thelinuxlink.net

Posted: **Mon Feb 05, 2007 10:07 am**

This is pretty much how I've always felt about Macs and the people that love them too...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... 31,00.html

I hate Macs. I have always hated Macs. I hate people who use Macs. I even hate people who don't use Macs but sometimes wish they did. Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work; computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui.

PCs are the ramshackle computers of the people. You can build your own from scratch, then customise it into oblivion. Sometimes you have to slap it to make it work properly, just like the Tardis (Doctor Who, incidentally, would definitely use a PC). PCs have charm; Macs ooze pretension. When I sit down to use a Mac, the first thing I think is, "I hate Macs", and then I think, "Why has this rubbish aspirational ornament only got one mouse button?" Losing that second mouse button feels like losing a limb. If the ads were really honest, Webb would be standing there with one arm, struggling to open a packet of peanuts while Mitchell effortlessly tore his apart with both hands. But then, if the ads were really honest, Webb would be dressed in unbelievably po-faced avant-garde clothing with a gigantic glowing apple on his back. And instead of conducting a proper conversation, he would be repeatedly congratulating himself for looking so cool, and banging on about how he was going to use his new laptop to write a novel, without ever getting round to doing it, like a mediocre idiot.

Cue 10 years of nasal bleating from Mac-likers who profess to like Macs not because they are fashionable, but because "they are just better". Mac owners often sneer that kind of defence back at you when you mock their silly, posturing contraptions, because in doing so, you have inadvertently put your finger on the dark fear haunting their feeble, quivering soul - that in some sense, they are a superficial semi-person assembled from packaging; an infinitely sad, second-rate replicant who doesn't really know what they are doing here, but feels vaguely significant and creative each time they gaze at their sleek designer machine. And the more deftly constructed and wittily argued their defence, the more terrified and wounded they secretly are.

Aside from crowing about sartorial differences, the adverts also make a big deal about PCs being associated with "work stuff" (Boo! Offices! Boo!), as opposed to Macs, which are apparently better at "fun stuff". How insecure is that? And how inaccurate? Better at "fun stuff", my arse. The only way to have fun with a Mac is to poke its insufferable owner in the eye. For proof, stroll into any decent games shop and cast your eye over the exhaustive range of cutting-edge computer games available exclusively for the PC, then compare that with the sort of rubbish you get on the Mac. Myst, the most pompous and boring videogame of all time, a plodding, dismal "adventure" in which you wandered around solving tedious puzzles in a rubbish magic kingdom apparently modelled on pretentious album covers, originated on the Mac in 1993. That same year, the first shoot-'em-up game, Doom, was released on the PC. This tells you all you will ever need to know about the Mac's relationship with "fun".

Ultimately the campaign's biggest flaw is that it perpetuates the notion that consumers somehow "define themselves" with the technology they choose. If you truly believe you need to pick a mobile phone that "says something" about your personality, don't bother. You don't have a personality. A mental illness, maybe - but not a personality. Of course, that hasn't stopped me slagging off Mac owners, with a series of sweeping generalisations, for the past 900 words, but that is what the ads do to PCs. Besides, that's what we PC owners are like - unreliable, idiosyncratic and gleefully unfair. And if you'll excuse me now, I feel an unexpected crash coming.

Posted: **Mon Feb 05, 2007 11:37 am**

I often wonder about people who spend that much of their spare time pouring that much effort into diatribes against other OSes/platforms. There's plenty to hate about the Mac, especially the community surrounding it, but there's also a lot of good stuff in there. If linux went poof tomorrow, I'd be pulling out my credit card for a MacBook, not a Dell. At least I can get to a shell on a Mac w/o installing cygwin...

Posted: **Mon Feb 05, 2007 11:51 am**

Not everyone wants some generic, white box Windows PC. What's wrong with wanting a computer that has a little style, a little pizzazz, and is a little bit different from what everyone else has? I've always subscribed to the "you get what you pay for" notion. Sure, you may pay a buck or two more for a Mac, but you are really getting a user experience not found on a Joe Schmuck Dell machine. On OS X you don't have the security and stability issues, you get a full suite of premium software, and hardware that has some serious sex appeal. Sure, Mac users can be smug, but can you blame them?

Snarkout wrote:If linux went poof tomorrow, I'd be pulling out my credit card for a MacBook, not a Dell. At least I can get to a shell on a Mac w/o installing cygwin...

Same here. I'll never go back to Windows. If Linux, BSD, OpenSolaris, and the entire open source community disappeared tomorrow, I wouldn't at all hesitate to buy a MacBook.

Posted: **Mon Feb 05, 2007 11:52 am**

Snarkout wrote:I often wonder about people who spend that much of their spare time pouring that much effort into diatribes against other OSes/platforms.

