“Many of the great pop-culture debates of our time involve intense rivalries — Yankees versus Red Sox, Britney versus Christina, Ford versus Chevy. Among these great discussions stands one that has shaped the technological world: Macs versus PCs,” Daniel Holevoet writes for Yale Daily News. “Ten years ago, the computer world was different than today, and it seemed like Microsoft had bested its rivals. Beleaguered was a popular phrase used to describe Apple, and Linux was less than a year old and unknown outside small circles of avid coders.”
“But today, the decision is not so clear-cut, and Apple has made a much larger comeback in Yale student and faculty computing than its 10 to 12 percent national market share would indicate. According to Yale Information Technology Services’ registration records, nearly 20 percent of University students and 33 percent of faculty choose Macs over Windows PCs,” Holevoet writes. “With a reinvented, cutting-edge operating system and a cool, sleek design, Apple is clawing its way to technological equality on campus. Products like iPod and iTunes have transformed the Apple brand into a status symbol as much as a technological tool, and alternative platforms such as Linux have moved out of the shady realm of hackers and into the public eye. The debate is renewed.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This is a fun article to read, with one Mac user quoted as saying, “I have an Apple bumper sticker on my car, a patch on my hat and a poster in my room. You don’t find that kind of loyalty with Windows users, and there is a reason why.” After reading the article, we’re not sure if the writer and/or people quoted in the article understand that Apple’s Mac OS X is UNIX-based. Let us know what you think. There’s even one student who said insists that “his Windows system was adequate for his needs and purchasing a Mac was not worth it” and that he is “more comfortable using Microsoft programs and prefers Windows Media Player to Apple’s iTunes,” as if to offer proof that one can be “booksmart” enough to get into Yale and still display a certain lack of other smarts, not to mention taste. Meaning: if you haven’t used both Mac OS X and Windows XP, how much is your opinion as to which OS you prefer really worth? The comfort of familiarity, self-imposed ignorance, and some people’s resistance to change would seem to be some of Microsoft’s last best weapons against the superior Mac solution.
In a world without fences and walls, who needs Gates and Windows?
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Survey shows Apple Macs owned by nearly 10 percent of US small and medium-sized businesses – February 17, 2005
More people use Apple Macs than you think; 8-12 percent of homes use Macs – March 31, 2004
10 percent of computer users use a Mac; 3 percent is Mac’s approximate quarterly market share – February 10, 2004
Syracuse Post-Standard: 3 percent is a false stat; Mac holds ’10 to 12 percent of the market for PCs – August 27, 2003
I am familiar with Windows. Unfortunately for Microsoft and fortunately for me, I also use a Mac, so I can now see why and where Windows is sorely lacking. If I had never touched a Mac, I would be living in blissful ignorance – patching and crashing and wasting my life away in squalor.
I have used both. Mac OS X is infinitely better than Windows XP. It’s a joke that there’s a debate at all and it’s only because of people who’ve never really tried Mac OS X who insist in talking out of their asses.
Yale is for wankers. Rich wankers.
Mac fags who suck down baby batter like it’s man pudding, just love to put down Windows. I love Windows and I will never try a Mac because I don’t want to turn into a hairy-man-ass-loving, tree-hugging, boner-biting skin-flutist. Hippie, commie, pinko, throat-sausage-loving, ass-stuffing Mac queers make me want to stay as far away from fruity Mac toys as possible. I’ll keep upgrading Windows, thank you.
You can tell a Bigot. but you can’t tell then anything. It goes both ways..Beeeoootttches!
“Fact” as in Seperate the fact from the fiction.
Ron, Are you refering to the old apple logo?
The only Mac vs. anything debate worth having these days is against Linux. OSX won the “Who’s best” argument against XP when Jaguar was released.
Also don’t be surprised that college kids can be idiots in a few things. I knew plenty of people at university who weren’t that sharp, but had parents pushing them hard.
“There’s even one student who said insists that “his Windows system was adequate for his needs and purchasing a Mac was not worth it” and that he is “more comfortable using Microsoft programs and prefers Windows Media Player to Apple’s iTunes,” as if to offer proof that one can be “booksmart” enough to get into Yale and still display a certain lack of other smarts, not to mention taste.”
So, let me get this straight…someone who wishes to remain with a platform of their choice and not plunk down $500+ (not to mention they might not have the cash) for a system they don’t need is labeled ignorant, stupid, and having poor taste? What a great way to establish a repoire with potential switchers.
Many Windows users use Windows at work, they are intimidated by technology in general and are not willing to go through another learning curve. Fair enough. Who cares? So long as I have an alternative, I’m happy.
Do we really want Apple to get so big it eventually becomes the next Microsoft? No thanks. As long as they’re small(er), they’ll try harder.
Hey, the pop-unders seem to be gone.
