I Can't Be the Only One

[Harlemite]

Let me warn you: I'm about to whine. You see, I switched to Mac at home over a year ago. Saying I'm pleased about switching is sort of like saying Michael Jordan was a just a "good" basketball player. My switching rocked my computing world, and that's saying something for someone who is both a Telecomms Tech and System Administrator. Plain and simple, Windows PCs don't have doodly-squat on Macs. But you see I have a bit of a problem.

Every workday I leave my wonderful network at home (Airport Extreme, Airport Express, MacBook Pro, my wife's MacBook) and come to work on a network running Windows 2003 Server, Exchange 2003, with XP clients. Added to this frustrating situation is the fact that the majority of my colleagues tend to have nothing but bad things to say about Macs without having tried one. One actually has a brother with a company running an entire Mac network, but they STILL won't give it a reason.This would be funny if it wasn't so sad. How anyone who can call themselves an IT professional can do such a think is what IMHO separates the true professionals from those fooling themselves.

Anywho, I just wanted to know if I was the only one suffering such a fate. Surely there have got to be others out there with the same lot as me.

Now wanting to end on a sour note, I will say that I do enjoy that job security that administrating a Windows network provides.

Laterz.

[J Walk]

I think we've all been put in a situation like that. It's hard to explain to a person how Mac OS X is so much better than Windows without he or she experiencing it themselves.

You'll always be slammed for being a Mac user, but at least you know that you're using the better operating system.

[Jsb1234]

I've found the easiest place to get traction in these arguments is along the spyware/virus front. Mac OS X has been around for 8 years now and has been free of the spyware/virus/worm issues that plague windows systems both at home and in the corporate environment. Sure you might pay from 6-15% more for the same specs, but how much of you PC CPU cycles are eaten up by all the software you need to run to protect it? How much time do you spend troubleshooting hardware driver issues and intermittent network problems? How many times have you had to wipe the PC and start fresh? These are the areas where OS X/Apple wins imho.

[Yuiichi]

I have first hand experience with the exact behaviour you describe. In fact, I was the one with said behaviour. In my position, I was just really jealous of friends that I had with Macs. They both had PowerBooks, which are really beautiful computers. I had a Compaq notebook which was (and still is) fat and loud. But I didn't have enough money to even consider switching, so I just got on the hate bandwagon.

After being a switcher for a little over a year and a half, I don't know what could have gotten into me. My Mac is really the best computer I've ever owned or used. I love it immensely.

Maybe those at your workplace are just jealous of your beautiful MBP but don't have the disposable income to buy one themselves?

[Bohemian2]

Yes, I too have been called in at work to wash the grease off my hands and help fix a computer that was trying to do payroll and went haywire. Three hours later I got it working... so we DID get payed. That has never been my primary job like some here, but messing around with them, you learn some things. I have had an Apple IIe; Tandy CoCo 2 & 3 (which had a neat version OS9, did multi-tasking like Leopard does in separate windows on the one screen); the old 8088; 286; 386; 486 with Win 3.1 (which I modified to my own liking); Pentium; G3 iMac; G4 PB times 2 now... yes, I grew up in both worlds like most here. Having a fun computer and a work one. The Fun one was modified and played with for the likings of the owner; the work one (mostly MS) was for work and needed repairing often. I do not know many IT Pro's making a living (and a good one at that) if it was not for Bill Gates. Apple just does not need that kind of service, and so Full Time besides. Apple has these Forums that work for 90% of the situations we Apple users find that need a tad of help in figuring out, and most of it is just that: where is this; how do you do that; can it do this?; how can I make it do this?; etc.
So thank Billy for your job, whistle while you work; and thank Steve for your toy and home computer. I care not what another thinks if it is from lack of personal experience, I know what I have and that is not changed by what others say. Maybe someday, they will have the luck and experience to have an Apple and become one of this fold... we will welcome them in... how they got here matters not, how did any of us get here?

Have fun! And keep working so you can afford it.

[houltmac]

I've certainly been in that position, but thankfully now I just work with Macs. I work at an IT consultancy company that almost exclusively deals with Macs, and only runs 3 PCs in house (one for Sage [how I hate Sage], one for a custom VoIP system and one for a Windows RIP [in addition to the Mac RIPs]). It certainly pays a lot less (a lot less), and the problems are generally even more stupid, or more likely email based. Still, it's more enjoyable and people don't moan about your OS of choice.

I also administer servers, but I have to say, having just set up an OD/AD combined solution it's a joy working on the OS X based server.

I feel for you man, but my wallet doesn't.

[Raven]

I get that every day at work.
But then, the last time my coworker gave me grief, he said, "And what's that (my MBP) doing here? I thought I told you no Macs allowed in here." The most quelling response ever was to simply crook an eyebrow and respond, "That is doing a successful data recovery on that critical hard drive that you told {one of our biggest clients} we'd have to send out and not see for a month."
I try very hard not to be one of those Mac users. I don't, generally, drink the kool-aid. I fix Windows boxen for a living, despite being Apple certified, and it does ensure that I'll always have a job. But my Macs are sleek, well-designed, durable, and right powerful little beasts. They age better than and scream through the same daily business at twice the speed of Windows hardware. Whyever, no matter the grief I get, would I want to switch back to an inferior OS on inferior hardware?