I decided to buy my first Mac about two years ago. At the time, I knew nothing about the Macintosh, OS, or hardware. I was a PC guy. I guess I need to give a little background. I hold a Microsoft MCSA, and am a CHFI (Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator). I am a System Analyst for a fairly large hospital. All I knew about was Microsoft, and Active Directory. My home PC died, I was going to get a new one, and happened to walk by an Apple store. I walked in and started to poke around a bit and found that I kinda liked the interface. (It was different from anything else I had seen.) Then I figured I would talk to somebody, to find out why I should consider a Mac. I need to tell you that I am sort of hard-headed and don’t respond well to change.

The representative at the Apple store was very helpful (Something that doesn’t happen at ANY PC store). so there I was making my arguments… “I am not an artist, why would I want a Mac?” Then he started to show me all the different things that I could do. He launched GarageBand, and showed my with a few clicks, how to make a song. I was amazed. Then he launched iMovie, again demonstrating the simplicity. I was impressed at how easy it was. I had done some movie editing in Windows, but NOTHING that easy. I was still a little wary, but decided to give Mr. Jobs’ product a shot. Not wanting to spend a lot of money on a Mac, (not knowing if I would be able to use it or not.) I bought my first Mac, the Mac mini.

Once I got the hang of the mini, and the nuances that OS X has to offer I was amazed. I was doing all the stuff I was shown in the store, with next to no help. Almost a zero learning curve. This has to be the best kept secret in the technical field. I was able to create movies without having to look online to find out how to do stuff. I could concentrate on the project and not the application used to create the project, which was very liberating.

The mini served me well and continues to do so to this day. However, I wanted a little more horsepower, that is how I got to where I am today. I now use a Mac Book Pro as my primary computer, and never been happier. Don’t get me wrong, I never gave up on the mini, it is still running, two years later as a personal web server.

What caused you to buy your first Mac? Artist? Used one at work? Leave something in the comments.