thomas fitzgerald.net

I have been reading an old book by Photoshop maestro Scott Kelby, called Macintosh… The Naked Truth. The book was written several years ago, shortly after the iPod was just released, before Apple’s renaissance. In it he describes what it is like to own a mac in the winows dominated world. It is an entertaining read, but it hits home in a number of places. In one part Scott describes the insults you can get just from using a mac in a public place, or how someone you just met can feel the need to completely deride you just because of your computer of choice. As a long time mac user I remember the feelings well. It’s something the vast PC using public never really understood, how just because you used a mac you left ourself open to chiding and abuse form virtual strangers. I remember being almost bullied in a job I had many years ago because I used a mac and everyone else uses a Pc. Every mac user has a similar tale. But thankfully those days are gone. It is amazing how times have changed. In fact, what is even more amazing are the number of calls lately from PC pundits for mac users “to leave poor Microsoft alone”

When Apple poked fun at Microsoft over Vista at last years WWDC, there were calls of “unfair” arrogance from Apple. Simirlarly with the “Get a mac” campaign, people are crying foul, claiming that Apple, and somehow by extension mac users are being unfair to Windows users. Of course in the ads Apple never says windows is a bad platform, just that you can do many things on a mc with more “fun”. In fact, they go out of their way not to directly insult PC Users, jsut the computer. But this hasn’t stopped many people from seeing the ads as mocking the users of windows. But the icing on the cake came last week when long time PC Pundit, Paul Thurrott was writing about the Leopard delay on his blog. He claims that mac users gave Apple a pass on the Leopard delay so why can’t they do the same for Microsoft. Since when did Microsoft neeed defending? The company has 95% of the computer operating system market shar, acts as a brutal and opressive monopoly, but somehow Microsoft and it’s legions of users need defending from the other 5%? What the hell? This is the company that made a name for itself by buying its way into markets, not to compete, but to crush them. Have times changed that much int he last couple of years that we have gone from being afraid to take out a copy of mac user in a public place lest some smart ass PC nerd utters some stupid insult at you to being the ones hurling the insults? When did mac users become the bad guys?

But what struck me more as I though about this, and what got me even more riled was the very idea of Microsoft fans needing to be defended against the rampaging mac horde. Especially because in my experience, the difference between microsoft fans and mac fans is that mac users attack the windows platform, windows people seem to attack the mac users themselves. It’s as if there must be something wrong with you because you’re not using a real computer. For years, using, what was considered by many to be the “underdog of computing”, left you open to these kind of sentiments, but luckily these days the perpetration of these stereotypes by PC users is diminishing, save for a few hold outs like Thurrott and Dvorak who regularly express their disdain, not just with Apple’s products, but with the users themselves.

To paraphrase Bill Clinton, If you have a problem with a computer, or a company explain what you think is wrong and why it should be different. But don’t attack the people who use it just because they have chosen a particular platform.

(As an aside, when Microsoft pulls stunts like this, any ribbing by Apple or anyone else is fair game)