“What is it about Apple products and the Mac in particular that inspires a fanatical, almost religious devotion among users? The question has baffled marketers and others outside the Mac cult for years, so Kobi Shely and a band of documentary filmmakers went out seeking answers,” Asher Moses reports for Stuff.co.nz.
“Over their two-year journey the seven-person team interviewed more than 50 “Macheads” for their film of the same name, which is due for release this year,” Moses reports.
“But at the end of their long journey, during which the filmmakers spoke to virtually every prominent member of the Mac community, Shely hasn’t come much closer to cracking the cult of Mac,” Moses reports.
MacDailyNews Take: Guess we don’t have to bother watching it then.
Moses continues, “He said most Macheads volunteered ‘ease of use’ and ‘design’ as reasons for their devotion but this did little to explain how a subculture could develop around a computer.”
“He concluded that the core reason for the Mac’s unique success was Apple’s ability to appeal to people’s emotions,” Moses reports.
“Shely said he was inspired to create the film after witnessing the vitriolic reaction from the Mac community after Apple announced the ability for Macs to run Windows.
The Mac camp showed its typical air of superiority, saying the move would be like a gourmet pizza restaurant starting to serve Domino’s,” Moses reports.
Full article here.
“MacHEADS the movie,” a movie about Apple Mac fans from “Chimp 65 Productions,” online trailer:
Direct link via Dailymotion: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x44l1c_macheads-the-movie-trailer_tech
I started with a CDC 6400 at my university in the 1970’s, punch cards & everything. Then they got a DEC System 10, and the computer science department got a PDP-11/70 running Unix. Professionally, I’ve used dozens of computers since, VAX/VMS, Concurrent, HP, SGI, various flavors of *nix. My first personal computer was a NEC APC III running MS-DOS 2.11 in 1984. Then I bought a MacSE in 1988. I’ve been forced to use various Windows machines at work since then, but for myself and my family, we have only Macs. We’ve had a beige G3, Umax C600, PM 7100, PM G4 (Sawtooth), and I retired my PB G3 Lombard two years ago for a 15″ AlBook. My wife’s business started with a grape iMac, graduated to a 1GHz G4 eMac, and she uses a 1.4Hz G4 iBook. If I had my way, I’d be using my AlBook at work instead of this Dull laptop the company provided.
wow it looks more like a Mocumentary to me. Are some of those people real? the look like they went through a long make up session to look like that.
I think the mentality of using a Mac was onset by Apple back with the famous 1984 commercial. The beauty of that commercial is that it still rings true today. Being a Mac user, to en extent is a bit of being antiestablishment. Not wanting to conform with mediocre half-ass computing solutions. As a graphic designer I was finally free from french curves and clogged rapidograph. I used Windows before and it seems to get in the way of my workflow. I could achieve the same result on a Windows computer, but half the fun is getting their. Windows sucks the fun out of working.
Apple = Quality, and now the world is taking note.
@ Shawn and Steve Ballmer’s Greengrocer
There would be nothing of what is called “The Cult of Mac” or “MacHeads” if not for the early and middle years. If not for the advent of Windows, and MS’s nefarious method of creating it, the psychology of “us against them” would not have come about. So, Shawn, you can be a Machead even though your are relatively new to the platform. I was just saying that the movie producers need to go back decades to learn the genesis of Macheadedness.
And, SBG, your assertion that “they didn’t have anything decent until Apple bought NeXT…” simply illustrates you ignorance of computer and OS evolution. Apple lost focus in the ’90’s but they never sold crap. Using a Mac, even during the ’90s was still a superior experience over Windows.
As a musician/songwriter, using Macs has revolutionized the multi-tracking recording process, effectively eliminating the limitations of analog recording. I now have virtually unlimited potential at a fraction of the cost of recording on tape. And yes, the technology is also available on Windows, but it’s just not the same experience. Most (not all) of the die-hard Windows using musicians I know from the ’90s have switched, even before Apple went to Intel. And most of us are using MOTU Digital Performer, although I may switch to Logic Pro soon.
Why is it that musicians and artists prefer Macs? Aesthetics, ease of use, better software, etc., etc. It’s just a vastly better experience. If the recognition of a superior solution when one is confronted with the evidence makes one a cult member… Enthusiasm should be expected from those freed from the world of Windows.
I don’t see the big mystery. In a nutshell, there are two kinds of companies: There are companies that really care about pushing the envelope and taking care of their customers (like Apple and BMW); and there are companies that are quite content to crank out the same old products year after year (give or take a few new features here and there, most likely copied from trend-setters like Apple) as long as they’re making a healthy profit for their shareholders.
