Slashdot Mirror
Macintosh... The Naked Truth
The Naked Truth is a book about what it means to be a Macintosh user, in a world dominated by Windows. This should have tipped me off as to some troubles ahead, as I live as a Mac user in a predominantly Linux-dominated world. And I proudly use Linux (and, to a lesser extent, other forms of Unix, not even including Mac OS X) daily. As I write this, I have four terminal windows running in NiftyTelnet, connecting me to Linux boxes at work and at home. I am inserting a 700MB database dump into MySQL, scp'ing some MP3s, restarting some daemons, copying some source code for later porting, and monitoring disk space. I am a Macintosh devotee, and have been for more than 15 years, but I am a geek. A big, preemptively multitasking, geek.
But Kelly takes the perspective that Macintosh is not a computer for geeks, but for creative people who can't be bothered with geek-like things. So when he belittles those "PC users" who like to build their own computers, and I see the Linux box under my desk that I've recently been fiddling with, I just take it with a grain of salt. After all, geeks are allowed to like ease of use and a consistent and usable GUI, too.
This mischaracterization of some Mac users is also evident in his "definitive platform test." The questions, asking for things like a description of your own driving skills, are intended to tell you which platform you should use. On one end of the scale is the Macintosh user ("Average, I'm not a bad driver"), followed by borderline between Mac and PC user ("I'm an excellent driver, very cautious and alert") to obvious PC user ("I obey all posted traffic signs and don't exceed the speed limit"), to "militant" PC/DOS user ("I wish all those idiots would just get off the road!"). But clearly, any sane person would choose the latter response. I don't understand what the problem is. I selected the "Mac" and "DOS" answers evenly, which didn't do well for my overall score. I happily continue to use Mac OS nevertheless.
That said, Kelby is dead-on about many things, like how computer store personnel are mostly clueless (not that this is specific to Macintosh products, but it is more pronounced in that particular arena than in most); how most anti-Macintosh arguments by PC users either don't make sense any more or never made sense to begin with; how Apple has been the primary innovator of PC hardware and OS software; how Apple seems to succeed sometimes in spite of its own management. He tends to belabor his point on occasion (OK, we get it, CompUSA's Apple store-in-a-store is all the way in the back, we don't need you to spend two pages describing just how far back it is), but if taken in the good humor intended, it's a satisfying journey nevertheless.
His most interesting points, perhaps, have to do not with what it is like to be a Macintosh user in a foreign land -- I think everyone on Slashdot can understand these things, regardless of whatever non-Microsoft platform of choice they use -- but what it is like to be a Macintosh user in relation to Apple itself. He has some keen insights about where the passion comes from; why people love Apple; what's going on inside their heads.
But then again, reading his responses to letters written to Mac Today and Mac Design Magazine by PC users are just downright entertaining -- keenly insightful or not -- if you are the sort of individual who likes to see stupid people get smacked around. And who isn't?
Now, being a geek -- and a pedantic one at that -- I did take issue with him on some relatively minor issues, like claiming that Apple changed the name of Mac OS X to "OS 10.1" when it came time to do the first maintenance release; the fact is, the official name from day one was "Mac OS X 10.0," and that nothing has changed at all in that naming scheme. The current release is "Mac OS X 10.1.4." It's the same thing, with an incremented version number. He's absolutely right that this is a point of confusion, and in some ways poor marketing. For the next major release (Mac OS X 11.0? Mac OS 11? Mac OS XI?) there will surely be some more confusion, too. But nothing at all has changed in the naming scheme since the initial release. For now. I just want to make sure everyone is clear on this point. It is "Mac OS X, version 10.1.4," and "Mac OS, version 9.2.2." "Mac OS" and "Mac OS X" are OS names. "10.1.4" and "9.2.2" are version numbers. Got it?
Similarly, he bashes the Newton. Sure, the first release of Newton kinda stunk, but it was the first version. The last versions of the Newton MessagePad, aside from the size, were still by far the best PDAs around for the next several years. Newton still, to this day, has the best handwriting recognition in any consumer PDA, as well as the best (non-color) interface, and it was years ahead of its time in functionality. It was just too big. That was its only problem. Well, and too expensive. But maybe less so if it weren't so big.
