Bloggy Smackdown of the Day
Freddie can dish it out with the best of them:
As I have said many, many times, there are good things about Apples and good things about PCs. If it makes sense to you to buy an Apple, go with god. And many Apple owners do just that, buy a product, use it and enjoy it. I’ve considered getting an Apple laptop in the past and may in the future. But it amazes me, absolutely amazes me, the number of Apple owners who lack the clarity or self-awareness to realize that purchasing a commodity from a enormous, soulless corporation that is also owned by several million other people doesn’t make you a unique and beautiful snowflake. Apple has a better PR campaign, better advertising and a more gullible, credulous customer base. That’s it. It’s got nothing to do with individuality or noncomformity. I know many people are probably saying that this is a completely banal thing to say but I am consistently astounded by otherwise smart people who will tell you different.
For the record, I’m a PC guy myself.
Filed under: media/culture, science/tech
As I pointed out in that post, there isn’t even a real difference anymore. Macs are Intel x86 machines just like everybody else’s.
I like my MacBook better than the last PC I had, but I try not to flip out about it. I could switch back to a PC without too much trouble.
Yeah, but they’re so COOL …
As bombastic as he may have succeeded in being with this comment, it misses the point. There may be a basis for criticizing certain stereotypes of Apple owners, but it’s widely acknowledged that OS X is simply a superior operating system. I have a hard time believing someone could honestly conclude otherwise after comparing Vista and OS X. There are also lots of very simple, logical reasons why having control over the hardware base is a superior model for usable personal computing solutions. I own Macs and PCs. As an example, I upgraded one of my PCs (that I built) to Vista this weekend. The screen is now unreadable due to some arcane conflict between the particular video card I have and Vista. It is simply absurd that this happens ever in a mature consumer product.
I’ve never had to use Vista for more than a few minutes at a time. Maybe if I had to switch back to Vista, I’d have trouble…
It’s not all bad, but I feel like in the Windows universe, people have become resigned to snafus that would seem prehistoric in the context of other consumer goods like cars or dishwashers or even things like cell phones.
I’m a Mac guy. But I can’t the stand the Mac Uber Alles types. I use it because I like it better than Windows. But if you like Windows, good for you! If people tell me “I’ve thought about Macs, but I’m quite used to Windows, and I’ve had trouble using Macs. Aren’t they supposed to be easy to use?”, I try to tell them that if Windows seems easier, don’t try to tell yourself that the Mac is REALLY easier, and they are just too stupid to figure out how the Mac is easier. If you’ve spent your life on Windows, there will be a learning curve, and unless you are willing to endure it, why not stay with Windows?
This is basically how I feel. There are plenty of good reasons to not switch from Windows (which the majority of the computer using universe came up using) to Mac. I just don’t think that the arguments from Windows people (typically reacting against a perceived fanboy-ism from the Mac side) are particularly convincing. Put otherwise, I can understand the existence of Mac fanatics, even if I ultimately don’t identify with them. The Windows fanatics utterly mystify me.
Aside from that nasty virus I blogged about a couple of months ago (which, I know, is the sort of thing that comes with the PC territory, though not because of any hardware or software defects), I haven’t had any problems with Vista at all. I did, however, think about buying a Mac last time I got a new laptop, but concerns about OS aside the primary reason I didn’t was simply because of the cost …
The point was really about the “individuality and nonconformity” self-image, wasn’t it? It’s one thing to think one owns the better product, it’s another to think one is bravely bucking the trend, sticking it to the man, demonstrating promethean independence of judgment and taste, and expressing one’s unique self to the universe. I take it’s the latter package he had in mind.
I had a lot of complaints about XP, and I expected Vista to be even worse. The initial horror stories that came out about Vista confirmed my worst expectations.
But I waited about a year for the hardware to improve and I bought a machine with mucho memory, and it’s the best Windows machine I’ve ever had.
For me, performance is no longer an issue between operating systems, and my real concerns now are security and privacy. For that I may try out Linux. Let’s face it, Microsoft designs their browser so that the Internet can take over your computer!
Coming from a design background I started my career on Macs and use them to this day. I like them. When I am on a Window’s OS I just feel uncomfortable. I just like Macs. But, that’s me. I like people who use Windows.
