart-attack for the PC user having issues). I realized that all these years I had simply made the mistake of comparing a "Cadillac" (Mac) to a "Yugo" (PC) and of course, the "Yugo" was always cheaper. Go figure.
The Dell now sits in the corner, in it's carrying case, unused along with my wife's old Dell desktop. The WD passport I had purchased for the laptop has been reformatted for the Mac OS and is now used to ferry data between my Mac and my wife's Mac. Yes, we dove into headfirst the deep end of the Apple pool, became a 2-Mac family (plus iPads, iPods and soon to be iPhones) and have never been happier with our computing. Yes, we do have a wireless home network set up, but let's face it....copying the data from one computer to the other with the Passport is a heck of a lot faster than using the dropbox over the network.
Will I ever go back to PC's? Uh, what part of *NO* don't you understand, Billy G?
BTW, if Apple ever want's to run any more conversion-story ad's, sign me up!!
LDMartin1959
September 08, 2011 at 4:27pm
Oh, just for the record...since I an studying web development, I must review sites on Internet Explorer. I use VMWare Fusion and XP Pro. If one must run Windows for any reason, VMWare Fusion on a Mac is the best "PC" for running Windows. It's two...two..two computers in one!! (Sorry Doublemint, I just couldn't resist).
LDMartin1959
September 08, 2011 at 7:33pm
Haven't upgraded yet. But I think the issue is the speed of the network vs the speed of the USB connection. Even with "high-speed" network (802.11n) I'm not sure airdrop will beat the USB transfer rate. But I could be wrong 'cuz I'm not that up on it -- I'm still learning things about Mac's in general! :)
jaysul
September 08, 2011 at 3:58pm
I actually owned my last PC about two weeks ago. It was damaged during Hurricane Irene. I don't feel upset about because now I have Macbook and it is worth every dollar I spent on it. Once you go Mac you never go back
Scottie J
September 08, 2011 at 3:58pm
There it is...tucked away with the rest of the memories I would rather forget. It was a HP Media Center PC. I bought it while working for HP and painfully remember all the maintenance and repair I had to do to keep it running. I quit HP in 2006 and the same day I purchased my first MacBook Pro, I haven't looked back. I did however donate the three HP's I had to a women's shelter along with a Cisco router two printers and supplies. I hope they got good use from them.
LDMartin1959
September 08, 2011 at 4:23pm
"...I did however donate the three HP's I had to a women's shelter..."
Why? What did they ever do to you do deserve that sort of mistreatment?
not this exit
September 08, 2011 at 3:55pm
Got my first PC before entering high school around 2001 and replaced it with a 13" black macbook, 2.16 ghz & 2gigs of RAM in 2006. I think it's time for an upgrade! Soon I'll be getting the 27" 3.1 ghz i5 iMac. This external hard drive would go great with my new computer since I don't have an external hard drive! Thanks MacLife! :)
ceckardt
September 08, 2011 at 3:44pm
Sure do, it was this crappy Compaq Presario 103LA laptop, got it brand new from the local retailer and it never gave me more than 2 hours of battery life, plus it would heat up so bandlu I would have to set it down on a solid surface in order to use it, it came with Windows Vista Starter edition and a whole lot of useless crapware, I finally retired it and bought a brand new 13' MacBook Pro which I currently use, any comparison is simply pointless!
jcramer13
September 08, 2011 at 3:43pm
It was a cold chilly March day in 2007, and the mood matched the condition of my ill-fated PC. I was just starting my own business and was told by some Windows guru that in order to get the newest accounting software as well as adobe suite of products, I would have to upgrade or replace my ancient PC that had been purchased over a year earlier! I had reached the end of my patience and the seemingly endless stream of replacing pcs every two years in order to take advantage od the latest software available. I got myself a shiny new intel based iMac which still proudly sits atop my desktop running all the latest and greatest software. While I miss those late night sessions of trying to cram in the day's latest security updates, the multi-key stroke to do a simple task, and my absolute favorite of clicking "Start" to shut down, I learned to live with the simplicity of just having things work!
mushikusa
September 08, 2011 at 3:38pm
My last PC was "IBM Thinkpad x41 Tablet", still using it as idea sketchbook. Battery pack only holds less than 5 min now, so I never pulled out power cord. Purchased date was 10/21/05, I paid $2,163.55 back then. Never had a blue screen with this one becuase, I only installed "Sketchbook pro" and using it as idea sketchbook purpose. Nothing else look forward to with this former IBM buddy.
agrudsky
September 08, 2011 at 3:36pm
My last PC. I remember it from about 2 years ago. It was a Dell Dimension 2400. It used to be blazing fast, and now, it just chugs along. Unresponsive almost every single day. I switched to the Mac in 2009, when I bought an iMac. In fact, it's still my only Mac (right now). Switching has been my best choice so far.
