“Joshua Weisbuch, 33, of Jamaica Plain says he’s visited the iTunes Music Store about 30 times since it opened less than three weeks ago. Peter Wood, 24, of Beverly says he’s gone at least once a day. Barbara Mende, a grandmother from Waltham, says she’s been only three times. ”I’m staying away from it,’ she says. ‘It’s addictive.”’ reports Michael Prager for The Boston Globe.
“Is it possible that one day, one of the results of Apple’s pay-for-download music service will be iA, as in iTunes Anonymous? Maybe not, but a sampling of Greater Boston users reveals that the deep, intense feelings typical of Macintosh users have migrated to Apple’s newest wrinkle, the online music store,” writes Prager.
Prager writes, “So far, although a Windows version is promised by year’s end, only Macintosh users have access to the Music Store, which is a twist for computer users used to having the vast majority of software written for the Windows platform. A few of the users interviewed are reveling in their exclusivity, but many more are eager to share the experience with the Windows masses.”
“Arnold Reinhold, 58, of Cambridge concedes a vested interest,” Prager writes. “He’s an Apple shareholder who ”would be just as happy if they got onto Windows really quickly, because they found a real need in the marketplace.” Besides, he said, he ”has never felt a great lack of software. Quite the contrary.’ But even those without a financial stake still have their Apple chauvinism. Weisbuch has noted that iTunes ‘is one of the features that PC users I talk to are truly slathering over… and I look foward to the day that iTunes works with PCs so that PC users can see the quality of hardware-software combinations that Apple users have used for years.”’
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “Apple chauvinism?” Michael Prager doesn’t quite get it right. If Mr. Prager used a product that he knew to be better than other similar products he has tried to use (or been forced to use at work), wouldn’t he want to tell his friends, family, and co-workers about it? Your average Mac user who says aloud that “Mac is better than Windows” shouldn’t have to endure being called a chauvinist, which means “prejudiced” and/or “fanatical” according to Dictionary.com here. It’s tedious for us as Mac users to continue hearing these obvious Windows-centric users, who’ve never or hardly used a Mac, dissmissively lump Mac users en masse into the “fanatical cult/religious zealot” category. Mac users shouldn’t be referred to as “chauvinists.” If Prager understood his subject better, he simply would have referred to Apple computer users as “Mac proponents” and been done with it.
And just what is this “vast majority of software written for the Windows platform,” anyway? We seem to have access to any of the “best in class” software products for anything we need to do on our Macs. We don’t really need or want to wade through reams of second-class apps; we just want the best ones – which is what Mac users already have. This “more software for Windows” conceit is a misconception that the uninformed just won’t let die, even though they have virtually no understanding about which they’re saying or writing.
Once again, the MacDailyNews Take is squarely on target. And once again, I am going to email the original article’s author (Prager) and inform him that he is biased and explain to him why he is so.
Until we all take the time to hold these writers and reports accountable, the same misinformation and prejudiced comments will continue.
Mac news from Boston Globe
I read the original article, and thought it was fine…and no one’s more of a Mac die-hard than me. Sheeesh, guys – lighten up!
It strikes me that the author of The MacDailyNews Take is rather chauvinistic him or herself. Does any chauvinist ever consider himself to be one? Of course not-he’s justified, ’cause his way really is better. Incidentally, I’m one of those “you can have my Mac when you pry my one-button mouse from my cold dead fingers” people, and I like the music store a lot, but I agree with x_actly: Lighten up!
I tried lightening up. It didn’t work. I live and work in a mixed Mac and PC environment. The fact, over the long term, the Mac it is far less expensive to operate and less time consuming for IT staff to maintain. Users can be more productive (and waste their time with iTunes). But to label Mac proponents as chauvinistic, while trivial, reveals the subtle bias of the individual (and the collective as a whole). Language is everything folks: call it “homeland security” or call it “an errosion of your constitutional rights”, either way its the same act, but people respond very differently to it. Curious.
A professional author’s choice of words is deliberate. Therefore, the charge of bias against Prager is reasonable.
I found it interesting that the author did not bother to describe the operation of the iTMS, nor its merits relative to other online music services. I classify this article as fluff, not worthy of further debate.
I don’t necessarily want Apple to take over the world. I guess I’ve always kinda of liked the exclusivity of being the “underdog”. But I hate to see Apple’s marketshare, profits, stock price and acceptability erode because there IS that pervasive and uneducated view out that; there’s not enough software, too expensive, blah blah blah blah blah.
