8 Reasons Windows Users Don’t Switch
Let me say it right off the bat: Macs running OS X give the best computing experience on the planet. It’s not that Macs are perfect, but compared to everything else, there is nothing like the Mac experience. With that in mind, it’s difficult for many Mac users to comprehend why there are so many Windows users suffering needlessly by running a Windows system. That’s where I come in.
I have been a die-hard Windows user since I started computing. If you had told me I would switch to Mac at any point in the future, I would have laughed at you. There was nothing that could ever make me switch! Well, that didn’t exactly last forever, but as a recent Mac “switcher,” I have a unique perspective on both worlds. Experienced Mac users may not have the perspective that it takes to see what makes Windows users stay with Microsoft, and let’s face it, some Mac users (not you or me, of course) are just downright zealots who think that anyone using Windows should be cast into the fiery pits of Mount Doom and forgotten for all eternity. (Nerd alert!)
So allow me to take an objective look at what keeps some Windows users from switching, from the perspective of someone who has resisted switching to Mac for a long time and was looking for any excuse to stay with Windows. And once you’ve read this article, check out 8 Reasons Windows Users Do Switch to Mac to learn what is working.
1. Ignorance
Ignorance is merely a lack of knowledge, and when it comes to Macs, most Windows users, myself included, are extremely uninformed. My experiences with Macs were mostly pre-OS X, before the really good stuff began to happen, and I made a decision that Macs were not for me and never looked back. Many Windows users think they’ll have to “re-learn everything” and that nothing will be familiar. While this is partly true, Macs are so much easier to use; many beginners find it easier to do most tasks intuitively, without having to be taught or open a manual. As someone who has spent long hours teaching family and friends how to do simple tasks like email attachments, I can you tell that the same cannot be said about Windows.
2. The Office
No, I’m not blaming Steve Carell, I’m talking about where you work. Most office environments run Windows, period. While this is beginning to change, the reality is that the majority of people are using Windows at the office. If you need to bring your work home and get things done, it makes sense that you should run Windows at home, right? Not really, but the average Windows user doesn’t know about Office for Macs, or that their files will still be compatible. They don’t realize how easy it is to work across both platforms, or that they can even run Windows on their Mac when all else fails. Even if they do know these things, they figure that it will be more difficult to work on two platforms than it is worth. Apple is doing a great job lately of educating people on these misunderstandings, but it is still the prevailing thought among Windows users. Even if the Mac doesn’t get a strong hold on the business market, it’s important that people know they’re capable of it.
3. Hardware
I have always been a bit of a hardware geek, and used to enjoy building my own machines. Every few years, I would upgrade the motherboard and processor, and re-use the case, the hard drives, and power supply, and could make a significant upgrade for $400-500. I can never do this with a Mac. Hardware geeks are hard to convince for this very reason, and even average Windows users may scoff at something like an iMac because they don’t want to pay for a new monitor every time they upgrade their computer. Mac Minis are popular with Windows switchers because they can use their current monitor, mouse, and keyboard and not have them bundled as with an iMac. This is becoming less of an issue as the price of Macs have come down considerably, and technology moves so fast nowadays, you’ll likely to want to upgrade almost every component every few years anyway. As a former system-builder, I’m now at a point in my life where I would rather pay a little extra for a system that works right out of the box and has great support than save a few hundred dollars at the cost of countless hours of being my own tech support.
4. Price
The perception by Windows users is that Macs are more expensive than Windows PCs. This may have been true in the past, but the new Macs are very comparably priced to similarly equipped PCs. Unfortunately, the perception remains. Budget PCs may undercut Mac prices, but budget PCs sacrifice quality parts and support. Apple has shown that they are not interested in competing in the budget computer market, and it’s a smart move, as the margins in this area are extremely small. Windows users should consider what they’re getting for the extra money. Apple’s support is top-notch, the included software, such as iLife, is stellar, and the quality and design of the machines is always first-class.
5. Lies
Let’s face it: Apple tends to bend the truth once in a while, especially about Microsoft and Windows. One of the “Get a Mac” ads states that Windows is for spreadsheets and pie-charts, while Macs are for “fun stuff” like photos, movies, etc. To Mac users, this seems both funny and true. Windows users, however, are thinking of the aisles and aisles of games that are available for Windows, while there is a half-shelf devoted to games for the Mac. I don’t know about you, but I can only have so much fun playing with photos. Things like this just sound like lies, and they sometimes present Apple as a company that has to lie about its competitors to get business. Other ads point out flaws in Windows that are so true it hurts, especially letting people know that Macs don’t get viruses, or that Macs include a lot more useful software and less bloat than Windows. Don’t get me wrong, I take the commercials as a light-hearted jab, as they are intended, but some of them bend the truth so much that it creates mistrust.
