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Boot Camp For Suckers?
DigitalDame2 writes "PC Magazine's Editor-in-Chief says the whole Mac/Windows dual-boot thing is really nothing to get excited about. He writes that Boot Camp is really just a plan to get Windows users to convert to OS X." From the article: "Once you've laid out a few kilobucks on your BC system and been frustrated a few times with Windows limitations, what are you going to do? Jobs's bet: You'll start spending more and more time in OS X, until you--too--become one of the pod people. It's sad to see so many of my compatriots being turned into lemmings. Perhaps they'll wake up and smell the Apple pie in the sky--and realize they've been taken for a ride. But I doubt it."
Well...duh! Did anyone think Apple was doing it as a public service?
Next up: Publishers put nice pictures on their book covers so you will buy them. Bastards!!
Mox
...those of us who have a reason to use it will reap the benefits. Yes, Virginia, there are some. Battlefield 2, for example. Annoyingly-single-platform hardware updaters, like cell phone flashers and the like. Those little one-off tasks that I used to have to go find a windows PC for? Not so much anymore. Whee! When I need to do real work? Yep, you're right, I turn back into a pod person.
Seriously, why does this guy care so much?
A hero is someone who knows when to run away. I am a hero. -Trent the Uncatchable
So, users are going to try OS X, find it works better for them, keep using it, and this makes them lemmings and pod people? I would have thought that this term applied better to people who used a system that didn't work as well for them as the alternatives. By starting the argument assuming that OS X is less frustrating than Windows pretty much destroys any change the author had of making a coherent argument that people should now switch.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
So let me understand this: people compare two os's side by side on the same hardware. When they find that the one they're not familiar with is much better than the one they're used to, and they switch, they're lemmings? I always thought a lemming would be doing what everyone else does just because everyone else does it, which sounds a lot more like your typical Windoze user to me...
Unfortunately, I don't think anyone's going to buy a relatively expensive mac just so they can try osx on a machine that will still run windoze. Boot Camp's primary utility is saving mac users from having to buy a pc to run applications that they need to run, but which only work in windoze. If/when a native mode virtual pc comes out, boot camp will be even less relevant. To that end, I can agree that boot camp is nothing to get excited about, but that doesn't mean it's without merit.
I knew there was a reason I haven't looked at PC Magazine since 1998. That's not an article, it's a rant. How about some technical details/reasons why he doesn't like boot camp? What a tool.
Remember that screed was written by Jim Louderbeck, one of the more notorious anti-Mac PeeCee trolls. I still remember him doing the commentary on a Stevenote carried on ZDTV a few years back, he nitpicked on everything, for no good reasons. Note that his employer, Ziff-Davis, has a major investment from Vulcan Ventures (Paul Allen). Loudermouth knows he has to cater to his owner's financial interests. Nice little doggie, sit up and beg, little Loudermouth!
My understanding is that BootCamp allows current Mac users to run Windows on their Mac. The article seems to argue that this will encourage Windows users to get Macs and stick with OSX instead of BootCamping in Windows. That may apply to a few people, but for the most part I disagree.
As others have pointed out, it seems that the primary strategy behind BootCamp is: Give people the option to use whatever operating system they like. Apple has allowed their consumers to install Linux on their machines since forever, and now they're allowing Windows, too.
What does Apple have to gain? Profits from hardware sales, of course. Plus, whenever you're buying a Mac, you're also buying OSX, so they're not losing much software profits either. Who else has to gain? Possibly Microsoft in the short run (all those Mac kiddies giving Windows a shot without having to buy a PC).
And then there is the whole other market of people who aren't concerned about software expandability so much as hardware. Macs aren't great for upgrading their hardware. Windows or no windows.
- shazow
The more effete among us have embraced BC because now they can run all their favorite Windows apps on a saucy, sexy Mac.
Wow. Nothing says "class" like a thinly-veiled "Macs are for fags" joke.
