“Given that all my [Windows] computers zip along like dead ballerinas, I should be annoyed that I have been burdened with such a flawed operating system. Mr Gates has, after all, achieved the near impossible feat of extracting cash from me. There is much software that I am evaluating, free of charge, according to the 21-day trial period specified next to the “I agree” check box. But Mr Gates’s Windows operating system came with the computer. The computer works fine: it’s just the operating system that doesn’t,” writes Red Symons for The Age.
“Apple computers are not susceptible to viruses, worms or yeasts. They are favoured by those in graphic design and photography. In short, your Mac is a very nice ladies computer. The good guy in the movie always has a Mac,” Symons writes. “And yet the fact that the Gatesian PC system is cobbled together and prone to disaster is exactly what makes it so attractive. The Mac is a computer that seemingly needs no maintenance. It doesn’t break down and this is it’s failing.”
“Time was, a man would retreat to his workshop, to his fret saw, to his vice, and spend many hours building spice-racks, weather vanes and kennels. The work produced no useful result, but kept the man occupied, away from domestic responsibilities and demonstrated to a man’s sons that he was a master of the universe of plywood. Fretwork was superseded by carburettor and shock absorber craft. A car was something you could fiddle with in order to make it work ‘better.’ You opened the bonnet to make pointless adjustments to the engine. A PC is a man’s computer. It never works properly and requires constant maintenance,” Symons concludes.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Would that we’d all be as intelligent as the fairer sex when it comes to choosing a computer. For those that like to putter around unproductively, male or female, a Windows PC cannot be equalled. For those that just want to get things done with their computers, get a Mac. It’s really as simple as that.
If you use his example…all men should be driving cars that break down all the time so we can fix them. How stupid is that. Anyway, half my income is generated by FIXING Macs…they aren’t infallible, they just work better.
Windows is a MAN’S computer?
Hee hee…I always considered it a MORON’s computer myself, but whatever. Guess if you can’t actually get any computing related work done, you could find the time to SPIN the hardware reliability problems into an advantage, to the point that being able to tear open the box and replace broken and faulty hardware components yourself is something to shout about. ;o)
Sheesh…
How do you find this stuff?
Hard to believe this guy makes a living by writing, what a waste.
Actually, if you read the thing, he is complimenting Mac reliability and making fun of some men who need to tinker for no good reason. The female vs. male stuff is just to catch the eye.
hmmm, okie, I guess society has become so dumbed down to the point that we have to use assinine examples like this…
tthomcarl u are stupid. sorry.
agree as per mark.
Red Symonds is a former musician with the Australian rock band, Skyhooks. He later went on to become a very cynical judge in a Melbourne version of an irreverant gong show or talent quest. He now hosts a morning radio show and his Age column is meant to be a humorous slice of life viewpoint. He is not a computer writer at all – see his column in that light and the article is very pro Mac.
He sounds like any minute now he’ll down some tinnies and grab his surfboard off his Ute. And Melbourne is normally such a cultured place! I bet this guys from Queensland, and he has a mullet haircut
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I wouldn’t say that a PC is a “man’s” computer; I’d say it’s a “guy’s” computer.
Guys like to tinker around with things, adjust manifolds, add spoilers to their PC cases, and quaff Miller Lite.
Men like to get things that work, go to Jiffy Lube every 3,000 miles, and drink Sam Adams.
check this link here for his radio show: (name spelt Symons)
http://www.abc.net.au/melbourne/presenters/SYMONSREDSYMONS.htm
Ignoring for the moment the validity of his oversimple analogy, WTF?? Every Real Man I’ve every known new the cardinal rule of tool ownership: Buy Good Quality Tools That Don’t Break. It’s only the wannabe’s who spend all their time skinning knuckles and getting amateur-quality results just to save a few bucks with cheap tools.
Come to think of it, it’s not such a bad analogy after all . . . .
This just proves what I learned in school; don’t use irony or satire because most people won’t get it.
I get it, I just don’t think it was very creative…there is a difference…
I saw that is was a poor attempt at satire, but it was well disguised enough that many in the Wintel camp would view it as a serious article, thus my previous comments.
I agree with the writer. I always thought that “male” mac users are fags.
Call me “crazy,” but I’d never made a connection between computers and genitalia.
But if my iMac makes me a “lady,” then I look forward to ovulation!
What worried me about reading this was that I though the MDN take was going to be so horribly negative. I was wrong this time.
This is a fine pro-mac funny article. I know a number of PC users who I wouldn’t recommend a mac to precisely for this reason. They like to tinker with them. There are worse hobbies.
I did go to a computer fair a year or so back. Local village hall sort of thing, lots of independents selling stuff cheap. What struck me about it was the number or blokes there who were exactly like the kind of blokes who tinker with cars. They were quoting numbers at each other (Ghz instead of BHP). They were not at all like computer geeks, so I could only guess that the building and the tinkering was what it was all about. They didn’t look like they had a creative bone in their bodies (And NONE was talking about any application or use of their PCs, just about the numbers).
A brilliant and very very funny very pro-mac article (be sure to read the whole thing). Kudos to the author.
I love my MAC because I don’t have to tinker with it all the time, but when I want to tinker, it’s an easier and more intuitive process.
This is one example of the delusion of some that think that anything they spew out of their wretched psyches is gospel, Their is no way to excuse mysoginy, yet this jack is excusing his bigotry by taking on a tech tone, ! GET YOURSELF A JOB and move out of your parents basement, get yourself a girlfriend, she can probably teach this backwoods reprobate a thing or two about what truly it is to be a man!
this fellow is obviously in the wrong time band, he belongs at the turn of the century in some mountain or something. this is one example of people who are usually cheap they try to fix something that is so broken in order not to buy a new one and they call it a test of masculinity! bah
what nonsense, idiot. Ill bet you the next thing he would be comparing it to is race! ill be standing by when that happens then hell really hear it.
Very funny article actually. What’s everyone so worked up about. This is complementary to the mac.
Actually, I think that there is a lot of truth to the article. The only element that you have to get your head around is the question of the computer as a tool vs the computer as a substitute for a car or any other tinkerable(sp?) item in the home. It may in fact explain the hard time we Mac people have understanding the Wintel geek’s affinity for those god-awful boxes. Although they claim it’s a tool, it’s not really, it’s the modern digital equivalent of the car in the garage. You know, ther is always some little thing that you can do to push it another mile per hour faster.
Mike
Satire rocks, because it makes those who don’t gte it look so dumb.
hahaha that was an excellent article.
This guy sounds like Tim Allen in “Home Improvement”. A man’s PC computer, more power, huh!, huh! ugh!!!!
Saying that a Mac is girlish ladies computer, just because it doesn�t break as often as a PC is ridiculous. Any computer should work every time you turn it on, every time you need it to. No hard time accepted or justified. Allowing this sort of thing to carry on is exactly what had been going on in the Windows world, in the end PC users are just making a rich man richer, instead of asking for accountability for his companies products.
A computer user should certainly be concerned about the quality of the overall computer experience. Tinkering with a computer is OK, but having to drag, pull and push something like a Windows PC everyday at work or home is more like a nightmare.