And he also called Compaq's PDA an "iPac." And occasionally used poor punctuation. And I think I saw a run-on sentence in there.
But now I am getting worked up. I'll settle down. Deep breath, in, out, in, out. That's the thing about being a Mac user, Kelby points out: passion. Passion for Apple and its products, even the ones that stink, because Apple is more than just a company, it is an organization that changes our lives in important ways, by making products that make a difference to us.
OK, so maybe I am in the target audience after all.
Chapter List
- Life after switching to Macintosh
Using a Mac is easy; being a Mac user sometimes isn't. - "I can't believe you actually use a Macintosh!" and other stupid things PC users say
Congress should rethink giving PC users freedom of speech. - Things Apple doesn't tell you about owning a Macintosh
Since Apple's not going to tell you, dontchathink somebody should? - The definitive platform test
Find out if you're really a Mac person, or just a PC person in cool clothing. - How to resist the overwhelming temptation to strangle Apple's management
Is "Apple Management" an oxymoron? And is "oxymoron" actually a synonym for a pimple cream for really dumb people? - CompUSA: Your own private hell
Tips for surviving the visualization of Apple's place in the world. - Why PC users need Apple
Heere's why they should be kissing Apple's butt (instead of Microsoft's) - "Don't pick fights with people who buy ink by the barrel"
PC users write me nasty letters, and I give them the public flogging they so richly deserve - Pot shots at Microsoft, the media, and anything else that gets in our way
Nobody gets out of here alive! - The 20 most important things I've learned about being a Mac user
There were actually 22 things, but that made for a really clunky chapter title. - The secret of Macintosh
Here's a hint: it's not Apple's advertising.
You can purchase Macintosh ... The Naked Truth from bn.com. Want to see your own review here? Just read the book review guidelines, then use Slashdot's handy submission form.
I'm sorry, but the die hard mac users are going to have to get with the times...
/.
.docs).
Macs arn't just for non-geeks anymore (Arguably the first apples were for geeks, became less geeky...). Mac OS X is the ultimate hybrid to allow both geeks and non-geeks a common platform which both can enjoy and use how they want. Heck, why do you think there is an apple section on
I bought my first mac last year specifically because of OS X. I needed a laptop that I could use for work and school. I wanted a UNIX based system but the ability to run commercial applications if needed (I love OS and Linux, but there is still no MS Office for it and probably never will be... But everyone still sends me
I still have people come up to me and say... "you bought a mac??? Don't geeks not like those? They are too colorful to be geeky."
Macs are for geeks and non-geeks alike. For different reasons though (sometimes). Mainstream users will probably figure this out in 3 or 4 years time.
...macs are not evil. Macs are not inherently less of a computer than a PC.
I made the best decision of my life to move back to Macintosh a few months ago. OSX really does combine the ease of a mac with the power of unix. I hope that one day people will understand that it is not an either or situation with operating systems. I keep my Win box around and boot my mac into Linux all depending on the job I want to do. Quite simply what operating system you use should be determined by the task at hand.
Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.
aw, c'mon. Steve Jobs is not a bad-looking guy. about the same as Bill Gates or Lunix Torvalds... average-looking, takes care of himself.
now, consider Alan Cox. Eric S. Raymond. Richard M. Stallman.
naked.
yeah, there you go. now you're twitching.
As a mac user, I resent this. I don't like alternative medicine. And I believe I pay a premium for what I like (the mac). So I am definately not seeking the "low-cost herbal/alternative solution."
You can't put me in a little box and define what I believe because I use a certain computer platform. All you can say is that I like that platform.
And that is my problem with the book.
There were probably a lot less "geeks" in the Mac ranks for the many years this author is basing his book on, so I can see where he'd draw some of these conclusions. While Linux and Windows-based geeks could command-line hack to their hearts content, Mac users have had a wonderful tool called ResEdit. It kinda makes me sad that with Mac OS X, ResEdit is sort of an anachronism sitting in my Classic Applications folder ... but there it is. We have much better hacking cracking and patching tools now :) And the migration of linux and unix users to Mac OS X has brought a surge in the geek numbers, which is good for any platform. When users are pushing limits as well as the manufacturers, progress speeds along nicely.
