It's amazing. I don't know about everyone else, but I am seeing a
sea-change all around me. Suddenly, the Mac is cool to the rest of
the
world - the PC-using suited guy on the plane next to me last week
after
seeing me watching a DVD on my lovely Aluminium 15" PowerBook tells me
unprompted "Apple is on a roll" and is correcting my statement that
"hopefully Apple's marketshare will increase with all the positive
press" -
he says "there's no doubt - it definitely is".
The School of Engineering here at Curtin Uni suddenly has a PowerMac
G5
cluster and the WA School of Mines rings me up having heard the
rumour and
hopes to use it. The number of Macs in our School of Computer Science
has
gone from 1 to half a dozen or more. The WA-made iLectures system is
seeing
places like Macquarie Uni install 56 Xserves in one fell swoop.
http://ilectures.uwa.edu.au
Apple USA sees stratospheric growth in it's shares and revenue -
Apple Australia suddenly achieves greater than 100% growth in Mac
shipments
(not including iPods!).
Oracle is buying 50-100 terabytes of Apple Xserve RAID storage for
it's
corporate headquarters to store all of its email, voice mail and
calendar
information (the corporate lifeblood!):
http://news.com.com/Oracle+uses+Apple+storage+gear/2100-1015_3
-5480045.html
As is Cisco:
http://www.enterprisenetworksandservers.com/newsflash/art.php/338
Cisco!!!
because it is a half to a third the price of the competition!
Apple - cheaper?!! And don't get me started on the Mac Mini...
The dark years seem to be fading from memory... :-)
And I keep coming across more and more articles like this below:
-Mart
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Martin Hill, Digital Media Specialist
Information Management Services, Curtin University of Technology
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED], web: http://is.curtin.edu.au/ims.cfm
Mb: 0417-967-969 wk: (08)9266-3101 Fax: (08)9266-3826
------------------------------
http://www.applematters.com/comments.php?id=277_0_1_0_C
Welcome To The Revolution...Or How I Switched To Apple
I doubt you¹ve heard anything on the radio, seen anything on the TV
or read
anything in the newspapers but there is a revolution occurring here
in the
UK. Before I go any further let me just skip back in time a couple of
years
to give you some background.
The year is 2003. My name is Alistair Hutchinson, I am working as a
nurse
in my local ER (known here as A+E) and something strange is beginning
to
happen. I am receiving calls at all hours of the day and receiving
visits
whilst working, from others in my profession, often bringing along
their
³ailing friend² for me to administer my healing hands, more often
than not
in a way that seems almost mystical to the people present.
Have you guessed what I¹m doing? No? Well, I¹m fixing, repairing,
innoculating, and generally disinfecting their PC¹s. How my name has
circulated around the hospital I have no idea but all of a sudden it
seems I
am busier with my hobby than I¹ve ever been.
So busy in fact that I stop enjoying it.
For every PC built for a friend I enter into a kind of gentlemans
agreement
to provide free support for the rest of my days, oh and woe betide me
if my
sons aren¹t going to continue that support when I¹m gone!
At around about the same time all this is going on the Windows XP
spyware
writers seemingly quadruple their efforts because, obviously, I don¹t
have
enough to do already.
So I get out, I buy a Mac (PM single 1.8 G5) and sell my PCs. It¹s
not my
first Mac, that award goes to a G3 iBook that I bought previously
whilst a
student and ended up selling after only 6 months due to lack of funds
for my
studies (for studies read beer) but when I sold it I swore I would
one day
own a desktop Mac. That day had come.
From then on whenever I was approached to recommend a spec for a PC
I would
simply reply ³Buy a Mac, it¹s simpler to use no more expensive to buy
and it
won¹t let you down². Now, I have to be honest here, the people I said
this
too merely went and sought advice elsewhere and ended up buying PCs
anyway
but that was ok with me. I didn¹t need the hassle of setting up
computers
for people and spending hours on the phone trying to troubleshoot
their
problems as I was busy studying for one or another course for work
and was
also a new father for the third time so I guess you could say I had
my hands
full.
Fast forward to 2004, people are starting to ask questions about my
Mac.