You'd exect this sort of thing from a random blogger or Slashdotter, not the freakin' editor-in-chief of PC Magazine.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
I suspect that the majority of people are not buying macs to run windows as their primary OS. If so, I'm going to agree with him. If I wanted to spend the same amount of money and run windows, I'd get a tablet. If only Apple made one...
The fact is, the majority of people buying the MacTel, are buying it because it runs OSX AND Windows. No other laptop can really claim that -- at least legally (and easily). This is a really important distinction. I love OSX. I'm a linuxhead, but just having things work, and work together seamlessly. Priceless. (though my desktop is still a linux box)
For my laptop, I have no desire to run windows. I'm through with that agony in my life. I want to enjoy my computing experience. However, I am realistic. There are some applications, unfortunately, that still require windows. Bootcamp gives me the perfect compromise.
So, this editor is way off base. It's true, Apple isn't performing a public service. But they are taking down one more barrier that would normally stop people from buying their computers. And it's true. Once you start using OS X, you find yourself much less likely to go back to Windows. But not because of some strange Apple conspiracy. Because it kicks M$'s ass (comparing apples to lemons?). And this is from someone who wouldn't touch a Mac a couple years ago.
I don't know whether the article is confused or trying to be clever, but I don't think Apple minds 'criticism' such as that.
--- Attorneys Assisting Citizen-Soldiers & Families -
"Seriously, why does this guy care so much?"
Apparently he's noticed that John C. Dvorak's trolling puts the hit count through the roof. Only makes sense to start using the rest of the magazine's brand to start trolling as well.
He's obviously got some sort of logic malfunction, his arguments are both bizarre and full of emotive language. It's professional trolling.
Guys, guys, guys! Calm down, calm down!
:P
I think he's trying to be funny.
I am English. I know sarcasm. It's what we do. And I think that's what he's trying to do here. It's not very well done, but there are little hints. It's why he links to himself and calls himself "some idiot". It's why he specifically mentions the M-Audio and Kona kit (the latter is Mac only). Of course it works with the Mac.
So all those who are praising him for his insight, for debunking the Mac myth - stop now. Same goes for the Mac fanbois who are trying to find fault with his article.
It's subtle, I'll allow that, but remember: always consult the nearest Brit before responding to something that sounds a little bit too stupid to be true. It probably is.
iqu
The logic of the piece appears to be thus:
1. I don't like Macs, Apple, or Steve Jobs.
2. I don't like anything that can't be tinkered with.
3. Boot Camp is an Apple Product.
4. By #1 and #2, anyone who likes any of the above is an idiot and/or brainwashed.
5. By #3 and #4, Boot Camp is for idiots.
While #5 may proceed logically from #3 and #4, #4 does not proceed from #1 or #2.
I'd say the author has a wonderful future ahead of him in either Slashdot trolling, talk radio, or writing about politics. Editing a computer magazine? Not so sure about that one.
Subject says it all. I went over to read the linked article and I regretted it. The guy is so painfully clueless on this topic, its hard to know where to begin. His most blatant mis-statement:
"Apple's not interested in a DIY Mac, nor is it concerned with the case-mod culture of the PC."
True Apple isn't big on a DIY system. Neither are most Mac users. But saying that there isn't a case-mod culture among Mac users is completely asinine. MacAddict runs case mod articles - with photos - on a semi-regular basis, all you'd have to do is pick up a back issue or two to see how wrong this statement is. And if you don't know about MacAddict (as I suspect the author doesn't) you really have no business making commentary about Mac users or case-mod culture.
"I don't know about you, but when I buy a computer I want everything to work right."
This of course is one of the top reasons that people buy Macs. The tight integration between the OS and the hardware still beats Windows Plug-and-Pray 9 times out of 10. "Plug it in, and it just works" has been the Apple mantra for *years*. Its what the users expect. Compare to Windows XP, where plugging in a new monitor meant I had to re-install my wireless network driver, or adding memory forces me to register with Microsoft on my next reboot? I'm not sure what's worse, that these things happen or that it doesn't bother me anymore.
There are other serious flaws with the article. It really has no redeeming value, and its just so loaded with flamebait it reflects poorly on the authors of PC Magazine that they even published it.