Arguing over this crap is so last decade. Move on, the world is ending, there’s more important stuff to discuss.
That’s like saying that a Dodge Ram is no different then a Viper because they have the same engine. The significant different between Vista and OS X is that OS X is a BSD based OS, and Vista is it’s own invention. How the code of the OS utilizes the Hardware makes the biggest impacts on performance
I see more PC users ranting about arrogance among Mac users than I see arrogant Mac users.
The hardware inside a machine makes little or no difference. We interact with software. Some follks like Apple’s approach to software design, some like Microsoft’s, some like the Linux approach. Most people don’t care and just look at their credit card balance.
Hill’s comment at 2:13 pm is exactly what Freddie is talking about – it’s like Hill didn’t even read what Freddie wrote.
It’s like clockwork. Make any kind of comment that Macintosh fans are insufferable, and they can’t resist telling us what a superior choice they’ve made – even though it just proves the point.
Lack of self-awareness, indeed.
The Apple way is better, and the rest of us don’t get it. Pithy!
Or you could, ahem, use Linux. I use a mac and like it because I can use it as an old-school unix machine, I can do “Office” things with it, and I can use it for entertainment when I travel for work. Five years ago when I needed a laptop a mac was the only machine that did all three.
Were I starting again, I would almost certainly buy a commodity intel laptop and put on Linux.
Right. I work in design as well, but I started later, using Windows. I’ve found that Adobe software is Adobe software is Adobe software. If I sit down on a Mac, I have to reorient myself to the features that are foreign to me–and that does slow productivity, so I would imagine it would work the other way as well. But the software itself functions just about the same. And, now, the files are interoperable, which makes one of the old reasons for strict allegiances to one platform or the other moot.
I have always been an Apple/Mac user; my partner works exclusively with Windows-based PCs. Over the twelve years we’ve been together, I have used 2 Mac brand laptops and one desktop. They were never returned for repairs, never simply stopped working, and have repeatedly surprised me with how easily I could learn to do things which were new to me. On my latest MacBook Pro, I experience system crashes about 3X a YEAR, while using it every day.
My partner has had two desktops and four laptops, all Windows based. We have gone through repair hell with five out of six systems. Two laptops experienced system failure so many times we had the drives professionally erased, reformatted and purchased new system software for them.
I open my Mac while I’m on the road and a window pops up informing me which Internet providers it has found. She opens her Windows machine and usually spends ten, fifteen minutes fiddling for the same result – if it works. And don’t get me started on viruses.
Arrogant? All I want is a computer that works when I open it. Something that does not require me to know *how* it works in order to use it. Like my car. I want it to start up and get me where I need to go without too much effort. I’d like it to last longer than it takes to pay for it.
Every Mac I switched FROM was still working fine when I upgraded. I gave them away to people needing working machines. Every Windows machine was trashed after my partner upgraded; it was hardware or software or a combination of both. They went for parts, or to the local science museum for whatever use they make of them.
Uh, most users don’t give a toss whether the architecture is x86. The difference is, er, the operating system. Which is OS X, not Windows. For those of you commenters who didn’t realize even that much.
Are you kidding?!
Is that the reason you think consumers buy Macs? I spent my entire adult life dealing with crappy Windows PCs. I even went to Linux for two years while waiting to afford my first Mac. And the wait was worth it. Apple’s OSX is superior in every way and is far less bulky and clunky.
If you think I’m gullible for buying the better product, then you have to rethink your rant. Windows is awful unless you are tech savvy enough to fix it (customize it). Linux is great and gives people the ability to fine-tune their computing experience but still needs a few tweaks before I’d say it could rival Apple’s stability. It is free though.
I love my Mac. It runs a hundred times better than my last 5 PCs combined and, though it isn’t as customizable as my old Ubuntu box, it sure is more personable than those damn Windows bubbles popping up every five seconds.
And to throw a little more gasoline on the fire, I ditched Windows because even with anti-virus (which was CONSTANTLY flashing in the system tray, bugging the everlasting shit out of me about this or that every 10 miniutes)…even with AV software, I kept getting viruses which would require rebuilds.
I have never, once, in my life, ever gotten any virus on my Mac, because they don’t exist. Which means I don’t have to pay for AV software. Which means I don’t have to keep dicking around with AV updates and scans and crappy AV software interfaces and menus and wizards. I don’t have to Google cryptic, obscure error messages trying to figure out what virus is causing them. I don’t have to worry about going to skeevy websites because they hijack Windows machines, not OS X machines.
