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Superchicken · Dec 10, 2004, 01:03 PM

Yup, Logan the previous switcher got his this week Monday, and Paul another guy in dorm walked into my room today and was like, hey David, guess what I got? And I in a sleepy haze looked up to see him holding a 12 inch iBook! I was sure it was just Logan's and he was trying to screw with my head. I grabbed it looked at the user folder and saw it only had one account named after him, and my jaw dropped. The last two weeks I hear he has been planning to get one and kept making fun of Macs in front of me so that it'd be a bigger surprise.
Anyway yah... we have 2 other guys across the hall from him with an iBook and PowerBook, and they always let him use their laptops. Anyway, I remember him asking me questions now and me answering just because you get me talking about Macs and I'll go for a long time. But... dang this is awesome. I think we need to continue this trend on campus... two Mac users every week

Xeo · Dec 10, 2004, 01:11 PM

I am always surprised to see how many CS majors use Macs. It's disproportionate to the number of real-world Mac users to PC users. I would say at least a third of my networking, and probably the same of my algorithms, class is Mac users. And to be honest, all of the ones who speak up in either class to answer the prof's questions are Mac users. Well nearly. There is one I can think of who is a linux user. Does that mean Mac users are smarter?

hayesk · Dec 10, 2004, 01:14 PM

Originally posted by Xeo:
I am always surprised to see how many CS majors use Macs. It's disproportionate to the number of real-world Mac users to PC users. I would say at least a third of my networking, and probably the same of my algorithms, class is Mac users. And to be honest, all of the ones who speak up in either class to answer the prof's questions are Mac users. Well nearly. There is one I can think of who is a linux user. Does that mean Mac users are smarter?

I'm not surprised at all. Most of my CS professors used Macs too. Although at that time it was System 7. For programming and teaching, they used SunOS, but when it came time to do basic stuff like word processing they preferred the Mac because of its better designed interface.

I wouldn't be surprised if all of those professors now use MacOS X most of the time.

Think about it - what does Windows really have to offer to a CS student?

Superchicken · Dec 10, 2004, 01:18 PM

I've heard of at least two profs at School who are forced to use PC laptops because of the network guys even though both would sooner use Macs

But yah it seems all the Mac users around are generally smarter. Then again studies have proven Mac users do tend to be smarter

macintologist · Dec 10, 2004, 01:18 PM

Originally posted by Xeo:
I am always surprised to see how many CS majors use Macs.

You can major in Counter Strike?

ManOfSteal · Dec 10, 2004, 01:34 PM

Originally posted by hayesk:
Think about it - what does Windows really have to offer to a CS student?

Virus trouble-shooting?

Superchicken · Dec 10, 2004, 01:36 PM

Originally posted by hayesk:
Think about it - what does Windows really have to offer to a CS student?

Stress management practice?

olePigeon · Dec 10, 2004, 03:13 PM

The Computer Science dean at my college has a 14" iBook. He also teaches a few classes using it. It's funny because the majority of students are Microsoft fanboys. When they see him pull out his iBook to teach SQL or Java, there's always a collective *gasp* "I thought you couldn't program on a Mac..."

rambo47 · Dec 11, 2004, 03:49 PM

I've converted two fellow Wall Streeters recently. One got the family a new iMac G5 after fighting with Gateway for far too long on multiple issues. Looks like he simply got a bogus Gateway. The last straw for him was tech support telling him to simply "reinstall your operating system".

The other guy has heard me hoot and holler about how insanely great Macs are for several years, and now has decided to come over to the Side of Light and Purity after years of the Dark Side. He got the 17" PowerBook and says he still giggles every time he opens it up, its that awesome.

I have a third potential switcher on the line and he's thinking about making the Christmas plunge.

Before I convert anyone I talk at length about how much they have already invested in software, what they use their computers for, etc. I don't want someone telling me, "You said get a Mac, but none of my daughter's educational software will work now." Ya know what closes the deal almost every time though? Sitting in a Starbucks with them, pulling out my 12" G4 PowerBook, clicking on the AirPort indicator in the menu bar and selecting the T-Mobile Network. I log in with my account, and check my email, cruise to a financial news web site like Barron's Online. I say, "Look! You can get your mail, even do some work, all while enjoying a Latte!" Makes it seem like a business investment.

macintologist · Dec 11, 2004, 04:42 PM

Originally posted by rambo47:
I've converted two fellow Wall Streeters recently. One got the family a new iMac G5 after fighting with Gateway for far too long on multiple issues. Looks like he simply got a bogus Gateway. The last straw for him was tech support telling him to simply "reinstall your operating system".

The other guy has heard me hoot and holler about how insanely great Macs are for several years, and now has decided to come over to the Side of Light and Purity after years of the Dark Side. He got the 17" PowerBook and says he still giggles every time he opens it up, its that awesome.

I have a third potential switcher on the line and he's thinking about making the Christmas plunge.

