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Chris Pirillo, Time to Get a Mac

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My friend Chris Pirillo is out with a post today entitled “Windows Vista, I’m Breaking Up with You.” In the post he documents all the reasons why he plans on “upgrading” (yes, you read that right) from Windows Vista to Windows XP.

Chris points to the reasons why he’s disappointed in Vista (his scanner doesn’t work, Windows Movie Maker crashes, his fax software doesn’t work, his Lifecam won’t work — check this out Chris, the Mac has a super cool cam already built in — I could go on, but just read his article to get the whole thing).

But you see here’s the thing. This is Chris Pirillo. Chris Pirillo the Windows heavy weight. Chris Pirillo who happens to be kind of sort of pretty handy with a computer. If Chris Pirillo is having trouble, just imagine the trouble that the rest of middle America is having.

I was as much of a Windows diehard as Chris Pirillo was before switching to my MacBook Pro. I really was impressed by what I saw of some early Vista demos. I used to deride the Appleheaded fan boys who would hype the bejezus out of Apple. And for years (16 of them to be exact) I just stuck by Windows again, and again and again and again.

I stuck with Windows for one reason. I was stubbornheaded. It didn’t matter how much things fell apart and didn’t work, like most people I just had a natural resistance to change. I didn’t want to start over again. I was afraid of trying something new. I was busy, always super busy, and used the learning curve as an excuse. And then because I wasn’t really sure (the Mac was the unknown) was I just going to waste more money on something else. I rationalized that all computers had the same problems. That Macs were no better than PCs, etc. etc. again and again and again.

And then after I’d been hit in the side of the head with a shovel one too many times and when I got tired of hearing my friend Kristopher Tate (that’s him in the photo above) say over and over and over again, “Dude, get a Mac,” one day on a total impulse buy I bought one at the Apple store in Palo Alto.

And it has been the most positive thing to happen to my computing since. I live with my computer. It’s a big part of my life. I use it upwards of 20 hours a day. And although there was about a 72 hour learning curve and I had to ask Kristopher some really dumb things like “how do I rename a folder,” after this short learning curve it was over and done and now I’m far, far more efficient with my computing than I’ve ever been.

Programs don’t freeze. Everything with a USB connection I’ve ever stuck into the thing has just worked. It wakes up when it’s supposed to. In three months of heavy, heavy use I’ve probably only had to restart maybe three times. Photoshop goes faster. Bridge goes faster. Everything goes faster. And everything just works. That’s the bottom line, everything just works.

Don’t get me wrong. Things *can* go wrong on a Mac. It just happens like 20x less than on a PC.

On top of it all it feels better. The built in cam and mic are awesome. The way the volume goes pop, pop, pop as I turn my music up and down is soothing. The keyboard is more comfortable. It’s really cool how I can use two fingers on the touchpad to move my screen up and down, two fingers on the pad and click to right click, etc.

In his article about Vista Chris says, “I’m still more than willing to help Microsoft improve Windows and get the message out to users, but I simply can’t sacrifice my own time and productivity without benefits in clear sight.”

I don’t quite know what to say about Vista. I’ve got lots of good friends at Microsoft. I really like them. I wish I could say that I think Windows rocks, but I don’t. To be fair I think a big part of the problem is Microsoft’s open system vs. Apple’s closed system. When you have a closed system you can just test it again and again and again to make sure it works. Windows on the other hand must support many, many more components than Apple does and so one lazy screw up by say a mousepad maker can ruin the whole experience (I never could get tap to click turned off on my old Dell laptop).

Take my advice Chris Pirillo. Make the switch. I should have done it years ago. You will not regret it. You won’t look back. It will be like a dark cloud has been lifted from over your head. It really is that good. Forget about the marketing, about the guy in the hospital gown vs. the hipster. Forget about all the hype. Just do it. Bottom line is it just works and you will be so much productive for it. Don’t “upgrade” to XP. XP Sucks.

Time to get a Mac Pal.

You can digg this post here.

20 Replies to “Chris Pirillo, Time to Get a Mac”

  3. I’m computer agnostic so I’m neutral but one thing that sends me away from Macs is the damn spinning beachball. This seems to happen no matter how old, new, slow, fast, or ugly the Mac is. If Apple could make it go away, I’d spend more time using Macs.

  4. You seem to have found the single way one can call Windows “open” in comparison to OS X. Its also nice you don’t come off as too much of a fanboy. Reasonable praise is much more effective than seemingly blind devotion.

    @trancemist: Whenever I work on friends/relatives’ Windows PC, I make them sit and listen to my Mac sales pitch. Best advice we can give, I think.

  5. I am a switching going on two years and as much as I love my MBP blaiming Vista for old software not working is silly. The same could be said every time Apple updates OS X. Apple is far more likely to not support legacy hardware and software than MS.

    That being said, I am forced to use Windows at work and although I could go on and on about how much better Tiger is than Vista, Vista is still 100% better than XP. Not having to run as a local admin is reason enough alone.

  6. I agree too Thomas!! I have switched almost completely myself besides just using Outlook on my PC.

    I Love my Mac!!

  7. thanks for the link thomas 😉

    btw, the hard drive on my Sony Vaio (windows ultra-portable) crashed last fall, and the turnaround time on service was going to be *2 weeks*! i was leaving for Tokyo in 3 days, and found out that Apple allows you to pickup a loaner same day if there’s any hw failures… i decided to switch to Mac that week.

    i still use a PC at home, but mostly Mac portable has worked fine… like you, some time spent getting up to speed, but otherwise not too bad.

    oh well.