I think my original point was to say that there are always contingents of most OS fandom that are NOT geeks, and some that are. Such is life. Variety is the spice and all that.
i started using Macs in 1989, and continued straight until 1997, when i installed NetBSD on a IIvx. that led me down the slippery slope of x86 hardware, mainly because i couldn't afford a Mac.
when i finally got a Mac again in 2000, i had forgotten how much i appreciated having a computer that was beautiful, in its designs and GUI. it really drove home the fact that the UNIX desktop is neither consistent nor pretty (usually).
now that OS X is here (read: now that i can pull up a Terminal window), i can't see a reason to use anything else.
Cretin - a powerful and flexible CD reencoder
there is a diffrence between "I own a mac so I am creative" and "many mac owners are creative people"
Sprite says it best I think in there commercials.
"hey that Pro basketball player drinks sprite, I drink sprite so I am just as good", then the youth gets his butt beat at basket ball.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
So, I'm not the typical user, either, as the author presupposes in his "survey" as you described. But I am a True Convert to Mac OS X and things Macintosh. Funny how OS X throws the old assumptions about Mac users out the Window.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
I enjoyed the book, but as a long-time Linux user (and recent Mac convert) some of it seemed overly whiny to me. Sure, it's rough having only a few score software packages for Mac OS in the typical CompUSA, but the total of zero packages for the Linux user makes that seem quite sufficient in comparison. I think he needs to get out more, and realize that there are more operating systems than the Windows and Mac franchises alone.
As for the chapter where he gives childish replies to childish letters written to him as editor of his magazine, I stopped reading it half way through. I don't need that sort of thing to make me feel good about myself or my choice of computer, and reading such displays of immaturity is just painful. Maybe when I was 12 years old it would have been thrilling, but I've grown up since then. I wish he would have, too.
The rest of the book was pretty good, though, and some sections were laugh-out-loud funny. He has a good writing style and a sharp wit that comes out best when he's describing everyday situations he's had to deal with as a Mac user (such as the hostile responses from sales clerks and fellow customers when he asks for Mac hardware or software).
Still, given his whinyness on the one hand, and his vindictiveness toward "pee cee" users on the other, I'm not sure I want to be grouped with him as a "Mac fanatic." I tend to be a lot more forgiving of others than he shows himself to be. If most Mac users have the same extreme siege mentality he does, then I'll be sure to avoid Mac user groups like the plague. I'd much rather enjoy my computer than spend time cutting down others' choices. And I'd much rather let someone use one of my computers and thereby learn what's so great about the Mac than tell them what a crappy OS they use.
So, althoguh my wife and I own three Macs right now (two quicksilvers and one icebook), maybe we should call ourselves "Apple users" instead of "Mac Fantatics." (This, despite his sneering remark about people calling them "Apple" computers intead of "Macs." As a long-time user of Apple ]['s, I'll probably always refer to computers produced by Apple Computer, Inc. as "Apples" out of habit, at least some of the time).
-Joe
-Joe
Since my first Mac Plus in which I inserted a 5.25" 20MB SCSI Seagate hard disk inside the Mac's case, with no fan at all, wiring all the cables directly to the motherboard (no connector: had to save!).
Since my first INIT code which allowed remote shutdown of a Mac (great joke to play in public labs back in the ol'undergrad days), raytracing on a Mac SE (dithering because of 1bit/pixel...)
I think there's no better hacker machine!
I keep seeing things like, "Smart consumers buy Apples because they're cheaper!" Uh... since when? My Powerbook was $3,000. A comprable PC laptop was $2,200. I selected the Powerbook because it fit my needs better and I was sold on the operating system.
Macintosh users are more creative? Wow. It must be because they like shiny lollipop colors on their iMacs, a marketing trend that has bled over into everything from cell phones to George Foreman grills. Props to Apple for trying something simple and basic that the stuffed suits at the PC conglomerates never thought of: make the computer available in bright colors.
I never bought into user stereotypes. I have definately noticed that a TYPICAL pre-OS X Mac user knows far less about how computers in general work than PC users. But I could say the same thing of modern PC users versus the pre-Windows 95 PC users. Anybody remember tweaking your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS endlessly to coax another 9K of conventional RAM out of DOS? Arranging and re-arranging LOADHIGH instructions to shuffle drivers around in upper memory and going seven rounds with QEMM and the myriad other memory managers to use that extra 2 MB stick you paid $200 for?