Most companies are of the second kind. All they really care about is the money, which is completely obvious to discerning consumers—especially when a company comes along that really “thinks different.” Enter Apple. The rest is history.
Not to carry the analogy too far, but the difference between Apple and most of their competitors is not unlike the difference between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. One looks toward the future, the other is tied to the past. Apple fans value that difference and understand how rarely one encounters something genuinely new and forward-thinking—either in business or in politics. If the so-called analysts don’t get that, they are either too stupid or too jaded to appreciate the value of excellence and innovation in a world that celebrates (and rewards) mediocrity.
Start with an NCR IMOS, NCR VIRX, Apple IIc, Lisa (Iⅈ), IIgs, Compaq Portable with DOS, Mac IIfx (with I still have and it works too), IIvx, Quadra 840av, Power Mac 9600, NeXT Cube, NeXT station, G4 saw tooth (AGP), G4 quick silver Dual 1.25GHz, Mac Mini Dual Core, a current gen iMac, and Xeon 5400 Dual 4 core. Too many Sun Machines to list too.
I’ve never owned a Windows machine though I’ve worked on Windows Systems at various employers and on various projects using Windows 3.1 through Vista, I know more about MS Windows then I ever wanted to. You want to render a Windows system unusable and unrecoverable all you need to do is delete, one specific registry entry. It’s hose city for that install of Windows. What a stupid ass concept you create a database type file were the OS and every application dumps, reads, modifies and who knows what else all of the critical settings and configuration information. It’s a single point of failure for the OS, how smart is that.
I was born in 1990.
So it’s not fair to say you are only a fan when you were from the beginning there.
@spark
point taken, thanks for the clarification. I see where you’re coming from, the original message didn’t quite convey that though.
have a good day.
” . . . like a gourmet pizza restaurant starting to serve Domino’s”
More like Domino’s in a post-G.I. tract state.
Apple makes computers for people, not for IT types. Sure, I’m technically oriented, but that has never meant that I want to spend more time working on my computer than I spend working with it!
What I don’t get is why anyone not in IT would buy a computer (Windows/DOS) that is so clearly not made for them. How can so many people have so much trouble with Windows for so long and still not switch???
“These ‘True Macheads’ are idiots then. Back in the 90s Apple sold crap. What they had was _worse_ than Windows.”
Debatable.
Apple had things in the 1990s the Windows users could only dream about. Remember that much of what Microsoft copied from Apple were things that Apple had done.
Interapplication communication via AppleEvents. QuickTime. TrueType, which Apple shared with Microsoft. QuickDraw GX, which had many of the features of Mac OS X’s Quartz. QuickDraw 3D. Speech synthesis and recognition.
Unfortunately, what Apple had was a bunch of great technologies built on top of a creaking foundation of an operating system designed for ten year old computers with 128K of RAM.
a lot of people in here are bandwagon jumpers…
I’ve been using macs since apple IIcs, Centras and powerbook 150s.
Looking back now, those computers sucked ballz, but hey, they beat the alternative. lol.
I find it hard to believe that a movie dedicated to the Mac and the Mac community, which have always had such a strong artistic tilt, would choose such a do-nothing font for the title of their film. The Mac is famous for what it did for typography and they go with … what is that Arial?
If Mac users have the mindset of cultists, then Windows users must have the mindset of full-blown, whack-job, fundamentalists.
Nothing else could explain the irrational intolerance, the mind numbing refusal to face reality, and the rejection of facts that don’t jibe with their perception of how the universe works.
@ Nobodi –
“[…], the mind numbing refusal to face reality, and the rejection of facts that don’t jibe with their perception of how the universe works.”
I don’t know… most scientists I know use Windows.
Personnaly, I’ve always used Macintosh computers because I’m lazy and don’t have the time to learn all the esotetic Windows procedures.
The Apple II sucked. Atari and Amiga and even the C64 were much better.
The Mac is way better than any other OS out there now.
My Past Partners:
Apple ][GS
Commodore 64
…various DOS/Windows boxes (Gateway, Dell, homemade)
…various PowerMac G3, G4, G5
iMac G5, various Intel iMacs
MacBook Pro 15″
Currently running:
MacBook Pro 17″, MacBook Pro 15″, iPhone
—–
And with all that… I still don’t consider myself a Mac Fanatic. When something good comes along, I’ll give it a try. If it’s worth it and it’s time for an upgrade, if not then I’ll stick to what works or what I have.
>nobodi wrote: If Mac users have the mindset of cultists, then Windows users must have the mindset of full-blown, whack-job, fundamentalists. Nothing else could explain the irrational intolerance…
It’s funny how you’re so wrapped up in your fanboyism, that you don’t see the irony in your thinking.
