“There perhaps has never been a more interesting time to write about Apple and its growing impact on the computer, telecommunications, and music worlds. Unfortunately, it also means that I have to witness (and sometimes join) a daily descent into a pit of mudslinging,” Tom Krazit blogs for CNET.
“Their size and degree of organization can be debated, and it’s usually overstated. But there is no question that Macintosh users are by far the most passionate advocates for their products in the technology industry. And while such passion is remarkable and even moving, it can also be terribly disturbing,” Krazit writes.
“I think the roots of this zealotry go back to a time when Apple was on the ropes financially and someone who worked on a Mac was ridiculed by other computer users. Ten years ago, Mac users in the corporate world were viewed as rubes playing with ‘toys’ not suitable for getting real work done, and there were plenty of people ready to remind the Mac community in not-so-subtle ways that the revolution promised in the 1980s by the original Macintosh was being fulfilled by Microsoft software,” Krazit writes.
“Windows users, who had almost forgotten about the Mac, initially laughed at Mac users and their intense love for a plastic cube of electronics. But then, as Apple starting gaining market share and increasing respect for its design chops, they started to fight back,” Krazit writes.
“Mac users feel an affinity to both their machines and their fellow users that the rest of the world simply doesn’t share. For some, it’s the emphasis on design, both in hardware and software. For others, it’s the way Apple focuses on applications that make it easier for them to be creative,” Krazit writes.
“Now that Apple has momentum on its side, does this finally mean we’re nearing a day when we can have a coherent discussion of the pros and cons of Apple’s approach to the computing world?” ” Krazit asks.
“Probably not. After all, the Mac community has all the momentum on its side, and is unlikely to lift its foot off the gas now that more people are starting to come around to its point of view,” Krazit writes. “And Apple hasn’t stopped making Mac vs. PC ads.”
Full article – we recommend reading the entire article, as it contains other points we have not excerpted and are not addressing below – here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Ampar” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: What’s really disturbing is how Krazit blames the sometimes — okay, oftentimes — vitriolic online Mac vs. PC debates nearly totally on Mac users. Windows PC users get a free pass from Krazit, even though they are the ones who are almost always arguing from a position of ignorance. If you believe that Krazit is really “terribly disturbed” by Mac users’ passion, then you probably said “Wow!” (geniunely, not sarcastically) when you saw Windows Vista.
We contend that the majority of Mac users have used a recent vintage Windows PC (and considering their “preferred” OS is the over 6-year-old Windows XP, the term “recent” is as laughable as it is debatable). Mac users are often forced to suffer 8+ hours with a Windows PC while at work or for some period of time in a school classroom. Certainly, most Mac users have ample opportunities to be inflicted with Windows in Internet cafes or at friend’s and relative’s houses. We also contend that the majority of Windows PC users have not used a Mac recently, or at all, for any meaningful period of time. If they had, of course, they’d already be Mac users.
The point is: Mac users have used both Mac OS X and Windows. Most Windows PC sufferers*, in our experience, have little to no idea about the Mac. But, for some reason, that doesn’t stop them from contributing every fallacy they’ve ever heard about the “MAC” or castigating “them Apple users” for “wasting their money on pretty Apples” when “PCs are cheaper.” Etc., etc., etc. Don’t blame Mac users when they get frustrated with idiots who know little or nothing about which they are writing.
Imagine someone lived in, oh, say, Singapore all their lives. One day, they decide to surf on over to L.L. Bean’s website and begin commenting, very confidently and often quite vehemently, on the qualities of — and even questioning the need for — winter coats, ski pants, hats, and mittens. It wouldn’t take long for those with actual experience to blast Mr. Equator a new icehole, now would it?
Krazit acts as if Windows PC users just woke up and just now starting to “fight back.” We don’t know which discussion boards Krazit’s been reading, but you’d think he’d try some of CNET’s, wouldn’t you? There are many years and millions of examples of “iceholery” on CNET alone, not to mention the rest of the Web. Where’s Krazit been all these years?
