“To enter the Apple store in Manhattan is to enter a temple. Beneath its high vault, swish thin young men and women dressed from head to foot in black. They hold objects in their hands, strange white and silver objects, objects of devotion which they present to lay visitors, to the uninitiated who wander in from Prince Street seeking retail solace,” Stephen Evans writes for BBC News. “At the top of a set of broad stairs in the sun-lit store is an auditorium, a circle of seats much like those in a chapel, where one of the black-clad priests stands and delivers an encomium to the objects. There is reverence and a sense of being part of a movement.”
Evans writes, “Part of a cult, in fact – the cult of Mac. Devotees of the products from the stylish, small iPod that holds music to the sleek Powerbook computers seem like a tribe. Perhaps, many of you who use the rival Microsoft computer system will feel as though you are stalked by zealous colleagues keen to convert you from your foolish ways to the higher virtues of Mac.”
“It all stems from the top,” Evans writes. “Every year, the chief executive and founder of Apple Computer, Steve Jobs, addresses the faithful in what’s known as MacWorld in San Francisco… Now, there’s no doubt Apple products are very good and it’s not just a triumph of style, though style is clearly important, but, it seems to me, at least, that these gatherings do exude smugness.”
“But there is a global sociological phenomenon going on – to do perhaps with a minority who believe they have seen a truth. I suppose there may also be a type of person who delights in going against the herd. Whatever is fashionable for the masses becomes unfashionable for the minority. Manchester City and the New York Mets both have their loyal followers who would rather die than head for Old Trafford or Yankee Stadium. And so it is with Microsoft and Apple,” Evans writes.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: For us, it’s not about being different just to be different. The simple fact is that most people who’ve really used both the Mac and Windows platforms know the Mac is designed for the end user, not some rumpled engineer who wants and likes (and needs) to fix things as they break.
“Windows is designed by people who know a lot about computers. Macs, on the other hand, seem to be designed by people who know a lot about people.” – Nigel Kendall.
To use Windows XP, for someone who has really used Mac OS X, is to be assaulted with mediocrity. Windows users who have only used Windows just don’t know any better. Windows XP seems like a wonderful operating system to them. Yes, ignorance is bliss and we Mac users know better. If it makes you feel better to call us smug zealots who believe they have seen the truth and blah, blah, blah, so be it.
We probably wouldn’t be half as smug if the rest of the world wasn’t rolling in shit and proclaiming it to smell “good enough” all while making fun of the freshly bathed.
But, seriously, Windows XP is a fine operating system and using a Windows machine is a fine way to do things with a personal computer — until you’ve used a Mac. This is why Windows-only patchers think Mac users are cultic nuts and why “Mac users who’ve used Windows” pity the patchers stuck using Windows. And what of the few Mac-only users who’ve never touched Windows? Lucky bastards! They really are a tribe unto themselves. By the way, if you’re wondering, there is no such thing as a Windows user who’s really used Mac OS X — they all become “Mac users who’ve used Windows” as described above (except, according to their emails to us, they pretty much all wish they could kick themselves for waiting too long).
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Red Sox and Apple vs. Yankees and Microsoft – October 29, 2004
Defending Windows over Mac a sign of mental illness – December 21, 2003
What does “swish thin” mean?
This is such bullshit. The real cult is the cult of FEAR on the part of MS users. They are so desperately afraid and jealous of a rival computer platform that is clearly superior that their devotion to an outdated platform is nothing short of “faith”. See ya later suckers! Enjoy the antique virus ridden bed you’ve made for yourselves.
“We probably wouldn’t be half as smug if the rest of the world wasn’t rolling in shit and proclaiming it to smell “good enough” all while making fun of the freshly bathed.”
May we use this? Would we owe you a royalty??
Goddam, that’s funny…
The religious comparison at the end is deeply troubling, sad and pathetic. As if Catholicism is a reference for creativity.
Apple is unique and there’s no need to have the church endorse all the credit. Screw that!
