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23 Jan 2009
So we've had 25 years of GUI Macs, but I for one won't be putting up any bunting or hiring a marching band. Why? Because I hate the things.
The media seems full of stories by journalists reminiscing about the first time they used a Mac, what a revelation they were and how the world is a brighter, sunnier place because Steve Jobs, or in actual fact Steve Wozniak, created such a work of genius.
So, in the interest of balance, and because my esteemed editor knew that I'd kill, or at least seriously maim, to write a piece like this, here is my take on why Macs aren't all they're cracked up to be.
Software
For someone who'd grown up programming Sinclair ZX81s and DOS systems, there was
a certain amount of geek awe the first time I encountered a Mac. The GUI made
the computer easy for anyone to use, and made it possible for a few people in an
office to turn out magazines and handbooks perfectly easily.
But, as time went on, the Mac moved from being a useful tool to something to be loathed. Sure, the GUI looked good but, when you're used to a command line interface and all that you can do with it, the Mac OS has some serious disadvantages.
Firstly, there was software compatibility. Because the prevailing ethos at Apple was 'our way or the highway' the company persisted in using an operating system that couldn't run 90 per cent of the software on the market, and developers had a tough time coding for it and making a living.
Wanted to buy games for your Mac? Well, you had a tiny pool of options and those companies that did convert PC games for the Mac did so after considerable delay most of the time.
Then there was the operating system itself. If you wanted to get into it and change the settings you had to use a tool called ResEdit. Using ResEdit in those days was like trying to repair a nuclear reactor with a stone axe: you had to back up everything before trying because you were almost guaranteed a system crash afterwards.
You needed to use it, however, because the Mac couldn't multitask very well. It wasn't bad at doing one thing well, but try and open up another application and it slowed right down or just hung.
And
while we're on the topic of system crashes, there's the 'Sad Mac' feature. When
the system went down, taking the day's work with it, it displayed a little sad
face and played you the noise of a car crash. Hardly informative to say the
least.
The problem is that Apple had decided that consumers were stupid and shouldn't be allowed to actually get into the software to change things. That was an Apple engineer's job and it should be made as hard as possible for anyone else. It's an attitude that has persisted for years.
In the interest of fairness I have to say that this problem has now been largely fixed with the introduction of OS X. At last Mac users have a relatively open operating system that's flexible and functional. Too bad it took 20 odd years to come about, but there you go. However, that still leaves the problem of the hardware.
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Do you agree?
*sigh*
I prefer using my Mac for some tasks. I prefer booting my PC into Windows for other tasks. I prefer Debian for still other tasks. I've never had a crippling problem with interoperability. There is a brain in my skull. All you haters on both sides need to get a life. That's all.
Posted by: emrys 14 Jan 2010
:roll;
*rolls eyes* You Mac people are so ADORABLE with sticking up for your beloved product! I have nothing bad to say about Apple; I use a Mac at work, I love it, my iPhone doesn't leave my hands OR my sight, and my grandmother absolutely loves her Mac because it's so easy for her to use (at almost 80). However, I am a gamer and using WoW on a Mac = proves difficult. It's just easier on a PC. Just because Iain has his own opinion doesn't mean he's wrong. Also I met my boyfriend at WWDC...so I'm also a little biased as to why I love Apple so much ;) Just think about how boring this world would be if EVERYONE used Windows or EVERYONE used a Mac. Diversity, people. Remember it exists outside of race.
Posted by: nerdress 28 Jul 2009
Brilliant.
