I’m a Mac guy. I have been for a few years now. Before 2015 I was a serious PC computer user. Mostly this was because I grew up in a house that had PC’s, I’d used PC’s at school, and I had used PC’s in my working life as well. I didn’t have any issues with people who did use Mac’s I just didn’t myself. My logic was that it was the system that I’d always used so why change? Well, let me tell you why.
Back in 2014, I had, shall we say “an experience” with the last PC I owned. My experience went thusly; I bought a computer at a fairly serious sum of money and transferred everything over to it from my previous computer. I should probably mention that this is how I worked before cloud systems were a thing. EVERYTHING was on my computer. It became where I would do everything when I was at home. Everything was right in the universe because it had the entirely of my digital life on it.
About six months after I bought the computer my power cable broke. By that, I mean the metal spike part that you’re supposed to stick into the computer snapped off. After buying several different replacement models both in the store and online I was still unable to find a power cable that would work with my computer. This computer was Windows 7 (which shows you how long ago this was) and the operating system divide between PC and Mac was getting much narrower. My wife Samantha had been bugging me for years (being an avid Mac person herself) to cross over. I knew that, if nothing else, power cables from Mac stores were prevalent. I was walking around the mall with her when I announced to her that I was thinking of buying a Mac. Her face absolutely lit up and she dragged me to the Apple Store which happened to be only three or four stores down from where we were.
I used to make fun of mac people, their tendency to be completely obsessed with every new thing that Apple came out with. I used to never understand the insanely long lineups outside of any and nearly every electronics store that would have Apple products when they were released.
I get it now…..I don’t always (or ever) line up for hours to get the new thing that they come out with. I have however prebought a few things and waited (mostly) patiently for it to come in. The reason for me I do find Apple’s concept interesting, everything is the same. if you lose/break your charger, you simply go in for a new one. if you want to augment your computer with a decal or a cover or a case of some variety you can shop online and not have to worry about whether the person shipping it to you has the right size. it’s ALL THE SAME!!! it’s really no wonder that the personal computer is split between Mac and PC. For sure, part of that is the operating systems but the subdivisions between the various Windows PC companies (Dell IBM Toshiba etc.) all are different. Their chargers are different, their keyboards are different, their model sizes are all different. In fact, the only thing that they have in Common is their Operating System and even then the various companies try to augment it with different subprograms to make it “Special”.
For me, there are three main advantages that Mac has that the PC world has yet to get sorted;
1) All my devices talk to each other – One of my major issues When I had an iPhone and a PC was that getting my devices to sync. It was a regular exercise in insanity. When I used to connect my iPhone to my PC I would have to make sure that Itunes was open, then it would have to recognize the device and THEN it would sync. In my experience sometimes it would sync sometimes It wouldn’t. When you connect a mac to a mac they just work. There’s no prodding, there is no trying to force a sync (or “marriage counseling” as I used to call it) It just worked.
2) Backups and spares are always available – Given my experience with my last PC and the futility in trying to find a spare power cord, you can so how this would be a major thing for me. With the last PC I ever owned, getting a replacement power chord was impossible. With both of the Mac’s that I have owned over the years, If I needed a backup cord, I went to the store and bought one, Simple as that.
3) All of their stuff is beautiful – I do still use PC’s in my working life and while I would wholeheartedly say that PC’s are functional and work well, I would not say that it is beautiful. They work good, they don’t look good. Mac’s on the other hand have worked very hard on being Both functional, and fashionable. I have a real appreciation for technology that works good and looks good while doing it.
I think that the main reason that Mac is so appealing to me is that it’s not cobbled together, it’s not a bunch of different systems that have to be slapped together to work right. Apple has had a holistic solution which covers both hardware and software. This has given them a competitive advantage over the PC world which has had to figure out how to coordinate everything and work with different companies while at the same time be able to compete with those same companies. Which, for me, certainly explains why the computer Industry is divided into Mac Vs. PCs.
Which system do you find easier to use?
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