In our experience, many Mac users don’t like being told to use Windows to access a service that’s supposed to be open to paying customers. We don’t like being told to use Internet Explorer to access websites that are supposedly open to the public. Many consider Bill Gates to be a thief and a liar, not a genius and a saint. We think of Windows as a Mac cloning experiment gone hideously wrong: all upside-down, backwards, and deformed due to myriad quests to satisfy legal loopholes, instead of satisfying the needs of its users. Microsoft is a follower. Apple is the leader. We all use Macs today, whether they’re the real thing or the clone-gone-wrong. After over two decades, many Mac users are tired of hearing the same old uninformed, tired myths from sufferers of poorly faked Macs. Excuse us if we get snippy from time to time.
The bottom line: Most Mac users have used both Macs and Windows and made an informed choice. Most Windows PC sufferers have not. A rock and a hammer are each “only tools” and “just a personal choice” when all you’ve ever used is a rock. Hammer users just have to laugh. And, Krazit’s right, these feet are never coming off the gas.
Krazit actually says it all with, “Mac users feel an affinity to both their machines and their fellow users that the rest of the world simply doesn’t share.” You’d think that non-Mac users would stop there for at least a second and ask themselves, “Why is that? What am I missing here?” Sadly, many of them just bang straight to the comments section and begin doling out their “wisdom” as usual.
*We use the term “Windows sufferers” in order to try to wake up certain people and draw attention to the fact that it’s possible to suffer even if you’re unaware of your condition or are unable to recognize that there is simple and elegant solution available to alleviate it.
[UPDATE 3:59pm EST: Added “Windows sufferers” explanation.]
@take
er.. irony.
Nice reply MDN!!
Yeah, they’d just love it if we’d drop the years of insults and FUD and BS and move on so MS could just lie-low until the come up with JUST ONE good freakin’ idea.
Nope, not me.
I’m not a zealot, but I don’t partake in the wars as it’s a joke.
I use the best hardware and software I can, and it’s Apple.
I don’t care if I’m the only one that does, only that I enjoy using it.
Peace PC
Ditto that. Great response MDN.
Apples n’ Oranges. . .
Pfft!
You either get it, or you don’t.
It will be many years before I stop laughing at the bullshit that windows is. Sorry windows fanbous.
“It wouldn’t take long for those with actual experience to blast Mr. Equator a new icehole, now would it?”
That’s pretty funny.
What a Take indeed! Wow, that was fun to read! Well said.
MDN, great explanation of how sheep act.
Wisdom:
Macs are superior to any PC.
Macs could be better. See next month when new stuff with ‘new’ Intel chipsets are launched with Wow.
Mac zealots do far more harm than good to the image of Mac users everywhere.
Steve Jobs is a better showman than Bill.
Steve followers are blind followers.
Steve controls Apple product consumers so completely that it is scary.
Computers are tools. While the technology is cool, they are not some kind of magic.
Phones and tunes players are fun gadgets that have not changed the world. People who say they have look silly as new toys are always being rolled out.
Apple enthusiasts would look far better if they weren’t so giddy and so worshipful of a really good marketer and master manipulator of sheep.
The first thing that a Mac user represents to me is someone with the ability to think for themselves. Mac users don’t blindly purchase Macs, they have to think about it because the world of bullshit and corporate advertising tries hard to make them another Windows lemming. I prefer people who can think for themselves, partly because their ability to reason soundly is more likely to teach me something useful that I don’t know than people who blindly go with Windows.
Windows users on the other hand fall mainly in to two groups, those that are stupid because they didn’t think for themselves and couldn’t see through the bullshit and those that have been misled by someone who they trusted and professed to know that which they didn’t.
Windows users are worthy of either derision or pity, I’d rather deal with Mac users.
But, the article has a good deal in it that’s correct.
The response from MDN is one example of a problem in the Mac community. This is NOT the bad old days, but too many Mac people are still living it.
I remember quite well when in any discussion of computers, outside of the professional discussions, people would rip me for having a toy computer. I remained calm, even though I was being baited.
But, too many Mac users rise to the occasion, and respond in a way that their detractors want them to respond.
These days, PC people can’t say the same things they said in the past. Rather, we can can say it to them instead.
