Why So Many Mac Fanatics?

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Posted by pudge on Monday March 4, 2002 @11:49AM from the they-pay-us-off-with-amusement-parks dept.

daeley writes "NewsFactor has published an article, Cult of the Mac - Why So Many Mac Fanatics? -- looking for answers to '...what is it about the Mac that commands such loyalty? An even better question might be, what is Apple doing right?'"

3 of 199 comments (clear)

Conspiracy theories by c0wh · 2002-03-04 11:56 · Score: 3, Funny

When a key is pressed on an Apple keyboard, chemicals are released which make the user more open to suggestion.

Subliminal messages hidden throughout the GUI assert that Mac OS is superior.
It's simple. That's it. by Snowfox · 2002-03-04 12:33 · Score: 4, Funny

1. It's simple. Menus are uncluttered and arranged intelligently. Advanced options aren't missing, they're just not mixed in with everything else. Apple pays more attention to the user interface than anyone else, and it guides its developers in doing the same. Compare Internet Explorer or Office for both Mac and Windows. By following Apple's guidelines (to a degree), Microsoft has created superior products for the Mac despite its best Windows efforts.
2. The OS and the machines are aestheticaly pleasing. PCs tend to look dull. Macs change. They remain exciting, or at least different.
3. More focus on programming "correctness." Apple periodically reinvents the OS interface to match current needs. Old functions are dropped when using the newer APIs. Choices are limited, or directed, depending on how you want to look at it. Programs end up being simpler and have fewer bugs as a result.
4. Apple has always marketed and spoken to the individual, not the company. (This is huge.)
5. Steve Jobs, brain-controlling presentation zombie.
And Mac OS X's UNIX base is just fucking cool. This is what's finally pulling me over. I picked up an old iBook for cheap to try it out, and I'm just floored. This OS is schweet!
Re:what apple did right by foobar104 · 2002-03-05 03:42 · Score: 3, Funny

Have you ever tried to edit source code in Windows (NT, 2000)? God forbid you ever try to select something on a long line! I spend a lot of time trying to get applications to allow me to select just what I want instead of what it wants.

A classic example of the Microsoft way of doing things. Who sat in a staff meeting and said, "You know what's hard? Selecting text. We should try to make selecting text easier.

"See, if the user drags the cursor over part of a word, he obviously meant to select the whole word, so we should select the whole word for him. And if he selects a word at the end of a sentence, he obviously wanted the terminal punctuation and space too, so we should select those for him."

"Hey, boss, I've got some thoughts on how we can simplify that collection of six interrelated modal dialog boxes for managing network settings."

"Not now, Johnson. We're making real progress on the text-selection problem! Guys, I smell bonuses!"