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Switch Different

Posted by chrisd on from the slashdotting-our-own-bandwidth dept.

x180 writes "Those goofy hackers over at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention in San Diego this week have, in a spate of fun, put together a series of Switch ad spoofs for the geeky ones. Writes Rael Dornfest in his blog, 'You've no doubt seen Apple's fabulous Switch campaign commercials. But what of the others? The geeky ones. The scripters. The sysadmins in their server cages. The command-line jockeys. Those through whom the source flows openly.' See the stories of hackers chucking Emacs in favor of Vi, leaving Perl to explore Python, and leaving the familiar home of Unix to play with XP." These, of course, aren't the only switch parodies. Their numbers are Legion.

3 of 252 comments (clear)

  1. Apple controls the conversation by burgburgburg · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The sheer width and breadth of the Switch parodies just goes to show: Apple really does control the conversation. It has the mindshare.

    An article on Yahoo News today about Northgate's new "challenge" to Apple with their all-in-one computer/home multimedia machine (Personally, I think it looks sort of a combo iMac/eMac ... an eiMac) was the latest example to my mind.

    Flat screens were unusual and esoteric. Apple makes them defacto with the iMac; now they are expected, necessary. MP3 players externally were the size of walkmen (and internally not much better then zip disks), connected via USB (if you were lucky) and were incredibly kludgy. Out comes the iPod; everyone is racing to remake/top them.

    I remember when the beige computer makers tried to reinvent their products with translucent plastic as if that was the key to the original iMac/G3s. I remember how desperate and sad Windows 1 - 3.1 were in their attempts to approach the simple elegance of the Mac OS. I remember how many Gnome/KDE Aqua themes were floating about (and still are, slightly under the radar) after OS X was unveiled.

    My point: however much Linux drives the geek masses forward in their open source quest, Apple is the internalized mental image that a majority of people hold when they think of the next step in computing. Not just civilians: examine the Aqua themed page that you're reading right now.

    (For every "too damn expensive, one button mouse" geek dismisser, I wonder how many are willing to admit that they drool at night at the thought of owning a TI Powerbook, and wish they could have back all the months it took them to try and configure their window manager to approach the functionality of Aqua out of the box).

    1. Re:Apple controls the conversation by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, I htink the real reason that Apple ad parodies are so common is because most people, PC or Mac user, find the ads insulting and pathetic. It is almost as if Apple found all the biggest bunch of morons and blithering malcontents they could and got them together as an attempt to show why to switch to Mac.

      This has not been the winning strategy some seem to think.

      PC users are offended because the ads are amazingly condecending and arrogant. Many Mac users are offended because they hate being associated with such a bunch of whiners and idiots. Well, some people then decide to have a little fun with it, and whip out a parody.

      I really think that this advertising campaign is by far the worst Apple has ever done and one of the worse ones I've seen. Their Think Different ads were cool, they made a statement (and were widely copied) without being insulting to either side. These seem to make a statement by being insulting to both sides.

      " wonder how many are willing to admit that they drool at night at the thought of owning a TI Powerbook, and wish they could have back all the months it took them to try and configure their window manager to approach the functionality of Aqua out of the box"

      Well with an attitude like that, you might just be a good candidate for a switch ad. You seem to be very self righetous about owning a Mac, and very ignorant of the computing population at large. Believe it or not many people use PCs because they really do work just as well or better than a Mac for them. I personally don't long to own any Mac products, my choice of a PC was an informed one and it works well for me. If a Mac works well for you, great, but take teh blinders off your eyes and stop assuming that everyone (or even most people) secretly wants a Mac.

  2. Oh, look by Laplace · · Score: 5, Insightful

    chrisd is posting it, and he is featured in one of the "funny" switch ads. how cute.

    --
    The middle mind speaks!