Brilliant article, Iain. The best part is the miles of trollish comments from incomprehensibly defensive Mac users. If the thing works so well for your sadly limited brain, why do you care if someone else hates it? Better get used to it, lots of people do. Coming from an IT background, I remember all of the nightmares that Apple gave me over the years trying to integrate their poorly engineered computers and software into a real network. Eventually, we'd end up creating a seperate network for them so that they wouldn't be a constant pain in the ass. This of course created double the work for us having to maintain two networks of divergent technologies. Yes, for the most part, all of that has changed. What hasn't changed is the viewpoint that history has given me. As a result of those early experiences, I've been skeptical of Apple ever since. Yes, the new (well, recycled) operating system looks good. Yes, the interoperability of the platform has been vastly improved. What hasn't changed is Apple itself. It still has some of the most deceptive advertising in the industry. I'm not sure why, perhaps because of laxer regulations, but in North America this never seems to be an issue. In the UK however, their ads have been banned on at least two occasions I can think of. Once for claiming that their latest Mac was the 'most powerful desktop computer in the world', which of course was a blatant lie. The next was showing an iPhone in a commercial in a way that was purposefully deceptive and showed the phone responding to user commands infinitely faster than it actually could in reality. Their response to the ban was that "no sane person would actually believe that's how it worked". Really? I'm sorry, but when I see advertisements that give indication as to the fit and purpose of a given product, I expect it to perform at least close to what I've been shown. If it doesn't, that's false advertising. Then there is the companies longstanding policy of dismissing, insulting and then eventually adopting technologies their competitors use. A good example is the 'Mighty Mouse'. For a decade or more, Apple was (apparently) of the firm belief that their users were too stupid to use a mouse that had more than one button. When OS X and the many *nix applications it was suddenly capable of running required right click functionality, it was suddenly a major technological innovation on their part that produced this 'new' mouse. Did they admit, even out of the press that their 10-year tack on the subject was wrong? No, instead they put forth the notion that they invented extra buttons on a mouse. And finally, my last philosophical objection to Apple -- market fragmentation. From the early hobbiest computers until the mid-80's there were so many platforms competing for a limited userbase that it was entirely far too frequent that great software failed because it only ran on a single platform. Choosing a platform was a hit and miss proposition. For a similar length of time, we enjoyed the benefits of a near-homogenous environment where pretty much every system was Windows-based. You could write software and be sure it would run on pretty much anyones machine -- without having to invest 2 or 3 times the resources to make it cross-platform. Thanks to the incomprehensible resurgence of Apple, the market is now fragmenting again. You were probably too young at the time to remember this, or maybe you weren't smart enough to be into computing back then -- but it's really a bad place to be. Interestingly, most of the gripes that Apple users put forth are related to choice. Crashes, etc are usually the result of bad drivers from third party manufacturers and not the fault of Microsoft in any way (short of trying to sell their own computers and not sell the OS to third parties, which would no doubt result in a anti-trust sh*tstorm of epic proportions). With quality hardware from quality vendors you generally don't have these issues. A great example is all the problems Mac users have had with Nvidia chips in their machines going south. When I first started using Vista, all of the crashes etc that I had were in the end related to poor drivers from Nvidia. Switched to ATI and everything was fine. Thank god for choice. I don't hate Apple for trying to do what they do. I do hate them for their deceptive advertising -- and I'm not just talking the two ads mentioned earlier. Even the "Get a Mac" ads are 100% deception and only someone completely naive when it comes to computers would believe those propaganda spots. PS - Love the Pinocchio image superimposed over the Apple log. So fitting. So accurate.
Posted by: Chris L 05 Jun 2009
Smugness....
....ummmmm, uh.......yeah PCs are living proof that that you can train chimps to use computers. The networking girl at the office should have added more ram-or followed the instructions.I worked in an office that ditched it's Macs when Bill Gates became a client and it made everyone miserable. Macs are made for intelligent people who want quality products and longevity. PCs are usually useless after a few years unless you buy-oh wait-a really expensive one. There's a guy in Hollywood who records bands like the Stones, Motly Crue, who just upgraded to a new ocata-core from his circa 1992 mac-as in he was recording the biggest bands in the world on a Mac built 17 years ago, with 17 year-old software. Rome wasn't built in a day, neither was Rolls Royce or Mercedes, but there are alot more vintage of those than the K Car.
Posted by: Me 16 Mar 2009
I agree with Iain
I was brought up on Unix and hated GUIs (mainly, it has to be said, due to the first versions of Windows), but after using PCs and trying to use Macs I soon learned that PCs were a damn sight easier to find your way around, and easier to fix when they went wrong. Using a Mac simply gave me an urge to chuck it against a wall. And I also have to admit to hating the smugness of Apple users, and to hating the IPod and all things Apple, simply because their corporate ethos appears to be "Screw you, you're only there to give us money". And don't get me started on Steve Jobs.
Posted by: Dan Bradley 06 Feb 2009
ok...
ok this is stupid now. they have different demographics, macs are aimed at the artistic and new user market, while pc is aimed at the gaming,enthusiest,corperate markets.so they both have good points and bad ones. so stop being so childish and think different. ps:ive never liked macs either. also ignore my spelling.
