A year and a half onboard the Apple train (my story)...

A year and a half onboard the Apple train (or aboard the Apple space ship). My story.

So it all started in 2003, I was on a trip to Holland, went into an electronics store and bought an iPod Mini.
You couldn't find any Apple products in Romania, and I kinda knew something about mp3 players, but not so much as I though
I knew, so I figured as long as I'm there, why not buy an iPod. I even remember going on apple.com with my very slow dial-up
connection, waiting minutes for pictures to load, and all that.

So I bought the iPod Mini. I was on the bus heading back home when I unpacked it, and the first time I actually laid hands on
that click wheel, I fell in love with it. It was a wonder of engineering for me. The battery time was excellent, and I even bought
one of the first ever Shure in-ears back in the day. They cost almost as much as the iPod. But they sounded awesome together.

Already owning a PC, I guess that was the time I actually started looking in the other direction, towards Apple products. It would
be another 4 years until I actually got a job that I could afford to buy an Apple computer, and in 07 I bought a Santa Rosa 2.4GHz
Macbook Pro.

Since I got my first computer, when I was 8 I guess, running DOS and eventually Windows 3.1, I used to do two things on it. Games
(like every other kid) and music (because I was already studying piano in school, and before that since I was 3).

So that's the two things I do on a computer. Play games and everything else is music.
Since 2000 I started sequencing my own compositions, using several Windows tracking software like ModPlug Tracker, and eventually
ended up using Propellerheads Reason and Logic (the old one for Windows).

The reason I wanted an Apple computer was because my projects were more and more complex and my old Pentium 4 desktop couldn't cope anymore. Researching OS X, I found that many professionals have never had any troubles when handling projects like I did. And indeed, when I ran all my projects on my Macbook Pro, apart from the flawless performance, nothing came apart, nothing froze, everything was just awesome.

Okay, so what about the gaming part? All the forums I've read, even here on NBR, everybody was just saying "if you want to game, DON'T GET A MAC". Well I guess it was a coincidence how Apple introduced Boot Camp right around the time I was planning on buying the MBP. And they introduced the 8600M GT in their computers, which really was just a mid-class GPU in 07, but it actually worked for me at the time.

Walking into Best Buy, Circuit City and then the Apple Store, I could actually mess around with some of the computers I was looking at, I could clearly see that the Macbook Pro is just a superior product. Build quality it doesn't even compare to, say Dell or HP or Toshiba. Let's not even talk about aesthetics. I know it's a 'preference' kind of thing, but then again, what is that? What is the depth of one's taste? Just like in music, there are things that are universally considered as good or bad, nice or ugly. Those who don't follow these generally unwritten laws of nature consider themselves to be unique. Whoa, I have to stop here, otherwise I won't be able to come back.

So, one year with the Santa Rosa Macbook Pro, the nVidia chip started to act out. And a week ago, it finally died. To be perfectly fair about this situation, it's not Apple's fault. Even more so, I applaud them for dealing with the issue. They could have just said 'no we don't give a crap'.

Enter new unibody Macbook Pro. Awesome machine, can't be more satisfied. The faster FSB and CPU, RAM really do show in my projects, and the 9600M GT is actually performing better than I expected. (I bought Fallout 3 and Dead Space, 1440x900, all maxed out, never dips under 30FPS - cinema quality). Awesome and flawless build quality, great screen (I'm a glossy fan), I also like the new keyboard - just have to get used to typing on it.

I guess, to wrap it all up, I'm very happy. There's no buyers remorse, none what-so-ever.
I'm so glad I switched, and if it weren't for the occasional gaming, I wouldn't even look at windows anymore. My work is so much better handled by OS X, that I feel going back to Windows at this point, it would be a down-grade.

I just can't wait for new Apple products, iPhone 2, even newer iPods, God knows what Jobs' is going to come up with in the new Macbook Pros, Snow Leopard and Cougar after that (or whatever they decide to name it, haha)

And with Starcraft II and Diablo III coming for Mac, as well as Call of Duty 4 (and I'm sure 5 will be the same), Spore, maybe GTA V, I don't know, future titles. I just can't wait for that day when I won't have to deal with Windows at all.

Anyways, thanks for reading if you made it all the way down here. I'll end my rant now.

Apple would have to do something ridiculously stupid to lose me as a fan.

 

Wow, I had a similar experience too






running windows vista.

 

Was that necessary? ^^^^^
I have to agree on the glossy screens, they look awesome.

 

LOL! Savior! me too. nothing has had a single error from working in Vista for me, the newest iMacs I work with using CS3 freeze and crash all the time though... I'm glad that you didn't continually diss windows the whole time, it was a good piece that didn't just make me angry. I like that. Story time is nice

 

Nice story, I read through the whole thing (your writing actually kept me wanting for more). I'm thinking about making the switch to Apple, but the new Macbook pro design just doesn't do it for me. I don't know, I guess there's always the previous version but I don't think I want to buy a brand new laptop that's already outdated. Maybe next year .

 

&&& I LOVE That your icon says " PC-GAMING MASTERACE"

lol. it's a little backwards

 

the first apple computer i bought was a powerbook in 2005. then a macbook pro in 2006 for bootcamp so i didn't have to have both a thinkpad and a powerbook. until that macbook pro, even with the powerbook, i was primarily a windows user and intended on being in XP more than OSX.

needless to say, I rarely boot into Windows on my MBP.

 

I glad you found a computer that fits your needs well CD, and thanks for sharing your story.

My apologies for the resident trolls, who are determined to turn every post on the mac forum into a flame war.
To those guys, please stop. Its really getting old. If you don't like mac, own a mac, or plan on buying a mac, then there are a dozen other forums better suited to you. If you want to start a discussion about the best OS, try software section. If you like your gateway better, there is a gateway forum just for you. But coming on the apple forum and randomly posting vista is better and mac's suck, is not constructive, helpful, useful, and just trollish.
a

 

This made me smile. True for me too.

I can go either way. XP, Vista or OS X. Each one has it's positives and negatives. Which is great because it gives me lots of hardware to choose from.

 

One way for Apple to lose you: start developing apps for OS X or iPhone

 

Heh thanks for the trolling! Nothing short of what I expected.

I also know a lot of trolls who haven't even touched a Macbook (Pro) in their lives, or even clicked on that Apple menu. They just like to run their mouths.

Oh and @Isend2C:
Apple computers are also PCs (Personal Computers) by definition. And my avatar is just dissing the console gamers
(zero punctuation is the man)

 

Let me know when the movie comes out.

 

I thought there was an iPhone 2, the iPhone 3G... or did you mean like a hugely upgraded model of the iPhone?

 

i have to use one for class and i hate it with a passion. . my friend is a huge mac fan, he still has a mac from like 5 years ago. it's probably hard for apple to lose him to. only if apple made a 80 gb itouch then i'll lose my zune and get an ipod but never an mac or macbook because of the OS.