    – dave

  8. Ben, true that on the old software.

    It seems to me Apple has caused more problems in that department, with switches from 68k to PowerPC, OS9 to OS X, and now PowerPC to Intel x86. With all of those changes, the software has to work with Apple’s emulators. With Windows changes, it’s usually only hardware drivers and other system software that won’t work, which should be expected (and I’m sure is true with MacOS too).

  9. As a long-time Mac user and IT support tech, I know how inflammatory our advice to “get a Mac” can be. Frankly it’s hard to keep quiet about it when you see every day the stark benefits of Mac OS over the Windows experience.

    One thing I’ve observed about Mac users that I think is quite interesting — Mac users seem to know their way around a Windows computer even better than most Windows users! Why is this? I think somehow a Mac actually teaches you a better general understanding of how computers work. Perhaps it’s through easy access to your file system, you build up a better visual concept of where your files are, how to get at them, what apps you can use on them, and what sorts of things you can do with them. Just consider the fluidity of selecting and copying from a web page in your browser, pasting into a word processor and printing to a PDF, and attaching and mailing… That’s a path that is remarkably easy on a Mac, and essentially doable on a Windows box, but the Windows user is less likely to know it’s even possible.

    – Tame Bear

  10. Tom,
    I totally agree with your advice. I purchased my first Mac about a month ago and I’ve been happy ever since. Just this past weekend I had to reinstall my brother in law’s machine with Windows XP and I had to download ~80 updates. While I did this, I thought to myself how nice it really is to have a Mac. No longer do I have to worry about downloading ~80 updates on my laptop when/if I have to perform a reinstall.

  11. “Why is this? I think somehow a Mac actually teaches you a better general understanding of how computers work.”

    Sorry to disappoint you on this one, but that’s probably not the case. The fact still remains that people who use macs probably see windows machines regurlarly if not everyday. They may also be forced to interact with a windows machine on a regular basis. We all have friends and family with windows. On the other hand, windows users could surely go months without running into a mac.

    By the way, I’m not a fan of windows either, I run linux exclusively. Nonetheless, the fact remains. Windows still has 90 some percent market share in the personnal desktop.

  14. While I’m a Windows guy I have to say that Macs are probably better for the average person that’s not exactly technically savvy. Apple’s TV dinner approach to computers does help ensure that their hardware will play nicely with their software, as it should be.

    Personally I’ve never had any problems with Windows, but then again my technical knowledge is higher than the “average” PC consumer.

    One small thing that irks me is when people make horribly invalid comparisons between Apple hardware and Microsoft software. Things like, “Macs are better because they have an integrated webcam.” Hardware is a function of the OEM, not the software. My HP dv9000 laptop has a built-in webcam, it works wonderfully.

    For some more interesting tidbits from a recent Mac-convert check out these links:

    Vista is a faster OS than Tiger when running on a Mac ?

    Still missing a few things since moving to OSX

    Even Mac users have to appreciate this video of a guy ranting about his Mac:

    Why Mac’s Suck

    @ raianoat: correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t Apple still publish updates for OS X? I thought I remembered reading how they recently released a handful of patches for some of the bundled apps that come with the OS?

    @ Tame Bear: Oh how I wish that was true! I’ve had some pretty tedious conversations with just as many Mac users as I went through the, “click, no, drag over there, no, let go of the button, no, on the file, not the drive, now go to the folder you saved that, no, the folder, not the application. What’s a folder? This is going to take awhile”.

    Having dealt with quite a few Windows AND Mac users I can say that neither OS really offers a self-learning experience like you described. If what you said was true I’d seriously ditch Vista right now and start preaching the gospel.

  15. I couldn’t agree more Tom. I had the EXACT same experience and switching to Mac was the best thing I’ve done.

  18. Shawn Oster said:
    “I have to say that Macs are probably better for the average person that’s not exactly technically savvy”

    I’d agree with that comment. I assume you’re not implying that they are *not* good for those who *are* savvy considering the vast number of open source gurus and other UNIX and Linux types who are Mac users? (James Gosling the father of Java, Tim Berners Lee who built the first web browser and server on NeXT boxes etc)

    “Vista is a faster OS than Tiger when running on a Mac?”

    Shawn, if you read the article, you will notice the Mac is actually twice as fast booting OS X than when booting Vista (14 seconds vs 29secs) and the only major speed difference in Vista’s favour the author mentions is launching Firefox which takes 5 seconds the first time vs 1 second for Vista though it drops to 1.5 seconds for the Mac for subsequent launches. However, the fact the author neglects to mention is that Firefox is not yet intel native so is actually running under Rosetta software emulation, which means Vista can only beat the Mac when the Mac is running emulated code!!!

    “Still missing a few things since moving to OSX”

    Shawn, in this article, you’ll also notice most of the author’s issues have now been solved as he gets used to the Mac and the few that remain like “the simplicity of permanently associating network shared resources to drive letters” seem a bit strange considering Apple left the archaic drive lettering idea behind in the 80’s!

    The “Why Mac’s Suck” video is funny, but not a very useful comparison considering the complaints are all from pre-OS X days. About as useful as complaining how bad Windows 98 is (was). 😉

    However, I do agree with you that there are plenty of basic Mac users out there who don’t know a menubar from a window from a folder, though I have a feeling the proportion is less compared to the numbers of PC users I’ve had to support over the years.

    YMMV

    -Mart

  20. Being that I’ve supported both PCs and Macs while working for the Air Force, they both have gave me their share of headaches. Macs have their uses as well as PCs. I’m a Linux (my preferred OS)/Unix person myself. I do mostly everything via command line (unless I have no choice, but to use some kind of windowed app). That being said, I never tell a person to “buy a mac.” Microsoft (as much as I hate to admit it) has provided me some serious income over the years. The day Microsoft makes an OS that works without problems or difficulties will be the day I will have to come up with another career/business venture.

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