6. Windows Bashing
Apple and Steve Jobs are constantly making jabs at Vista and Microsoft, and Mac users follow suit. That’s understandable, but when Steve Jobs is constantly berating Vista and Microsoft instead of touting the features and advantages of Apple’s own products, it makes Windows users think that Macs don’t have much going for them. I remember watching the 20 or 30 minute Vista-bashing session at the WWDC conference and wondering why Steve Jobs is so insecure that he has to berate the opposition. Can you imagine shopping for a car and having the salesman only talk about what’s wrong with the competition’s cars? This always reminds me of John Kerry, whose entire campaign was about bashing Bush instead of telling you why he was a good candidate himself. It didn’t work for him either. Apple, your products are the best in the industry. Act like it.
7. Vista
I’m going to let you in on a dirty little secret, but you need to sit down first. Windows Vista is actually a good operating system! There. I said it. The ugly truth is that Vista is the best operating system Microsoft has ever released, and for many users, it is good enough. That’s right, good enough. I really like Vista. It fixes so many of the little issues that have plagued me for years, and if I had to use Windows, it’s the version I would use. But now that I have spent time with OS X, I could never go back. For Windows users who have never touched OS X, or are resisting Macs for any of the reasons listed here, Vista is the best operating system they have ever used. I know, I pity them too, but all we can do is hope that they see the light eventually.
8. Mac Users
Okay, I’m not talking about you or me here, but there are some Mac users out there who have just a little too much love for Apple. When they are shouting (or typing in all caps) about how much better Macs are, they’re not convincing anyone to switch, they are scaring them away. Even well-intentioned Mac users can sometimes get a little carried away. I’ve had many friends lecture me for hours on end that I was stupid not to switch, and all it did was push me further away. In contrast, when I got a chance to sit down and quietly use a Mac, I began to enjoy the experience, and luckily, a friend was smart enough to answer my questions and just let me play for a while, and it made all the difference.
Conclusion:
Apple is doing so much right these days. I am sometimes awestruck by their constant stream of good decisions, but there are still so many Windows users unwilling to take the bait. I think it helps to know what we’re up against when we’re trying to convince Windows users to join the Mac side, and I hope I have provided some insight.
Did I miss some reasons? I’d love to read them in the comments.
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I’ve tried NeoOffice because I do support open (and free) software. But it’s become so bloated and fat that it’s more of a pain to use than Word or Excel. And since I already own Office, I might as well use it instead. In the same vein, I think that Pages’ polished veneer actually gets in the way in some cases. It’s great for newsletters and resumes, but not so good for long-form prose.
Well it was never not bloated and fat. In fact it has sped up a little recently.
Since you own office, I definitely think it would be silly not to use it. But for people who might just be starting out, or not want to buy office, I recommend NeoOffice wholeheartedly, until something less java-y comes along.
Office is no way worth the money at this point (and open source alternatives will get much better over the next year or so).
@ beeblebrox:
(1) “I’m critical of Apple, so in your fantasy Appleland, that make me a Windows fan ...
“But I dare you to find a comment in this thread in which I defend Windows other than to say it’s about the same as OS X”
okey, how about this crazy-talk:
“The only really tangible benefit is virtual immunity from particularly malicious virii and spyware. But I find Vista to be almost, if not as, secure. The rest is HIGHLY subjective.”
I call bull-shit.
* If you _really_ knew anything about macs, then you would know that most of the benefits for macs are *OBJECTIVELY* quantifiable .... and this fact has been docmeneted in study after study for many years: it is the the bean-counters themselves who have demonstrated that the TCO (total cost of ownership) of a mac is *dwarfed* by the army of support costs required to baby-sit a wintel box in the the enterprise. Of course the technically defuddled CFO’s usually never even think twice about asking for a ROI justification of the profilgate waste by the CIO—so usually this crucial business case data is hidden from view (obviously the minions in MIS do not want to lose their sinecures).
