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I'm considering switching from PC to MAC. But I know next to nothing about the Mac except that everyone who has one swears by it. Can anyone tell me the reasons they love their Macs over PCs?

I remember my switch and being hesitant, 5 years ago most of my worry was the supposed "this is a PC world" mentality. After I switched, I never found myself wanting for software as many cautioned...inferior versions of microsoft software maybe (like MSN Messenger...), but you'll quickly discover tons more cool mac programs and they are usually free.

Honestly, just make a list of everything that annoys you about the PC and it wont be an issue with a Mac. I live in a complete Mac household now, and would never go back. I even converted my Software Engineer boyfriend who learned everything he knows on a Windows PC.

Much less (not zero) worry about those nasty viruses on Mac. The design speaks for itself.

Well, I wouldn't make the switch based on virus worries, as there is free protection out there nowadays that makes that (for the most part at a least) a null arguement.

I suppose what you need to ask yourself is: Are there any programs available only on the PC that you can't live without?

For me the dealbreaker is games, as mac just doesn't get as many.

And actually, you could always just get a hot mac laptop (oh man I love how they look), keep your old PC, and have the best of both worlds.

As a technology professional that has used Windows, Unix, Linux, and Mac OS extensively I personally lean toward Mac OS. The reason, it does not get in the way of my work. I am more productive because the OS itself is more a supporting role than the main character.

Switching will cause some growing pains and it will take a while for you to feel fully comfortable, but when you do, you will wonder why you ever used Windows.

In response to the other posters:

* Games or software availability? Macs are now Intel based, they will easily run both Windows and Mac OS.
* Viruses. As a 17 year Mac user, never once had a virus. It is highly unlikely you will ever get a virus on your Mac. The reason is simple, why create a virus for Mac (6% market share) when you can affect a whole lot more people with your virus if you create it for Windows.
* The Switcher. Take this persona advice to heart, it is entirely accurate for the majority of switchers out there.

I too am a Mac user, and I'll never, ever look back.

To chime in on some misconceptions:
- The reason there are no viruses for OS X is NOT because of market share, or disinterest on the part of hackers - don't you think they'd like to wipe these smug smirks off of our faces? It's because Mac OS X is, effectively, Unix, and the security and user structure are fundamentally different in every way from Windows.
There ARE viruses out there, to be completely fair, but you would have to jump through several hoops to install them on your system. It would be quite difficult.
Keep in mind the increased security is not of the Vista "We've detected you've moved your mouse, is that OK?" variety. OS X is so unobtrusive.

- Games. I'm an avid gamer and so is my boyfriend. I mostly play World of Warcraft, and since the dawn of time all Blizzard games have been mac and pc friendly. I play it on my Macbook Pro with its fast video card under OS X; my boyfriend plays it on his MacBook under Windows, because you can overclock (well, correctly-clock, as it's underclocked for heat reasons under OS X) the video card under Windows. Either way, Windows is still always an option for you - you can either use Boot Camp and a legit Windows disk to dual-boot, or you can run Windows in a window (tee hee) under OSX with Parallels (and a legit windows disk), which is super neato. And the new Intel chips re built for virtualization, so at most you'll lose maybe 1% of your processing power in virtualization.

- Back to viruses - on Windows machine, even if your antivirus software says you're clean, you very likely are not. The newest 'viruses' today are rootkits, which run at a level below which your operating system OR your anti-virus software can see. Put very little stock in anti-virus software - it only sees a part of the pie!

I'm no anti-Microsoft fangirl, but switching to OS X just made my life easier, and I'll never go back. It was hard to justify the cost at first, but after understanding that Macs will run for years and years exactly like they did when you first bought it - the price makes more sense.
Just don't buy RAM from Apple, that's always been a total ripoff and I've never understood why :)

Ditto everyone above; and I'll add to the design point: the interface. It's just so user-friendly, with its pretty, big and bright colors and icons, and all the processes are so obvious. You drag, you drop for so much stuff that, with a PC, is right click select run help nowi'mjustmakingstuffup etc....

I MAC at home and PC at work. I loathe being at work because of this.

Jason,

You're right, I totally forgot about the change to Intel... I lost nerd points for that one!

So does Mac OS actually run PC games well now? And I'm thinking something beyond WoW, since everyone knows that works well :)

Well, Mat, keep in mind that if you run the games under OS X, they're still going to have to be written for OS X. If you're really into gaming, the best bet would be to keep a partition with Windows on it and play your games on that, and do actual important stuff, like checking email, accessing your bank account, etc on the Mac side. If Windows gets gunky (because it will, in every way, be a Windows computer over there, viruses n' all) just wipe it clean every couple months or so.

I also learned something totally rad in the partition process - you can create and resize partitions whenever you want! You don't have to completely reformat your drive and start from fresh - if you decide you need more room for the Windows partition, it's as easy as dragging a little slider over. So, so, cool.

The real cherry on top is triple-booting, like by my boyfriend does. He's a software engineer, so he uses his Macbook at home and at work - uses OS X as his usual system, pops open Parallels and works under Linux to do his coding, and then pops up a Windows window to work on proprietary code from another vendor that only runs in Windows.

Seriously, when in history have you ever had so much flexibility? It just doesn't get any better (well, until they give me a damn tablet Mac!)

Melanie, I couldn't agree more. After using a tablet PC at work, I found myself really liking it. If you threw in MacOSX, I'd be in heaven. I've seen the ModBook Mac tablet that Other World Computing sells, but I'd be more crazy about it if it were sleeker, thinner, lighter and cheaper. But the touchscreen ability is what I'm crazy about. Bring that to a Mac and I'll be all over it.

Yeah, I considered a ModBook too, but I'm concerned about the low levels of sensitivity - what is it, 256, 512? I used my old Windows Tablet PC for art in Corel Painter and it was heavenly - on a Mac it'd be nigh-orgasmic.
I'm holding out hope that they're just waiting to do it 100% right, and not that Steve Jobs hates me personally.
Because those are the only two options.

To address the virus issue - do you still need an anti virus program like Norton on a Mac or is Mac just not prone to viruses at all so the anti virus programs aren't necessary?

Anne, you do NOT need any kind of antivirus software on a Mac. They definitely make 'em, but, for the reasons mentioned above, and others, you really can't even get viruses, trojans, rootkits, all that on your machine.
You would have to try REALLY REALLY hard to!

Nevertheless, it's always a good policy (in any operating system) to create a general administrator account, and then your own personal user account. When you install software and do other stuff like that, OS X will ask you for the admin password to make sure it's kosher. Keeping admin and personal accounts separate is generally a good way to make sure you don't accidentally muck up any of your own stuff, or allow some new software to do something you might not have expected.

Parallels Coherence is an incredible innovation. There is no reason not to have an Intel Mac.

But that's easy for me to say, sice my company has interest-free "PC" loans! My box far exceeded the loan cap, and it is so worth it!