[Link]

Earlier this morning, I was talking with one of my friends who hangs out at the IRC network I chat on regularly.

Somehow computer stuff comes up and I was showing him the various different powermacs, a quick story came up and of course, he mentioned how cool they are.

It's a very nice thing to hear, someone who fully agrees with you, especially when just a few weeks ago they would have swore on their PC.

Welcome to my life.. while full of uncertainty, I also seem to be quite sure of one thing, I like my g4, and am proud to show it off. If you talk with me for a while and computers come up, you're more then likely to see a picture of it.

Why am I so proud to show it off? I dunno.. I guess it's just a symbol of a unique way of working, thinking, and getting things done. My powermac has served me quite well over the past 2 years, and while I've had my rollercoaster ride with apple, both in being hung up upon with a rude applecare person, and having things done by apple executives quickly, well.. it's been great!

So this brings me to the point. About a week ago now, my g4 took up the job of being an irc server for a small network I hang out at, definately not the main server, but the one all the 'regulars' stick to.. why?

It's stable, and it's different. I run my g4 24/7 to host my smalltime website, my mud, and of course because I hate starting/shutting down every morning anyway. To say the least, it's different, and many of the people I know are a HUGE fan of this, as just a few days ago my co-admin and I gloated on one of the IRCD support channels about how they'd just give us weird looks and the thing's not running ona h4x0r box, it's running on a mac.

And just a few months ago when I first came to the network, dare I say I used a mac, they'd have me in a nice 2 hour long argument, of course, I was well prepared

But the major factor is they're just unfamiliar with the truth. To most of the people, their most recent mac experience was in elementary school on a 5200/75 running OS 7.6.1.

Point proven? It's taken a while, and while it hasn't been my mission, it's something I'm not unhappy about, those that were hardcore about windows are now hardcore about linux, or at least have a pile of linux books, and those that aren't are planning to get macs in the future... some just keep using their dells or HPs, perfectly happy, and that's great!

It's rare that a PC will work perfectly forever. Heck, it's rare that a mac wll work perfectly forever, in fact I find mine quite the opposite, I get funky crashes, have lost data before, have lost documents before, and once lost my entire hard drive o_O

But who's to say this doesn't happen on either side? My primary PC, while running several different OSes, tends to get screwed up by windows xp every month or two, when the OS finally decides to just trash everythingon the HD... a few times it actually took me quite a while to finally get the drive usable again (several formats and whatnot).

The absolute worse was a few weeks ago when I decided that I had accumulated too much and needed to reformat, I uploaded all my stuff to another machine over firewire (took about 40 mins), reinstalled the OSes, redownloaded the stuff, and my computer was good as new, and back online).

Total time to redo everything, 3 hours. My programs were back in order within 10 minutes of THAT and I've been fully productive since.

On a PC it wouldn't have been TOO much different except you'd have to reinstall all of your programs that used windows registry (and there is no easy way to back it up).

so having made this looooong looooong topic, knowing that you people will probably flame me for veering slightly off course and whatnot, who's lives have you effected besides your own?

Half the time I don't even try... it just happens. Oh well

[bradoesch]

Well said. I also enjoy talking about the Mac with people that used to bash them and make fun of me for using one. Now they've said their next computer is going to be an iMac and they're already trying to switch other people.

[mitchell_pgh]

zero...

Although all of my friends look to me when they need general design work or have computer questions, at the end of the day, that's what they use at work, that's what's cheaper and that's what they buy.

It drives me crazy.

I don't know how many times I've said "...oh, I did that with the free software that came with my Mac." to the question "how did you do that".

Although I love the "new Apple" I give a TON of respect for those who endured the "dark days" of apple (circa 1996 - 1997)

When I saw Windows NT 4, I almost jumped. It was a rock (on some systems) It was the first OS that I had used that could have 10+ applications going without me freaking out. With OS 8-9, I started freaking out when the application menu grew to anything over 2" from the top of the screen.

[typoon]

I haven't affected many people recently, I do bring up that I use a Mac. Apple and Macs always end up in my conversations. I do it subconsciously (SP) I think the Mac has been so In grained into me that Even when I don't plan on talking about when talking about computers or other things Something Apple ALWAYS comes up. I frankly don't care what people say when I tell them I use a Mac. when they start to Make fun of Macs and Stuff like that I just come back with the fact. It usually keeps them quiet.

[mitchell_pgh]

I've found that once people know that you use a Mac, they think you are a novice. I come back with the facts and with my knowledge of the industry at large. Most of the time, I know more about M$ Windows then they do.

[Arkham_c]

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
I've found that once people know that you use a Mac, they think you are a novice. I come back with the facts and with my knowledge of the industry at large. Most of the time, I know more about M$ Windows then they do.

Luckily that perception is changing. People seem to be realizing (at least in IT) that Macs are UNIX now, and should be considered in the same vein as Linux.

[Link]

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
Most of the time, I know more about M$ Windows then they do.

Many a time, I'm able to give windows users help without having to look at their situation. I think 5 years of having a PC as my main computer have, and still do, come in handy ^_^

I know windows almost as well as I know OS X, sometimes better sometimes worse, which is why I use OS X

[DigitalEl]

One douche bag former boss of mine told me point blank "Macs are for children." Of course, he's a numbers guy MBA-type. Whatever

My only two conversion experiences weren't good ones. My best friend bought a graphite iMac DV-SE, just like mine, a few years ago. He hated it, refused to learn it and traded it in for a beige box after only a few months.

My own mother got my hand-me-down iMac DV-SE just last year. I made her buy "OS X for Dummies" as a condition of my shipping it, since we didn't live in the same town at the time. She bought the book, but called me with questions all the time anyway. It wasn't what she was "used to" and she, too, hated it. She eventually gave it back to me. I sold it and put the cash towards a 12" PowerBook. She now has a beige box, too.

Like governments, people get the computers they deserve. If the person you're trying to bring around has a bad attitude about it, it's not gonna work. And that's fine, I suppose. Different machines for different people. If a $399 eMachines PC is all a mom needs to check her e-mail and look up quilting patterns, then why should she use more?

So be it.

[Link]

DigitalEl, that's great, for both your friends, but typically the people I see with anti-macness have some rather heavy computer problems I can relate to:

2 of my friends have HP machines that no matter what they've done, if they accidentally put them to sleep, they won't wake up.

Another one builds his own computers and is quite knowledgable, while he uses XP for pretty much the same reasons I use it, he resents it for the EXACT same reasons (frequent blue screening and trashing the hard drive.)

And while I don't promise anything great, I admit that I've never had to **** around with my g4 half as much as I have with my PCs, and it's gotten much, much more 'software-related' abuse then my PC

[this includes system haxies, random little things, etc].

[MacPino]

Had my father converted about a year ago, he is still very happy with his fp iMac, he even converted two colleagues himself by now.
I "helped" convert a friend of mine, he was in doubt - not anymore Another friend is saving for an iBook, so that would make.. ehm... three! not bad for such a mac unfriendly country!