³How many viruses have you had?², none
³Are you bothered with spyware?², nope
³Can I run Office?², yep
³What is that?², my iPod
Now let¹s come back to the present day. In total there are now seven
new
Mac owners in my hospital and about eight new iPod owners. Thanks in
part to
my evangelism of the Mac as a viable platform, Apples new found
coolness,
and Microsofts repeated ineptitude in closing security loopholes
Apple has
gained sales of a 15 inch Powerbook, a 20 inch iMac, 3 12 inch
iBooks, a Mac
mini (delayed by three months would you believe) and a Powermac G5
dual
2gig, plus accessories such as Airport Express/Base Stations etc. On
top of
that our department is beginning to look like the white earbud
brigade has
moved in.
Now I¹d love to take the credit for all of this but I think this
quiet
revolution is entirely independent of my Mac experience and more an
indicator of the simple fact that Apple is succeeding. They are being
mentioned more and more on UK websites, newspapers, TV and even radio
and
that¹s despite the fact that advertisements for Apple are decidedly
few and
far between in the UK.
What do you think happens to public perception when the only time the
worlds largest OS company gets a mention is to report another security
exploit or how fast the latest virus for its OS has spread around the
world
and Apple gets a mention every time they launch a new product?
Believe it or not Mr Gates, people are switching to the Mac. Maybe
not as
fast as Steve would like but I reckon he¹s in this for the long term
and can
sit and wait for that momentum to build up.
Posted by: Alistair Hutchinson on Feb 07, 05 | Profile
COMMENTS
I think the Mac mini is going to cause the revolution to go nuts.
I didn't see this potential initially, but in the last month reading
all
the wild stories people have on how they are using Mac minis is
astonishing.
Installing in cars, customizing as servers, running as Windows thin
clients
to name but a few.
One thing computer nerds love and always have loved is customizing
their
computers. (Just as car guys love customizing cars).
Linux's success has been built on its customizability and it's
cheapness
But now the Mac mini could be the next big thing in customization.
Especially as it's so cheap.
And once the Windows and Linux geeks and nerds of the world turn
their Mac
mini hot rods on, the revolution could just be unstoppable.
Posted by: Chris Howard on Feb 08, 05 | 7:05 am
I am a hardcore Linux user. I've used it since 1993. But in 2003 I
bought an
iPod. Ever since then I have become a switcher. Not from Linux, but
from the
mindset that Apple is nothing to look at. I still have four true Unix
boxes
at home, but I have since added a beautiful 20-inch iMac G4 and two
more
iPods to the mix. I'm now planning on purchasing a PowerBook. So, I
didn't
exactly come over from the Windows PC world, but I can see the
appeal. Apple
just got everything right.
Posted by: stealthboy on Feb 08, 05 | 10:26 am
I agree with Chris Howard that the Mac mini will cause the revolution
to go
nuts. But I don't think "modders" will be the reason.
I think the reason is because of the price point. $499 is now low
enough
that a budget-minded first-time computer buyer will seriously
consider it.
The price is low enough that switchers, looking to upgrade from their
spyware-ridden Windows boxes will seriously consider the Mac
platform. The
price point alone taps into a whole new market that Apple has never
been in
before.
I've also been reading articles about how the Mac mini might be a
trojan
horse, that lets new Mac owners see the real reason Macs are so
great: the
software. iLife '05 is included and this will turn many switchers into
evangelists.
Posted by: Roger Wong on Feb 08, 05 | 11:47 am
2000 - I start my new job. Boss has an iMac and secretary has an
older G3
Tower. I am to choose - Mac or PC. I choose Mac.
.... secretary leaves....
2005 - From our humble 2 Macs and 8 PCs we have now gone to 7 Macs
and 3
PCs. Beautiful.
All through very subtle and quiet evangelism and seeing my co-workers
pissed off that windows continually fails them and they have to hook
up with
our IT guys (which, by the way, the Mac users never have had to and
any
problems we could resolve on our own - I became the defacto Mac
"support"
person)...
The revolution continues slowly but surely. My home switched to an
eMac 2
years ago. Now we have that wonderful eMac, an iBook G3, a brand-new
iBook
G4, two Mac Plus' for nostalgia and a Mac Portable for the same
reason. Oh,
and an early G4 350 Tower that runs Panther 10.3.7 without a hiccup.
:-)
... and the funniest thing is that it suddenly seemed to happen at
the
office. I went on a buying spree in 2004 to buy a G5 Dual 2.0, 3 15"
Powerbooks, etc. and the spree continues. And they are all HAPPY and
each of
those users has, honestly, come to me to say "Thank you" on multiple
occasions.
Posted by: Mr. T on Feb 08, 05 | 1:14 pm
