I’ve been using Windows for over than two decades now. I first encountered one in 1994 at our Bioinformatics lab. Those days, most computers ran either Windows 3.1 or the Unix operating system – there was a SGI running IRIX, a few SUN machines with Solaris and VAX/VMS on a large DEC. We never had a Mac and I had never worked on one in my entire life.
So why did I buy a Mac when I was comfortably ensconced in the Windows world?
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The main reasons why I bought a Mac
My two boys (aged 9 and 12) had been asking for a new computer. They had an old Windows laptop (passed down from me, of course) which had become pathetically slow. Anyway, out on a father-sons sortie at the local mall, we chanced upon an Apple Store.
We were already Apple users – had an iPod, the iPhone and the iPad – and knew that their products look real swanky. The boys were drawn to the 27″ Mac system at the store. I was expecting a flurry of questions to be shot at the salesmen but to my utter surprise they had no problem in figuring out things.
Long story short, we bought a Mac desktop running Yosemite. That was in August of 2014. The boys took to it like a fish takes to water. (LOL). This metaphor is quite apt in our case cause all three of us are Pisceans – the younger shares my birthday while the elder is born two days before us – talk about impeccable timing; LOL (again).
Anyway, in no time the boys were making and editing videos, creating sound loops and music (Garageband), working on images (Pixelmator and The GIMP) and more. And they did all this with so much of ease. I know this because I monitor their activities and routinely go through their “creations”. It seemed to me that the lads had all this pent up creative energy which the Mac unleashed. Though it was way more expensive than a Windows system, I’m happy that I chose a Mac for them.
Additionally, they would intermittently come up and say, “Thanks for getting us a Mac, Pa”.
As any parent would testify, it’s kind of rare for kids to express heartfelt thanks for something. And these lads did it quite often. So I figured, if the boys liked the Mac system so much, I would like it too!
And so after a little deliberation and much self-coaxing I bought a Macbook Pro – the latest one, I may add, the one with 512 GB flash drive.
Was it a good decision to start on a Mac after spending years on Windows?
To be honest, I took some time to figure things out on the Mac. There were two main reasons for this. Firstly, I was very comfortable with my Windows computer. I had the files organised in a certain way and email were still downloading to the old machine. Secondly, I had seldom ever sat down with the Mac to do “productive work”. I was primarily using it for “fun” activities like watching movies, surfing, syncing my iPhones and iPads etc.
After a few months of dilly-dallying, one fine Sunday, I decided NOT to open the Windows computer and work solely on the Mac. It took time to position my fingers to learn the Mac keyboard shortcuts but then I continued for a day or two. And I’ve never looked back since.
By the way, I’m still getting used to things. But I have never regretted my decision of choosing the Mac over Windows. For all those out there who have enjoyed other Apple products – the iPhone, iPad, iPod etc. – you should seriously think of shifting to a Mac.