But, is that really such a good thing to do? No, it’s not.
And we simply can’t respond to all and any criticism with overall negativity, because, some of it is correct, and calls for some reflection.
It’s a few Mac user bad, er, Apples, that cause a lot more problems for the rest of the community than can be imagined. We see it here a lot. People here should read some of those posts, and see how embarrassing they really are.
For this reason, even many Mac users shun this site.
It was a good article to begin with with a lot of good points. But I have to agree with a lot of MDN’s take. Krazit does leave out this important point, however it shouldn’t discount his article. He generally writes unbias articles, though it’s virtually possible to find bias in everything anyone writes.
“clone-gone-wrong” !
I love it!
I agree with all of your points, but calling Windows/PC users “Windows sufferers” seems to feed into the claim of the original article. That Mac users are ethnocentric “fan boys/girls.”
The operating system for Mac is wonderful and the thing that COMPUTER people should be arguing about. Let Apple fans fill chat rooms and forums talking about iPods, iPhones, and shiny laptops or 24 inch displays. How about tech nerds (like most of us) talk about the pros and cons of software, OS, and useability.
Pedal to the metal.
for once, i’d like to see the author of an article that MDN bashes actually have a reply to their bashing. then these actually might be worth reading.
“For this reason, even many Mac users shun this site.”
I think that’s only the Amish Mac users.
Meidung!
To clintobean: That actually has happened here before.
windoze users=bitter
Apple is religion I have created. Come over my sons, worship me and you will be saved.
I work in IT and it always amazes me when I run across the Windows IT clan who have never given a Mac a try. How can you work in a technology field and have never had the desire to try another OS besides Windows? I used to use WIndows PCs in the days of the classic Mac OS because, quite honestly, the Mac OS sucked compared to Windows NT/2000. Macs did feel like toys to me in those days. That being said, OS X changed everything for me. I bought a TiBook when Jaguar was released and haven’t looked back since. I now use Macs almost exclusively and I’m the IT manager of a company that is 80% Mac. It’s kind of strange how things have come full circle, having the power of UNIX with OS X makes Windows feel like a toy to me whenever I have to fire up a simulated DOS environment in XP/Vista.
Rock first, then roll.
My wife was acclaimed as a computer genius today by a group of people who had each paid in the 4 figure range to hear her lecture for 3 days. What feat of computer prowess prompted such praise? Quickly, successfully and completely undramatically connecting her MacBook Pro to a projector. Her response? “I’m not a genius, I just use a mac.”
Sometimes it doesn’t take much.
You know why I come here? So i can act like a baffoon. I lie to myself everyday that I don’t like Apple, their products or their fans. Yet I take the time to post, sometimes several times a day, on a product I (pretend) neither own or care to. I can’t afford to give my legacy apps, I love to play solitaire, and upgrading my spyware and virus protection, even thought it rarely protects me, is a joy I can’t live without.
I tell myself and those who will listen that the UI of XP is fantastic, that WinMobile 6 is a far superior product, even against the Crackberry, and the new the Zune is amazing. I hope they don’t open an Apple store near me so folks don’t go in and see what they are missing.
But what it really comes down to, is I am just an insecure little person, who dad didn’t give enough props too, so I have to belittle other people. I am the bully in school. I am the Captain of the football team. Mac fans are the little guy.
I can’t afford a mac, so I have to make fun of those I do. Like the guy who drives a Porsche. He is probably a dick, right, having suc a great car? That should be me.
MDN Word: Less
As in Less of me on this board the better.
He said “icehole” – hehehe…
No really MDN’s take on it is so true. About 6 months ago I had three PCs in my apt. I sold one, gave one away and recycled another. Now I have a Mac mini running VMWare Fusion/Ubuntu and dreading every call for help with a windows issue (which seems to be at least 3 times a week). I usually start my replies to problem requests with “Get A Mac”, but they laugh it off saying its to expensive or its not a real computer. I feel for them. I’ve switched totally and I’m not looking back.
PS Netflix needs to get rid of that windows/media player requirement for streaming movies or at least give me a discount for the useless feature. [end rant]