The "Truth" About Switching

This is one man's honest opinion about what it means to switch. I agree with a lot of it, but, of course, not all of it. This quote seems to sum it up.

"12 You'll regret your purchase, but you'll get over it
You'll have a few moments where you really, really wish you had purchased that Dell laptop for $399, and you'll seriously consider taking the Mac back to the store, but eventually you'll get over it and wonder what the hell you were thinking."

I've had friends and family switch and have that exact experience. There is just enough differences on the Mac that you will be frustrated every once in a while. I have to remind people about the frustration they feel with Windows and they are familiar with that. Computers, in general, are evil, frustrating devices. They also empower us in ways that make that evil worth enduring. With the Mac, there's just less enduring and more computing.

"01 People will ridicule you for having a Mac
My former boss, an otherwise friendly and intelligent person, was always on the lookout for opportunities to poke fun at me because I used a Mac and brought it to work with me every day. This is changing, however, and mainly applies to corporate settings there days."

This is more about his boss than the Mac. Most people are more civilized than that; well, unless you search the web for PC vs Mac discussion threads.

02 You'll feel like you're in a little club

The club's not so little.

03 People will help you for no reason

04 Fewer people will try to attack you

That might be better stated as "Fewer hackers will try to attack you," recalling his own observation about people ridiculing you.

05 You'll be able to ignore most viruses

All viruses is more like it. I work for companies that buy Macs by the thousand and none of them ever gets a virus. Ever. He's right that it is possible, to forward a virus from a Windows user to another Windows user, however, because you would have to forward it manually, unless you are a forwarding junkie, it's unlikely that you would.

06 You'll have some compatibility problems

MyMac.com has a contributor from London that has some great stuff on how to deal with the occasional glitch you might experience in a corporate environment; particularly with MS Office.

There are too many to comment on all of them.

18 Random strangers will stop to talk about your Apple
People will stop you in the airport, the hallway, the office and talk to you about your Mac laptop. They'll admire the display, ask about compatibility, and otherwise chat. Sometimes it'll be cool, sometimes you'll be a bit embarrassed. And no, they won?t always be jeans-wearing, tousled-hair hipsters. Sorry.

Yeah, and random strangers will blog about your switching experiences, and post them to Digg. You will get traffic.

(Well, hello digg, business2, macdailynews, stumbleupon, and tuaw readers! Thanks for dropping by! By the way, I?m a co-owner at Create with Context, where we do customer research and usability analysis for product and service companies - sort of like this article, but on steroids. Interested? Check us out at createwithcontext.com.

Told ya.

What is it about Apple and the Macintosh? Why will people spend time blogging their switch experiences and even photographing their Mac unboxings while most Mac to PC switch stories are fabricated by marketing lackeys?

I know what I think, but I'm more interested in what other people think.