… am thinking of switching to a Mac computer.
The first computer I ever owned was a Mac (1986), but in the corporate world there wasn’t much wiggle room on which platform to use. It was PC-dominant and I stayed on that path when I went solo.
But in the past 15 years I’ve owned seven or eight laptops. Always quirky, always problems. My current machine (Lenovo) is less than a year old and already acting up.
Belinda’s post today got me thinking about how much time I waste fixing and maintaining this critical part of my business. I think I’m ready to stop fixing.
P.S. I know there are lots of Mac fans out there. I’d love to hear from someone though, if such a person exists, who switched from PC to Mac and regrets it. Please tell me why before I leap!
Hi Michael,
I changed over to a Mac almost 10 years ago, mostly because I was working with a company that used them.
The transition wasn’t easy for me for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was that my first Mac was eventually determined to have a faulty logic board, and Apple was out of them(!!) Their genius ‘support’ team, along with my local ‘support’ team all claimed that it must be me since Macs never had problems. But in the end they grudgingly admitted defeat (although “it had never happened before” – which must have been why Apple was out of them).
So – although I wouldn’t go back to a PC now I will say these things.
*You absolutely need the extended warranty so just include that in the price when you’re making your decision. The apple support folks won’t even talk to you if you don’t (also make sure you register it of course).
* Make sure you have an excellent back up system in place that is not just the internal time machine (which is not accessible of course if your Mac crashes).
* I have had 3 Macs crash and burn (okay, not literally burn). No data could be retrieved. My daughter (in a different house) had a Mac that had constant problems and eventually crashed. My son (in a different country) recently had his Mac crash. They are not invincible. Having said that – all of my Macs have been GMacs or whatever they’re now called ie. the hard drive is on the desktop, much like a laptop.
* Choose carefully – and pay attention to your computer for the first few months. If something does not seem to be working properly, it may have one of the many glitches that Macs can have. I know, I know, hundreds of Mac repair people will tell you nothing ever goes wrong – maybe thousands – but they’re all making a good living doing something!
* About the conversion thing between Macs and PCs, most of those issues have been solved BUT with the Microsoft Word package you need to keep up-to-date. I am currently running with whatever the date was before Mac Word 11 and need to convert documents made with PC Word 8. You have to download the converter program which works fairly well but not so well you can count on the formatting sticking when you send a document to someone else. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t.
So – a long winded way of Mac talking. I don’t love my Mac as some others do. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with the constant bombardment of viruses (viri?) like my daughter does (she switched back to a PC) but I’m definitely not in love. My Mac and I understand each other pretty well and tolerate each other, but our relationship is a bit prickly and does include colorful language from time to time.
May your conversion be a happy, easy one and may you fall totally in love.
Thanks so much Cecelia! That’s precisely the kind of on the ground insight I’m looking for. Good to hear a bit from the other side!
Love love love my mac! Had only only one problem in five years and apple fixed it by wiping out my hard drive (I had backed up to Carbonite), and reinstalling a new OS. That is when all my problems started. So…use the APPLE recommended back up, since although PC backup companies say they can do a MC, they really can’t. I back up to an external hard drive, and it works fine. Get Apple Care, and also the one-to-one tutoring program as they are great at explaining new software and getting all those little nagging questions taken care of. I am firmly an apple girl now and don’t think I could go back even if I wanted to. Come come, come over the LIGHT side!
Great info, Diane, thanks!
Hi Michael,
Just for the record – When I was talking about converting stuff from Mac to PC, you probably figured out that I meant Windows 8 on a PC needs the newest Mac Word 11 if you don’t want to use the conversion tool.
Other than that I have not had any trouble when doing things with people using a PC. They seem pretty much seamless now.
Diane’s recommendations sound just right to me as well.