Adrienne Adams's Profile

I switched about nine months ago. It took me over a year to make my decision. As a web and graphic designer, my livelihood is dependent on Adobe software. Once CS3 with native Intel support was announced, I took the plunge and bought a MacBook in anticipation of that release. I still have a PC for my day-to-day machine, but the MacBook is always running on my desk, and I have become totally dependent (and in love with) iCal, Mail, and several really wonderful 3rd-party Mac apps. As soon as finances permit, the PC will go bye-bye and a new iMac will grace my desk. I will never look back. If you still doubt, take my advice: get a Mac, use it for a month, and then decide.

I hope I don't come across as anti-Mac. OS X is a really good OS, one that more Windows users would be delighted to try, if they had an easy way to do so (IMHO). Trying not to hijack the comment thread, but a really big barrier to a wider adoption of the Mac OS is the problem of older hardware. Again, I'll speak only of my current situation--a small public library. We have several old PII's in the basement that are ideal candidates for a light Linux distro. Half of our public workstations (now running 2K) will not be up to snuff to run Vista, so no point in upgrading the OS there--they also make good candidates for Linux installations. None of these workstations will ever run any Mac OS, yet they are still too functional to throw away. Windows is simply too hard to secure for (or should I say from) public users. Using Group Policy is a nightmare, and the PAC tools available are either too expensive or too unweildy. Thus, a Linix environment seems ideal for setting public user permissions. Out staff workstations are less than 2 years old, so we will not be replacing them for at least 2 years. At that time, we might look seriously at Apple--except that, as I mentioned earlier, there doesn't seem to be any interest on Apple's part to put their machines in "government" for a discount, as they do now with education. For any public institution, price is pretty much the only factor that can be considered. So who cares what kind of computers we have in public libraries? The people who use our public workstations fall into two groups: 1.) People who don't have their own computer and 2.) People who can't use their home computer, either because it's broken or they're travelling. In both cases, it would be a great oportunity for them to try out a Mac--and they might be disposed to buy or upgrade to one when the time comes. Buying a new computer is a major purchase for the "average" consumer. I'm skeptical about recent reports of the number of "switchers" to Macs, mainly because it's not really that easy to abandon Windows in favor of another system. It's quite an investment in time and money for an established Windows user--remember how hard it is to change old habits, no matter how bad that habit may be. People still smoke, for god's sake! There is an incredible opportunity to bring Macs to a wider audience (including disgruntled Windows users) via public libraries, but without strong support from Apple, that will never happen--and Windows will continue to be the dominant OS for some time to come.

"Whereas when PC’s get too infested with viruses these days their owners just throw them out." Sure. Yeah. PC owners are too stupid to know how to prevent viruses and/or clean them up. It's really quite amusing to hear people criticize Windows who haven't used it since '95, and who refuse to believe that there are millions of people using Windows right now! this very second! productively, safely, and securely. Is is possible to envision a future wherein people continue to have a choice of operating systems? I would no more want a Windows-only world than a Mac-only or Linux-only world. Competition is the only force that reliably drives innovation.