nifty equals infectious?
Switching to Mac: Real Stories
"In summary, the PowerBook has done what I have been trying to do for the last 5 years — get my wife to embrace technology. In all seriousness, her new 12-inch PowerBook has sparked an interest in computing that was never there before."
"In summary, the PowerBook has done what I have been trying to do for the last 5 years — get my wife to embrace technology. In all seriousness, her new 12-inch PowerBook has sparked an interest in computing that was never there before."
I wish it would work with my parents
*sigh*
When I got my white dual USB iBook (2001) to replace the ancient Acer NoteLight (with a hard disk total of *WOW* 546 MB and only floppy disk drive, running MS WIN), I hoped that my mother would find her way into the technical world of today... I created a separate account for her (security reasons for me ;-)), made it all niice and simple, putting an empty document template on the desktop, just for starters!
It never worked out. Dunno why. I still offer it to her sometimes, but she wouldn't even write emails. I do it for her. I'm the interpreter. "It just works like a typewriter" I say, but she can't handle the mouse or trackpad. I'm afraid she'd need a Wacom tablet with a data pen to navigate the cursor!
I don't want to praise the Mac OS without reserve for everyone, but for me personally it is clearly the OS of choice - now!
Yes, I have been on the dark side too. I recall a dark period of 386's, DOS, Win etc, when I had no email address, knew nothing about computers, only associated Macintosh with nerdyness; it was when I deleted two files that caused our computer to die a quick and ugly death - config.sys and country.sys - okay, I was maybe 14? And I wasn't too talented I guess. But the millions and zillions of obligatory crashes were NOT my fault!
On the other hand I have to admit that the last Laptop I had never made problems. It had windows 95 on it, and I only used it for writing and printing (school, flyers, labels). It never crashed or did anything nasty. But I also never filled more than 80 % of the megasized fivehundredsomething Megabytes although I used it full-on for over four years when doing the finances and advertising of my old boyfriend's martial arts school! That's why I say that, for very basic tasks like writing, Windows does do the trick if you are not repelled by the clumsy interface.
The interface is mainly what attracted me in the first mac I got to touch and try. My boyfriend-to-be had a wallstreet running OS9 (OMG, the ancient before-X-age!). I saw it coincidentally - okay, he was symbiotic attached to the thing! I was intrigued by the simplicity on first sight. He had these collapsed HandyMan strips on the left, keeping the desktop clean and free, and I caught a glance at them when he was extending one, navigating to start a slideshow. Later, I was allowed to write an email on "the mac". He opened the program for me and went to take a nap, not before advising me not to shove it over any surface when putting it down, just carefully lowering it to avoid scratches. I felt honoured to be trusted that much, really! I sat there, typing. So far so good, Word is Word. Then.... I did something...and the program quit! Panic! Desktop visible. What to do? Carefully, I looked through the menus. Confusing. I tried to open the strips and was sooooo proud when I recognized the icon and opened the app again. Now it had turned from confusing to exciting! When days passed, I got more chances to try out things, him being encouraging and very amused when I found something out myself - it was a little bit like the civilized missionary man teaching the wild island girl how to eat with a fork and knive.
Anyway, I discovered that the Mac was easy to use, even for dummie me! I had been soooo clumsy with the PC, and only weeks of routine made me understand the Acer enough to install a printer driver and modify the system settings! On the mac I just understood much quicker! Trial and error was not punished by crash & burn! Always teased and seduced by the well designed interface.
I had grown up associating "Macintosh" with bad things: 1.) bulky, strange computers that were incompatible with the "standard" and too expensive. 2a.) highly speedy, highly expensive professional computers (a friend of mine who worked for MTS had this 15.000 DM company-mac and I was impressed but more like "it's unreachable") OR 2b.) pretty looking (old iBooks) but still not compatible, strange computers that don't work well.
I don't know where these cliches came from. I just "knew". And only to find out, after years of windows ordeal, that it's different. Really positively different!
I see myself as qualified to praise the Mac, because I wasn't a Windows-hater when I switched! The Mac just appealed more to me than my old computer. I kept the option to change back to a pc, should I be disappointed with the mac. I still have the old Acer, and I have little problems using windows' apps on any new PC, but I'm impatient with the MSsystem because I'm used to the Mac OS's speed and functionality now. And honestly, how grotty ugly is that green lawn with blue horizon picture??? I wouldn't like to be buried on/under that hill! And I don't like ol' Bill.
But as often, Windows's roots dig deep... In the Physiology institute where I'm jobbing, many programs have been written by students or co-workers, on Win for Win. Two years ago, a very old professor asked me about Macs. He was so excited and enthusiastic about macintosh, but we had to realize that someone was missing to write the Mac-apps for him. Virtual PC is of course an alternative, but it had been better if someone could have made a slick mac version of the apps (things like muscle's action potentials at different stimuli and the like).