* the mac also exceeds the wintel fiasco in technical nuts & bolts terms (not just financial dollars & cents terms) ....
whether it is the quicker pace of software development, the fewer number of bugs, the speed with which users can get tasks (ordinary or complex) done, the lack of lost time due to ‘futzing’, the integration of useful features and workflow, etc etc .... the bottom line is that the mac wins out in almost every concieveable metric.
as a value-for-money proposition, there is almost no possible reason to be using a wintel box.
they do less, cost more in the long-run, and just plain old _get in the way_ .... which is the exact opposite of what a good tool should do!
If you dont _GET_ that then your either hopelessly dim or else you are just a troll!
(2) as for your the gratuitious question you posted to my comment: NO, i am not going to make good -here- on that (implied) offer to list the many reasons why apple can be _rationally_ critisized ... because those (sublime) failings dont belong on the same plane as a discussion about the egregious failres of windows (and the trolls who love to defend them) ...
serious mac users are reknowned for having a long list of complaints about what apple does wrong—on the other hand, you will almost never see windows users develop a critique of microsoft’s engineering philosophy because expectations are so low that windows users just assume that such mediocrity is the way of the world.
the things that peeve mac users dont even RATE on the score-card of “reasons why windows users dont switch”—they are incomeasureable, they are like - well - Apples and oranges.
so it would not be germain for me to answer your question because what i was referring to was the CRITERIA that should be used to evaluate a claim, not the claim itself——
ie: my comments about poster#30 were designed to set out, point by point, how linux (or windows) morons deserve the contempt they receive from mac users ... ie that mac ‘arrogance’ is often in fact an entirely vaild & almost inevitable responce to people who exhibit such reckless ignorance & stupidity when making technical comments that are simply Not True.
it is not, logically speaking, necessary me make good on my aside—that apple has lots of failures—in order for my point (about “8 reasons”) to carry the day. Moreover, if your *ONLY* question in response to my comment (about how technically incompetetnt ctiticism should be dismissed brusquely) is to task for a list of apple’s failures, then you _prove_ that you missed the essence of attack on poster #30, and concommittently you also miss the thrust of my defense against one of the ‘8 reasons’ (to wit: the arrogance charge is unfair on account of being provoked by the crazy-talk of morons).
the only way that i would indulge you (beeblebrox) to go off on a tanget not directly related to the subject at hand - ie pro/con the ‘8 reasons’ - is if you FIRST had already conceeded the point i was trying to make: namely that poster#30 is a perfect example of an ignorant, stupid fool who makes assertions about subjects he is not technically qualified ....
after we had established that shared contempt for dumb comments about the mac as our baseline, then -yes- you would be entitled to ask me to amplify on my comment about apple’s many flaws.
but you (beeblebrox) did not satisfy even the minimal criterion for me to reciprocate - namely, you didnt acknowledge that one of the bloggers points (about *unbridled* arrogance) was not very strong claim ....
thus you lose the right to be taken seriously when you can not even concur in whether poster#30 met crietria for being regarded as a silly vs a serious post.
which makes your question to me disingenuous - and also makes you a troll.
so nope, i will not elaborate (here) about apple’s mistakes because it is not germain to my point.
they do less, cost more in the long-run, and just plain old _get in the way
Speaking of bullshit. My point was that such issues are subjective, not that Windows was better (and “almost as good” hardly counts as fanboyism in any book I know of).
SUBJECTIVE means it really depends on the user - which would seem an inarguable and uncontroversal point - if you’re not a brainwashed, kool-aid drinking tool.
For example, I don’t run an IT department. I’m not a CFO. I work at home on a Mac and PC. For your point to be true, my TCO would HAVE to be higher on my PC. This should be “quantifiable.”
But guess what. My PC cost HALF as much as my iMac. And I haven’t spent one additional dime on it. On the other hand, the logic board in my Mac went bad after 16 months of use, cost me two weeks of productivity on my Mac-only work, and $800 to fix.
So your point is “quantifiably” false. You’re either a delusional braindead fanboy or you’re an outright liar. Take your pick.
as for your the gratuitious question you posted to my comment
First, look up the word “gratuitous.” (and the word “subjective” while you’re at it).
Second, I asked the question for two reasons. Either you really know more about the underpinnings of OS X and could truly answer that question sincerely, which would be very informative for me and other users.
OR (and more likely) you were giving a token nod to Apple’s mistakes so as not to seem like the braindead sycophantic Apple ass-licker that you are.