Syre
September 08, 2011 at 3:35pm
I had a Toshiba Laptop. Nothing bad to say about Toshiba. They make awesome computers in my opinion. If someone asks what kind of laptop to get I usually recommend Toshiba. However, my laptop was a hunk of crap due to the horrendously corrupt Windows XP that was loaded on it. This laptop had to be more than 8 years old (from now I believe)... Everything crashed all the time. Windows blue screens of death. BAH! And nonstop issues with Microsoft Office. So basically, I despise Microsoft. :) I'm an avid Apple user now. Love my macbook pro and unfortunately school and work requires Microsoft Office even though I can use iWork or something else. My PC laptop was missing keys because it would crash, reboot, fail on updates, and so on so after getting so aggravated a few times I just tore some keys off. :) So when i started school again, I got a Macbook pro and haven't been happier... and that's basically turning a frown upside down.
jjweinks
September 08, 2011 at 3:26pm
PC's, who uses that word anymore. I mean P and C are never used in the same word anymore. Anyway back to my Windows. It was first a '97 Dell with those non colorful designs (O how I miss the original iMac Bondi Blues). Then I upgraded to another 2003 desktop Dell with 50 GB of storage. After half a year, it took 5 minutes to load up the login screen and then another 10 minutes for those silly antivirus things which just slowed down the computer even more (TGFM [Thank God for Macs]). And then another 4 minutes to load up Internet Explorer. O how I want to forget those dark days.
robertdothan
September 08, 2011 at 3:24pm
Let's see... It was 25 weeks ago according to coconutBattery. Replaced the Vaio with the new MacBook Pro. I had no idea what I was missing out on. Mac|Life has been the perfect companion to the new experience also. An Ipad and an Airprint printer has now replaced the home PC. I can't believe it has taken me this long to see the light.
arjay67
September 08, 2011 at 3:22pm
Hmmmm....it was just a little over one year ago. I've traded the BSoD for the SBBoD (spinning beachball of death). Granted, I see that a lot less than I did the BSoD. Yet my old PC still lives on inside of my hot little Mac Mini thanks to Bootcamp and Parallels. There are still two little utilities that I can't live without and don't have a suitable OSX counterpart. There's also a couple of apps that no one will ever be able to replace. One of those being WordPerfect 5.1. I do a lot of data conversion for clients and to reformat using any other tool is never as quick, dirty and easy as WP51. Long live VM's and the ability to emulate Win/DOS machines. Otherwise, I'm a very happy convert. :)
jason3731
September 08, 2011 at 3:15pm
Ya, i used to use pc's back in the day...before I grew up! lol...now im an iMac 27' all the way...No errors, No virus's, No headaches!
But to be honest...technically I still use my 4 old pc's everyday...I currently use two old gateways in my back room TO HOLD UP SOME FURNITURE...There really great at doing that...
And the other two are in my other room (office)! And I really put them to good use as there side by side with a square thick piece of glass on top to be used AS A PLACE TO PUT MY DRINKS DOWN AND MY ASHTRAY when I'm trying to get my creative juices flowing on my beautiful iMac! :)
And thats how I still use my old PC's LOL - Hope I win
waterface
September 08, 2011 at 3:02pm
It was 2003 the family computer and old eMachine that didn't even have one gig of RAM. One of those Wal-Mart specials! Since it was the family computer (and my siblings and I were all still living at home) it was used for Kazaa, Limewire, Bear Share, and any other software to download music. Not to mention all the porn my stepdad used it for. It went through virus after virus and was more infected than any prostitute could ever be. My mom probably had it repaired and wiped clean a dozen time but it was inevitable that it wouldn't last long before another virus had found it's way in. SO from then on I vowed that when i moved out I would never own a PC and would live a Mac Life!
Jamie
September 08, 2011 at 2:51pm
I've never owned a PC. Mac since 1995, bebbe. I've heard the term, 'blue screen of death', I've also heard of leprechauns and unicorns. And yeah, all of my Macs still work. :)
streetbear
September 08, 2011 at 2:50pm
Ah, the story of a young "streetbear". My last PC was owned by me at the young age of 7. If my memory serves me correct, it twas an Windows XP Gateway machine. Streetbear learned to cope with the rigorous ins and outs with the book "Little Timmy's First BSOD" and "So I Have a Windows Error". Life with that terrible computer was terrible, but before you know it, It was dead for good. And so the story of little Streetbear and the XP goes. The End.
mickbiddulph
September 08, 2011 at 2:41pm
Yes, the bloody thing is sitting behind me on the coffee table after ANOTHER backup from external drive because some update stuffed it up again. SIGH.
ucjuicy
September 08, 2011 at 2:35pm
Sorry to break it to you folks, but i am rocking this comment out on one right now! Sure, it is running Lion (like a champ) but a biased question was asked, are not all personal computers PCs? An Asus 1201N netty, 4GB RAM, 120GB SSD.
I used to be employed as a computer recycler up there in the Bay area so buying a new computer never was my thing. Buying a new Mac seemed doubly wasteful. Do not get me wrong, this beast i type from has never once booted into a MS OS, but i do virtualize Win 7. Its all ones and zeroes, c'mon.
TeraS
September 08, 2011 at 1:34pm
Ah my last PC... It was 1999, it was an old, that is, already old Dell 286 machine with a 60MB hard drive in it. It finally released all of its smoke and... well that afternoon it became a prop against the wheel of my car...
It didn't do well...
Oddly enough the people in the office were clapping when the crunch came...