Granted, some Apple users are intolerable, but this flamboyant inferiority complex on display from Windows partisans is much worse, much more irritating.
If you write a post like this and you don’t address (1) The differences in operating systems, (2) AV, (3) hardware/software integration, and (4) quality of tech support, then you don’t know what you’re talking about and should be smart enough to pipe down until you do.
I guess I can only conclude either that Macintosh fans can’t read, or else they just don’t care what people who “think different” from them have to say.
As an undergraduate, when Japanese cars were still exotic, I started working part-time for a division of IBM. Needless to say, I worked with IBM hardware. I went from a Selectric II to a PC 5150 to an XT to an AT (with a whopping 20 MB internal hard drive!).
And I was on the basic IBM architecture thereafter — right up to Vista. For whatever reason I couldn’t stomach a new Windows OS rollout with the infinity of hacks and patches and updates it would entail.
So I switched to Mac. And I’m perfectly content. No, I don’t think I’m as unique as a snowflake — methinks the blogger doth protest too much.
I do think that, on average, Apple is more attuned to the human interface than Windows is. I do think that, on average, Apple is more focused on its customers than Windows is. And I do think that makes a difference, independent of the advertising campaign.
And if you throw in open source web-based business apps we should really all just get some jello, get naked and have a love fest… : D
Ding!
Apple is definitely a step up from the mess that is Windows.
I’ve made a living as a Windows kernel programmer, and I can say the more you know about the operating system, the less you want to know. The core of it is fine, but the remainder looks like it was designed by the marketing department.
Apple’s GUI is fine, which is great if you want a glorified typewriter.
However, serious engineering work is done in Linux. Back-office servers run Linux. GUI optional.
Linux runs on pretty much everything. Your TiVo, for example. Or NASA’s supercomputers. It has better multithreading performance, too.
So, both sides of Mac vs. PC would find the world a lot less nice without Linux in it.
1) There are viruses for OS X. Granted, there’s only 2, but they are there. There are also tons of Java viruses which also affect Macs.
2) Stop downloading warez and opening unknown files. I haven’t had a virus since Win95 and I use free AV apps like Avast!. Use some common sense and you’ll be fine.
3) Before you start blaming others about shutting up and not knowing what they’re talking about, you should consider the same.
Really, your whole “PCs are loaded with viruses all the time!” is nonsense. Don’t be an idiot and open unknown files. Use Mozilla Firefox. (which you should even on a Mac thanks to phishing filters (which Safari doesn’t have))
You don’t have to pay for a good AV. Avast! has s free edition as does AVG. Both are just as good if not better *thanks to smaller footprint) than programs like Norton and Symantec.
1) If I change “no viruses” to “two viruses since 1984″ does it change my argument one bit?
2) I don’t.
3) I did.
I don’t open unknown files. But I am sometimes on websites I don’t completely trust. On Windows it would be terrifying. On a Mac, it is not. Do you seriously dispute this or are you ignoring the substance of my argument with a bunch of petty, nitpicky distractions?
I find that rather interesting. My Windows-based PC runs perfectly fine. My PPC-based G5 would constantly crash when I first installed Leopard. I couldn’t open Safari or even use iTunes. Later patching fixed the problems and it ran fine.
Just about the only problem I’ve had in the past 8 years with a PC was recently with DirectX 9.0c shaders not displaying properly in Vista. This is, however, most likely a problem with the HD4850 GPU drivers.
A friend’s MacBook, meanwhile, crashes constantly. She has had to return it 3 times within 2 months because it just doesn’t work and keeps crashing over and over. She’s gotten to the point that she has gotten used to saving every 5 minutes because she knows a crash will come soon enough. Instead of giving her a new laptop, the Apple reps just keep giving her the same one even though something is obviously defective and the unit needs to be scrapped. (I think the CPU is overheating)
On the counter, my sister and her husband love their MacBooks and G5s. They run great and have wonderful performance.
