Pay It Forward
Let's start with a bit of history. Up until summer 2003, I was a
fully paid up member of the Windows fraternity. Despite a little
dabbling with Unix at university, I was in a Windows world and pretty
much unaware of anything else out there. My family turned to me for
computer advice, and I recommended Windows PCs - despite spending lots
of time fixing problems with them.
Then, for some weird and inexplicable reason, I decided that I
wanted a compact Mac. I've no idea
where the idea came from, but I managed to pick up a working SE/30, which I planned to play
around with and perhaps turn into a Macquarium.
But as I sat at this little machine and tried switching it on, I was
somewhat amazed at how responsive it felt, how quickly it booted, and
how a 14-year-old machine had such a sophisticated GUI when it hailed
from an era when the highest technology I'd seen was an Amstrad
CPC+.
I soon realised that gutting this machine for a fish tank would have
been a crime, and my conversion had begun.
My first "new" Mac came a few months later, in the form of a
12" 800 MHz iBook G4
that truly blew me away. The GUI felt so much more slick and
sophisticated than anything I'd used before.
I really could do anything that a Windows user
could.
The ads were true; I really could do anything that a Windows user
could.
That laptop and I spent a couple of years together before I finally
upgraded to a Dual 1.8 GHz
Power Mac G5. That was when the iBook went back in its box and on
top of the wardrobe to gather dust.
Spring Cleaning
Fast forward to 2006, and a new year is upon us. The time came for a
clear out of my flat, and I finally decided to put the iBook up for
sale on
eBay. I mentioned it in passing to my dad on the phone one
afternoon and thought nothing more of it until a couple of hours later,
when my sister called. It turned out that she'd heard I was selling my
old laptop and had been thinking of getting one for a while.
Neither she nor her
husband had ever used an Apple computer before, so we agreed that I'd
bring the machine round to her house for them to have a play around
with and see if it suited them.
The Laptop Is King
When I worked in computer sales a couple of years back, it would
have been fair to say that the laptop was king. No longer an expensive
tool for traveling businessmen, it was now the machine of choice for
homeowners who were short on space. Property prices in the UK have been
soaring for years, and with many people unable to move to larger
properties, laptops eliminated the need to dedicate part of the house
to a computer.
My sister already had a desktop PC, but it was big and took up lots
of space in the spare room. Even worse, it was next door to my
two-year-old niece's bedroom. My sister and her husband didn't get a
chance to use it until she had gone to bed - and were then terrified of
waking her up.
With a laptop, they could just pick it up and head downstairs
without any worries.
Welcome to OS X
So over the Easter weekend I sat down and introduced my sister to
OS X. And what can I say? There was a mixture of awe at the slick
graphics and animation (who can't love the "Welcome to Panther" screen
accompanied by Royksopp?). There was surprise that Microsoft Office
could be installed, and even greater surprise that it really did open
and save Word documents. Surprise that it could be connected to a PC
monitor. Amazement that no special software needed to be installed to
use a digital camera. Realisation that it could be taken on holidays to
watch DVDs. Disbelief when I explained the situation regarding viruses
and spyware.
And then came the really impressive part. The machine is only
running Panther (OS X 10.3.x), so it lacks the full parental
controls of Tiger (10.4.x). Even still, we've created an account for my
niece that uses the "Simple Finder" interface and eliminates the risk
of any serious damage to important files. Plus the ability to limit
which applications can be run means that Internet access can be
controlled when my niece gets a little bit older.
Sold
All in all, it was an on-the-spot
conversion.
All in all, it was an on-the-spot conversion. The iBook, which sat
idle for so long, has a brand new lease of life. It's been especially
gratifying for me, because essentially my sister and brother-in-law
have had the same moment of realisation that I did when I first
discovered the world of Apple.
Windows is a big success; there's no denying it. Microsoft's
licensing model really helped computers proliferate faster than they
may have done otherwise. Today, PCs are cheap and prolific in a way
that would have seemed unlikely even a few years back.
Windows isn't the best solution for everyone, but most users will
simply never try anything else. I think that Mac users can find it
quite easy to preach the benefits of Apple's platform to others, but
the most convincing way to help others reach the same conclusion is to
let them try it out.
And now that my sister's converted, my dad has started to ask
questions.... 
