Trend: Over 1 million Windows to Mac converts so far in 2005? Et moi, et moi, et moi…

I just stumbled across this piece from AppleInsider on Memeorandum: Over 1 million Windows to Mac converts so far in 2005?:

In a research note released to clients on Monday, Needham & Co. analyst Charles Wolf said the number of Windows users purchasing a Mac appears to be far higher than the firm had previously anticipated.

“If we assume that all of the growth in Mac shipments during the past three quarters resulted from Windows users purchasing a Mac, then purchases by Windows users exceeded one million,” the analyst said. “Indeed, the number of Windows users purchasing Macs in 2005 could easily exceed our forecast of 1.3 million switchers in 2006.”

Needham had previously estimated that 500,000 Windows users would purchase a Mac in 2005, but says its model underestimated the number of Windows users the Mac could capture because it was limited to Windows users who had purchased an iPod.

I found it amusing since last Saturday I got macsimilated: I ordered a PowerBook G4 15" and I can’t wait to have my new toy (just got shipped) !

The last Mac I had dates back 1994, and I really hated it — and I have been an IBM ThinkPad faithful for about 10 years. But the other day, I goofed on the PowerBook of a friend of mine, and felt compelled to try it “for real”.
So yes, next time you see me at a conference, I might be yet another blogger with a PowerBook. And for the fun of it, I just uploaded an Ubuntu distro (5.10) on an old PC. Whilst being able to type Unix commands and compiling something (raaahhh) reminded me that I was an assembly language and C developer when I was (much) younger, I would say that Linux is not accessible to the average user yet…

So now, Mac experts: which anti-virus do you recommend and do I need to put 1GB of RAM in there ? Thanks!

Note that I am not kissing goodbye to Windows at all. I am actually thinking of upgrading my Tablet PC sometime next year. But at least now, I’ll be able to test new services on all possible combinations of browers and operating systems.