Those of you who jumped from pure Windows based to MAC

[PricklyPete]

Was forced to do it by my company 5 years ago. Wasn't happy about it...but between it and the current generation consoles...I couldn't be happier. I no longer worry about what will work...and I just do stuff...whether it is photo editing or programming.

 

[Subyman]

My first MacBook Pro was purchased a month ago, an Ivy 13". I've enjoyed it and it does a lot of things differently than windows, but its easy to pick up. I'm not so sure either OS is the "better" one, they both pretty much do the same thing at the end of the day. I mainly purchased the MacBook to work with Xcode. As for the build quality, it is fantastic. I've never used an electronic device that was made as well as Apple products. IMO the chassis alone was worth the price premium. I can't ever see buying a non-Apple notebook/ultrabook again.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Maybe you're right, maybe you're not. I work in the industry of developing better user experiences, so it's also part of my job to be critical and analytical of how things are designed. For me, it's not about "how it used to be", but more about what they could have done to make it better for the user or be smarter about it. I spend equal amount of time on both Macs and Windows based computers and I can say without doubt that, in most aspects, Windows tend to be better than Mac OS's when it comes to the user experience.

Here's just a quick example: iTunes in my opinion is one of the clunkiest and most counter-intuitive music program out there. The UI is pretty poorly designed. I thought Zune was much better designed, but unfortunately as with everything MS's involved with these days, they tend to kill it pretty fast.

iTunes isn't part of OS X, nor was the Zune software part of Windows, and iTunes has been successfully inflicted on both platforms. (Way too many features bolted onto iTunes over the years.)

 

[mike656]

Bought my first Mac 11 years ago but as a secondary platform. OS9, 10.0, and 10.1 were pretty much junk so I was using windows 90% of the time until I had a capacitor blow on my MB, and since I didn't have the money at the moment to fix my Win box, I was kind of forced into the platform full time. Luckily when that happened 10.3 had just come out, which made the machine quite useable although quite an adjustment after using DOS/Win for over 10 years. Since that time I have purchased 4 more Mac's and haven't looked back.

 

[macandiPhone]

Those who jumped from PC to Mac<spam removed> Rock ON

<spam> -DrPizza

 

[MotionMan]

<spam> Rock ON

Does it come with a free iPhone and the Black Man avatar?

MotionMan

 

[JJChicken]

Did the switch a few weeks back and love it! Great piece of hardware (13" MBP), LOVE the basic functions that just work (SLEEP is amazingingly implemented) and the trackpad is sweet.

For me OS X is a good OS, but thats cause I like to tinker in Terminal quite a bit, so basically I view OS X as a linuxy OS that actually works with decent app support.

So great hardware + great OS X =

Note, I don't play much games on my machine - I wouldn't get a mac if I wanted to play games. Plus OS X does have alot of bugs, I wouldn't say its hands-down better than Win 7, but for anyone looking for a Unix implementation, its great.

PM me if you have any queries.

 

[Emulex]

love my mbp/mba/rmBP/macpro/imac devices. bsd with a nice UI can't ask for more for a client.

grew up on bsdi 1 till freebsd (4/5) when bsdi went kaput then onwards!

 

[LookBehindYou]

Made the switch about 1 1/2 years ago and haven't looked back. I still have a win 7 desktop but that mostly goes unused these days unless my 8 year old is on it. I keep hoping it'll die one of these days so I can replace it with an imac or mac mini.

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

My only complaint is the keyboard. I simply cannot get used to the command button being placed where it is. I'm yearning for my CTRL key damnit!

 

[alkemyst]

The apple is CTRL / ALT / COMMAND. No different than Windows CTRL/ALT/Win Key.

Unless you are talking about how Fn is the furthest left key in that arrangement.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

The apple is CTRL / ALT / COMMAND. No different than Windows CTRL/ALT/Win Key.

Unless you are talking about how Fn is the furthest left key in that arrangement.

They layout is the same, but all the keyboard shortcuts that use control on Windows use Command on a mac, so the finger spacing is different.

It trips you up if you back and forth a lot, and there are a few shortcuts where I'll have to switch hands between systems because my thumb doesn't bend that far. But if you just use one system and get used to it, it's immaterial (and most people don't use that many keyboard shortcuts anyway.)

 

[lokiju]

Was around 2008 that I got a brand spanking new at the time 13" MBP, then a Mac Mini, then a Mac Pro.

All at the place I worked.

Then last year I bought a 21.5" iMac and a 13" MBA for home/personal use.

