Write Back Weekend "Control, Alt, Delete You!"
Last week's TITMT asked you whether you preferred Mac's or PC's. Some of you might have thought this was a rather strange question to ask that offered very little chance for elaboration. After all, a computer is a computer, right? You also might think this is the sort of thing you never had to take an official stance on before.
Meanwhile others of you might have scoffed that I asked this question in the first place. Chances are, if you are a die-hard about one operating system or another the choice seems so obvious, you are bored with the idea of even having to answer.
Au contraire. Right at this very moment, while you read this very blog, you have already made a decision on what sort of computer person you are. Are you on a Mac or a PC? Chances are whatever one you use for most of your activities also says a lot about you as a person.
Since Apple and Windows are each other's biggest competitors, I guess it only makes sense that many of their users have adapted this mentality, too. So somewhere along the line, stereotypes were born.
The following is a broad-based view of typical PC/Mac stereotypes. Please do not get passionate about anything on these lists. I just blog here.
If you are a PC user you typically are a down to earth person who prefers more of a simplistic machine. You prefer function over style, but since you don't "style" for a living, you have enough function. The same can be extended to your style of dress and choice of foods. Name brands are not too important to you. You wear or eat, whatever looks good, not just because it was prepared by hand by an organic chef.
Mac users, meanwhile, are known for preferring style over function. Their computers are sleek and streamlined, as are typically, their underwear and sock drawers. They are often Starbucks drinking, J Crew wearing type of folk. They prefer a Mac over a PC for a Mac's ability in the elements of professions dealing with things like design and editing.
While I've never owned a MAC, I have had the privilege of working with both types of machines. All my life I've been a PC person and yes, that's what I'm still typing on now. A few years back I worked as a Print Production Assistant at a Marketing and Communications firm. Everyone had MAC's, but the company was split into half designers, half account managers and then of course, me. The MAC's were the better choice for the designers as they are, no doubt, the superior machine in this department.
But if you don't design, Mac's, in my opinion, really are a waste of your time. Oh sure the machine looked cool, but in my experience, there were many impractical ways to go about doing practical things. It would take me double, sometimes triple the time to figure out a function on a Mac that I could have figured out lickety-split on a PC. I didn't hate on the Mac though. Instead I imagined this would be what I would feel like if I went to say, Italy. Mac users, like Italians, aren't bad people. They just spoke a language I couldn't understand.
One advantage of having a Mac though is that Mac's are universal. Certain things come standard with a Mac. With PC's on the other hand, you can have different versions of the operating system and a number of different companies make the machines that use them. This makes fixing them more of a challenge unless you know what version of Windows the user is working with or what manufacturer quirks to factor into said operating system. So if you have mastered the Mac mumbo jumbo, congratulations. In terms of frustration you're probably way ahead of the game.
There's also a misconception that comes along with Windows. A lot of times they take for granted the type of customer they are dealing with. No one makes those sort of assumptions about Mac users. Meanwhile PC users, after purchasing a new laptop, often have to fight to remove unwanted, bundled software like a trial version of AOL. It's a no win situation. Those who aren't computer "nerds" will undoubtedly pick a PC over a Mac, but that doesn't mean that all PC users are that ignorant about the company they keep.
But if you've ever encountered a hardcore Mac enthusiast or PC aficionado, you'd understand just how heated the debate over PC's and Mac's can get. I know this first hand as my boyfriend is a computer programmer who has a true love/hate relationship with Macs. He understands a Mac's assets, but hates the air of superiority he feels comes with being a hardcore Mac user. He owns an ipod which constantly serves to be both amusing and nauseating at the same time.
He also is extremely angered by the "corporate agenda" of Macintosh and it's their gimmicks that irritate me. iPod. iBook. iTunes. iPhone. iwant to gagit'salljustsodamncute. Then there's the fact that every time we watch a movie or TV show and there is someone on the computer, he points out that the person is more often than not, using a MAC. Amazingly, I lived the first twenty-two or so years of my life never noticing (or caring) about this little detail. But now I do find myself intrigued by the very same thing. I understand that for the people who make movies and television how Mac's are the superior choice, but does that mean everyone in the movie has to use one, too? This he feels is constant, semi-subliminal free advertising and I have to say, I see his point. I just don't feel the need to shout obscenities at the screen because of this.
Further perpetrating the myth is the company of Apple itself. With their recent ad campaigns people represent Mac's and PC's. You need not know much about a Mac or a PC to tell they are mocking the very same stereotypes on which both operating systems exist. Mac users, therefore, are often self aware. They know their product costs more but they make no apologies for this. This in itself falls in line with a Mac user's behavior. PC users meanwhile are lumped into two groups, those who are offended and those who don't know enough to be offended, much like the PC users themselves.
Some might say that while the battle lines have been drawn and the competition has heated up, that an end is in sight. After all, both operating systems continually improve if only because they feed off of the need to beat each other at their own game. And as time marches on they are beginning to meet in the middle and work together for the sake of the users.