Posted by: xbhl 02 Feb 2009
The market decides
Nice trip down memory lane. All those problems, solved a long time ago. Microsoft doesn't decide, nor does Apple, people do. They only force you to buy their stuff if you violate shrinkwrap licensing and get caught. People buy machines and software to gain an edge, and this year Apple provides a sharper edge than Microsoft. Competition is good. Twenty-four years ago, Apple really was the only game in town for low-cost desktop publishing. Nowadays they sell a heck of a lot of laptops. ResEdit and Resorcerer could be used to destabilize an app or the OS. They are software development tools, not intended for end-users.
Posted by: Mike 27 Jan 2009
This article will have more hits...
This article will have more hits then many other 25th anniversary article written about the Mac. Why? Because Mac users will click on the title (I did) just because they can't understand why someone would hate the Macintosh. And then once they read the article they will be left wondering why they even bothered reading the article. The only reason I'm leaving a comment is because I would like to say that this article is actually bait to get hits. Not to make a point. Not to actually give an insightful look into the world of computing. No, the only reason this has been published is to generate hits from Mac users who enjoy using their computers and can't understand why someone would hate a Mac.
Posted by: Tony Tiger 26 Jan 2009
But you aren't an ordinary consumer
You admit it in your rant. Me and my family members (we have 4 imacs and we range in age from 21 - 83) do normal things like, surf the internet, email, collect and send digital photos, have a lot of music (the 83 year old has a great Glenn Miller collection on her iTunes) and to some writing and desktop publishing. Hmm...sounds like what about 99% of the publics does with their computers. For us all, Apple is the logical choice because it..well it just works logically. For the 21 years old, for the 5o something parents and for the 83 years old mother (who's 1200 miles from us and loves iChat to keep in touch. Sorry Apple isn't for you. May you should get a life (or an iLife)
Posted by: Tampa Tom 25 Jan 2009
ethics and marketing cut both ways
All Microsoft lovers should read "Barbarians Led By Bill Gates". If you haven't read it you owe yourself as a Microsoft lover to read it.
Posted by: MPR 25 Jan 2009
Some PC users are equally smug
Some say that Mac users are smug, but I find many PC users to be equally smug with their my-PC-is-holier-than-thou-Mac-attitude. There are PC users that follow their own cult of PC. These people deeply loathe those who love their Mac. They can't understand it. They can't grasp that people even consider using a Mac. If you say that you use a Mac, they immediately give you this ugly stare, and go into their rhetoric mode on how Macs are pricier, less expandable, etc. As if people can't decide for themselves. Most Mac users couldn't care less if people want to use a PC/Windows. And most Mac users are critical of Apple, despite the PC world painting a picture of Mac users being Jobs worshippers. But it's the attitude of superiority that quite some PC users radiate, and their sense of not understanding, that cause Mac users to go on the defensive. This is something PC users don't seem to grasp: It's the smugness in the PC world, the cult of PC/Windows, that causes some Mac users to become smug, because they feel that they are vilified for their decision and have to defend the platform. Understand, though, that many Mac users just use their Mac as a tool, just want to be happy, don't see the need to defend their decision, and have no problem with PCs, Windows, and even using them when they have to.
Posted by: John Farragut 25 Jan 2009
I feel the same way
I feel exactly the same way you feel, only my company of hateful choice in Microsoft. Can't stand the company, it's horrible products, it's slimy corporate tactics, or it's dancing monkey management. So, I can empathize with you...... Man. :o)
Posted by: Sean 25 Jan 2009
You're kidding, right?
