Hope convert my father.

Exar Khun

My father needs a new rig. I have a mac book. i'm trying to convince my dad he needs a mac. (maybe he doesnt?) Anyhow he's worried with compatibility between OS's. He works off windows machines in the office and uses the one at home for various low end stuff. i.e emails, browsing, some work related stuff.

I am advising him on mac because of reliability, ease of interface, it not being a vista machine etc.

I find macs last a lot longer than a p.c. in terms of life so there's also a value for money bonus there.

He's still rejecting the concept due his notion that files he sends to himself from work(windows) will not work on his mac.

How will I convince him otherwise?

Thanks for your time.

superfly

i don't think you should, if he is not that comfortable with changing to a new OS and he doesn't need to then i would leave it
unless you just want a new toy to play with

Sad Professor

What kind of files will he be sending to himself? If it's just Word documents, etc, there shouldn't be a problem. And he could always install Windows as well, but that sorta defeats the purpose of getting a Mac.

But, like superfly, I would be cautious of dragging someone into the Mac world who can't see the benefits for themselves. The Mac will take a lot of getting used to and many Windows users are simply unwillingly to adapt and the blame the Mac instead. The fact that Windows is crap doesn't bother many people, but having to relearn a new OS would.

Lend him your Macbook for a while and let him decide for himself.

A Primal Nut

Why do you care so much - its just an operating system; judging by the thread title you must think it would change his life or something.

Farcear

+1 for sticking with windows; a possible reinstallation of the existing OS or upgrade to Win7 but that's it.

Why do you think he needs a new rig -- by which I assume you mean desktop -- in the first place? For basic stuff like Office and Internet work, even a single core Pentium should be sufficient. What kind of system does he have at the moment?

Even if he does "need" something new, I would go for something like a 15" €500 laptop. Anything beyond that would just be wasted and I'm also assuming this isn't your money we are spending here!

Hellm0

Please, think twice before recommending a mac. Doing so funnels money to a company who would have you locked into their overpriced hardware and software at greater cost than alternatives.

Remember, Windows is just an operating systems. Apple would not only lock you in to their operating system, but their overpriced hardware and support also.

Sad Professor

*yawn*
here come the Mac bashers with the same persuasive arguments as always. I just can't fight it anymore, I think I'll just sell my Mac and get a cheap Dell instead. I can spend the left over cash on beer - I'll need it after using Windows all day.

banquo

The fact is that Macs are faster, live longer and are way easier to use. I imagine that he'd have less trouble with software than before. Windows is full of the ''different versions'' problem. Mac + Office 2008 for mac + other basic software readily available and you're on your way.

Heinrich

Sad Professor wrote: »

*yawn*
here come the Mac bashers with the same persuasive arguments as always. I just can't fight it anymore, I think I'll just sell my Mac and get a cheap Dell instead. I can spend the left over cash on beer - I'll need it after using Windows all day.

Macs are overpriced for what they do. The average user does not need a Mac! The PC is good for Photo editing, Video editing music mixing and most games. I had Macs from the Powermac 6200 up to the latest iMac I use a PC with no problems at all but I can tell you my son is not to pleased with his iMac that died on him. All electronic stuff is prone to problems and Mac is no exception.

Let the guy's dad get himself a PC as he is used to it from his office experience. It does not need to be a Dell nor does it need to run on Vista. Windows 7 is the new preferred OS and it is a vast improvement on Vista.

You sound too cocky for underage beer drinking!

Sad Professor

Heinrich wrote: »

You sound too cocky for underage beer drinking!

???

J-blk

I did the exact same thing for my dad a year ago and guess what? It did really change his life for the better... and mine . A couple of years ago, I gave him an old Toshiba laptop I had, with Windows XP on it - he got to using it and worked away with it... When I visited my folks about a year later (they live abroad), the laptop was pretty much unusable - dog slow, riddled with viruses (besides an AV being installed - try explaining good security practices to non-techies), most programs crashed at random, etc and all I could do was format the drive and start from scratch...

So at that point, I gave him my older MacBook Pro... and it's now a year later again. The Mac runs as well as it did the first day I gave it to him, he can do everything he wants just fine and I don't need to spend hours re-installing everything, etc. So yes, I'd definitely recommend a Mac .

