Mac Hater Switches, Loves It, Tells the World Why

David Alison, a long-time Windows lover who was so enamored with his PC that he used the John Hodgman "PC" character as a forum avatar, has made the Switch to the Mac platform. Better yet, heis laid out why he made the Switch, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say why he has stuck with his Mac after making the Switch, for all the world to read.

Mr. Alison was the founder and original developer of WebSurveyor, a company that was eventually bought out by a venture capitol firm and merged with another company to become Vovici. He was a Windows guy doing Windows coding in a Windows world.

"I have been a Windows user and software developer since 1992, and a DOS user and developer since 1984," he wrote in his blog Monday. "I used to hate Macs and as recently as 9 months ago my avatar on one of my forums was John Hodgman (the PC guy from the Mac ads)."

If youire reading this article, thereis a good chance youive known many a PC bigot in your time. Mr. Alison, however, has changed his tune, and it all came about because he simply used his Mac. He cited Mac OS Xis UI as one of the key things he likes about Macs, and more specifically how uncluttered, how clean it is.

"Most [Mac OS X] applications have very light menus and options," he wrote. "Initially I thought this meant that OS X was a light weight - what I learned was that I just had to spend a little time digging and suddenly a much larger number of options were available. UI folks refer to this as progressive disclosure. I refer to it as clean and uncluttered."

Likewise, he was happy to learn that all of his baseless fears about Macs working with multi-button mice was just that, baseless.

"I remembered when all Mac mice were of the single button variety and it was something that seemed crazy to me," he wrote, "given the value of having at least 2 mouse buttons. Well, right clicking is very much available and useful on a Mac and in fact I use a 5 button Logitech mouse every day.i

He goes into other detail on such issues as how fast Mac OS X is on his MacBook -- among the slowest of Appleis Mac product family -- how much software is available to him, and how good that software is.

In short, Mr. Alison has laid out one of the finest essays weive read on what makes a Mac great, and why someone should want to use one. With his Windows background, it may make a good read for anyone sitting on the fence about Switching.

Thanks to the many readers who pointed us to Mr. Alisonis blog entry.