This guy, Charlie Booker writes this kind of stuff for a living http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Brooker

There's plenty to hate about the Mac, especially the community surrounding it, but there's also a lot of good stuff in there. If linux went poof tomorrow, I'd be pulling out my credit card for a MacBook, not a Dell. At least I can get to a shell on a Mac w/o installing cygwin...

Not me. If LInux went poof I would use Windows over Mac without even blinking. As much as I dislike Windows, I despise Mac and its OS an order of maginitude more.

Posted: **Mon Feb 05, 2007 11:53 am**

Wally Balljacker wrote:Sure, Mac users can be smug, but can you blame them?

Hell yes!

Posted: **Mon Feb 05, 2007 12:52 pm**

Much as I'm not wild about Macs, I'd use them over Windows if it weren't for Linux and BSD. At least Apple has a half-assed focus on the user, as opposed to Windows focus on giving control of your computer to the entertainment business. Apple will at the very least stand up to music industry types who want variable pricing on their music tracks so that it's easier for the user, while it looks like Microsoft is practically bending over backwards in an attempt to give them everything they want, no matter what the effect on the users of their OS.

I see absolutely nothing of substance in that quote. All he does is make a blanket, generalized comment about how Macs are for pretentious people and basically berating Apple for making their machines look nice as opposed to some ugly, boxy container. Not to mention he knocks Macs because game developers don't support them, a complaint you can also level against linux, as though that's the fault or should be the focus of Apple or Linux. Most people would have more "fun" by using iMovie to edit a home movie than they would playing a video game. I personally have no desire to play any game on my computer, and if I do want to play a game, I'd probably get a Wii someday, because I did always think that Nintendo's games were creative and fun.

Looks to me like the guy's so pissed off at the image of Apple and their users, something I don't really care about, that he has no desire to actually talk about something I do care about, which is what the real differences are between different OS's and machines.

Posted: **Mon Feb 05, 2007 1:25 pm**

greggh wrote:This guy, Charlie Booker writes this kind of stuff for a living http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Brooker

Ah - I guess I should have checked that. Still, my point stands - vitriol about style and perceived smugness of mac users (or any particular OS users) doesn't really float my boat. I could write a book about why Apple and some mac users piss me off, but "Maclots are lameasses" and "those smug comercials piss me off" are fairly weak arguments against the platform. I'll give him points for gaming, though, but that seems to always be the Windows trump card - "OK, so there is assloads of malware, and viruses for my favorite OS, and I have to pay through the nose for more or less everything software-wise, but HEY - IT PLAYS KICKASS GAMES MAC AND LINUX CAN'T! WINDOWS FTW! NO YUO!!!"

Posted: **Mon Feb 05, 2007 2:28 pm**

I don't like Macs because Apple is even more controlling than Microsoft but they are able to feed the "Mac community" bullshit about how great they are and they eat it up. Even though most people run windows and they don't know crap about computers they don't eat everything up that Bill tells them, most of them already have a negative stigma towards Microsoft.

Mac users generally feel as though they are better because they run a Mac and take it to a personal level. When I tell them how Apple is trying to lock customers in using iTunes you wouldn't believe how defensive they get. I hate how I see iPods everywhere and suddenly any mp3 player has to be an iPod. Even if it looks good, I would take functionality over just look any day even though there are lots that offer both at the same price.

The Windows users I know are just using what it came with while the Mac users seem to have been brainwashed and think they are special because they are doing exactly what the ads and fanboys have been telling them.

If Linux were to disappear I would use BSD then Windows not Mac mostly because of the users but also for some other reasons (such as the jellybean and steel look).

Posted: **Mon Feb 05, 2007 2:31 pm**

Wally Balljacker wrote:I've always subscribed to the "you get what you pay for" notion.

Thats ironic, linux is free not just in freedom and its the least user friendly os out of the three for a average user.

Ive never personally looked for the most user friendliness in a os, so *nix as whole appeals to me, its the diy approach that i love.

Vogateer wrote: At least Apple has a half-assed focus on the user, as opposed to Windows focus on giving control of your computer to the entertainment business. Apple will at the very least stand up to music industry types who want variable pricing on their music tracks so that it's easier for the user, while it looks like Microsoft is practically bending over backwards in an attempt to give them everything they want, no matter what the effect on the users of their OS.

Thats wrong, the ipod store is just as despot as ms drm. Norway are going to ban the ipod store a less apple open there drm up or remove it, Norway are not banning windows. I credit you for saying apple do focus on the customers as far as making a os that is very easy to use and just works.

Posted: **Mon Feb 05, 2007 2:34 pm**

Yeah, looking at that article, it looks like vitriol and snide comments are his form of humor, not to mention that he's apparently a big gamer, and gamers seem to be the majority of Mac-haters out there.

Sometimes these things can be funny, but I always liked Isaac Asimov's rule for dirty jokes, they're fine so long as their more clever than they are dirty. Same thing goes for this type of pessimism. If you're going to repeat the already oft-repeated "Mac is for pretentious know-it-alls" criticism, you could at least try to be clever about regurgitating this old material to actually make it funny.

