Why Macs?

In a word; simplicity. In 2005 I purchased my first Mac, a dual 1.8 GHz Power Mac G5. Love at first sight. Previously I owned a PC tower, built locally, that I acquired in 1997. It had Windows 95 for an operating system. And, with one exception, I maintained that machine and OS, by myself, for the 8 years I owned it. Finally, it became evident that my 1997 PC was on its last legs. I was convinced that I would purchase another Windows machine. Windows XP seemed to be a good OS. I had worked with XP at my workplace, a significant improvement over Windows 95, and most of the bugs in the OS seemed to be worked out. I planned to become more involved with digital imaging and reports at that time indicated that XP was pretty stable under the stress of dealing with digital images. I didn’t believe that the Mac was affordable, and never considered a Mac until . . .

My wife suggested that I talk over my purchase with someone she knew who was a programmer at a local major corporation. In addition, he was a photographer who was into digital, and I was still using film and scanning images. After talking with him over a very long lunch, I was ready to consider the Mac. I think that lunch lasted approximately 2 hours and most of what I remember as far as advice from him was, “get a Mac.” Thanks, Jeff. With some new ideas to ponder I discussed my purchase with others. Opinions ranged back in forth, but Louisville, KY is by far a PC kind of town (No Mac store here until late 2007 and the University of Louisville acts as if Apple and Macs don’t exist). Most of the other photographers I met had lots of cash invested in PC software; consequently their opinions were admittedly biased. In addition, Mac users had a passion about their machines you didn’t hear from the PC guys. The clincher for me was when I talked with folks that worked all day every day with imaging, graphics, and photos. Again and again, I heard “get a Mac.” So, I got a Mac, and became a convert. What they say is true; the Mac simply works. In fact the whole system is so simple that if you have worked on PCs, as I did for several years, you will find that things on the Mac are so simple and straightforward as to be confounding. If you speak with me about computers, I will tell you “get a Mac.” You won’t regret it.

P.S. Chuck Rubin of Chuck Rubin Photographics, 1031 Bardstown Rd Louisville, KY 402004 Phone: (502) 452-6171, experienced a fire at his business establishment in December 2007. The fire was pretty serious with lots of smoke damage. Fortunately, no one was injured, and Chuck re-opened his business within a few weeks. An iMac was damaged by the fire. I understand the keyboard was completely melted by the heat of the fire. A few days later we plugged in the severely scorched iMac to see if it would start up again. Although the screen was scorched to the point to be unusable, the iMac started and worked fine.
Chuck is a reputable dealer.
Chucks Ebay auctions are at: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZacameradude
You may also access his store site at: http://www.chuckrubin.com/

A newspaper story about the fire.
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071206/ZONE01/712060429