What I did NOT expect was just how much crap-tacular vomit would eschew forth from your keyboard at the mere asking of the question. Call it my hopeless optimism in humanity, but even I underestimate sometimes the violent blinding rage of some of you fanboys (one fanboy stalked me on Macitt once and I had to change my contact info).
the TCO (total cost of ownership) of a mac is *dwarfed* by the army of support costs required to baby-sit a wintel box in the the enterprise
Something that genuinely amazes me is what an incredible proposition for business macs are, right now, from a monetary perspective, how the windows solutions such as exchange servers peddled by short-sighted sysadmins cost more and are simply worse in every regard to the types of open solutions that apple is offering.
What will it take for businesses far and wide to begin reaping the rewards of proved, open systems which aim not simply to shore up a closed expensive universe but to solve the problems of the end user with a minimum of fuss?!
In my view enterprise and business sectors are where Macs differentiate themselves in the most quantifiable way: £.
If you dont _GET_ that then your either hopelessly dim or else you are just a troll!
NO. WAY.
[disclaimer: beeblebrox is not hopelessly dim. just the other one.]
zahadum you are evidently far too intelligent to be posting here and should return to posting on the Old Slashdot in a time travelling device of your own making but please take it from a seasoned moron that asking beeblebrox to actually discuss arguments on their merits is futile.
I will summarise for you his response to such requests: you are a crazy mac propagandist and I alone am blessed by the wit to judge the rationality of mere human mortals.
As one non-permanently-drunk-on-self-importance person to another, it is clear to anyone who knows what they are talking about that technically the platform of OS X is simply in another realm entirely of elegance and forward-looking good engineering/design choices compared to the Redmond shebang, which is why if microsoft is to compete in the future at all, post-vista, they will have to completely redesign their operating system from the ground up in the image of Apple’s OS X.
People who take no interest in the technical details of the platform and refuse to discuss them feel free to splutter at that last paragraph as usual.
In fact it has sped up a little recently.
Well that’s good news. It’s been awhile since I used it so it might be time to give it another go.
I do own Office but I’m thinking ahead, especially now that Office is several years old and with a costly update coming up early next year.
There’s also a native port of OpenOffice on the way that seems set to be ready by early 2008, end 2007 or something.
And should be muuuuch faster than Neo[lithic]Office.
Can I also just say that incorporating the spelling of foreign-language posters into an attack on their ideas looks soo uncool.
*spelling mistakes.
As one non-permanently-drunk-on-self-importance person to another
Ah, sanctimony and hypocrisy. Your old stand-bys. I’ll note with a total lack of surprise (if not disappointment) at how UN-offended you were by HIS rampant name-calling of another poster (not me, as that would be perfectly okay) despite your harping on such incivility when I or any other non-sufficiently blathering fanboy does it. Like the Rush Limbaughs of the world, you only seem to discover “civil discourse” when it’s someone you don’t agree with.
Can I also just say that incorporating the spelling of foreign-language posters into an attack on their ideas looks soo uncool.
I agree. Which is why I didn’t attack his spelling mistakes. His command of English is such that he clearly knows what these words are but he has egregiously misused them in order to inaccurately attack me as a troll and a Windows fanboy.
In particular the notion that Macs are OBJECTIVELY superior because they “dont get in the way.” That may be true for you, but to call it objective is just stupid.
So naturally, Ben has to defend it.
Likewise with TCO. I and many others do not deal with massive amounts of computers or IT departments and don’t really care. In my home office, Macs are more expensive. That doesn’t mean they aren’t worth it, but to say that are OBJECTIVELY cheaper and more productive is, at best false, and at worst, outrageous dishonesty.
But hey, he’s defending Apple so you feel the compulsion to defend him. There is no other criteria, is there.
That actually depends on what version you buy. Video codecs cost money. Vista Home Basic doesn’t have the codecs to play a DVD, but every other version of Vista comes with it so those do play DVDs—Home Premium, Business, Ultimate… all can play DVDs out of the box. Of course, I don’t see Home Basic on sell in many places at retail, and preinstalled on computers, Basic seems limited to computers that sell for under $400.
Home Premium should have the ability to play a DVD… I wonder if maybe Media Center didn’t like something with VMWare. I actually am running Home Premium on a white-box machine without any other software and I have DVD playback.
As one non-permanently-drunk-on-self-importance person to another
Ah, sanctimony and hypocrisy.
You got that, huh. I knew that would make you happy.
I’ll note with a total lack of surprise (if not disappointment) at how UN-offended you were by HIS rampant name-calling of another poster (not me, as that would be perfectly okay) despite your harping on such incivility when I or any other non-sufficiently blathering fanboy does it.
...