We had no choice. If I wanted to play Crusaders of the Dark Savant I had to find a way to get enough memory. That was how PC computing was. Modern users on average know far less because, for one, there's far more non-tech people who use PCs and for two there's no need. So I don't buy into this division along the Mac/PC line for technical competancy. You learn what is required to learn to operate your machine. The fact that the Mac removed this responsibility from the user 10 years before the PC did doesn't make Mac people less intelligent or more creative.
I love my Mac. I hate my PC. But I want to play Dungeon Seige so I need my PC. I think the platform wars should be winding down in the coming years. I think that with OS X, Apple has the BEST operating system available. Sorry Linux people, but Linux is a pile of crap. I do use it, simply because when I set up my web server I wasn't familiar with anything else (plus I got semi-orgasmic pleasure out of reformatting the disk with Win95 on it). But if there were any justice in the world, OS X would be the operating system of choice. Even the ports of MS applications to OS X are superior to the MS versions.
I'm right because I say so. I read Slashdot! I'm always right! And well-informed!
I then went to return my new power adapter. I wanted a new keyboard at the time, so I'd hoped to exchange the adapter, give the reseller some more money, and get the keyboard instead.
Well, sales sent me back to service. Service sent me back to sales. Neither would accept the return. The manager was not in; I'll point out I left him repeated messages and visited the store a couple of times, and never got in touch with him. Bottom line, they wouldn't take the adapter back. Did I mention I wanted to give them more money plus the adapter so I could get a better keyboard?
I ended up having to dispute the ~$50USD charge on my credit card. The reseller never challenged this, so I never paid it. I also never went back. What I did do was call the sales rep at the reseller who wanted to sell my company a couple of Irix boxes and told him to forget it; if I couldn't get satisfaction on a lousy adapter return then I sure wasn't going to go forward with this purchase.
That reseller went out of business less than a year later. The absent manager works at a sign painting firm I think. And I've used M$, Solaris and Linux ever since. As curious as I am about the new OSX, that experience keeps reminding me of why I went away from Apple, and why a new Powerbook isn't in my future, even though it should be.
Jack
I just want to make sure everyone is clear on this point. It is "Mac OS X, version 10.1.4," and "Mac OS, version 9.2.2." "Mac OS" and "Mac OS X" are OS names.
So does this mean it really is "oh ess ex, ten dot one dot four", or "oh ess ten, ten dot one dot four"?
Reminds me of http-colon-slash-slash-slash-dot-dot-org.
Being one of the "old guard" (I've been using Macs since 1984, and writing software for them since 1985), and being a Windows programmer since Windows 2.11(386), I can tell you for a fact that while PC users generally don't care about Mac users, if you had a Mac in your office, you were almost guarenteed to get a deriding comment from the PC user without any provocation whatsoever.
I never did understand that. That is, when I worked at JPL I had a Mac and a PC sitting on my desk. Inevitably when a PC-only person would walk into my cube, he would immediately comment on the "paperweight", or how overexpensive the Mac was, or how the WIMP interface was for wimps.
Generally, when comments started flying back and forth in person, it always started with a co-worker making a negative comment about the Macintosh--not because the Mac user went on the attack. And while it was never a big comment, after an entire day of "why do you use that paperweight" or "I thought you were a power-user until I saw your Macintosh" or whatever, it was hard not to snipe back.
I had a theory about that sniping from the PC folks, by the way: there is a certain expectation that using computers should be hard. That is, sophistication in the computer world is related to difficulty: thus, typesetting documents with TeX is considered sophisticated while using Microsoft Word is not--even if the resulting document looks more or less the same. But now that MacOS X is based on Unix and now gives users the ability to replace Finder with Terminal (for example), people look to the Macintosh as "finally" being a sophisticated operating system.
When I was in Jr. High there were one or two friends who could never let it go that I preferred Macintosh. I wanted them to not care about what computer I used; I certainly didn't care about what computer they used. So there are people like that on both sides.
I think the problem is that the Wintel community outnumbers the Macintosh community so much that it's possible for a Wintel user to never notice someone who feels that passionately about it, but most Mac users have encountered someone like my Jr. High friends. And many of us react by responding in Jr. High ways.
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.