Look, you don't need to be an apple disciple to feel like your arguments are less about criticism and more about resentment. Apple has made mistakes during its history, sure, and these mistakes cost them not only market share but also may have slowed the technical advancement of its products. But had developers adhered to the values the passing of which you lament, the 21st century would still be 20 years away. When I read your line lambasting Apple for alienating the command-line gurus, I couldn't decide whether I was about to read a satire or an actual criticism. The world would not have chosen command-line fluency, would not have explored all that technology has to offer upon realizing that the command line blurs the boundary between user and computer. The command line REINFORCES that boundary for most people. The metaphor technology you criticize is what allows people to feel like they understand their computer, and even though it may close the system to them in ways they don't realize, they don't care. The GUI system is critical to individuals feeling comfortable enough to explore their own creativity on a computer. Typewriters didn't go obsolete until word processing went WYSIWYG. Imagine presenting, video editing, or publishing via a command line. Additionally, some of the mistakes you accuse Apple of are actually examples of its success. Don't blame Apple for designing their consumer product, the iMac, so well that business users wanted it in their offices. Blame the business managers who didn't, or didn't want to, understand that the iMac specs targeted it for the consumer. The Apple of this decade is consistently about targeting specific markets. But its products are so good that the targeted markets want more, or the un-targeted want in. Many of Apples recent problems are about the difficulty managing this halo effect. However, a halo isn't a bug, its a feature. It is the expansion of demand for a company's products, and other than managing that demand, how is that ever bad? Jobs himself gave you what you wanted, the best of both worlds, in 1987 with the NeXT operating system. He did the best he could to get that to the rest of the world in a timely fashion (once he began to yield to the the idea that expensive design didn't sell), and now we all have the power to command-line ourselves into space with OS X. Heck, we could Linux, Debian, or Ubuntu ourselves for free, without OS X. But even so, who uses the command line? Who wants to use it? Almost nobody. Everyone GUIs, and we're all better off for it. The GUI enabled the digital revolution, and the Mac pioneered the GUI in the consumer space. Your criticisms reveal your elitist resentment you and your command-line friends don't get to be the gatekeepers to that world. Instead, we all get to share in that bounty, which is all the more bountiful for our presence. By the way, if you had your way, if your dreams for the command-line life came to pass, who would be reading you right now? Where would you publish? How would you advertise?
Posted by: znosko 25 Jan 2009
Oh, my GOD, what a wuss!
Your essay provoked such a wave of laughter that I'm just able to type after a ten minute hiatus. Your view of Apple features "factoids" of startup problems so far in the past that MOST readers were not even BORN when they were relevant. Your observations on Mac users are, yawn, predictable and BORING. What I loved most about your "review" was that it reviewed almost NOTHING. It was a RANT by someone so outside the mainstream that it is merely another drooling reply to the demise of Vista by Microsoft's own hands.
Posted by: Bruce Havourd, Havourd Graphics/Media 25 Jan 2009
Are you really that ignorant?
What a terrible article. Having a Anti-Mac bias is one thing, but your article is so full of errors it is laughable... - Steve Wozniak had no hand in the Macintosh - Resedit allowed you to customize look and feel of applications usually without causing ANY issues to the application because of the disparate Data and Resource forks of Mac files. It was not until the PowerPC that ANY of the code resided in the Resource Fork. Tons of applications were customized by end users using ResEdit, rarely with any issues. Windows never had this easy capability because resource were linked into the single binary. - Why did you NEED to use ResEdit because the system was a co-operative multi tasking machine? How are these related to each other? - The sad Mac ONLY appeared on boot up with system failures. The crash was a bomb, equally fatal, but you certainly were not aware you lost ANYTHING with a sad Mac, other than the ability to even turn on your Mac.... - What is this with Apple banning people from modifying software? Funny, I don't see the world running Linux, and I do see many people modifying open source stuff (and the same applied in the past). It is actually Apple these days that give developers free developer tools (and back then, ResEdit was free) - The machine that needed to be dropped from 6 inches to reseat the chips was the Apple ///, not any Macintosh. The "Early" machines, the 128 and 512, had their memory soldered - they were not even on memory cards... - I don't recall it being easier to upgrade memory or CPUs in earlier PCs either, with the exact same caveat that if you did not know what you were doing, you were bound to cause problems. If anything, it was the Mac Plus that was the 1st machine with memory on a SIMM (Single Inline Memory Module), making RAM upgrades much harder than pushing chips into the Motherboard of a PC. - Macs were the 1st PCs to include a TCP/IP stack without having to have to pay for one, making them easier to get on the Internet. Apple also pioneered AppleTalk, allowing for configuration free networking. They then followed up with ZNC (called Rendevouz before changing it to Bonjour due to trademark issues). Windows PCs have still not caught up with the elegant simple networking that Macs had. I'll grant you they did not network well with Windows until recently, but were the 1st to have built in file sharing, built in printer sharing, built in web sharing. - Your Malware comment has been refuted so many times, I will leave it alone... Maybe the reason you found Mac users to be smug was because they found you so ignorant, that you did not warrant being taken seriously. Enough said...