I don’t spend a lot of time pointing out the Mac’s superiority, unless I hear enough of the ridiculous comments, or can’t find Mac software in a store (thank God for online and Apple Retail), or can’t get our company’s IT to answer networking questions because “…we don’t support Apple products”… Then I DO go on the attack.
Whether it’s technologically possible to duplicate the iTunes Music Store on Windows (I mean, a Windows equivalent for Windows from a Windows programmer) is not the question. It’s that Apple did it, and they did it well.
This is not something to “lighten up” about. That article displayed the insidious bias against Mac, Apple, and Mac users coming from some fat ass parked on a Dell, typing in Word, which he thinks is “the computer,” who has NO IDEA what he’s talking about. Thanks MacDailyNews for continuing to point out these articles and biased authors. Keep up the good work.
The respondents above are…let’s say misinformed.
Okay, this is why we (fanatical mac users) annoy me. A number of people here are bashing Mike Prager of the Boston Globe for an anti-mac bias, based on what is quoted from something he wrote about iTunes.
I happen to know Mike Prager personally. And he is the biggest Mac-head I know. He has had a Mac on his desk for over ten years that I know of, and writes all of his articles on a Mac. He is also a huge music fan, with thousands of CDs, and I know for a fact that he has been using iTunes extensively since the first weeks of its release.
Now reread what he wrote above. Is all of this is based on his using the word “chauvinism”? This is crazy.
chau?vin?ism
1. Militant devotion to and glorification of one’s country; fanatical patriotism.
2. Prejudiced belief in the superiority of one’s own gender, group, or kind.
We Mac users ARE “fanatical cult/religious zealots” and “chauvinists”. Its one of the things that kept the Mac alive during the dark, pre-Steve-Jobs-v2.0 era.
Its not often that one reads something in the press, online or off, that you personally know more about and can form an independent opinion about. Here I know how completely out of line this whole feedback thread is, and for me it calls into question the value of any of this feedback from people who write in responses to articles in an reflexive, off the cuff and uninformed manner.
So, back to the original point.
On one hand, iTunes store for Windows would be good financially for Apple, which is good for Mac users.
On the other hand, for those long time Mac users (like Mike Prager and I) who have suffered for years with defections (Intuit/QuickBooks to name one) and delayed releases for Mac software, its fun to torture Windows users with what they can’t have.
Its not a smart business move for Apple to lock them out permanently (example: iPod for Windows) but it would have been fun.
I don’t think I’ve ever sene an article so mis-read. Hey Mac-heads – you are bashing one of your own.
Idiots.
Jake and moree,
We’re not bashing anyone. I think the word “chauvinism” is the wrong word to use and makes Mac users look like cultists and crazies, instead of reasoned individuals who think Mac is better. MDN is right to point this out.
Mac villagers are really up and arms over Pagers monstrous article…a perceived PC Microsoftword creation. Abomination! Here they are at the castle wall with pitchforks and torches. But wait the villager Moree raises his torch and cries out NO! Prager built Frankenstein on his own long time beloved and sacred Mac. Okay move along no monsters here.
I think we can all learn from this people.
I’m curious what if Mike had written it this way?
But even those without a financial stake still have their Macintoshism.
I’m not a writer so I can make up words. Would Mac users have found that offensive?
Chauvinism means prejudiced and fanatical. It is the wrong word to use. Almost all Mac users have used Windows and choose Mac. This doesn’t show prejudice. If more Windows users tried Mac to the extent that mac users have tried or are forced to try Windows, there would be many more Mac users, now wouldn’t there? Is it fanatical on my part to write that?
Many words have meanings that can be interpreted as either positive or negative depending on: a) the context in which they are used (evaluated objectively); and/or, b) the invested perspective of the reader relative to the subject (subjectivity).
In the case of Michael Prager’s article, there is nothing negative about the context in which he uses the term “chauvinism” unless one’s perspective about the general view of “MacHeads” is a bit defensive.
Unfortunately, the general tone of the responses is so defensive that it supports the very (negative) interpretation of Mach devotees you seek to decry. I agree with x_actly, “lighten up.” Michael Prager’s article is positive exposure for Mac and Mac applications, so he is clearly not an enemy.