This idea that one or two people’s experiences is some form of universal truth is pure idiot drivel. Some Macs crash and suck. Some PCs crash and suck. Unfortunately, most of the time the PC crashing is because of shoddy resellers using cheap parts or parts with known conflicts. (You don’t use 333Mhz RAM on a mobo that only supports 1066/800/666MHz, you WILL have problems, Dell)
Both OSes have their advantages and disadvantages, but this idea that one is “superior” in every single aspect is a pure fallacy that is only perpetrated by the exact kind of fanboys this article is talking about.
“But, Macintosh IS the BEST!”
Thanks for setting us straight. In the same way that we don’t “get it” that Apple is superior, you don’t “get it” that nobody cares.
As you noted, Apple is definitely “cool” and has superior marketing. But they also have a superior operating system and their hardware is beautiful. People don’t realize that the Mac resurgence started amongst computer people when OS X was released. The biggest, smartest nerds went to Apple simply because it was better. Combine the marketing with the love people have of their iPods, and you get our current situation. Windows is still a good product. I don’t understand why people on both sides get so defensive. Two good products, one is better and costs more. Isn’t most of society like this?
i have used PCs until i got a macbook about 6 months ago. I do notice that every PC i ever had inevitably bogs down to a crawl over time. Don’t know if that will happen with the MAC. I suppose teh PC does that because of viruses and general muck that goes into to operating a PC over time.
What GPU are you using?
Hopefully, you do know Vista requires you meet certain GPU specs, whereas XP did not (other than using SVGA). If you are running a card that is only DirectX8 capable, that’s your problem with there.
I use my Mac regularly, and it is useful primarily because of embedded PostScript support, which is great when using InDesign. However, all the previous claims for OS X being better are pure bunk nowadays.
Your less resource intensive OS? It’s not so. Your smaller install size? Not true. Your being able to do cool things, like edit movies? OS X doesn’t come with video editing software. XP does, though, for free. OSX doesn’t even come with a video player that can make playlists. You have to PAY for the full version of Quicktime. Windows Media Player is completely free.
Leopard actually uses more HDD space than Vista. (Vista’s HDD specs account for swap file as well as extra space for files (hence why it says 15GB, actual install is 8GB), OSX HDD space req is for install only (9GB))
Leopard also requires a more powerful CPU than Vista. Otherwise, their requirements are nearly identical. (512MB RAM)
There isn’t anything all that “superior” about OSX other than Native PostScript. Which is great if you’re a designer or do work that needs lots of fonts and rendering PDFs. Otherwise, it’s not superior to Vista or XP in any respect whatsoever. It really comes down to which user interface experience you prefer.
“Coming from a design background I started my career on Macs and use them to this day.”
{hah!} Working in design is exactly *why* I grew up on PC’s: Macintosh never ran AutoCAD. I was the first person in America to draw rock-tour stage lights in 3D. That was utterly impossible with Macintosh when I did it (1990).
I remember taking 3D Studio images to print bureaus in Atlanta for print output. In their dark little cubicles, the Mac worker-bees were astonished: “You did this on a PC?”
“Yeah,” I’d tell them, “and you *can’t* do it. That’s not a cartoon. That’s virtual reality that you’re looking at: it’s an image of a model that resolves to 1/32″, and *you* can’t do that.”
They didn’t run their “artist” routines on me and get away with it. It was all nonsense.
Can you read? Freddie’s criticisms are about “nonconformity” impulses and how macs make you unique. My point is that while you may see these people on TV all of the time, they represent a tiny fraction of the kinds of people who use Macs. There are actual reasons related to the experience of the hardware/software that make people like macs. This may be ultimately an opinion, but just like if you told me you preferred Britney to Mozart, I’d think you were an idiot. You certainly are incapable of basic reading comprehension.
and it never ceases to amaze me how people can be do devote to a television show, book, or film produced by a giant soulless corporation.
Their are fans of every stripe for an abundance of mass produced items. Why pile on the Mac faithful? I switched to Mac a few years ago just for the ease of use and lack of continual and unplanned maintenance that the PC requires. I want to get my work done, say pay bills and do accounts, when I sit down at the computer and not be sucked into fixing some inane problem for hours. What I was continually getting with the PC were unexpected, unplanned detours into system maintenance and repair. This is a cost issue originating in software design that Microsoft passed onto their customers instead of designing a product that didn’t always need continual repair. The Mac runs better, doesn’t break down with that Windows regularity and it really is designed better than a lot of PCs in software and hardware.