Hey Gays, eh-hum, I mean Guys, Apple Just released the iDildo, A full featured fully enhanced version of it predecessor. Check it out here…
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/71907/wo/Fv5qeH1jNelU2vVTjMV1lusxlJ4/1.0.11.1.0.6.21.1.3.21.3.1.1.0?38,9
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Wankers…Ha!
I have to admit, that this “MacDailyNews Take” isa bit over the top if you ask me.
SHHHH…..Everyone is Typing.
Ron, nice one, you make a very compelling arguement, I’m ditching my Mac just so I can hang out with you, you are the man dude.
Magic word is reading as in “doubt if ron does any”
Take a chill pill MDN.
The whole world need not be using Macs – there is fun in diversity. what if everyone was a guy. yuuuck!! Some people like beer others wine. Neither is wrong. Choice is good even if we think that the alternative is crap. Let the forun take sides and have fun. if you want to voice your opinions get a ‘handle and post” like the rest of us. it would be nice to look up to you as unbiased and we the nutty ones. You made me sound sane MDN.
“If you haven’t used both Mac OS X and Windows XP, how much is your opinion as to which OS you prefer really worth?”
Exactly. MDN is 100% spot on!
Damn Ron, you have some issues.
I think you are over-compensating for some deep rooted homosexual tendencies you have yet to come to terms with.
Choice of computing platform has no bearing on one’s sexual preference. I find your statements to be both ignorant and insulting. Probably best you do stick with Windows, so as not to pull down the mean intelligence of the average Mac user .
“So, let me get this straight…someone who wishes to remain with a platform of their choice…”
The point is that he probably has never used Mac OS X, just Windows, so he has no basis upon which to make an informed choice. Which is why MDN is correct to state:
“The comfort of familiarity, self-imposed ignorance, and some people’s resistance to change would seem to be some of Microsoft’s last best weapons against the superior Mac solution.”
Where did the guy say he hadn’t used OS X? And how is that at all relavent to the fact that he doesn’t wanna buy a Mac so he can do the same word processing he does on his PC?
MDN is on crack today
ron,
yes, true…
for people like you…. just keep patching* and upgrading* and fixing* and restarting* and scanning* and …. .. .. . .. .. .. . .
dude, did you ever get the chance to ” use ” windows….
* i hope one day you will be ” using ” windows ….
please… keep suffering … you might end in heaven finally …. for the sad life you had…..
get a typewriter
99% of the 85% who use Windows made no choice at all. All they know is Windows. People who’ve really used both Mac and Windows operating systems for any reasonable amount of time almost always choose the Mac. It’s really quite simple. People who say they chose Windows actually chose nothing. Mac users, almost always, have had some contact with Windows (at work, school) and really have chosen the Mac over Windows. Windows people “chose” the one thing they know (Windows) against all the myths and lies they’ve heard about, but have no real experience of regarding the Mac.
The MDN Take is perhaps too honest, but it’s pretty much 100% correct.
Why are we all so obsessed with trying to make people see the godly light of the Mac? Fuck it. Who Cares? Do we all have such small egos we need to prove to the world that we are better? It’s a damn computer. Somewhere in Apple HQ, people are laughing.
It’s MDN’s responses like these that are totally unnecessary.
Stantheman: “Where did the guy say he hadn’t used OS X?”
If he really had used Mac OS X, why would he be singing the praises of Windows? How many people do you know, Stantheman, who’ve really used both the Mac and Window and still choose Windows?
What George said above.
“99% of the 85% who use Windows made no choice at all.”
This a published statistic? Think maybe thats a generalization without any real evidence? Might be worth looking at…
“People who’ve really used both Mac and Windows operating systems for any reasonable amount of time almost always choose the Mac.”
Again, shooting from the hip?
” It’s really quite simple. People who say they chose Windows actually chose nothing.”
Is it now. How about gamers? Those who want a complete computer solution under $600? And those who just god darn it like the OS?
I think the ideal scenario would be for Apple to have 70 percent marketshare, and all the Rons of the world are still using Windows. I man can dream…
Ron,
You know your latent homosexual yearnings are turning you into a hater. You hate yourself, so you lash out at the world. And the more cool, the more powerful, the more useful, the more quality-oriented something is, the more you hate it, and project your own homosexual feelings onto it. So that you can live the illusion that those feelings deep down inside you are actually projected onto something else that is admired by the world.
Thus, your accusation of Mac users being homosexual, with the desperation you feel in trying to project your own feelings onto them leads to these tirades.
We all know, and you do too, that it’s you who feels the need for men, not Mac users. And did it ever occur to you that more homosexuals use PCs than they do Macs?
So, sonny boy, take your meds and go back to the nuthouse. Your day in the sun was long over. You’re a pitiful broken record, projecting your own homosecual fantasies onto those you admire the most, so as to make yourself feel validated and to deny your own desires to play the skin flute.