Posted by: Eytan 24 Jan 2009
Lame arguments
why do you argue percentage of market when you know damned well that a market that's supposedly "wide open" to attacks at this point and has over 10M of those "wide open" machines is plenty more than enough to launch one of the biggest attacks ever seen? It's been debunked over and over that AppleTalk is too "chatty", but I'll leave that as an exercise to you. I'm not going to go chasing down facts you should have found before you wrote this rubbish. I'm sure there are auto mechanics out there bitching that cars are just too damned easy to use, that regular consumers should know how to change their own oil, rebuild their own engines, rotate their own tires, etc. You're a geek. Fine. Know your place in the world and don't try to make the world into your place. You live here in San Francisco and you're so imperious? Are you new? :)
Posted by: God of Biscuits 24 Jan 2009
Everything you know (or say) is wrong
Complete drivel. Just for a start, with the most obvious point - the "drop the computer to re-seat the chips" bit had nothing to do with the Macintosh; it applied to a completely different product that predates the Mac. Most of your other points are equally pointless.
Posted by: scots13 24 Jan 2009
10-year old article just getting published
+ Wow...talk about a late-90s article making its way into publication in 2009. The title of your article is "Why I Still Hate Them," then your article lists all these problems, such as networking with PCs, that have, by your own admission, been fixed. So if the problems you mention are fixed, why do you "still" hate Macs? Because, like system administrators, your memory is no more sophisticated than an elephant's and you insist on living in the past? And then there's your opening arguments, where you bemoan the inability to get into the software of the Mac and tinker around. Umnn...hello? That was the POIINT of the Mac: It was, and still is, a computing TOOL, NOT a hobbyist's toy. It is for people who want to do more than muck with code...they want to actually USE the computer as a tool and do something OTHER than computing. The Mac has been, and continues to be, a means to multiple ends, NOT a computing end in itself. You then extrapolate on the Mac's non-software-tinkerability, and make the ludicrous claim that it was hard for developers to create software for the Mac. Have you ever picked up a copy of any volume from Apple's "Inside Macintosh" series? The Mac programmer's Bible and Encyclopedia back in the pre-OS X days? The one that documented the Mac Toolbox and everything else you needed to know to program a Mac? Have you -- like me -- ever written a Mac application, using the Toolbox routines and crafting a proper GUI? (I'd argue that the Mac was the first computer to actually create standards for third-party programmers, rather than barriers to software development.) OK, I'll assume you didn't bother to look into that. Regardless, let's look further into your argument that the Mac made it hard for third-party software development. Now...have you heard, by chance, of this little software outfit called Adobe? You know, the software house that's second only to Microsoft in terms of size? Well where do you think they got their start? (Where did Microsoft first debut Excel, for that matter?) On the Mac. And Adobe managed to do pretty well for themselves. I'm guessing they picked up the whole set of Inside Macintosh. They make Photoshop, a program that's the worldwide standard for image editing. I use it every day. On a Mac. Because when I'm earning money making a living and working on a project for a client (and my clients are in technical industries where deadlines matter), I want to create images, NOT program the computer. And get the work done on time. Period. Whole industries grew up around Macs for this very reason. They enabled people to do things they could NOT do on ANY other computer. Desktop publishing. Graphic design. Audio production. Video production. Every professional field of content creation is dominated by Macs, because they enable people who need a TOOL to use the Mac as a TOOL, and NOT as some hobbyist's box for code hacks who like to muck with Pascal, or C, or the programming language of your choice. And games? Oh dear God, why do you PC Mac-haters always talk about games? Yes, there are a LOT more games for PCs. I'm assuming that's because the PC fanboys who have time to muck around with code also have time to play games, thus creating a bigger market. It appears we Mac users, though, are too busy creating and earning our livings on our computers, rather than tweaking code and getting to the next level of the zillionth generic PC FPS, hence the dearth of a zillion different FPS games that are all variations of Doom and/or Quake and/or Halo, etc. (Yet those three ARE available on the Mac, FYI. Unreal Tournament, too. And Call of Duty.) Oh....You can afford all those games yet you constantly complain about the price of Macs? Priorities.... And expandability? Let me tell you something about that. I am a power user. I use Adobe Creative Suite, Cinema 4D, and Final Cut Studio, among others. Those apps I listed are some of the most processor-intensive you will find. (The Cinebench performance benchmark derives from Cinema 4D, if that tells you anything.) And I do it all on a new iMac. The unexpandable all-in-one consumer model. Works fine. Gets the job done, even 3D rendering. Yet less than a year ago, I was doing it all on an 800MHz Mac G4 Quicksilver tower, with NO CPU upgrades. That Mac gave me over six years of faithful performance with its original specs. So...you complain that Macs are too expensive, yet also complain that you can't spend money to later upgrade them? Maybe that's because, unlike cheap PCs, Macs don't NEED upgraded as often because they ship fully loaded? Just a thought. And finally, regarding the implied "Apple-is-a-liar" logo: How are they liars? What's the lie? Apple never said the Mac was for people who have nothing better to do than tinker with code, and hardware, and play games. That was not, and is still not, the purpose of the Mac. The Mac, again, is a serious, professional tool for people like me, and an easy-to-use computer for millions of consumers who use them to surf the web, use email, and manage their digital music, photos, and movies. That's why Macs are made, how they're marketed, and who they're for. Your article misses this point entirely.