True. However, if you are using something like InDesign and need to compile a really huge project, it will go faster on the Mac because of embedded PostScript. PDFs tend to go faster as well.
You are right about Adobe, though. I used to have all my Adobe apps for my Mac. Because Adobe is awesome, I was able to transfer my license over to my PC. (it’s a bit of a hassle, but better than rebuying all that stuff!) I use everything on my PC now, primarily because of game design workflow. I can still do all my graphic design work on the PC and if I need to show someone something on their Mac, it’ll still work.
The perks of OSX are minimal and I don’t really care about the streamlined interface. For my sister, who is not computer savvy, the easy interface is a godsend. However, like Steve said, who cares? If you like a Mac, great. If you like a PC, great. Each has its pluses and minuses, and this idea that one is so vastly superior to the other is just silly fluff thrown about by people with Napoleon complexes that really don’t know what they’re talking about.
In the end, it comes down to what you prefer and which one you’re most comfortable with. I really wish Apple would put that in an ad instead of stirring up the hornets nest with their blatantly disingenuous commercials catering to the fanatics.
I have been an IT professional for 17 years and have supported Microsoft OSs and products since the DOS days. About a year ago I switched to an iMac as my main computer at work and I run various versions of windows on Virtual Machines on my Mac. I must say, I love my Mac a lot. I do agree with those who say that OSX is the best OS out there.
That being said, I think the typical windows user, as long as they keep their machine updated and stay away from unsavory websites, can have a very good experience on Windows. In other words, the Mac user doth protest too much about how bad Windows is. And there has been very little commentary here about one of the most salient points, which is that Macs cost about twice as much as equivalent PCs. As glad as I am to see Mac market share increase, the economic reality is that people are going to mostly buy Windows PCs because of the cost difference.
One last point, I love Linux, but no one should fool themselves into thinking that it will be anything other than a hobbyists computer for a long time to come. My real life example is my home theater PC I built a couple of years ago. I intended for it to run MythTV on Ubuntu, but after 6 weeks of trying to correct a serious display overscan problem on my 50″ TV, (tinkering with custom modelines and such) I gave up and put Vista Media Center on it and it worked GREAT from day 1. (I also had an overscan problem which took me about 2 minutes to fix in Windows.)
My .02
The biggest difference between a Mac and a PC to me is that one always works and the other doesn’t.
I got my first Mac in college sixteen years ago. Another, four years later. Then, because of work, had to use PCs. Now, I finally got a Mac Powerbook three years ago.
The Macs always work. The only reason I had to upgrade all those years ago was that I was running out of memory. It had gotten too slow (in relative terms considering what we deal with now). The only time in the past three years I’ve had reason to panic over my Mac Powerbook was when I spilled water on the keyboard. Three days of freaking out later, the damn thing turned on again like nothing happened.
As for PCs, they were ALWAYS crashing, freezing up, losing data. The worst was when my company gave me a Dell laptop nine years ago. 30 days in and it starts to freeze up. Motherboards got replaced. Fans got replaced. It even got sent back with a notice that I had a refurbished unit. One year later, after all the time spent sending it back to my company’s IT department and wasting loads of company time in the process, I am finally on a business trip working on a presentation when, “snap, crackle, pop.” Smoke wafted out of the keyboard. Damn thing had finally tried to kill me.
So, no, not a fan of the PC. And it’s not because I am a Mac fanatic. It’s because I want something that will not waste my time.
Apparently because of how much fun it is to watch them take offense.
I think it’s more or less because the OSX snobs tend to be much more vocal about their “superior” OS than than Windows users.
1) Yes. Because words mean things. For example: “There were no free black that ever owned slaves in America.” But that’s not true. There were FEW free blacks that owned slaves, and the numbers were rather minimal. However, none/no == zero. Not “a few” or “some.”
And I said, “for OSX.” OS X hasn’t been around since 1984. If you want to take the entire Apple OS lifeline, there have been about 20 or so viruses. This is also OS alterable viruses that I’m talking about. Things that delete your HDD, corrupt files, etc. There are many trojans out there that I’m not even referring to that most certainly do affect the Macs of today.
