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# Jonathon Delacour: Ticket to Macland : I'm always interested in hearing stories from people who have made the switch, if only because I still see a Mac somewhere in my future. Jonathon covers all the major reasons I can think of, although the points relating to Windows XP's instability are, IMHO, off the mark.

We've all heard of nightmare situations people have run into with their computers, both Windows machines and Macs. For every Windows horror story, you can probably find an equivalent story for the Mac. However, since there are many, many, many more Windows users then there are Mac users, and Windows is running on all-sorts-of-only-god-knows-what machines, yeah, I would expect there to be more Windows people overall who have run into big problems. The Mac systems, built on a stack that is, for the most part, closed and proprietary, don't have that problem.

One thing that Jonathon doesn't mention is the influence the Apple brand had on his decision. Although he appears to have been the target of a fair amount of peer pressure, I don't know to what degree this affected Jonathon's decision. But when talking about the decision to switch platforms, to ignore the power of Apple's brand is a mistake. Apple's brand is incredibly powerful. It connects with people on a deep, emotional level. That had to affect their decision-making process, so that it is no longer a case of making a rational, business-case for buying a Mac. In my case, put be in front of two systems, one PC and one Mac, with approximately the same specs. Right away, I know I can easily live with the PC, but I want the Mac.

In any case, I'm looking forward to reading about Jonathon's transition to the new platform. Given the effort he has put into documenting his decision to switch, I know he will not disappoint!