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My First Mac

Switching to Mac Tripled My Productivity

- 2007.12.03

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This nine-year Windows user finally got fed up losing work and time to Win98/XP plus countless hours on tech support. I was a freelance graphic designer at the time and knew every "serious" artist used Mac. I went to the local CompUSA, plunked down $1,200, and got a just-off-the-truck iMac DV 400. The 'Jelly Bean', as my folks called it.

After spending another $2k on switching over applications (Photoshop, Quark, etc.), I got to work. Within two weeks, I saw a marked productivity improvement.

My iMac ran Mac OS 9.0.2 at the time, and it never locked up and never crashed. I never lost work. By the end of the year, I had made three times as much money with my iMac as I could have managed with my top-of-the-line Windows PC.

I had also saved a small fortune by not having to upgrade anything. I basically couldn't, aside from RAM. Everything worked as advertised. No frustration. No more ulcers.

From then on, I've stuck with Mac. The iMac gave way to a Sawtooth 450, a white iBook G4, a Mac mini, and finally the best workhorse I've ever owned, my Dual 1 GHz Quicksilver.

I've learned a few things about the Mac during that time: there are things Macs are better suited for - and things the Windows crowd does well. For print and video production, Mac all the way. No question. But for general office and web design, I found the PC to be best suited - so much so that I recently purchased a Toshiba laptop with Vista and Office 2007. It's kinda funny . . . I'm finally happy with a Windows PC. I can get my work done. And quickly.

But it ain't touching my real work. Never.

Share the story of your first Mac experience by emailing with "My First Mac" as your subject.

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