Posted by: mrmgraphics 24 Jan 2009
Woz had zero to do with the Mac
Steve Wozniak had absolutely nothing to do with the creation of the Macintosh. If the tool who wrote the article can't even get this basic fact right, why should anyone believe anything else he says?
Posted by: Iain Thomson is a tool 24 Jan 2009
A brilliant article
(As in, 'one whose viewpoint I share') I don't hate Macs - I just don't think they're worth the slavering adulation. But I think one of the reasons that some of us will never "get it" is that many of the downsides just don't make any difference to the average non-techie user. Hardware difficult to upgrade? PC is no better is you wouldn't know a stick of RAM if it stabbed you in the eye. Difficult to configure the OS? Sure, but how many people do, want to, or should be allowed to play with regedit? If Mac only stops people from doing things that never occurred to them in the first place, I guess they'll never 'get' why it's not all that.
Posted by: Moqingbird 24 Jan 2009
P.S.
£%^k off, 'Lee'. Did you even read the article? (No, I don't really expect this to get past the editors) :)
Posted by: Moqingbird 24 Jan 2009
Happy 25th
I use OSX, Windows and Linux every day; office environment, network environment, home environment. A nitpicked HISTORY of problems between Macs and PCs is a useless harangue. Honestly, I love OSX and I'm eagerly awaiting Windows 7, but if you look at past and current personal computing it's more often been Apple who has made some of the biggest strides in implementing many prominent standards we take for granted - of course the GUI is the earliest example. And as much as I'm awaiting Windows 7, the beta has proved to be yet another example of Apple's influence. You can bitch about Apple control freakiness and some of their voracious snooty fans, but the fact is the original Macintosh and the current Macintosh were/are innovation leaders.
Posted by: Dan 24 Jan 2009
Hating inanimate objects
Dude, you hate a machine. Geeks are really, really bizarre sometimes. You really should get out more often, seriously. Maybe live and work somewhere when you don't need a computer and technology. Perhaps Theodore Kaczynski's shack is rentable ; ) I hear it has built-in Luddite and not much else.
Posted by: Venrdryl 24 Jan 2009
The reason
Can we cut the crap here? We all know the real reason guys like you hate the Mac. It took your power away from you. Before the Mac guys like you lorded it all over the rest of us. Only you could operate a computer with your precious command line. You thought of yourselves as godlike figures and looked down on mere mortals with disdain. We had to come to you if we even wanted to schedule some time on a computer. You controlled access to the god machine, like the high priest guards the temple's inner sanctum. The Mac showed us all that the emperor had no clothes. The GUI, the mouse, the desktop metaphor gave us the power and tools to do it ourselves. We didn't need you anymore and you have been pissed off ever since. And you complain about Mac users being arrogant? Wow. Just wow.
Posted by: Lawrence 24 Jan 2009
Oh sure . . . but did you taste the sour cream?
Are you not the same Iain Thomson that waxed poetic about your "favourite" macs in the Top 10 Best and Worst Macs article? Now you are saying you hate them, their OS and their users. So be it, be a fool . . . but be an honest fool.
Posted by: Carl 24 Jan 2009
Poor guy
Hate? You must be kidding.
Posted by: Christoph Dernbach 24 Jan 2009
Steve Wozniak created the Apple I and II, not the Mac
When I read the part where the writer said that it was actually Steve Wozniak the created the Mac, I knew right away that this was a typical uninformed PC writer. I skimmed and skipped through the next pages because it was a typical rant from a PC user who knew nothing about Macs.