When I got my white dual USB iBook (2001) to replace the ancient Acer NoteLight (with a hard disk total of *WOW* 546 MB and only floppy disk drive, running MS WIN), I hoped that my mother would find her way into the technical world of today... I created a separate account for her (security reasons for me ;-)), made it all niice and simple, putting an empty document template on the desktop, just for starters!
It never worked out. Dunno why. I still offer it to her sometimes, but she wouldn't even write emails. I do it for her. I'm the interpreter. "It just works like a typewriter" I say, but she can't handle the mouse or trackpad. I'm afraid she'd need a Wacom tablet with a data pen to navigate the cursor!
I don't want to praise the Mac OS without reserve for everyone, but for me personally it is clearly the OS of choice - now!
Yes, I have been on the dark side too. I recall a dark period of 386's, DOS, Win etc, when I had no email address, knew nothing about computers, only associated Macintosh with nerdyness; it was when I deleted two files that caused our computer to die a quick and ugly death - config.sys and country.sys - okay, I was maybe 14? And I wasn't too talented I guess. But the millions and zillions of obligatory crashes were NOT my fault!
On the other hand I have to admit that the last Laptop I had never made problems. It had windows 95 on it, and I only used it for writing and printing (school, flyers, labels). It never crashed or did anything nasty. But I also never filled more than 80 % of the megasized fivehundredsomething Megabytes although I used it full-on for over four years when doing the finances and advertising of my old boyfriend's martial arts school! That's why I say that, for very basic tasks like writing, Windows does do the trick if you are not repelled by the clumsy interface.
The interface is mainly what attracted me in the first mac I got to touch and try. My boyfriend-to-be had a wallstreet running OS9 (OMG, the ancient before-X-age!). I saw it coincidentally - okay, he was symbiotic attached to the thing! I was intrigued by the simplicity on first sight. He had these collapsed HandyMan strips on the left, keeping the desktop clean and free, and I caught a glance at them when he was extending one, navigating to start a slideshow. Later, I was allowed to write an email on "the mac". He opened the program for me and went to take a nap, not before advising me not to shove it over any surface when putting it down, just carefully lowering it to avoid scratches. I felt honoured to be trusted that much, really! I sat there, typing. So far so good, Word is Word. Then.... I did something...and the program quit! Panic! Desktop visible. What to do? Carefully, I looked through the menus. Confusing. I tried to open the strips and was sooooo proud when I recognized the icon and opened the app again. Now it had turned from confusing to exciting! When days passed, I got more chances to try out things, him being encouraging and very amused when I found something out myself - it was a little bit like the civilized missionary man teaching the wild island girl how to eat with a fork and knive.
Anyway, I discovered that the Mac was easy to use, even for dummie me! I had been soooo clumsy with the PC, and only weeks of routine made me understand the Acer enough to install a printer driver and modify the system settings! On the mac I just understood much quicker! Trial and error was not punished by crash & burn! Always teased and seduced by the well designed interface.
I had grown up associating "Macintosh" with bad things: 1.) bulky, strange computers that were incompatible with the "standard" and too expensive. 2a.) highly speedy, highly expensive professional computers (a friend of mine who worked for MTS had this 15.000 DM company-mac and I was impressed but more like "it's unreachable") OR 2b.) pretty looking (old iBooks) but still not compatible, strange computers that don't work well.
I don't know where these cliches came from. I just "knew". And only to find out, after years of windows ordeal, that it's different. Really positively different!
I see myself as qualified to praise the Mac, because I wasn't a Windows-hater when I switched! The Mac just appealed more to me than my old computer. I kept the option to change back to a pc, should I be disappointed with the mac. I still have the old Acer, and I have little problems using windows' apps on any new PC, but I'm impatient with the MSsystem because I'm used to the Mac OS's speed and functionality now. And honestly, how grotty ugly is that green lawn with blue horizon picture??? I wouldn't like to be buried on/under that hill! And I don't like ol' Bill.
But as often, Windows's roots dig deep... In the Physiology institute where I'm jobbing, many programs have been written by students or co-workers, on Win for Win. Two years ago, a very old professor asked me about Macs. He was so excited and enthusiastic about macintosh, but we had to realize that someone was missing to write the Mac-apps for him. Virtual PC is of course an alternative, but it had been better if someone could have made a slick mac version of the apps (things like muscle's action potentials at different stimuli and the like).
Posted: Fr - Januar 9, 2004 at 01:50 Uhr
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Published On: Okt 16, 2004 02:17 Uhr
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Published On: Okt 16, 2004 02:17 Uhr