Welcome, Tom...


Tom Yager, a columnist for InfoWorld, has penned an article in which he describes how an Apple PowerBook stealthily turned him away from the darkside.

"Apple's 'Switch' ad campaign doesn't reach me. As a business user, I can't identify with consumers who feel they must be rescued from Windows," states Yager.

Being aloof to the possibility of not crashing, of not re-installing, of not working seems to be the biggest impediment to most people, especially supposedly knowledgeable ones to making the switch. In Yager's case, putting fingers to keyboard and carrying Apple's industry-leading portable on the road were the tonic.

From writing and reading to software development and compiling apps, Yager found the PowerBook powerful and easy-to-use. Moreover, it's got all of the ports the author needs and unlike Windoze and other OS' the Mac takes little configuration to get all of them barking Jingle Bells in harmony.

"Adapting to the Mac OS X GUI was no trouble, except for the Windows keyboard shortcuts programmed into my fingers," he states.

I can relate to this anecdote in that switching from Classic to X was a similar experience. However, because X is just so smooth, stable and multitasks so well, learning the new key commands only took a day or two -- even remembering that pressing Apple-N isn't the command one uses to create a new folder anymore (Command-Shift-N) or Apple-M doesn't create an alias, etc.

From it's bright wide screen to long battery life, the PowerBook won over Yager over the course of a two week business trip. So much so that "During the two-week trip, I didn't miss my ThinkPad."

In fact, the only time he's booted up his ThinkPad since the Titanium goodness of Apple's "uber-book" pulled him into the light was to check the model number as part of the preparation for his very own "switch" article.

"Without realizing it, I had switched," he concludes in amazement. "Maybe Apple's campaign isn't so ludicrous after all."

Well said. Once again, Tom, welcome and do hold the door open for a couple friends. They're welcome too.