Since the release of the MacBook Pro and especially Boot Camp for Intel based Macs, I’ve seen a number of articles and comparisons pop up over the web about switching and comparing OS X against Windows.

Well, I’ve decided to take a stab at this as well and try to quash the false truths and silence the sceptical of you out there.

Here are some of the truths I’ve discovered since I started using Macs.

• For long time Windows users or even computer beginners, you’ll find OS X to ooze user friendliness. The whole operating system features rock solid stability, powerful built-in capabilities and original eye-candy which adds to the overall user experience. Apple has honed the OS X phenomenon so that new users and switchers will find the learning curve to be reasonably shallow.

• You will automatically become ambassadors of the Mac community. It’s almost like an exclusive club, open to only those who own a Mac. Sorry, folks, flashing your iPod at the doorman won’t get you in. Anyone who becomes interested in a Mac or is curious about a Mac, the centre of attention is on you, since only 5% of computer users in the world use Macs; chances are you’re the only person around with any knowledge on Macs at all. Wouldn’t you like to be the one that knows it all for once?

• Become a Mac-xpert! It doesn’t take much to learn about your hardware and software. As explained before, there’s not much of a learning curve to be on anyway. It’ll take you literally a few days if not hours to master the basics of OS X. In fact, I was able to connect up to my wireless network when I got my first Mac ever, before I had even seen the desktop! Its childs play really. In fact, kids of today are becoming increasingly more exposed to Apple products through academia. Many schools (take Northern Ireland for example, they switched all primary schools to Macs) are now using Macs either exclusively or along side PCs and the kids are becoming mini-creative-professionals with the simplicity and integration of the iLife suite.

• Wouldn’t you prefer to work in an operating system with so much eye-candy? The OS X interface is so much nicer to use. In other words it’s prettier than Windows. Without the need for skins, themes, customising, ripping-apart or plug-ins, OS X already has a pleasant and unique ‘theme’ to it. In all my time I’ve been using OS X I’ve never once had the urge to want to change any of my icons, backgrounds or any part of the look of my setup. In fact, you’ll find a good number of skins and themes for Windows are in fact clones of the OS X. I applaud the effort that has gone in to these themes and skins, but no theme or mod I’ve ever seen has ever come close to the real thing. Don’t be a wannabe. Get the real thing.

• Make iLife about your life. That pretty much sums up the concept of this popular ‘lifestyle’ suite. Bundled with every Mac that you can buy today, iLife 06 is the start and finish when it comes to creating podcasts, organising your photos, making web-sites, making movies, making slideshows, making music, downloading music, listening to music, and so much more. If you think that you’ll never use these apps, then you’ll be wrong. Before I started using Macs, I never even considered things like editing videos and music. Now I’m snapping photos, recording videos, adding cool transitions and titles. My most recent family project was burning a DVD slideshow of my mums holiday snaps. It wasn’t just your bog standard everyday JPEG disc though. This had professional menus, transitions and titles. Stuff you expect to see on Blockbuster shelves. What a thoughtful mothers day gift that was!

• The word alternatives is such a crude word when it comes to Macs, yet its absolutely necessary because you’re going to want to be able to do the same things as you did before only it will be on a Mac and you’ll want the experience to be the same or better. Microsoft Office has long been an argument for sticking with Windows and admittedly it has long been the standard for office suites. Despite the lack of real innovation since the Windows 95 era, software on Macs has improved in the area of office suites. Whilst no where near as developed or mature as the Microsoft offering, I think the iWork suite contains a good word processing/desktop publishing package (named Pages) and the Keynote presentation software will awake all those sleepy heads that have been watching those boring PowerPoint slides for the past few years. If you?ج�?re really struggling for compatibility then you can just get Office 2004 for Mac (includes Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Entourage).

