Slashdot Mirror
Mac Users May Be Smarter
micah_lanier writes "Thought I would point out an interesting story from news.com. It seems a NetRatings Study concluded that those owning Macs tend to be more experienced with the internet, as well as educated better in general. However, this simply illustrates the fact that Macs are generally bought by those with little trouble paying higher prices, and therefore those who can more easily gain access to higher education (and so on)." Then how do we explain all the people with less education buying premium computers from Compaq and Dell? I think it's just that people with bigger brains like better computers!
cheesy macs costs more than whitebox PC
so income of the buyers becomes a factor..
to make a claim like that at least the
source should consider economic factors
that's involved. Heck, using the criteria
they used, obviously workgroup server owners
are much smarter than PC and Mac owners,
and a Cray owner would be the smartest of all..
that's what happens when you have idiot
tech journalists who has more interest in
pushing an agenda rather than report real
news. I'm sure CNut figures they'll get a
whole bunch of pageviews from trolling.
journalistic integrity has hit a new low.
-- I have enough stupid gadgets to know that I can do without -- http://www.modestneeds.org
Wasn't there some study (Swedish/German/etc.?) about 6 months ago that showed the average Linux users have an IQ that is 15 points higher than the average 'PC' user? Probably just because really stupid people don't use Linux, but still! =P So this is old news...?
-- Black holes are, where God is dividing by zero.
i_luv_linux writes:
;)
;)
> Mac users are smarter, but what about Linux users.
I think the report was only looking at Mac and Windows PC users. I don't think they even thought to include Linux or the other *BSDs (or Amiga, OS/2, and others that are still going but with tiny marketshare).
> They are far more smarter than an average Mac
> user of course.
For OS 9 and before, I think I might have agreed with that. Not anymore. When OS X first introduced a Unix command line terminal to the Mac, your average Mac users were having great fun trading commands like game cheats or easter eggs. With the development tools included for free, any Mac user can become a programmer that is willing to learn, and many have. Thanks to Unix based OS X, Mac users are rapidly playing catchup to Linux, and some Linux users have switched over.
> This report is given credit by News.com which is
> totally biased against Microsoft, but why is it
> here?
Perhaps Slashdot has joined News.com, and Mac loving Godzilla, in hating Microsoft? Gee, like they are so hard to hate?
Windows: "Go talk to my friend, an 800 pound monopoly-abusing gorilla!"
Mac: "And here's my good buddy, the 66,000 ton Godzilla!"
Godzilla: Stomp!
You know, I hate to break out the trusty Slashdot insult, but did anyone read the article? Beyond the headline, which is indeed a troll, the article does not claim that Mac users are smarter. Nielsen/NetRatings did a marketing survey of Mac users and found two things: they have more money and they're better educated (not necessarily smarter).
The Nielsen spokesperson admits that there are other factors which contribute to this effect: "Kelly said the greater affluence and education level of those who surf using a Mac is attributable in part to the company's comparatively pricier machines, as well as to their perception as a status symbol and their greater market share among those in the publishing and design industries."
Now, that doesn't look to me like they're lying through statistics, and in fact they have a pretty solid analysis. However, their goal is a market analysis, not a statistical one. They're not interested in the cause, just the demographic, which appeals to advertisers because high-income, higher educated people tend to buy pricier products (Macs!).
If you want to debate whether or not CNet is justified with its wording on the headline ("Are Mac Users Smarter?"), but honestly, magazines and newspapers use such sensational headlines all the time. For that matter, Slashdot has made it worse, already jumping to a conclusion with "Mac Users May Be Smarter", a statement that is no way supported by the article.
I am an electrical engineer and work for a company that designs semiconductors for the storage industry (channels, motor controllers, etc...)
I'd say that we are rather well paid (If I exclude myself anyway, at only 3 years out of college), and quite well educated. Also, we are well - technically - educated. It's not like we have a useless degree in African art or something. Anyway, most of the people I work with are mac users. It is because that while they can design the latest chips that make you hard drive scream, if they finder can't find it, neither can they. Stereotypically, they are computer illiterate. But another aspect to it is that they don't want to spend the time. It is just like the commercials, they want to open the box, plug in 2 cables and be on the internet without knowing anything about it. They spend too much time with technical subjects at work away from the family, they don't want to deal with it at home.
I'm on the opposite scale, I'm a circuit designer as well, but I also do system admin on the 250 Machine HP-UX network as well. And now that Mac has finally come up with a decent OS, one might not be totally useless to me:)
I can relate to this, sometimes it's nice to have things just work(tm)
Recently I discovered the joy that is Gentoo PPC and Mac-on-Linux, and can have the best of both worlds just by switching between virtual terminal 7 & 8. (8 runs Mac OS, 7 is the X-windows)
The hardware is top notch, the performance of an entire Linux system compiled natively for my own processor is excellent.
Makes the choice an easy one, have your cake and eat it too. Without a reboot for most stuff =)
My poetry site welcomes the unusual.
The difference is in resale value. In 3 years, the gateway will be worth exactly nil (Except for maybe the monitor), and the mac will be worth $750+.
Cost of the Mac over three years: $750. Cost of the PC: $999. $750 is less money then $999.
This might be slightly off topic, but its related to the supposition that Mac users are more interested in using their computers to actually accomplish some work, rather than working on their computers...
...anactofgod...
Apple has (used to have?) the AppleMasters program, a group of noted international leaders in various fields who use Apple technology in the performance of their work. Apple used to have a list of their names and bios on the site, but it appears to have been taken down. Some of the names of AppleMasters that I remember are...
* Douglas Adams (Yes, *that* Douglas Adams)
* Donald Glaser - Nobel physicist
* Arthur C. Clarke
* Murray Gell-Mann - Nobel physicist, namer of the "quark"
* Herbie Hancock - composer/musician
* Gregory Hines - dancer/actor/singers
* Tom Clancy
* Richard Dreyfuss
* Richard Dawkins - zoologist, evolutionist
* Michael Crichton
* Sydney Pollock - film producer/director
* Richard Leakey - noted paleoanthropologist
No doubt one can create a comparable, or even more distinguised, list of notable notables who use Windows/Linux/Intel/AMD technology (as well as Sun, IBM, HP, SGI, etc.), but to paraphrase Steve Jobs, can you imagine an IntelMasters, CompaqMasters or DellMasters program?
"Applets" are passionate about their Macs, and feel an allegiance to the company. Why? The fact that Macs can be viewed as "status symbols" might be part of it, but more to the point, Macs just work. Everyone else treats their computers as commodities because, well, they are.
The only other comparable attitude by a consumer population that I can think of exists in the motorcyle world. Harley Davidson riders are passionate about their bikes and The Motor Company, even if they own bikes by other manufacturers. *Most* other bikers really couldn't care if their bikes were Hondas/Suzuki/Yamahas/Triumphs/BMW.
BTW, I own Toshiba (four towers & 2 laptops running Win2K & Linux), IBM (1 Linux laptop), Sony (1 Win2K laptop), and Apple (G4/OSX) systems. If everything were going up in flames, I'd make sure I had a firm grip on the Mac and my backups, I'd try to save the Sony (wouldn't be difficult, it so d*mn small!), but everything else is so replacable (probably with BrandX(tm) computers), that I wouldn't even care.
My personal preferrences.
And I have owned Harleys and Buells.
---anactofgod---
"Equal opportunity swindling - *that* is the true test of a sustainable democracy."
I'm not making any relation between education and genocide.
I'm talking about the guy who wants people to believe that Apple users are a superior bunch. Sure he's not gonna commit a mass genocide, but his idea about superiority is similar to that of Hitler.