Apple made such a big deal about Windows users converting to Macs, they even fashioned a major advertising campaign around the phenomena.
I first noticed the conversion trend in October 2001, and wrote about it in a review of Virtual PC a few months later. The column generated many positive e-mail responses.
My comments were probably not the catalyst for Apple's Switchers Ad program, but the column did cause a stir at Microsoft. Someone from Microsoft's public relations firm hunted me down and demanded that I give them the source of my switching data.
I explained that, along with other sources, the data came from my readers. I had been receiving about five queries a year from PC users wanting to know how to switch. Recently, the number of queries escalated to about five a week.
Nonetheless, the PR rep insisted I print a retraction, which of course I did not. And as upset as she was, I suspect she also was considering the switch.
Basically, people will convert and even convert back because that is the nature of computers. This year OS X and the G5 are the hot combination. Next year, who knows? I say that is the nature of computers because that is what computers do. They convert. Every document, every transfer, every communication, every platform and every accessory uses a different language, protocol, encoding, compression algorithm, driver, or file type. And each function must be switched to one that can be understood by your collection of applications and platforms.
In celebration of computer conversion chaos, this week's column is about the Mac's better switching applications - those that convert more with less effort.
