Rising Hegemon
Am I the only person in America that despises Apple? Seriously. I hate Apple. My iPod is okay (although I'm still using a years-old second generation model that a kid once told me was "the size of a coffin!"), but the MacBook? Please. And the iPad? An expensive joke. iPhone? Don't have one. Don't want one. I read this, scratch my head, and think, " Apple's software is "intuitive"? Really?" I find it counter-intuitive. I am no Luddite. I have been using computers since forever. I honestly don't know how I'd do as much writing and legal drafting as I do without one. I have a Blackberry and I get why it's helpful (primarily so that I can sneak out of work on personal business but appear to be at work). But I got a MacBook four years ago and I have hated the goddamn thing (and felt like a chump who got suckered into buying one) every day since. Every time I would express doubt or regret about my purchase, someone would try to address my complaint by saying, "But you can buy a [INSERT NAME OF OVERPRICED APPLE ACCESSORY HERE] and that will fix your problem". Jesus, I got sick to death of hearing that refrain. Last summer I was given an iPad to try for six weeks. I gave it back after three days. Have you ever tried typing on that thing? Yes, yes, I know. I can buy a separate keyboard. Whatever. Anyway, I received a new non-Apple laptop for Christmas and I am thrilled. Is there something wrong with me? I just don't get Apple. What am I missing?
P.S. The piece that inspired this rant, Apple vs. Google, is actually quite interesting.
15 comments:
I'm with you! Everyone talks about how Apple products "just work." I have crashed them and lost more time sensitive data using them than I ever have with a PC. I also dislike the "we'll tell you what will be in your computer and you'll like it" aspect of Apple. Having nearly vertical integration of hardware and software seems like something to put buyers off Apple, not draw them to it.
Nope, you are not alone. I too despise Apple. They are grossly overpriced and overhyped and do not run many of the programs I need (or at least not well). Of course the real root of my hatred is that I started out as an Apple user with and Apple II in the 1980s, which was summarily and without warning dumped (as I discovered when I went to buy a new monitor one day).
So, don't buy one. Why waste all your precious bodily fluids rantin about something nobody is forcing you to purchase or use? Do something about the creeping fascism coming about because of the bought and paid for supreme court rulings, for example.
Apple hater! Gah!
You're not alone. Their products are "intuitive" to those who've been using them forever. Just as I find Windows intuitive because I've used it for 15+ years.
I'd like Apple a lot better if their fanboys and girls weren't so fatuous and smug about how cool they are.
I have worked with Apple, Windows and various Linux systems for at least 20 years and if I had a choice it would be Mac all the way. It is easier and more reliable than anything else. But it is way too expensive.
At home I run Unbutu on my personal machine & Windoze on the wifes because it is what she knows.
I wouldn't say I hate Apple and their products, I just don't find them to be cost-effective. Additionally, a lot of the software I need to use in my field isn't supported on Macs. What I like about them is their customers field lots of nifty innovations that I can get for a quarter of the price six months later on another machine.
Thank you. We all need to be reminded of this once in a while.
Microsoft sucks too, of course...
Apple = Fascism with a smiley face.
i have no other apple stuff besides my imacs and everytime i use somebody's windows, i bless my mac.
Since I've never had much money to spare, Macs were always out of the question, and I could always build a Windoze machine to my own specs and preferences far more cheaply than buying a Mac and which would run the limited software I needed.
That's not to say that Windoze is superior. Their OSes are bloated beyond compare and they simply refuse to employ a functional checksum system to determine if the OS has been properly written to disk upon install (I've had to wipe and reinstall NT on some work computers as many as seven times before the user could set up the desktop to his or her desired color scheme without being blocked by the security system, even when given the rights to do so, have had to reinstall programs such as the old Netscape many, many times before they functioned properly, etc.) So, Windoze is no walk in the park.
That said, having gone through the agony of getting a Windoze OS stable, it usually stays stable and is functional until some necessary third-party software creates an upgrade that is useless with an OS that's no longer supported by M$oft. I'd probably still be using NT if it supported USB, video, audio and high-density hard drives in the ways that later OSes do. But, that's M$oft's version of planned obsolescence, which is no different than Apple's.
Six of one, half-dozen of the other. No money? Windoze and more aggravation, or, spend a helluva lot of time learning Linux and an equal amount of aggravation, and a much more limited range of software if one doesn't get warm and runny about software-based emulators. (And, the last Linux machine running PCLinux that I fiddled with never would let me change left-right mouse button functions, even with administrator root access and wouldn't even let me change the variable in the code itself. Never figured that out.)
What I do know is that bad software will make you stupid, and that truism applies regardless of brand, race, color or creed....
Bartkid sez,
I gave up on Apple nearly two decades ago when, if you shut the computer down using the on/off switch you could set it on fire. Intuitive? Yeah, right.
I always like Davids rather than Goliaths so have always bought Macs. I think there is a more sophisticated argument to be made from a biodiversity point of view, but basically I agree with Montag -- six of one and half a dozen of the other. It is pretty much what you're used to, which is why I don't understand the virulent antipathies of either side.
I must be wandering in the desert, but have no idea what I have apple windows mac is all geek to me.
vox
Speaking as a longtime Mac user, I find a lotta obvious advantages over Windows with a lotta things I do, but I've been lucky enough to get bargain machines used or free. If what you do is browse the web and write stuff there is no reason at all to get a Mac, the Mac/Windows gap in stuff I wanna do narrows all the time, and the Mac is way more expensive.
This is a good read if you wanna troll Mac users.
Weaned myself off Windoze at a time when the only sane solution to security and anti-virus involved crippling the dam thing with Norton or McAffee bolt-ons.
The extra initial cost of Mac membership has been outweighed by the stability of the O/S. It does take a bit of retraining, but it's still just a point and click environment at the end of the day.
I'm so overjoyed with my Mac/Apple appliances that many misidentify me as a fanboy. I didn't switch because I wanted to. I didn't switch because the Apple ads hit some raw nerve inside me that subconsciously forced me to disengage myself of excess funds in search of computational nirvana.
I switched because Microsoft dam-well forced me to. FWIW, I think the whole Windows enterprise came off the rails about the the time we were being forced to hand edit complex registry settings deep in the bowels of the beast.
BTW, this new Itouch version 4 I got for Xmas is the single most functional piece of equipment I have ever laid my eyes on. I just wish they had invented this crap back when my eyes were still working well enough for me to appreciate the full retina display goodness.
Enjoy.
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