[macman]

Today an amazing thing happened. A long time windows user discovered OS X. It was an amazing thing because he was truly impressed. He was talking about it as a long time Mac user would talk of it. One comment he made was that he was excited about it but he didn't know why. He is now planning on switching to a Mac when it comes out.

If this is the reaction people have over OS X Apple has hit gold. If they do it right and don't screw up they've got it made. Has anyone else had an experience like this?

every pc user i know who took a look at the screenshot and movie were all very impress! it's the first time is saw hear them say WOW about the mac, that's amazing! after that, i start to talk about the stability, multi-tasking, protected memory and they have a whole new look at apple.
of course they are not planning of buying a mac, but all of them finally think the mac is by far going to be the best platform.
imagine if every pc user start to think like that...maybe in a couple of years we will have a much bigger market share. 10-15% would be very nice good for us.

[macman]

Very true. The really cool thing about this experience is that this PC user looked at the OS before Aqua. He saw what was underneath and then found what was on top. If more PC users saw it this way I think many and at least some would switch because they do see it as supeior to windoze and easier than linux/unix.

Guess what folks, I was a PC user until end of August. One of the number of reasons I switched to Mac was because I had researched OS X. I wanted to wait to get a Mac until it was shipping with OS X, but I really needed a new computer. So I'm learning OS 9 all so I can get OS X as soon as I can get an official version. I feel so lucky to have gotten in on it, even if a bit early. I think there will some converts from PC, but I'm guessing many people who've opted not to own a computer might change their minds too. Windows will still rule though.

Can someone post a site with step-by-step on how to partition my harddrive? Then I might install OS X just to show me and all my windows friends -- would love to start stirring the pot even more!

[macman]

You can partition your drive with Drive Setup which is supplied by Apple. But, it erases everything on the drive when you do so. Startup from the OS 9 CD and open Drive Setup (it is probably in the Utilities folder on the CD) and select the HD you want to partition (make sure you have backed up before this) and push Initialize. Then choose custom setup and choose the number of partitions and make them all HFS+. Then initialize it and there will be that many partitions.

[This message has been edited by macman (edited 09-26-2000).]

[Kristoff]

I too was a Wintel user until May 15, 2000. I learned of OS X in March, and bought my first ever Macintosh...a Pismo 500 (best laptop in the world).
I have been running SuSE Linux PPC until last night when at 3:00 am, I was able to boot into OS X PB for the first time....

Macs are superior hardware, and finally, we have the OS to match!

another testimonial..

I was a diehard linux user until the past 3 weeks or so. Example? I was running my desktop machine with debian linux, and I also had my laptop shoved in the closet acting as a router, and httpd server, running openbsd 2.7.

Then, one morning, it dawned on me - I was typing lines and lines of shell script and commands to get anything to work. Even in X-windows, I frequently found myself launching xterms and loading apps from there, instead of using any other method.

Then, I my wrists started hurting, and I wanted to type less. I wanted something that made sense. I didn't want to type "mv ~/Desktop/*.jpg ../../html/gfx/photos" everyday. Clicking and dragging was so much more appealing to me.

I hate to admit it - but the desire for a "real" GUI was probably the biggest reason I went to MacOS. (windows.. ugh. I didn't even consider it.). Then again, the aggresive advertising of the Cube kinda pushed me over the edge too.

But now that I DO have the cube - I find that the Mac OS is the *MOST* intuitive interface i have ever worked with. (including ALL 20 window managers of linux, as well as gnome, kde, xfce, etc. plus windows.).

The Mac made much more sense. Dragging and moving a file in the MacOS was different from dragging and moving a file in windows. I don' tknow why, it just felt... "better".


I just hope more and more people learn to throw off the chains of windows - once they bother to look outside and shed their PC ways of thinking - Apple is a *GREAT* product that anyone can get used to. I guess it just took OS X and a damn good looking interface to turn some windows heads.

Since I've had my cube, i've already made some firewire movies, and done some rendering of stills and animations in lightwave 6.

I *LOVE* my mac. (have I said that before?).

Many people assume i'm a typical mac user now - the know-nothing "i want to be on the web in 5 minutes" sorta person. Yeah, right. This salesman at compusa had the nerve to talk down to me and "educate" me about windows and why it may be better. He shut up when i talked back about how i already had 3+ *nix machines.

*sigh*. Some people.

I wish it were a Mac-filled world..... someday..

[macman]

I tried using Linux a couple of times, on PCs and Macs. I got so fed up with it that I just dumped it. I can only see it being useful in a server setting but MacOS X has that covered now too.

I think Apple's biggest problem is Motorola/IBM. They've got to get the speed ramped up on their chips. A Dell 800 Mhz dual chip system is $200 cheaper than an Apple 500 Mhz dual. Beyond that, if price isn't an object, there's nothing from Apple that can compete.

The news on OS X is very encouraging though. It's impressive how many Unix developers are stepping in with things that are lacking in the OS X PB. The way I look at it, a lot of people have gone to Unix because a) if you're going to use an unfriendly operating system (e.g. Windows) you might as well have one that's stable b) it's the best Internet platform and c) the Mac generally hasn't been usable for things beyond graphics/media, despite it's superior GUI.

I suspect, however, that there are many users like me who like Unix for its stability and speed but want the Mac for ease of use. In other words, they haven't rejected the Mac for what it is, but for what it isn't. One can't say that about Windows.

What do I like about Windows? Well, it is cool that IIS supports server-side javascripting. I prefer to think in one language rather than two, but then having looked at Java syntax, it's very similar to javascript. You don't have to relearn syntax to code loops, etc. PHP has many more web-oriented functions than javascript, but it also suffers from not being tied into an object model. I like being able to create an object on the server, then use a command like "currentNodeset.item(0).getAttribute('title')" (I realize that if I like this I probably need therapy, but that's another issue).

Otherwise, the whole Windows OS is kind of like the "Emperor's New Clothes," except in this case he is wearing far too many. Apple could capitalize on this by delivering an easy, reliable GUI from Unix.

If any body read the new ZDNet article about Mac OS X(http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/zd/20000926/tc/mac_os_x_s_siren_call_1.html
) and was pissed off by the blowhard that made all the comments at the end of the article. Here is his email address: [email protected]

It seems this guy likes criticizing everything he reads because he shows up in several reader threads on ZDNet complaining about this and that.

I've set up an X machine in a place where all the Windows drones will see it. Almost everyone who passes wants to touch, experiments, play. The overwhelming reaction is positive (actually more positive than diehard Mac people).

These are the questions they ask (in order):

1. Will it run MS Word? (will it be able to read/write word files)?

2. Will it run Excel (read/write files)?

3. Is there an easy way to transfer all my documents?

4. Will it work on our network?

5. Can I add a start menu?

6. Why doesn't the clock in the dock update when the window is open?

7. Will it run on my PC?

8. How much do Macs + sofware cost these days?

9. Is there a way to run PC programs?

10. When will it be released?

[SpiffyGuyC]

The above post is awesome. And what's even cooler is that there are positive answers to all of those questions, from Office 2001 to the $799 iMac. But what will they do without a start menu?!!?

[macman]

Well, they'll have something even better, the Dock (hopefully).