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Why So Many Mac Fanatics?
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?'"
PCs are not appliances. Macs are. Its as simple as that.
For some reason, when the Yellow Dog machine gets an IP from the base station, it doesn't automatically "know" what the DNS servers are. This information is provided to the base station, and thus it's wireless clients know about the DNS servers as well. For some reason it doesn't work, and I can talk to numeric IPs but not named hosts.
Of course, when I did this under OS X, it worked on the first try, and has worked reliably for months. I never had to use to edit text files, read man pages, or get yelled at in IRC because I didn't know what "Pump" for DHCP was.
The funny thing is, not only does it not work the way it should, but that you are presumed to be stupid for not knowing why!
I've also never had to reboot my computer into command line mode because my "Xfree86 config file" went wrong.
I just want to USE my computer, not waste hours reading Usenet and trying command after command in order to make something work that should be taken care of automatically. That's why I like Macs.
"Macs are the computers that really made a difference, just look at DOS, it's not even a GUI. Too bad Apple's gonna die any day now."
"Macs are the computers that really made a difference, just look at Windows 3.1, what a blatant rip off of the Mac OS. Too bad Apple's gonna die any day now."
"Macs are the computers that really made a difference, just look at Windows 95, what a rip off of the Mac OS. Too bad Apple's gonna die any day now."
"Macs are the computers that really made a difference, just look at Windows XP, huge rip off of Macs. Too bad Apple's gonna die any day now."
Starting to see a pattern forming?
I think that marketing is the one thing that's allowed Apple to keep their head above water in recent years. Have you been inside an Apple store? The internal design is open, they have machines set up and running (gasp!) actual software, just like you could do at home, and they have a bunch of attentive, friendly salespeople who know what the hell they're talking about roaming the store to answer questions, etc.
Sure, it might not appeal to a hard-core, alpha geek who prefers to build their own boxes from parts they buy at a dark, warehouse-sized discount store, but to your average consumer it's like a breath of fresh air. Also, their print ads (at least since the B&W G3s came out) have been consistently well done.
At this point, anyone other than Microsoft, IBM, and Dell who can stay in the PC game without whoring themselves out to the beige-cubicle-box market deserves some serious respect. Most Wintel manufacturers practically can't give away new PCs to home users, while Apple has actually managed to coax new customers over to their side of the fence, and keep them consistently upgrading every couple of years.
I think the secret is actually just that Apple manages to make their new designs look and feel truly new, rather than just cramming twice the clock speed and RAM into the same, boring machine. When you buy a new Mac, every part, from the case, to the OS, to the mouse, is at least slightly improved, in appearance if not in functionality, than it was on the last one.
Don't let yourself get confused about the respective roles of marketing and sales. Marketing is all about listening to what your customers are asking for, predicting trends, and shaping your product to meet their needs. The sales guys are the ones responsible for pushing the finished product to customers. Apple's level of polish and "consumer touch" in their products, stores, and ads shows that they definately understand how to market their products. If they've failed significantly, it's in the area of sales, where you pretty much have to give up on any sense of quality or design if it means you can ship a few more boxes.
Most PC manufacturers go that route; hence the total lack of attention paid to the physical design of their product. Whether you buy a Wintel from Compaq, Gateway, HP, eMachine, Dell, or some mom-and-pop clone builder, you're going to get more or less the same machine, with a nearly identical case, monitor, peripherials, software, etc.
Of course, Microsoft should get some of the blame for this; it's hard to make your product truly distinctive when you are absolutely required to make it support the newest versions of Windows and Office, no questions asked. The kind of risks that Apple takes periodically (moving to PowerPC chips, ditching the floppy drive, and totally re-writing their OS) would give any Wintel company's entire board of directors heart attacks.
Their product is purchased by a select crop of people who are repeat customers. Funny, alot of recent Mac-owners I've met were PC diehards, or UNIX system admins, many of whom had never owned a mac before.
What is the point of the internet?
So what you're saying is that you like Macs because you get the attention that you crave? That's pathetic! If you buy products to feel better about yourself, it's not that there's anything right with the product, it's more like there's wrong with you.