• Security, safety and parental controls without Norton. This issue has been in the headlines lately with potential new hacks, flaws and threats to Mac systems. Don’t worry. These threats have been over-hyped by the press. The flaws that were announced were nowhere near as dangerous as they were headlining to be. Bottom line is, OS X is based on the proven stability and security standard of UNIX and you’ll be hard pressed to find issues with security and stability in OS X. As for Safety and Parental Controls. Avoid the daily hazards of 114,000 viruses lurking on the web. With Macs you don’t have to worry about viruses anymore. Parental controls are built in as standard in to OS X, a feature that has only just appeared in BETA builds of Windows Vista (Microsofts next generation operating system slated to appear sometime this decade). The latest version of OS X shipped last year and the gap is going to be even bigger by the end of the year when OS X Leopard comes out with the likelihood of more Vista-killer features. I can’t imagine there being many more reasons for people wanting to buy Vista over OS X by that point.

• Experience industrial design at its best. Apple has a long and proud tradition of creating hardware that just works. You look at it, you touch it and feel it, and you use it and something inside your head just clicks. It all makes sense. Take the MacBook Pro or even the PowerBook. I think it?’s safe to say that nobody these days turn heads when they see a Dell laptop at a cafe unless the reason for looking is “my god, that thing is so big I’m afraid it will kill me!”. Apple products have always been head turners and you’ll now belong in the cool club. The entire current range of Macs is great examples of engineering ingenuity and it’ll make spending those long hours burning the midnight oil less of a burden.

• A solid investment - Macs are renowned for lasting forever and ever. They’re just built so well that they rarely go wrong or need servicing. If you take care of your Mac over the years, then I can assure you that when it comes to treating yourself to the most recent model, your old one will still fetch a reasonable price on eBay.

• Enjoy a stress free Zen-like environment where you work and play. Don’t let Windows ruin your day. Front Row is like my stress ball. During moments of great stress I simply get the Front Row remote out and activate Front Row on and off continuously for several minutes. This might just be me but I know people who enjoy seeing the Dashboard appear and disappear, or Expose (where all windows are resized and available to view then returns to normal when you make a selection or exit), or the ripple effect when you add a new widget to the Dashboard (an extra layer to your desktop that can instantly appear and disappear showing vital information such as Sticky notes, world clocks, etc, etc). Visual niceties like these help users enjoy using the computer rather than curse at it.

• See the future of Windows now - OS X Tiger has so many features that Vista is meant to have, it’s untrue. Ok, ok, so everything looks different but if you boil it down to the essential functionality, you’ll find that OS X already has these plus more. For example Spotlight. This is a system wide search that will look at your photos, documents, tagged data, music, folders, basically everything on your system to find your keyword search and it does it in seconds rather than minutes. Dashboard and Widgets. Vista is going to have Gadgets and a sidebar that can be made to appear or disappear. The difference with Vista Gadgets is that you can have them appear all the time whilst you’re working. Unless you’ve got a pretty big screen that’s high resolution, you’re probably not going to want your Gadgets or Widgets to be always sitting on your desktop.

• It just works - OS X has a massive library of drivers or generic compatibility with hardware. Simply plug your hardware in and it should work. Whether that be mice and keyboards, cameras, camcorders, web-cams or mp3 players. It’ll see it and make it work! No rebooting or installation of drivers (for most hardware, some will require drivers).

• Touching on the security side of things again. Macs are secure straight out of the box. You don’t need to install any service packs, updates or purchase and install any further applications. The firewall is turned on by default and your machine wont be compromised within an hour of being switched on (apparently true for a Windows machine left connected to the net without any protection). If anything does get past its security, nothing can be installed unless you give it permission to. Every time something needs to be modified or installed, you will be prompted to verify you want this happening by entering your admin password in. This means you can prevent anything that you don’t want happening from happening!

• There’s a real reason why so many creative professionals use Macs. They’re more productive than Windows counterparts. Less time involved in maintenance, fixing and updating and more time doing the things you want to do. Powerful software is combined with powerful hardware where everything works together seamlessly because Apple makes the hardware and software gel together and work in harmony. You’ll also be pleased to know that many blockbuster movies are made on a Mac. For creative professionals, Mac hardware and software is the first place to go for the best in creative tools. Apple have taken that idea and created the iLife suite for everyone else.

So there you go. My two cents on what I think Switchers and newcomers should be looking out for. It’s not all the reasons, but I think those above are the most honest and relevant to any user whether they are beginners or technical experts to the computer world.

All those reasons you had for not buying a Mac? Well they no longer hold any truth.

Feel free to leave a comment or email the editor at: oni@techcastnetwork.co.uk