Forums | MacLife

try these two web sites www.13idol.com/mac/macfacts.html and www.macvspc.info

Both are packed with info that show why a Mac is million times better than a PeeCee

well, why did you switch? I'm just curious. you haven't made a mistake that's for sure.

Why did I switch?  I had a few reasons, some more justified than others.

Apple Marketing/Design:  I wanted a laptop.  And all the PC laptops that I saw just looked dumb.  The iBook looked cooler than everything else, both externally and internally.    I liked the various Switch Ads - "I saved Christmas!"

The first time I saw the iBook, I thought "I am so gonna paint this thing blue."  Now I just have to wait another 2.5 years for my AppleCare to run out.

The look of the Aqua interface.

Technical bits:  Long battery life.   A laptop that actually lasts 5 hours on 1 charge is great.  Of course, now I read about all of these iBook battery problems....but that's just irony (and not affecting me yet).

I liked the idea of a unix core.  I'd had lots of stability issues with Windows OSes.  Even the "stable" ones like W2K.

I hated WinXP and it was impossible to find a PC laptop w/o it.

There were other reasons, and I'm rambling.  so I'll stop.

Thanks for the websites!  Keep the advice coming if you've got any more!

cool

funny to think that the switch ads worked   but I guess that's coming from the view of "why do we need ads?  doesn't the world know that Apple is king and windows remains just because people aren't willing to learn something new?"

anyway.  for other places to look.  read every thread under Balloon Help, Mac OS X Troubleshooting, Tips and Tricks,  etc.  and search whenever you have a question on something.  odds are some part of it has been mentioned.  and ask us too.

welcome aboard.

these are the sites you should know:

http://www.macaddict.com -you already knew that
http://www.macminute.com -the best mac new site hmho
http://www.versiontracker.com -latest mac software I visit there many times a day
http://www.dealmac.com -the latest deals on mac peripherals
http://www.macfixit.com -the latest troubleshooting tips
http://www.resexcellence.com -hack the appearance
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com -hack the hardware
http://www.thinksecret.com -rumor site
http://www.macrumors.com -ditto

There are more but I personally don't pay them much heed.

Don't forget www.arstechnica.com for the biased and not-so-biased technical reads. 

I just smile mysteriously and change the topic.    

A friend of mine who used to manage some pretty cool clubs in NY City once told me one of the secrets to running a club was having at least one area of the club that was almost impossible to get into, and reserving it for just the most elite visitors and desireable guests.  People get curious about mysteries....

Treat your Mac as a friend and it will be good to you, remember it's trying to help you.

You can tell people you switched because you wanted to get work done and wanted to have fun doing it.

Welcome to the cult that is Mac. I'm assuming you received your black cloak and prayer book with the iBook? You are required to visit out temples (Apple Stores) as often as possible and praise thy master Steve. Convert all that you meet for we know the truth and will die defending it.

You guys are awesome.  I'm going to check out some of those websites on my lunch break.  Maybe I'll buzz by Borders to see if that book is available as well.

Consider this thread to be an end of my "lurking stage".   Thanks for the advice!

The nice thing about being a "switcher" at this point in history is that most of us long time mac users (mac 128K in 1984) are as new to OS X as the switchers - it's a good time to be switching.

most mac users don't know UNIX from eunuchs - which is totally cool - they just turn it on and use it . . .

. . . which is the whole idea of mac vs windoze . . .

as a user and supporter of ALL platforms (except LENNOX), I have found that switchers have a greater appreciation for the beauty of the MacOS that those of us who have not had to suffer the slings and arrows of Windoze OSes . . . .

so enjoy your new-found platform freedom, now you can wait for 5gHz G5 quad-processor configurations like "the rest of us" . . . .

I became the font of worthless mac info I am today mostly by reading the same news sites day in and day out: MacNN, MacCentral, AppleLinks, As The Apple Turns, MacObserver, and MacFixit.  You learn a LOT that way, even if some of the news stories do overlap.

I also learned a lot just by talking to other people about their machines, and what hardware issues plague them.  I'd say that I know quite a bit about almost every machine that can run OS X (which is about when I started using a mac), just from knowing people that own them and seeing what pops up on news sites, petitions bitching about stuff, etc.

Speaking of which, you want to know YOUR machine inside and out.  Reading news sites only tells you about machines that you don't have (i.e. new hardware).  Know which ports you have, how much ram you can support, how much ram you have now, how its organized, how big your hard drive is, etc.  This will save you money and trouble later on when you decide to upgrade your machine.

Whatever happens, try not to become a zealot.  They're annoying.  The bottom line is that Macs have all the flaws that PC's have, just different.  Like Kernel Panics, driver incompatibilities, random installs of Apple software that clear our your user folder (OOPS!).  Understand the reasons for using a mac, but don't pretend that there are no problems.  If there were, Apple wouldn't make so much money on its three year AppleCare warranty.

A great way to become a Mac person is to learn about all of the hardware. Go to lowendmac.com, and check out Apple's spec page. Both have profiles of older Macs all the way back to the original Macintosh.

As you learn about the Macs of old, you'll notice that unlike PCs most were very unique. The  AV models, the oddball behemoths like the Quadra 950, and the pizza box Macs not to mention the DOS compatable models with an X86 proc on a seperate card or the LCs with the apple II on an expansion card.

Soon you'll start filling the basement with old Macs, and figuring out how to get them networked, and finding cool ways to utilize the various built-in capabilities of a 7 year old Quadra.

Then you will know what it is to be a Mac person.

http://www.bushorchimp.com/

Put George Bush's head on a chimpanzee and send it to all your Republican friends. They love that.

if you are seriously whacked and bored to death, check this site i made, be prepared to wait a minute though for it to load, it' svery comprehensive and self made, yeah, BTW, there's a tad of non-mac stuff related too, but yeah, it here:
ca.geocities.com/kerrdude_2003/a.html
much fun if much bandwidth,
cheers
travis!

BTW, i really want to go to Rice University.

Got a T1 @ work.  That was definitely among the more interesting webpages I've ever loaded.  I may head back there sometime.  It seems to be a 1 stop shop for <i>everything</i>.

Thanks!