“I use Macs because I appreciate good industrial design when I see it; I work sitting in an Aeron chair in front of a 1970s vintage Swedish desk, and I don’t want to spend sixty hours a week sitting at that desk staring at something that looks like it was thrown together from the spare parts bin. I want an operating system descended from UNIX under the hood, because I have twenty-plus years experience of bossing UNIX systems around (and UNIX, in my opinion, exhibits a degree of basic design consistency in its userland experience that is missing from the Microsoft world). I like the Mac OS X graphical experience because it looks good, (as it should, because before it could be released it had to satisfy a fanatical design perfectionist obsessed with caligraphy). And I am sitting in front of this thing for sixty hours a week,” Stross explains. “I have better things to do with my time than nurse a balky, badly-designed system that shits itself all over my hard disk on a regular basis, or spends half its time running urgent maintenance tasks that stop me getting stuff done.”
Stross writes, “I could write while sitting on a cheap IKEA stool in front of a kitchen table, banging away on a netbook loaded with Windows XP. But after a week, my back and my wrists would hurt and I’d be bleeding from the eyeballs every time I looked at the screen. It’d be like spending sixty hours a week driving a cheap Chevrolet Shitweasel instead of a Mercedes: sure, think of the savings — but the pain will get to you in the end.”
Full article – highly recommended – here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Stephen H.” for the heads up.]
LOL on that one…
“a dog’s dinner of an operating system”
Ha, Ha…yeah…that…
Finally somebody just says it how it is.
Elite Bastard!
I have just a regular desk.
As an artist and a Mac user, I completely agree with the author.
LoL.
“badly-designed system that shits itself all over my hard disk on a regular basis”
So effing true….
I look at my 24″ LED monitor and still see the design. It’s beautiful and worth every penny of the over priced tag I paid for it…
-Pi
Probably the most apt parallel to owning and using a Mac vs. owning and using a Windows PC is owning and driving a BMW vs. driving a regular “consumer” car (Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Chevrolet, Ford…). Those who had done this will know what I mean. When you own a BMW, the company will bend over backwards to provide service. Example: some kids scratched paint with a key in the front, on the hood. BMW wanted to replace it and charge my brother (the owner) some $3000 for the job. He asked them to just do a simple paint job, to prevent corrosion, since there weren’t any dents. They said they don’t do “half-assed” fixes (my words here). He said he’ll then have to get it done by some private body shop, after which they told him to leave the car and come back the next day. The paint job was done and it was free of charge.
Apple does this all the time. They bend over backwards for the customer. I’ve brought many ailing Macs to the Apple store. Most of the time, they fixed them free of charge, out of warranty (no parts involved, though). At times, it required leaving it overnight. And if the Mac is in warranty, they’ll often even fix results of your own negligence/misuse for free.
And there’s also the usability. BMW has hundreds of little details throughout the car that just totally make sense and make your experience more pleasing. The experience is thoroughly more satisfying than anything else. Very much like a Mac experience.
About the only place where the two don’t quite compare is the price: Macs and PCs are now almost the same in price (feature-for-feature), where you still can’t get more than half the Beamer for the price of a whole Hyundai or a Ford (“feature-for-feature”, loosely taken to mean size and horse power).
“… think of the savings — but the pain will get to you in the end”
My favorite line.
all i have read is this page – but Mr stross is obviously a Brit.
Why BMW if you can get a Yugo or Saturn?
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
I have a friend that just got a Mac, and he said the mac is extremely expensive and he does not understand why. So I ask him “then, why you brought it?” , and he just smile and said “Because I really liked”
You don’t hear that from a PC owner…
Is it just me, or does this guy sound like the guy you would constantly be rolling your eyes at behind his back?
Impossible to argue other than that the question ought to be: “Why NOT Mac?” to which of course, there is no answer..!
Succinct and to the point Mr. Stross. Music to everyones ears.
Chevrolet Shitweasel
This may be the funniest thing I have ever heard!
For the record, we are a international forestry consulting firm running a new iMac 27″ 2.8Ghz Quad-core Intel i7 with the ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB graphic card. We exclusively run Windows XP on this machine and ESRI GIS software (ArcView and Spatial Analyst) as well as MS Access, etc. All work FLAWLESSLY on the mac. This machine smokes our other ESRI configured Dell workstations. I highly recommend this mac for database, GIS and other mapping/graphic intensive work.
@QuadCore…
BINGO! Nailed it!
And Aeron chairs were hip back in the 90s.
That’s one of the dorkiest bits I’ve read in some time.
I’m as fanatical a Mac User as there is… All Mac & Microsoft-free since 1985… but this is an embarrassment.
My dog eats better than I do, not sure what he’s trying to say!
Chevrolet is more reliable than Mercedes and Bimmer. Mecedes is the least reliable car sold in the US. you will have 160 to 240 percent more probility of havei g a problem than any other car in the US. things change, but at the moment- from the 80 to current they are at the bottom of the list.
So Chevrolet is not crap. Mercedes is really bad in reliabilty. If in doubt check it out. Start with consumer reports and work from there.
Too funny. My brother-in-law sits in the kitchen on a stool staring at a PC. toooo funny.
I have an IKEA desk. At least it’s Swedish.
It’s the simple things like no fan noise unless you’re really doing something intensive like ripping a DVD. The fan comes on around my Macs and it’s really noticeable
My PCs roar from start up to shut down. On the other hand, they keep the room nice and warm.
I have to agree with the BMW analogy, except in my case it’s a Volvo. Not only are there big differences in the details, but over-all build quality stands out with these European cars (BMWs, Mercedes, Audi, Volvo, Saab, etc). It’s the same with Apple–look “under the hood” of a Mac and you’ll witness superior build quality and the best in functional industrial design.
And it’s not a question of being rich or wishing to show status, this is not what it’s about. Rather, it’s about recognizing and valuing quality in your life, and in recognizing how these products improve your general quality of life. For us normal folks who can’t afford everything, it then becomes a matter of picking only what one really needs, of valuing minimalism in one’s material life.
I sense this difference every time I have to sit in a Chevrolet or other American car, or when I fix a friend’s Dell, HP, or Acer computer. The commodity-like, low-end cheapness of these products is obvious and striking.
All car-computer analogies are inherently and completely wrong, but this must be said: if you think a Mac is a BMW, you obviously don’t own one because BMW quality is dreadful.
“It’d be like spending sixty hours a week driving a cheap Chevrolet Shitweasel instead of a Mercedes: sure, think of the savings — but the pain will get to you in the end.”
This probably better sums up the PC vs Mac as well I have heard in many, many years.