Given that the columns intent was probably humor, that changes the perspective a bit. It's obviously not meant to be informative in any way, it's just another topic that can be used to make fun of people.

I see a lot of people posted before I actually hit the submit button, and I see I'm not alone in my lack of Mac-hatred. I really couldn't care less about what other people think of Macs, I think they're far better looking than any other reasonably priced computer, and that the Fairplay DRM seems pretty mild compared to what lengths Vista is willing to go for DRM. The main thing that drives me crazy about Apple is that they want a lot of control over their computers, which takes away my control, but at least in their efforts to control things they generally do attempt to provide a good user experience, and they do care about what the average person wants, and try to give it to them. When have you been able to say the same thing about Windows?

Posted: **Mon Feb 05, 2007 2:37 pm**

Snarkout wrote:If linux went poof tomorrow, I'd be pulling out my credit card for a MacBook, not a Dell. At least I can get to a shell on a Mac w/o installing cygwin...

That's interesting. If Linux went poof tommorow, I'd first go with the BSD's. Then I'd go with solaris. Then AIX, Plan9, Inferno, BeOS, SkyOS, Hurd, Movitz, Genera Lisp Machine, and DOS. If all those OS's went poof I'd stop using computers altogether.

Posted: **Mon Feb 05, 2007 2:43 pm**

TankCatNinjaFish wrote:
Snarkout wrote:If linux went poof tomorrow, I'd be pulling out my credit card for a MacBook, not a Dell. At least I can get to a shell on a Mac w/o installing cygwin...
That's interesting. If Linux went poof tommorow, I'd first go with the BSD's. Then I'd go with solaris. Then AIX, Plan9, Inferno, BeOS, SkyOS, Hurd, Movitz, Genera Lisp Machine, and DOS. If all those OS's went poof I'd stop using computers altogether.

Good luck trying to run any of those on a standard PC. (not referring to BSD or Solaris)

Posted: **Mon Feb 05, 2007 2:43 pm**

allix wrote:
Vogateer wrote: At least Apple has a half-assed focus on the user, as opposed to Windows focus on giving control of your computer to the entertainment business. Apple will at the very least stand up to music industry types who want variable pricing on their music tracks so that it's easier for the user, while it looks like Microsoft is practically bending over backwards in an attempt to give them everything they want, no matter what the effect on the users of their OS.
Thats wrong, the ipod store is just as despot as ms drm. Norway are going to ban the ipod store a less apple open there drm up or remove it, Norway are not banning windows. I credit you for saying apple do focus on the customers as far as making a os that is very easy to use and just works.

My point about them standing up to the music industry stands. Apple has been very strong in fighting back the music industry's pressure for variable pricing and some of their other pursuits.

It seems Norway has nothing against DRM, they just want other companies to be able to play the DRM'd music. If they really had something against DRM, they'd go after Microsoft's "PlaysForSure" music, too. I also fail to see how "Fairplay" is really comparable to the madness we've heard about Vista's content protection, which infects every hardware device with encryption every step of the way. You could get around the Fairplay DRM just by burning a CD, and it doesn't give the music industry the option of bricking some piece of hardware you own.

Posted: **Mon Feb 05, 2007 3:11 pm**

Wally Balljacker wrote:
TankCatNinjaFish wrote:
Snarkout wrote:If linux went poof tomorrow, I'd be pulling out my credit card for a MacBook, not a Dell. At least I can get to a shell on a Mac w/o installing cygwin...
That's interesting. If Linux went poof tommorow, I'd first go with the BSD's. Then I'd go with solaris. Then AIX, Plan9, Inferno, BeOS, SkyOS, Hurd, Movitz, Genera Lisp Machine, and DOS. If all those OS's went poof I'd stop using computers altogether.
Good luck trying to run any of those on a standard PC. (not referring to BSD or Solaris)

Almost all work on standard PC's: Plan9, Inferno, SkyOS, Hurd, Movitz, DOS all have x86 ports. Note that the definition of 'work' is stretched a bit

.

Posted: **Mon Feb 05, 2007 3:17 pm**

Vogateer wrote:My point about them standing up to the music industry stands. Apple has been very strong in fighting back the music industry's pressure for variable pricing and some of their other pursuits.

It seems Norway has nothing against DRM, they just want other companies to be able to play the DRM'd music. If they really had something against DRM, they'd go after Microsoft's "PlaysForSure" music, too. I also fail to see how "Fairplay" is really comparable to the madness we've heard about Vista's content protection, which infects every hardware device with encryption every step of the way. You could get around the Fairplay DRM just by burning a CD, and it doesn't give the music industry the option of bricking some piece of hardware you own.

Well Vista may DRM your hardware but at least they don't have total control over it, you don't have to go through them to buy a new computer.