Before I convert anyone I talk at length about how much they have already invested in software, what they use their computers for, etc. I don't want someone telling me, "You said get a Mac, but none of my daughter's educational software will work now." Ya know what closes the deal almost every time though? Sitting in a Starbucks with them, pulling out my 12" G4 PowerBook, clicking on the AirPort indicator in the menu bar and selecting the T-Mobile Network. I log in with my account, and check my email, cruise to a financial news web site like Barron's Online. I say, "Look! You can get your mail, even do some work, all while enjoying a Latte!" Makes it seem like a business investment.

That's the downside of switching people. If something goes wrong, it almost seems like they hold you slightly responsible for it

ambush · Dec 11, 2004, 05:00 PM

most of the time I tell ppl to buy PCs. so if they get problems I can laugh at them.

anyway. this is just because in the past, people have held me responsible because their mac did not function well (os9 days.... and even with OS X)...

so **** off, I'm not a ****ing Apple Messiah, goddammit.

CD Hanks · Dec 11, 2004, 05:09 PM

Originally posted by macintologist:
You can major in Counter Strike?

Computer Science.

Originally posted by ambush:
most of the time I tell ppl to buy PCs. so if they get problems I can laugh at them.

You're a dick.

goMac · Dec 11, 2004, 05:47 PM

About 1/3 of my CS class is Mac, with another 1/3 probably switching.

The campus is currently Windows based, but Linux is making its way through the CS classes, especially since IBM gave us access to their Linux Power5 cluster.

Steve · Dec 11, 2004, 05:52 PM

Originally posted by goMac:
About 1/3 of my CS class is Mac, with another 1/3 probably switching.

The campus is currently Windows based, but Linux is making its way through the CS classes, especially since IBM gave us access to their Linux Power5 cluster.

I wish my campus was like that. I've seen 2 people CS majors (out of about 75) that use Macs (both iBooks). Everyone else runs Windows and most of us dual-boot some flavor of Linux.

I'd love to get an iBook so I could do programming around and off-campus. I'm stuck either doing it in my room or in the "Dungeon". I've taught myself to use Linux with and without a GUI recently and I know a lot of stuff would transfer itself over to the OS X environment.

We'll see if the internship will provide enough funds for that this summer...

goMac · Dec 11, 2004, 06:53 PM

Originally posted by Steve:
I wish my campus was like that. I've seen 2 people CS majors (out of about 75) that use Macs (both iBooks). Everyone else runs Windows and most of us dual-boot some flavor of Linux.

I'd love to get an iBook so I could do programming around and off-campus. I'm stuck either doing it in my room or in the "Dungeon". I've taught myself to use Linux with and without a GUI recently and I know a lot of stuff would transfer itself over to the OS X environment.

We'll see if the internship will provide enough funds for that this summer...

Most people just recently switched (a lot of AlBooks) and pretty much anyone in CS buying a laptop is buying Apple. The desktops are all staying PC's pretty much.

Linux is getting a lot of attention here, especially in since Linus himself lives in Beaverton, which is about 20 miles away. Linux is also more powerful than Windows, and a lot of the profs here are UNIX folk.

One person was doing a presentation on open source the other day and was talking abotu how "MacOS OS X" was based on UNIX now. Made me cringe...

Superchicken · Dec 11, 2004, 07:48 PM

Hehe I just love it, almost 1/3rd of my dorm now has Macs if they have computers.

That said, we're the only dorm aside from one person in another dorm that has one out of the guys. I've heard of four girls in the school who have Macs. That said there's another guy who plans on buying an iBook by the beginning of next year

So we'll at least next semester if we all come back to the same dorm will have at least 6 Macs in the dorm

goMac · Dec 11, 2004, 09:22 PM

Originally posted by Superchicken:
Hehe I just love it, almost 1/3rd of my dorm now has Macs if they have computers. That said, we're the only dorm aside from one person in another dorm that has one out of the guys. I've heard of four girls in the school who have Macs. That said there's another guy who plans on buying an iBook by the beginning of next year So we'll at least next semester if we all come back to the same dorm will have at least 6 Macs in the dorm

About 1/3 the girls at my school have Mac laptops, which is great for support.

It seems Macs are more popular among girls because they don't play games as much. You don't find many Mac using guys outside of engineering. Engineering is usually either Mac (for CS) or tablet PC (for civil egr, etc).

Superchicken · Dec 12, 2004, 02:10 AM

It's harder to convince girls up here because they don't want to get new comps they just go with whatever their guy friends tell them to get. Fortunately though I am a guy and a geek I already have one girl who has said the next comp she gets may be a mac.

macintologist · Dec 12, 2004, 03:10 AM

Originally posted by Superchicken:
It's harder to convince girls up here because they don't want to get new comps they just go with whatever their guy friends tell them to get. Fortunately though I am a guy and a geek I already have one girl who has said the next comp she gets may be a mac.

Hopefully when I go to uni some chicks will be turned on by my expertise