Heinrich

J-blk wrote: »

I did the exact same thing for my dad a year ago and guess what? It did really change his life for the better... and mine . A couple of years ago, I gave him an old Toshiba laptop I had, with Windows XP on it - he got to using it and worked away with it... When I visited my folks about a year later (they live abroad), the laptop was pretty much unusable - dog slow, riddled with viruses (besides an AV being installed - try explaining good security practices to non-techies), most programs crashed at random, etc and all I could do was format the drive and start from scratch...

So at that point, I gave him my older MacBook Pro... and it's now a year later again. The Mac runs as well as it did the first day I gave it to him, he can do everything he wants just fine and I don't need to spend hours re-installing everything, etc. So yes, I'd definitely recommend a Mac .

I'm a dad and I would not recommend a Mac to a technophobe. Not today as the system is far more stable than the old one. I'm surprised you had to format and reinstall. The machine can be cleaned up you know. I assume you paid licenses for the various software you have on his Mac...

In my house it was the father who taught the son! Better balance and no tears that way...

banquo

PCs are great if if if you're a savvy user, like most of us here are. How are we savvy users? Because we've spent years uncovering and solving problems and getting to know our way around Device Manager and had problems with drivers and tweaking stuff indefinitely to get the PC to react faster and adding and taking away new and old hardware and formatting and reinstalling time after time after time. It gets annoying after a while.

I've a mac now. It costs more because it's better. It's secure and virus-free. To any pc user reading this, I'll bet your laptop doesn't last more than 120 minutes on battery. My macbook? 5 hours on the net and using Office. No joke. The OS is super user-friendly, waaay more to a technophobe than anything made by Microsoft ever will be.

Apple aren't perfect, but a macbook with Leapord is, in my experience, by far the best laptop experience out there.

uncle_sam_ie

I'm a Mac head that recommended an iMac to my mom last year. She loves it and has had no problems getting use to it but, she only uses it for web browsing and e-mail. I feel it's a bit of a waste on her. She's tried none of the iLife apps and probably never will. I think a cheap PC with Ubuntu on it would of served her better in the end.

toiletduck

Exar Khun wrote: »

How will I convince him otherwise?

Maybe a mac isn't for him? Certainly doesn't sound like it (although none of us can know for sure obviously). No everyone needs to use the same OS and just because one suits you, doesn't mean it'll suit him.

banquo wrote:

To any pc user reading this, I'll bet your laptop doesn't last more than 120 minutes on battery.

Just quickly, my Thinkpad is on about three hours (lightbrowsing, some pdf's) on the battery right now and am at 14% and it's not exactly new

Sad Professor

Battery life is still a big selling point on the current Macbooks though. I have mine since June and I still almost get the advertised 7 hours out of it. It's great. In college I always see people running around trying to find a workable socket to plug their laptop into; I don't even bring my adapter in.

J-blk

Heinrich wrote: »

I'm a dad and I would not recommend a Mac to a technophobe. Not today as the system is far more stable than the old one.

So you wouldn't recommend a Mac to a technophobe because the system today is far more stable then the old one? Or are you referring to Windows there? Nice coherent sentence there...

Heinrich wrote: »

I'm surprised you had to format and reinstall. The machine can be cleaned up you know.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but no, it can't be cleaned after a certain point. If a system is riddled with viruses and registry corruption, I'm not going to spend hours installing more crapware designed to "clean" the system - formatting and re-installing is far easier, though still a major pain..

Heinrich wrote: »

I assume you paid licenses for the various software you have on his Mac...

Now WTF does that have to do with anything? You seem to jump to some very odd conclusions based on nothing really - Sad Professor is an underage drinker apparently, I'm a dirty pirate... right. So yeah, I definitely think the OP should take your suggestions seriously, with such great pearls of wisdom that you have to share .

iamhunted

Heinrich - Im a dad, Ive been using macs since 1991, my day job is repairing and troubleshooting windows machines and I would completely encourage the OP to introduce his dad to something more stable than XP.

babypink

@Heinrich: please don't jump to make wildly presumptuous assumptions about fellow posters

I'll simply assume you'd like a few infractions

Ham'nd'egger

J-blk wrote: »

Now WTF does that have to do with anything? You seem to jump to some very odd conclusions based on nothing really - Sad Professor is an underage drinker apparently, I'm a dirty pirate... right. So yeah, I definitely think the OP should take your suggestions seriously, with such great pearls of wisdom that you have to share .

Am I the only one who sees the irony of a Windows user telling people off for using pirated software?:)

asdasd

I got my mom a mac, and she loved it, but it was her first machine. It is a bit different in this case though, the father already has learned to use a windows machine. So he may have a learning curve. Moving from the dark side is never easy.