Likewise with TCO. I and many others do not deal with massive amounts of computers or IT departments and don’t really care. In my home office, Macs are more expensive. That doesn’t mean they aren’t worth it, but to say that are OBJECTIVELY cheaper and more productive is, at best false, and at worst, outrageous dishonesty.
...
But hey, he’s defending Apple so you feel the compulsion to defend him. There is no other criteria, is there.
The fact is Beeblebrox, as it always has been, that in such situations where people post arguments in favour of the Mac platform they indiscriminately get it in the neck from you, who never, ever discusses said arguments on merit and merely dismisses the poster as having some kind of systemic deficiency of cognition.
You know nothing about these people whose contribution you disdain and have failed on every occasion to show that you are capable of discussing the points they make on the merit of logic.
It would be clear to you by now, if you even entertained the notion that someone besides yourself might have some perspective worth exploring and discussing, that my problem is not and has never been with rudeness itself, but in the way that you fail to engage with arguments presented by intelligent commentators, and how you substitute rudeness for such engagement, as if it were a worthy surrogate.
cf: In particular the notion that Macs are OBJECTIVELY superior because they “dont get in the way.” That may be true for you, but to call it objective is just stupid.—Beeb in retort to post explaining:
If you _really_ knew anything about macs, then you would know that most of the benefits for macs are *OBJECTIVELY* quantifiable .... and this fact has been docmeneted in study after study for many years: it is the the bean-counters themselves who have demonstrated that the TCO (total cost of ownership) of a mac is *dwarfed* by the army of support costs required to baby-sit a wintel box in the the enterprise.
...
the mac also exceeds the wintel fiasco in technical nuts & bolts terms (not just financial dollars & cents terms- zahadum
A proper riposte to this line of argument is to question & discuss the validity of the studies mentioned, that the technical qualities of OS X are in fact questionable.
Instead you have made out that zahadum was merely presenting subjective experiences, like the ones you have given, and slated him for that.
In actual fact you have been the one presenting subjective experiences as retort to objective arguments, in doing so technically making out your subjective opinions to be relevant to the objective measures proposed for the discussion by zahadum. It is like a bishop from the 14th century talking to a modern physicist, who tries to tell him that although it looks flat, objective measures have shown the earth is round. “No, you idiot” says the bishop, “look at the edge! It’s flat!”
Here is zahadum arguing cogently though without full details that the mac platform has objective studies showing that Total Cost of Ownership, on average, is in its favour.
“No you mactard,” says Beeblebrox, “look at my logic board! It broke!”
Huh? About “arguing cogently”, try again.
More cogently than anyone else thus far.
That actually depends on what version you buy. Video codecs cost money. Vista Home Basic doesn’t have the codecs to play a DVD, but every other version of Vista comes with it so those do play DVDs—Home Premium, Business, Ultimate… all can play DVDs out of the box. Of course, I don’t see Home Basic on sell in many places at retail, and preinstalled on computers, Basic seems limited to computers that sell for under $400.
I also want to confirm that Vista HP has the ability to play DVD’s out of the box. I bought a OEM copy of VHP to use on my PC in June. I also have the ability to play protected DVD’s out of the box. I don’t have any third party DVD playing software installed and use WMP 11 exclusively to play protected DVD’s. I installed Vista Codec Pack, Realplayer and Quicktime prior to playing a DVD.
For most people I know, the zealotry of many Mac owners is the biggest turn off to the Mac. Some Mac users tout the Mac like it is a religion and not a tool. This kind of blind loyalty to a product is unnerving to most people. Mac users will not be taken seriously by most people when they resort to these type of tactics. ( Windows and Linux zealots are guilty of this too.)
I happen to be operating system agnostic myself. I use both Vista and Linux at home and find things about both I love and hate. I have used the Mac on a limited basis, but I have found nothing in it that draws me to give up the control of the hardware I use to switch. This is one of the biggest reasons many XP/Vista users don’t switch. I like building my own desktops so that automatically excludes the Mac as a viable option there.
I am thinking of getting a notebook for when I travel and am considering the MacBook Pro. I play WoW, so the MacBook Pro is the best option of the Mac’s for doing so.
I just don’t find any operating system better than one another. They are just different and they all have their good points and their bad points. Vista is not perfect and neither is Linux or OSX. I just wish people in all camps would quit treating their operating system of choice as if it were a religious conversion. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds are not gods, devils or prophets. I put no faith in any of them to do any thing more than what they consider to be in their companies or organizations best interest.