I can’t imagine an all-Mac family. Well, maybe I can. An empty inbox, no questions requiring me to visit Micro$ofts horrible support pages, I’d just start a screen sharing session in iChat to fix any small problems.

I agree on the semi-technical Windowz users. I had to deal with this rude foreign exchange student last year in my computer certification class (a horrible class that only dealt with Windows problems) who debated me ad nauseam, claiming Windows was always better. After a certain point, I simply nodded my head to whatever he said. I think that type of person doesn’t care that much about the subject they’re debating, but rather that they need to be feel they are right regardless.

All actions in these areas are wrought by the Ego, and the Ego has little common sense.
The Ego must always make the circumstances appear to be the one it chose, so in the Stockholm theory, the captives feel weak and powerless, but turn it around by becoming part of the power group, the Captors.

They agree with the insanity of the Captors and side with them in an attempt to not be killed - ‘if you are in the gang, we wont kill you’, would be the idea.

Conformity to the uninformed, or the weak, or the fearful is a quick route to a sort of second-hand power.

If the ‘Big Boys’ use Windows, then the little boys want to be a part of that.
There is a vicarious thrill if you know that the richest man in the world uses the same software as you, the worlds poorest man.

Power is seductive, but few can get it first-hand, so ‘joining the club’ will have to do.

Later, when the tools of the powerful are revealed to be sub-standard, as in the example of Windows troublesome software, the conformists find a great difficulty in changing to a better product.

Witness the traditional American car- buyer who would NOT buy a technologically advanced Japanese car in the ’70’s, calling them ‘rice-burners’.
Their hatred bordered on violence.

The Ego can NOT let go of the Flag it has decided to salute, even though it is plainly no good.
The blow would be too much. The Ego can NOT stand to be wrong.

The syndrome that we see with Win versus Mac is repeated in countless scenarios as fearful people cling to insanely out-dated and downright dangerous habits.

The man that has an operation on his lungs caused by smoking, leaves the hospital and lights up a cigarette in the parking lot, even though he knows it will assure his death.

The Ego in humans is so powerful that it will cause its host’s death before accepting change.

For a much more in-depth analysis of the Ego, check out Eckhart Tolle, the ‘new age’ author and thinker.

I call him ‘new age’ knowing that most will immediately reject him because of that appellation!
Thats the Ego for you!

Ask yourself if you know anyone that continues in suicidal behaviour even though all the evidence points the other way.
I’ll bet every one knows MANY people like this - and if not, check the mirror.

With computers, its perhaps no big deal, but it IS a symptom of Ego-driven unconsciousness…..

Do you REALLY want to suffer under Windows, or are you prepared to open up and try Mac or Linux?

Would you buy the iPhone if it were a Microsoft product?

Sadly, the stats show that Mac users are better educated, drink less, smoke less, are fitter, tend towards vegetarian or vegan diets, are interested in alternative low-impact fuels, will tend to drive import cars, travel more, are more likely to hold a passport, etc. etc.

If a Windows user reads the above paragraph, his position may become more entrenched than ever.

Sections of this post may contain irony or even sarcasm - please take a deep breath and say ‘Om’ three times before responding.

A 100% Mac family here. And if anything I’m the crazy one: I switched first!

My brother, a developer, was the easiest to switch once I took the plunge as Jaguar already shamed XP all the way back then. I switched my least technical friend next … by letting him get used to the environment and then (only partly) joking that I’d cut off his free tech support if he went with Windows again! My parents were moved over, with a gift … there’s only so long a Pentium 3 can be left churning over in Spybot Search & Destroy.

The hardest people to convince are, as always, the semi-technical Windows die hards who mistake performance charts at Tom’s Hardware for useability and the annual cycle of new parts for “investment”. (Yes, I have one friend who insists on actually saying that!) The tinkerers, the fiddlers, the guys who feel cleansed with a reinstall of XP every spring … those are the trouble in my experience. Like a commenter said, it’s through fear of finding their acquired “skills” to be just as irrelevant as they already know they must be. But there you go.

I’ll just mutter “DirectX 10″ whenever they feel too cosy with 2001 AD’s Windows XP. That’ll scare them!