2) Then how did you manage to get so many viruses? I haven’t had a virus since win95. I am asking honestly, because there is no reasonable way you have gotten so many viruses without some form of significant human error.
You claim it’s from visiting sites that you “don’t trust” and I don’t know what you mean by that. Maybe you should stop going to these types of sites that you don’t trust. And if you haven’t got Firefox for your Mac and you are routinely visiting shady sites, then you need something with a phishing filter. Which Safari doesn’t have.
The web can be a dangerous place. Simply saying, “I have a Mac, I’m safe” is not being reasonable and will only leave you vulnerable to more security-related woes.
[...] Commentary here. [...]
I was a PC user for 20 years and though I often thought about getting a Mac, I could never quite justify the switching cost. But after the second major blue screen meltdown of my Vista machine in 3 months, I just said screw it–I was spending more time getting the machine to work than I was doing productive things, and I didn’t feel like the work I did was safe. I like my new Macbook but can’t say I’m in love yet. It’s elegant and works for the most part. Being able to use my iPod remote on it is kind of neat. But I’ve already run into one of the famous Steve Jobs “gotchas”–you pay $180 for a premium 802.11n base station that supports a USB network disk drive (the Macbooks’s WiFi card didn’t really like my 4-year-old Netgear 802.11b router), then find out that Apple’s backup software doesn’t support that drive. Freddie is right about soulless corporations–”it just work” turns mighty fast into “deal with it” in the Apple world.
Once you’ve finally got the Windows 7 (or whatever) running directly on top of some sort of *nix core, I’m all there. Until then, for my criteria, OS X is the way to go. I get my GUI when I’m lazy, I get my Unix natively when I need to do my work flow, and I use BootCamp + VMWare fusion when I need to hop into some Microsofty. Personally, since I do all of my professional work on a computer, it isn’t really a commodity choice. For anyone who does even a small portion of hours of work, a serious productivity cost-benefit analysis is called for. And depending on the environment, one platform configured one way will win out over another configured differently. To all but the most casual users, it is a serious mischaracterization to categorically call Macs an over-priced commodity. It isn’t as if the difference is equivalent to that between a Ford and a Lexus. Not to mention that resale value for Macs is pretty good.
Well said.
However, Linux users tend to be just too practical to be fanatical or snobby about the OS. Everyone loves the fanatical Mac users because they make such over-the-top claims. “Leopard could run on half the hardware reqs of Vista!” is one I hear often. I just shake my head and go about my way.
While it is true that a good bit of this comes down to personal taste, the claim that the only superiority of OSX over Vista is “Native PostScript” is laughable. And to echo another post, I run across more PC users whining about Mac fanboys than actual Mac fanboys.
MOST of the technical complaints from PC fangeeks are not based on actual experience or even the facts, but on old-wives-tales and even outright BS.
FOR EXAMPLE: The claim by G3S that “OS X doesn’t come with video editing software. XP does” is a complete load of uninformed crap. Apple has shipped for free, with new Macs, the iLife suite of applications, including iMovie and iDVD for OVER 5 YEARS NOW.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILife
http://www.apple.com/ilife/
Just how out of touch with reality do you have to be to make such a blatantly bogus claim? And the iLife suite with iMovie and iDVD are widely recognized as being head and shoulders above ANY Windows offering. “It is better, in my view, than any comparable offering on the Windows platform, even those that cost extra.”
http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20090128/ilife-gets-better-just-dont-ask-it-to-find-a-face/
As for the “Vista takes less HDD space than OSX” claim, it also appears to be false. I have to take what G3S states are the Vista requirements at face value as I haven’t installed Vista. However, I just installed OSX 10.5 on a Mac mini this past Friday. While the specs call for 9GB of disk space, the actual install (similar in manner to any OS install in that it requires space for swap files an the like) was just over 6GB. But hard drive space is cheap these days, so no one really uses this as a criteria for determining which OS to use anyway.
As for the other “Vista requirements,” take that with a grain of salt:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/28/microsoft-lowered-vista-requirements-to-help-intel-sell-incompat/
Want to make video playlists? Try iTunes. It works in conjunction with the free version of QuickTime. Want to edit and manipulate videos in something other than iMovie? You can take the money you saved from not having to buy anti-virus software and use $35 to buy QuickTime Pro. QuickTime uses the open standards used most often in the film, music, and television industries. The free Windows Media Player? It’s worth every penny.