Trillion-dollar corporations, governments, and other entities have used non-Mac platforms to great success, yet your little mind cannot comprehend as much.
Step off the high-horse and open your eyes, Apple and Macs are awesome but it’s the man that does great things. The machine is a tool.
“It’s absurd really. Kobi Shely would have done far more interesting work by exploring why there is a Cult of Windows: why would large numbers of people devote themselves to absolutely crap technology?”
I’ve heard this a lot and have never really understood it. Where are these “Cult of Windows” people, do they have a website like this (it would be funny for a look
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> )? I’ve met people who hate Macs and use Windows but when I ask them what’s so good about Windows they say nothing, it’s just the best of a bad bunch.
I’m not a Windows fanboy. I switched to Linux when Vista came out and you really have to hate Windows to switch to Linux
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”raspberry” style=”border:0;” />
I’m a refugee from the initial “Switcher” campaign. My first Mac was a Bondi iMac G3- System 8.1 – 1998.
I put it aside for a while until OS X. From there- never looked back. Now- 5 Macs- (still have the Bondi- 10.2.8) – I got it.
I’ve convinced a number of people to go Mac. Even to the point of taking them down to the Apple store and helping them with their first purchase.
I still sleep with Windows users tho.
Cripes, it IS like a religion….
@me,
http://www.windowsdailynews.com/
http://billgates.celebstate.com/
http://www.microsoftisawesome.com/
http://www.windowsitpro.com/windowspaulthurrott/
Not to mention the endless Windows forums on which you can find any number of Mac bashers and Vista droolers.
Documentary puts Macheads under the microscope
“What is it about Apple products and the Mac in particular that inspires a fanatical, almost religious devotion among users?”
THIS IS CALLED THE OBAMA EFFECT.
…that inspires a fanatical, almost religious devotion among users?
That’s spurious hyperbole, (and I’ve got plenty of that) only perpetuating a myth for the sake of marketing a video, that I admit I have not seen, but my dispute is not with the video, as it is all too easy to distill and extract information about something in a way that provokes public interest and excitement, at the expense of accuracy.
Why Mac users get a raw deal and labeled zealots!
When you have been kicked down or marginalized for so long, you either take it or you stand up for yourself and for what you believe in. You speak out.
Apple Mac users are without a doubt a minority, we all know a minority is a relatively small group of people, esp. one commonly discriminated against in a community or society, differing from others in race, religion, language, political persuasion or in this case their choice of a computer OS.
The majority, are not as well informed as the like to think they are, in reality they are often vacuous, ill-advised and ignorant in regard to the thoughts, sentiments and experiences of the few. thus some minorities tend to fight back and take a stand against the persecution and subjugation.
The MS Windows protagonists had perviously preached the MS Windows party line through the printed media, and this did not offer Mac users the potential to correct the innumerable lies.
The internet has brought a superfluity of erroneous, fictitious, ill-founded and uncorroborated reports about Apple, Apple Macs and Apple Mac users from the MS Windows apologists.
However, the internet with its immense power and reach has allowed the playing field to be leveled and the record set straight. It has allowed Apple Mac users who care about such things, the ability to confront, challenge, dispute and argue against the FUD.
Today, thanks to sites like MDN, RDM and the Small Wave to name a few, when an offending article is posted either by peddlers of MS propaganda or ignorant writers, articles that contain falsehoods, deception or just ludicrous twaddle, it is methodically and clinically deconstructed, not only by the likes of MDN, RDM and the Small Wave – but more significantly by numerous Mac users who post in the supplied replies or feedback columns at the offending site, Mac users who are fed up with the constant lies perpetuated by the shills, now have a “voice”.
These thousands of ‘acts’ of ‘protest’ and ‘dissent’ by supposed “fanatics” and “religious” Macheads are responsible for opening the eyes of the sleepy majority to the verisimilitude … to the actuality of the Apple Mac OS.
—
MPC Guy – as usual you don’t get it. You are entitled to sit back and let life wash over you and skulk at the back of the room, but please don’t come here with your holier than thou’ attitude.
Apple Macs are what they are today, due to Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and all the brilliant people at 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California, Apple is also a “heady” mix of all those people and it’s users, users who have been loyal, faithful, dedicated, true, staunch, trusty, resolute, unwavering and uncompromising alongside the company. Users who will criticise and castigate it when necessary, but will endeavor to stick it out through thick n’ thin, who share a certain camaraderie. If we care to feel bound by this common loyalty, why is it a inconvenience to you? Why do you have to drag it down?
“Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.” ~ Voltaire