I’m bothering to say it because I have a growing feeling that Apple is going to be snowballing over the next year or so. For starters, we have folks like John C. Dvorak (PCMag) now saying “as much as x86 users to not want to admit it, the Mac OS is already better than Windows” (no kidding; I’ve been saying this for a few years, and I’m not even a Mac user per se). I’m not going to go searching for more quotes from tech pundits just yet, but this is something we’re hearing more… and more… and more of.
Not only that, but I’m just seeing it in the people around me, and various blogs I read. Terry Storch switched some time back. Scott Hodge has said he’s planning to switch in the near future. Several people I work with at church who have recently bought new computers have bought… Apples.
A co-worker of mine, who has been moderately anti-Apple in times past, has started recommending Apples to people who ask him what sort of computer to buy. Hello!
As for myself, a few years ago I would have hesitated to recommend the Apple to the average PC user. I would waffle, saying “Well it depends on what you want to do, price point, etc, blah blah….” That was before the $499-$599 Mac mini, which I would say changed everything. I think history will look back and say that the rise of the inexpensive Apple computer was a turning point in the shift in market share toward OS X. At this point, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend an Apple to anyone who was contemplating a new computer.
Even if you’re a Linux user; heck, who wouldn’t rather dual-boot to OS X than to Windows? Unless your actual occupation depends on supporting or developing for Windows (which a lot of people’s do… for now), what can you do with Windows that you can’t do on an Apple? The only apps for which I can’t use Linux–Macromedia Flash, etc–will run on Mac OS as easily as on Windows.
I used to recommend Dell to people; I think from now on, I’ll be asking them if there’s some reason they have to run Windows. If there isn’t… it might be time to get an Apple.