"Little dick syndrome" is a lot closer to the mark than you'd like to admit.
and what "Transition" are you speaking of? I'm tired of them moving to another, barely compatible platform, including an emulator for the old OS, and calling it "compatible"
Oh, be fair. You had your 68K Mac, and then you had your PowerPC Mac, which would run 68K code in emulation. That's it. We've been using PowerPCs for, what, about 10 years now? I think one major architecture change in 18 years is just fine.
How can someone possibly think that a 7XX MHz G3 running with slow SDRAM, and a slow IDE harddrive is soo much faster than a 14XX MHz Athlon running DDRAM, and a faster IDE harddrive or a faster scuzzy drive.
My iMac is faster than any other computer I use. Why? Because it spends less time waiting on me.
When I use a PC, I spend more time than I want to futzing around. For instance, when I plug my iBook into the LAN at work, I pull down one menu item and all my network settings change. When I go to the coffee shop and use their 802.11 service, I pull down that menu again and poof! When I go home, poof!
Even in Windows 2000, location management is rudimentary at best, and in most aspects simply absent. With my Mac, I don't have to futz around with that stuff.
Within a certain set of boundaries, it's not about clock speeds, or bus speeds, or hard drive speeds, or any of that shit. It's about the computer not getting in the way when I want to do something.
How can someone possibly think that a 7XX MHz G3 running with slow SDRAM, and a slow IDE harddrive is soo much faster than a 14XX MHz Athlon running DDRAM, and a faster IDE harddrive or a faster scuzzy drive.
They can because for a lot of tasks, processor speed is not the limiting factor. It's the user. And on a Mac, it often takes the user less time to accomplish a task due to the superior UI.
Apple's "there is no step three" ad campaign was much more relevant to real-world computer usage than the MHz-flaunting going on elsewhere.
I love the Windows pushers in here. They monopolize 95% of the market, and they STILL complain, cry foul, and attack like rabid pitbulls every time someone says something positive about ANY alternative OS.
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Me: Hey, that BeOS thingy had pretty nice icons.
MS: They sucked, you suck, you only like them because you're a fag and a communist. It's a good thing they're dead, it makes more room for Windows to expand.
Me: I like the TiBook, the Widescreen is pretty cool.
MS: You are obviously a troll who should be raped and murdered. Macs don't run Windows. die faggot. You must be queer to like a faggy looking OS like that.
Me: I set up a GPLed firewall on Linux today - it works like a charm and didn't cost me a cent.
MS: The GPL is a cancer. I hope *you* get cancer from it. What are you, a transvestite homophobe jew? Are you so cheap you won't spring for a REAL OS? You get what you pay for, loser. So pay through the nose. We'll get you sooner or later, might as well give in now.
Me: What the hell are you talking about?
MS: What are you, deaf now? You goddam retards are too stupid to know Windows RULEZ!!! If you were smart you'd know XP is perfect in every way. I goddam challenge you stupid idiots to prove that XP isn't the greatest OS in the world. You're a stupid idiot. I hope your mom dies.
Me: I think I'll go vote with my wallet.
MS: Make sure you buy MS Office, goof. And shut up with your baseless propaganda about non-MS products. Just shut the hell up. We'll make you goddam sorry you crossed us.
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And what I *really* like is that I can't find a single public forum about ANY alternative Operating System that isn't fully and completely infested with these Microsoft shills. On average, 80% of the posts on these forums are from 20% of the people, and they all seem to be pro-Microsoft to the point of utter retardation. *ON NON-MICROSOFT ORIENTED FORUMS*. I'd be interested if any of you reading this can name ONE public forum or newsgroup that isn't polluted with MS shills. Just one. I know I can't.
Look, it isn't possible to explain this. Many metaphors have been tried, but here's another:
The Budweiser people who don't understand why some people like to drink Abbott ale never will, because in their minds,
The homebrew people are a bit more flexible. They might like Abbott Ale, or they might not, but if they don't like it, it's either because they don't like it on its merits or they would rather change the recipe.
(I should also point out that Be OS is like Old Peculier poured from an elevated oak cask.)
I don't like to see Wal-Mart crush a little store or person. I like to see the smaller guy win sometimes. The same holds for Apple.
I think most people feel the same way. However, most people still shop at Wal-Mart becuase it's convienent. Same is true for Microsoft. Since it's on every street corner...
You know who I think is crazy? All my ex-girlfriends!