The Toronto Star's Vivian Song last week posted a
fascinating comparative profile of the complimentary antagonists
staring each other down across the barricades in the Mac vs. PC digital
divide. Song reports that a "resistance movement" of sorts is brewing
in Toronto coffee shops against "the alien Macintosh navigational
system, and to Apple's smug air of self-importance."
Ms. Song is herself a recent switcher to the Mac after five years on
a Windows PC, admitting that as a new Mac convert she hasn't stopped
stroking the keys of her MacBook and engaging in shameless public
displays of affection. She thinks that, as a broad generalization,
Apple's TV commercial stereotyping of PC users as technological
dinosaurs and Macintosh users as young, creative trendsetters holds a
fair bit of water objectively. Her observations ring true based on my
own 17 years as a Mac user, evangelist, and partisan who wears the
"fanboy" taunt as a badge of honor - although if you're a regular Low
End Mac reader, you know I'm anything but an uncritical Apple
acolyte.
Macs as 'Fisher-Price Toys'
Song notes that the generation-old feud between PC and Mac users can
sometimes be downright vitriolic, with the PC crowd slamming Macs as
"Fisher-Price toys" for pretentious computer illiterates and
insufferable snobs. That Fisher-Price analogy dates back to my newbie
days in the Mac community in the early 90s. I haven't heard it myself
for quite some time, but it looks like some Windows advocates are
having trouble coming up with anything more original.
It's also more than a little ironic, given that Microsoft has been
busily copying the Mac user interface for nearly 20 years now - some
topically current examples being how two of Windows 7's "new" marquee
features (the task bar and Aero Peek) are obviously sincere forms
flattering the Mac's Dock and Exposé; Windows file previews are
an homage to OS X's column view; Windows Gadgets are a shameless aping
of OS X Widgets; new Sticky Notes in Windows 7 duplicate a feature
the Mac OS has had since System 7.5 in 1994; and Windows 7's new
Windows Disc Image Burner duplicating functionality the Mac OS has had
in its Disk Utility utility since Mac OS Classic days.
Does this all make Windows a "Fisher-Price" wannabe?
Mac users, in turn, are inclined to mock PC loyalists as
propeller-head Neanderthals who read computer manuals in their spare
time and fear change, says Song. I would say Not so fast there.
I'm a longtime Mac enthusiast and loyalist, but I can get into a good
computer manual as recreational reading. Apple used to include some
great hard copy documentation with its systems in the early days - no
longer alas, although David
Pogue's "Missing Manuals" series has mercifully picked up some of
the slack there. I enjoy them for recreational reading as well
And while I don't "fear" change per se, as a lifelong conservative
in taste, temperament, and philosophical persuasion, I don't embrace
change for change's sake and vigorously resist trendiness. For
instance, I'm typing this column on a 10-year-old Pismo PowerBook that I have no
intention of giving up on in the foreseeable future.
Predictable Caricatures Hold Up
However, there is an undeniable cultural schism separating the
Windows and Mac solitudes. Ms. Song reports that in a hunch.com 2009
report, its consumer motivation analysts poring over data profiles of
76,000 Hunch users identifying themselves as being in the Mac or PC
camps were able to identify some fairly reliably predictable
caricatures, notable examples being that Mac users like to be perceived
as "different" and "unique" - verbalizers, conceptualizers, and
risk-takers with a predilection for making distinct and individualistic
esthetic statements - while PC people conversely tend to be more
conformist types, characterizing themselves as steady hard workers and
team players who favor practicality over theoretical flights of
imagination, enjoy sports, like to be entertained, and strive to be in
harmony with mainstream opinion rather than swimming against the
prevailing current (as Mac fans are more wont to do). So far, so good,
I say, speaking subjectively as a lifelong nonconformist, although
hopefully a thoughtful and purposefully considered one.
In automotive tastes, Song reports that Mac users are more inclined
to go for Mini Coopers, while Windows PC users are more likely to
choose a truck or Dodge Charger. Once again, the stereotype breaks down
where this Mac user is concerned. A motorhead for more than 50 years
now, I like Mini Coopers, but I also like trucks, and Dodge Chargers,
and my current ride is a 4x4 pickup.
In reading preferences, however, I'm more back in the profile
groove, at least sort of. Song says Mac users tend to read magazines
like Wallpaper and Harper's, while PC users read
Sports Illustrated and Reader's Digest. I'm not familiar
with Wallpaper, and I can't abide the smug, supercilious, left
wing snottiness of Harpers, but I do subscribe to the more
balanced Atlantic Monthly, as well as to Road & Track,
Automobile, and Car&Driver, as well as several hard copy
newspapers. I don't think I've ever read a copy of Sports
Illustrated, and I detest the watered-down-ness of Reader's
Digest's abridged content.
Starbucks vs. Tim Hortons
In summarizing, Vivian Song analogizes that if her MacBook was a cup
of coffee, it would be a premium priced blend from Starbucks, while a
corresponding PC laptop could be more aptly compared to Tim Hortons
java - economical, ubiquitous, and prosaic. (If you're not Canadian,
perhaps the Tim Hortons analogy will draw a blank, but "Timmies" is a
quintessential icon and symbol of Canadian bourgeois culture -
in coffee and doughnuts and aesthetic motif.)
As one Toronto computer café (not Tim Hortons) owner
interviewed by Song observed that the Mac vs. PC stereotypes hold up
pretty reliably among his clientele, noting that the Mac users tend to
be serious writers and creative, "artsy types" who order organically
grown health snacks, while PC users are trying to get something done
and more likely just want some coffee.
Not All Mac Fans Are Pretentious Status Snobs
Song concludes her essay with the disclaimer that she chose the
MacBook after reaching terminal frustration with virus attacks on her
erstwhile Windows box, and for the Mac's perceived user-friendliness
and value, not to satisfy any status symbol nonsense. I would
emphatically make the same evaluation of my own Mac usership. I'm not
trying to be cool. I simply don't have the time or patience to put up
with all the crap and hassle that my PC using friends seem to accept as
normal overhead associated with computer use - the virus scans and
purges, the user verification hoops Microsoft makes them jump through,
and, yes, the aesthetic pain of having to stare at the homeliness of
the Windows user interface all day.
For nearly two decades and well over a dozen machines, my Macs
really have pretty much "just worked", providing what I consider
excellent value for the money across the board in total cost of
ownership. Not a stinker or lemon in the bunch. That's what keeps me on
board, despite my frustrations with Apple at times.
Purchase price is a poor benchmark of value in a tool, at least in
my estimation.
How about you?
