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My Turn is Low End Mac's column for reader-submitted
articles. It's your turn to share your thoughts on all things
Mac (or iPhone, iPod, etc.) and write for the Mac web. Email your
submission to Dan Knight
.
I own both PCs and Macs. I don't build my own systems, even though
I've occasionally upgraded machines for friends (notebooks and
desktops). I noticed that your comparison is
limited to desktop machines used for a narrow range of activities.
After you've played Unreal Tournament, do you still have mental
energy to ponder the implications of quantum mechanics, general
relativity, genome mapping, thermodynamics, and protein folding?
(Hint: I'm an engineer in a family of engineers and scientists, and
we don't use terms like "power user.")
My point is this: For hardware tweakers, creativity means building
a custom PC from carefully chosen parts - just as my neighbour is
lovingly restoring a Datsun 240Z. For other people, a well-built
machine with a tightly-integrated, modern OS offers a superior user
experience because they'd rather focus on writing (prose, poetry,
code, whatever), composing music, creating visual art, editing audio
or video, isolating functions on the human genome, or pursuing other
creative goals - which are largely unrelated to the task of
researching, selecting, and assembling electronic components for a
personal computer. The electrical engineers I know don't build their
own PCs - they're too busy designing circuits or writing
software for stuff like flight control systems and the robotic
manipulator arm of the International Space Station.
It depends what you like to spend time on. If you like to build
custom PCs for gaming and CD burning while you dabble in Photoshop
and play Unreal Tournament, that's one thing. After a long day at
work, when I get home to my wife and son, do I want to think about
which CPU cooler and thermal paste to use on an overclocked
Thunderbird? Not likely. For what I do in my spare time at home, I
believe in using technology that is simple, elegant, and
user-friendly.
Dr. Christof Koch, a cognitive neuroscientist who is researching
the biological basis of human consciousness, puts
it this way (and he should know a thing or two about how the
human brain works):
"From a user point of view, Macintosh has always stood for a
cutting-edge combination of elegant hardware and very easy-to-use
and highly functional GUI."
In other words, it isn't just about SPECmarks, PSBench, game
framerates, or whatever. Of course, nothing I wrote above changes the
economic or technical merits of custom-building PCs vs. Macs, but it
does imply something about the self-aggrandizing notion inherent in
the term "power user."
Share your perspective on the Mac by emailing with "My Turn" as your subject.
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