Other than my hard drive dying on my iMac last night, I've loved both of my Macs for home use.

I now work at a place where I don't have any Macs though, but I'm working on that. One day I hope to get a MBP with Retina for work.

When I got my 1st Mac back in 2008 I didn't know what in the hell I was doing and did what a lot of people do and dual booted it for awhile. I got to a point where I found I needed to go into Windows less and less and finally just removed the dual boot and did native OS X only.

I've learned a LOT about the OS over the years.

I can't imagine not buying a Mac for myself going forward but that of course all depends on if they drop the ball and if Microsoft comes around to surpass them in some way.

 

[Deeko]

I got a MacBook Air earlier in the year. I love the hardware, but I'm still not a fan of OS X. I use Windows via Boot Camp at least 95% of the time, I only really use OS X for iOS development.

 

[Rottie]

after so many surgeries 3 years ago I decided to retire as Windows fanboy and switched everything to Apple products…I am very pleased with them.

 

[alkemyst]

what did your surgeries have to do with the switch?

 

[Tyranicus]

what did your surgeries have to do with the switch?

I think they meant PC repairs rather than medical procedures.

 

[Rottie]

what did your surgeries have to do with the switch?

had surgery on both eyes and can't play hardcore games I really want to play and other stuff like I used with my PC in the past. :'(

 

[Rottie]

I think they meant PC repairs rather than medical procedures.

nope…..

 

[PeeluckyDuckee]

Went from a PC to an iMac. Have since added an iPad 3 and a 11" Mac Air to the mix. Tried going back to Windows via Samsung Series 9 laptop but the trackpad was a major fail.

OSX is very user friendly, with a nice GUI, I didn't feel intimidated or lost. The OS feels buttery smooth in terms of navigation.

The trackpad on the Air is a joy to use. They got scrolling and gestures pat down, everything is very responsive.

I also enjoy the ability to dualboot into Windows 7, soley for gaming. Although battery life does take a hit, but at least that option is available to me. If I went with a Windows laptop there's no way to get OSX on there, and neither will the experience be the same.

I tried to escape from Apple's ecosystem, but I was pleasantly sucked right back in.

 

[Smasherbasher]

If I can get rid of my current windows desktop, I am jumping into the Mac scene with both feet. It really is just better.

 

[lakshwadeep]

Once you go Mac, you don't go back.

I switched when going to college in 2007 after working with Macs in my high school journalism classes. However, I never had a long term hate for Macs since I could remember using them in elementary school and even helping install the first iMacs.

Like Lokiju, I was still nervous and got a bootcamp partition for Windows since I was planning to use AutoCAD. Now, I now rarely need the partition since the only paid program I used (MS Office) has been sufficiently updated in 2011. Even for games that I really want (like Empire Total War back in 2009), I just can't bring myself to paying for something that would force me to keep Windows. The fact that AutoCAD has finally returned to the Mac and Empire Total War will arrive soon are two examples that software companies are recognizing Macs as a newly viable market.

As others mentioned, the hardware is very nice and works well together, especially the unibody MBPs. Why else would other makers gravitate towards the chiclet keyboard or large trackpad? Many people have mentioned the trackpad because it's one of the highlights of any Mac laptop. That's how it is with many things: you forget about the UI precisely because someone at Apple spent time to make things as unobtrusive as possible.

If you want to increase your productivity, I suggest getting the app Quicksilver or using Apple's own spotlight feature to easily navigate between programs/files.

Good luck with your decision.

I would just like to add that I'm watching the landing of NASA Curiosity rover on Mars, and it's interesting to see almost all the engineers working on Mac laptops.

 

[Rubycon]

Have not jumped in the sense (use both) as well as other less known OS...

My biggest gripe with Apple OS is "font smoothing" as they call it. I wish there was a way to completely and I mean completely turn this crap off. All it does is make text look blurry. For those of us with perfect vision it's highly annoying! :thumbsdown:

 

[phillyTIM]

Jumped from all-Win to MacBook Pro last year, and haven't looked back since! I couldn't be more happy with the move!

Fantastic rock-solid hardware, awesome OS with tons of applications & features; totally worth the $.

Nowadays with document standards and the explosion of internet applications which require only a web browser, it's not quite the choice of either/or Mac vs. Win anymore.

You just use whichever you'd prefer, because most stuff does indeed run on about anything in one way or another.

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

The hardware is truly top notch, but I feel Windows 7 is a better OS than OSX.

It's smoother, less laggy, and rock solid stable. Also a bit more efficient when it comes to multi-tasking (IMHO of course).