But if all else fails and the Montague and Capulet's of the technological world remain star crossed, just remember, there's always the lovable Linux to turn to.
Meanwhile others of you might have scoffed that I asked this question in the first place. Chances are, if you are a die-hard about one operating system or another the choice seems so obvious, you are bored with the idea of even having to answer.
Au contraire. Right at this very moment, while you read this very blog, you have already made a decision on what sort of computer person you are. Are you on a Mac or a PC? Chances are whatever one you use for most of your activities also says a lot about you as a person.
Since Apple and Windows are each other's biggest competitors, I guess it only makes sense that many of their users have adapted this mentality, too. So somewhere along the line, stereotypes were born.
The following is a broad-based view of typical PC/Mac stereotypes. Please do not get passionate about anything on these lists. I just blog here.
If you are a PC user you typically are a down to earth person who prefers more of a simplistic machine. You prefer function over style, but since you don't "style" for a living, you have enough function. The same can be extended to your style of dress and choice of foods. Name brands are not too important to you. You wear or eat, whatever looks good, not just because it was prepared by hand by an organic chef.
Mac users, meanwhile, are known for preferring style over function. Their computers are sleek and streamlined, as are typically, their underwear and sock drawers. They are often Starbucks drinking, J Crew wearing type of folk. They prefer a Mac over a PC for a Mac's ability in the elements of professions dealing with things like design and editing.
While I've never owned a MAC, I have had the privilege of working with both types of machines. All my life I've been a PC person and yes, that's what I'm still typing on now. A few years back I worked as a Print Production Assistant at a Marketing and Communications firm. Everyone had MAC's, but the company was split into half designers, half account managers and then of course, me. The MAC's were the better choice for the designers as they are, no doubt, the superior machine in this department.
But if you don't design, Mac's, in my opinion, really are a waste of your time. Oh sure the machine looked cool, but in my experience, there were many impractical ways to go about doing practical things. It would take me double, sometimes triple the time to figure out a function on a Mac that I could have figured out lickety-split on a PC. I didn't hate on the Mac though. Instead I imagined this would be what I would feel like if I went to say, Italy. Mac users, like Italians, aren't bad people. They just spoke a language I couldn't understand.
One advantage of having a Mac though is that Mac's are universal. Certain things come standard with a Mac. With PC's on the other hand, you can have different versions of the operating system and a number of different companies make the machines that use them. This makes fixing them more of a challenge unless you know what version of Windows the user is working with or what manufacturer quirks to factor into said operating system. So if you have mastered the Mac mumbo jumbo, congratulations. In terms of frustration you're probably way ahead of the game.
There's also a misconception that comes along with Windows. A lot of times they take for granted the type of customer they are dealing with. No one makes those sort of assumptions about Mac users. Meanwhile PC users, after purchasing a new laptop, often have to fight to remove unwanted, bundled software like a trial version of AOL. It's a no win situation. Those who aren't computer "nerds" will undoubtedly pick a PC over a Mac, but that doesn't mean that all PC users are that ignorant about the company they keep.
But if you've ever encountered a hardcore Mac enthusiast or PC aficionado, you'd understand just how heated the debate over PC's and Mac's can get. I know this first hand as my boyfriend is a computer programmer who has a true love/hate relationship with Macs. He understands a Mac's assets, but hates the air of superiority he feels comes with being a hardcore Mac user. He owns an ipod which constantly serves to be both amusing and nauseating at the same time.
He also is extremely angered by the "corporate agenda" of Macintosh and it's their gimmicks that irritate me. iPod. iBook. iTunes. iPhone. iwant to gagit'salljustsodamncute. Then there's the fact that every time we watch a movie or TV show and there is someone on the computer, he points out that the person is more often than not, using a MAC. Amazingly, I lived the first twenty-two or so years of my life never noticing (or caring) about this little detail. But now I do find myself intrigued by the very same thing. I understand that for the people who make movies and television how Mac's are the superior choice, but does that mean everyone in the movie has to use one, too? This he feels is constant, semi-subliminal free advertising and I have to say, I see his point. I just don't feel the need to shout obscenities at the screen because of this.
Further perpetrating the myth is the company of Apple itself. With their recent ad campaigns people represent Mac's and PC's. You need not know much about a Mac or a PC to tell they are mocking the very same stereotypes on which both operating systems exist. Mac users, therefore, are often self aware. They know their product costs more but they make no apologies for this. This in itself falls in line with a Mac user's behavior. PC users meanwhile are lumped into two groups, those who are offended and those who don't know enough to be offended, much like the PC users themselves.
Some might say that while the battle lines have been drawn and the competition has heated up, that an end is in sight. After all, both operating systems continually improve if only because they feed off of the need to beat each other at their own game. And as time marches on they are beginning to meet in the middle and work together for the sake of the users.
But if all else fails and the Montague and Capulet's of the technological world remain star crossed, just remember, there's always the lovable Linux to turn to.
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