There are lots of people for whom a Windows PC makes sense. There have been several times in the past where I’ve recommended that someone, based on their software requirements or other issues, purchase a Windows PC. I don’t begrudge anyone’s choice when it’s based on good information. But it does bug me when people make bad decisions because they were based on bad information and falsehoods.
I have no problem debating the merits of various platforms based on the FACTS. I notice though, that Mac users get labeled as “Fanboys” whenever they seek to correct BS spread by Windows users. (Post the claim that “Windows sucks because it can’t use more than 640k of RAM” and see how many Windoze Fanboys come out of the woodwork.)
For most consumers using their computer for e-mail, web surfing, Word documents spreadsheets, personal finance, and the fun stuff of photos, music and video, the Mac is ALMOST ALWAYS the better choice.
IMHO, of course.
“The biggest difference between a Mac and a PC to me is that one always works and the other doesn’t.”
That may be your experience, but I have routinely used Macs for a few years now and I can tell you, that most certainly isn’t always the case. Sometimes Macs are great. Sometimes they’re not. It’s like that with any computer, regardless of the OS.
“As for PCs, they were ALWAYS crashing, freezing up, losing data. The worst was when my company gave me a Dell laptop”
Well, there ya go. That’s your problem. Dell and most resellers don’t know crap about building a good unit. They just want to uses the cheapest parts and bilk you out of your money.
That’s great that you found a computer you enjoy, and many people prefer the OSX interface to Windows XP of Vista. After getting comfortable with Vista Ultimate, I prefer its interface much more. To each their own, but I don’t think either one is really all of that better than the other. Unfortunately, a lot of the problems associated with Windows is really because of computer resellers like Dell who use the worst parts imaginable and crappy driver support from companies (glances at NVidia).
CLARIFICATION: iMovie has been provided FREE with Macs for 10 years now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMovie
I use a Macintosh for work and a PC for home. The former for compatibility issues, the latter for cost concerns. The “apple versus PC” debate has raged for two decades and no one is any smarter for it.
I think the Fredinator is projecting. There aren’t many people who are convinced they are unique or special just because they own a Mac. And if the Fredster is truly amazed by such a small number, then he needs a timeout.
1. A virus is self-replicating and does not require user interaction for infection or propagation. There aren’t any of these for OS X. There have been trojans, there have been security holes, there have been working exploits; but none of those has led to infection of multiple OS X machines by a computer virus.
2. Common sense is uncommon in general. Your advice is good, but it’s like telling teenage boys not to masturbate or they’ll go blind. They’d rather be happy in the dark.
3. I’m not going to tell you to shut up, but you really should know what a virus is before you spout off about how they exist for OS X.
You’re a clown. I don’t even know what you’re talking about now – no free blacks what? Huh?
Do you want to deal, again, with the substance of my comments, or are you going to keep hammering away at petty syntactical grievances? Good lord. You need to grow up.
If I rephrase, for a second time, to say that there have been two viruses afflicting OS X (which I do not stipulate to, by the way) and 20 since the invention of Mac OS, does that change the substance of my point? Obviously not. And that’s clearly why you’re homing in like a scalded hornet on these idiotic trivialities rather than dealing with my actual point.
You can spare me your lectures about visiting sites I do not trust. My recommendation is to deal with (or ignore) my point rather than waste my time on the rest of this nonsense.
And since when are we talking about phishing?
I have nothing against Macs. Just as I have nothing against cats. But Mac people and cat people are insufferable.
Product bickering is human nature. My theory is that when we spend a lot of money on something, we feel compelled to defend our decision. The truth is that neither is inherently better than the other, but that they both contain their own sets of pros and cons.
These same arguments occur all over the internet. Go to any videogame website and you’ll hear fanboys argue about Playstation versus Xbox. Growing up I remember hearing a lot of Ford versus Chevy arguments.
The reasoning behind these arguments is irrelevant, because these reasons are all products of our rationalizing minds.
I use a mac because it’s better for me, not because it’s better for everyone. That’s an important distinction.
A PC is just a type of computer — a Mac is also a PC these days. The differences between Mac OS X and Windows XP or Vista versus an operating system that respects your freedom, like GNU/Linux are far larger.