Posted by: criste 24 Jan 2009
why are people paying you to write?
You would kill to write an article and this is what you decide to write? A 12 year old could have written the same article. Why don't you try to write something useful and informative instead of this drivel. There are plenty of people that can and do use both pc and mac computers. It takes some kind of a small brain to hate on one computer company. I certainly hope they don't pay you for this crap that you can find on any forum flame war about macs and pcs.
Posted by: Lee 23 Jan 2009
Hello Mac User
Well.. that's what a mac user would say... Hey - I'm a Mac user... I just choose to boot to Windows. :) And the whole... I am a Mac - I am a PC argument.... That's stupid. What they mean is.. I use OSX - I use Windows... Trouble is that I have a Mac and use it as a PC - I was born that way.
Posted by: Gavin Horricks 23 Jan 2009
I used to hate the user more than the company
But as a heavy linux user at work I started to look at the product a little more closely and ... I am a apple acolyte now. It is by far the best computer I have ever owned. When you pay a premium for a mac you are paying for the software (which happens to be my trade) AND the hardware. The software's look and feel and easy configuration is IMO superior to microsofts. Go on, keep hating mac but there is a valid reason why mac are selling more now than ever. yes, this kool aid tastes DAMN good.
Posted by: Eric 23 Jan 2009
Wrong Platform
It was the Apple III that you had to drop to reseat the chips. Most of them were on dip sockets for the first few models. The technique of dropping the units actually worked! It was a heavy aluminum chassis and could easily handle the drop.
Posted by: johng 23 Jan 2009
Don't ban yourself from looking at a Mac.
Most of your complaints seem to stem from past issues. If you actually didn't ban yourself from taking a look at a mac now, you'd probably be impressed at how far they have come. By doing that I think that you're just making yourself more ignorant. I'm not sure why your IT friend couldn't figure it out, but I'm not a super computer savvy person, but I've been running Macs at my PT office for 6 years and I've set up the network system myself. Remember that if it weren't for the Mac, there would not be such a thing as a Microsoft windows machine. You need to give credit where credit is due.
Posted by: Eugene 23 Jan 2009
You wasted your time...
Wow... with an opportunity like this, you could have come up with something really witty, instead.... this is just a miserly collection of laughable stupidity from someone who constantly whines 'why isn't this Mac more like a PC?' I'm glad I'm not in your small world.
Posted by: wumpah 23 Jan 2009
Why I hate Iain Thompson
Because RANT is personal, nothing else. I bet Iain is not even a journalist and fat too. That's why I hate you
Posted by: Joe Blow 23 Jan 2009
So your article boils down to
1) You hate not having a console (but at least admit it's fixed in OS X) 2) You hate that the low-end machines are relatively un-upgradable (Although can you honestly remember the last time you knew a non-techie to actually upgrade their PC, or did they just buy a new one?) 3) Your friend hated not knowing how to set up networking on an unfamiliar system (I managed an exact same setup, and we had all sorts of networked feature running (filesharing, email, etc). I suspect you meant "unable to network with proprietary Microsoft or Novell services") 4) You hate the price of units you CAN upgrade 5) You hate the smug Mac users ... and the list goes on
Posted by: Jabrwock 23 Jan 2009
Good lord, outdated and inferior
Same blah, blah geek, mumbo jumbo that's been discredited for years. I am an accomplished business person and graphic designer and have used both platforms and the macs are far less trouble than any of the pc's I've ever worked with. When the product just works there will always be those that inherently claim that it should have been something else. Very one-sided article with no documentation. Horrendus!@#!#$
Posted by: David Bayless, Letter perfect Printing 23 Jan 2009
this article wouldn't be nearly so bad...
...if the author actually cited any valid gripes against Apple. And, to be sure, there are some. But this article is all pointless whining without any legitimate critique. For an article that does actually make some reasonable points about Apple's foibles, see: http://www.pcworld.com/article/130994/10_things_we_hate_about_apple.html
Posted by: jon 23 Jan 2009
Wow you wasted energy on hating a company for 25 years
Congratulations! You win the grand prize of worst way to spend your energy!!! It's sad really, just let it go. I don't care for Microsoft, but I don't hate them. I don't care for the GOP, but I don't hate them. If you find yourself hating something so much for so long, then it's time to seek therapy.
Posted by: HammerOfTruth 23 Jan 2009