Two years ago I took the plunge and got an Apple 12" powerbook laptop. At the time it seemed like a bold move and I was very apprehensive about how I would integrate with the Windows-centric world. Now, I marvel at how easy the transition was (well, it's not a complete transition because I use a Windows desktop at work).
Today, Walter Mossberg, the tech columnist for the Wall St. Journal has a great retrospective on the evolution of personal computers. He praises Apple's OS X operating system as being rock solid: "It is elegant, and -- when you do a feature-by-feature price comparison with Windows competitors -- it's surprisingly affordable." I couldn't agree more.
In the past two years my laptop has crashed only 3 times. And what's more amazing is that I hardly ever shut my computer down. I open the lid and right away I'm able to work; and when I shut the lid it goes to sleep right away. I tend to leave lots of applications running at all times (i.e. mail, Word, News Reader, Safari browser, Firefox browser, calender, Acrobat, Chat and a few others). And yet the computer never, NEVER crashes. Oh, and I've never had a virus or a pop-up ad.
David Isenberg, a savvy tech observer and writer of the SMART Letter, recently switched and is having pretty much the same experience I had. As he puts it: "Best move I've ever made. What took me so long?" Maybe with the Windows-based proliferation of spyware and popups, which is now attracting the attention of the mainstream press (see Newsweek's Invasion of the PC Snatchers), more people will be inspired to switch to Macs. If they did it'd make them feel good, and it'd be good for them.