Joe, swish is the verb. … I hope
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Yeah, that stopped me for a second, too. Read it again with “swish” as a verb.
Average his bs and yours, G Spank, and the truth emerges.
It is really nice to have a choice between common and good vs. pricey and stylish. I have both. Vhat a country!
swish = British for stylish
it is an odd locution in any case
Oh yeah swish IS the verb. Thanks guys.
People are different. Some people hang clown paintings on the wall and think it is art. They use Windows and are not annoyed. Aesthetics means nothing. They are the masses.
If Mac user’s are members of a cult or religion, then at least they have something tangible to worship, which of course makes it less like a religion, since most religions worship a God(s) that are intangible.
Unlike the Windows religion where it’s members worship the intangible Longhorn God and await his coming like the second coming of Jesus.
By the way, I mean no offense to anyone’s religious beliefs, just trying to illustrate my point and can’t think of a better example.
Thanks for the definition too. Sometimes I listen to the BBC just to catch those wild cricket scores. Googly on!
Windows is good.
When the world gets totally overpopulated it will help us weed out which people to put on the B-Ark – it’s a complex calculational system for our future ship of fools.
I use both, honestly, in business, you can live without a Mac but can’t with a PC.
Now before you low IQ PC bashers start getting on this topic, I am a Mac fan and have come to realize that you really need to use both if you want to work in a wide swath of industries. That’s reality.
Mac OS X is clearly superior, the hardware is not. PC’s are used in a lot industries still and we have to live with it. However, I hope OS X does garner a larger following.
I think the most offensive thing that came across was the idea that Macs are only for so called artists and that Mac OS X can’t hack it with other types of work.
I never get the accusation of smugness. Smug means being self-satisfied and conceited, and – whilst Apple users may be entitled to be conceited for using a platform that isn’t full of holes – I would personally say that users of Apple products (and Apple itself) are amongst the self-satisfied simply because we’re constantly striving for progress.
This compares to Wintel users whose conceit appears to based purely on numbers – highest gigahertz, most users, most number of games – and whose self-satisfaction is based purely on how little they paid for their Little Beige Box of Crap™.
As for style over substance: Tiger versus Longhorn. The former has a huge number of real improvements including voice assistance, integrated content search, the ability to create applications that share workload over a network. The latter is a new graphics engine, some device-level improvements and yet another security upgrade.
Only by using both systems extensively, like most Mac users have, can you really make a definitive evaluation of the two systems.
That’s why most Mac users are rabid Windows bashers.
“We probably wouldn’t be half as smug if the rest of the world wasn’t rolling in shit and proclaiming it to smell ‘good enough’ all while making fun of the freshly bathed.”
Brilliant! Bravo, MDN!
Oh, that Stephen Evans is such an attention whore! Cruising for website hits from Mac users AND Catholics!? I do believe the young man is an overachiever!
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The BBC must be waist-deep in business correspondents for NYC, if they can afford to let one wander around Manhattan, hang out at the Apple Store and then write a puff-piece worthy of a small town’s “Life” or “Style” or “Lifestyle” section!
Overall, I don’t think he was necessarily slagging on Apple or the Apple Store, just ‘exuding smugness’ as only a Briton working for the BBC can…
Chomper… have you ever heard of Virtual PC?
No offence taken Andy C., the big difference between the two is eventually Jesus will show up!
Some years ago I had a conversation with a friend at Microsoft. He’s now rather senior there, so he’ll have to remain anonymous. I said a Windows feature was awkward; he asked “compared to what?” I said to the Mac OS, and the response was:
“Oh. At Microsoft, we don’t consider people who’ve tried a Macintosh to be potential customers.”
Scott, if that story is true then that may be the best, most succinct, comparative comment ever.
Ahhh, the Virtual PC argument, no thanks. Hit or miss from what I’ve read.
And honestly, can you imagine playing Half Life 2 or Doom 3 on that?
MDN smug? Nooooo, couldn’t be.