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Apple - enough with the Mac vs PC commercials already!

Give it a rest!
If Mac folk weren’t already feeling superior, these commercials make even me feel like I should go apologize to everyday Windows users trying to just do their jobs.

Look, the cool thing about the Mac (aside from OS X and the awesome, stable, ability it contains) is the tight hardware/software driver integration. For over 20 years the Mac has been cool and easy to use because of the controlled environment that keeps issues between hardware and software under control - unlike the PC side where knowing about IRQs and edge vs level triggers and IO mapping can be the difference between a functional system vs a BSOD (can you tell I worked in the days before Plug and Pray, where Nubus was a cool thing?)

Every time I see the most recent Apple commercials with the “PC” guy and the “Apple” guy, I want to cringe.

Years and years ago, I went from being the “Apple” guy to being the “NeXT” guy where I worked. I took home a NeXTstation and worked with it at home (bumping up my apartment insurance to cover the device in case it was stolen). It was very cool and was Motorola powered which was the anti-establishment path against the evil Wintel alliance. I even went to a NeXT Users Group meeting one time - it was surreal - having been to various Mac User Groups where everyone acted superior to the poor Windows users (which at the time there was a big chasm between Mac functionality and Windows), the NeXT folk acted as if the poor Mac folk were the red headed stepchildren of OSville. Talk about nerds!

So fast forward to today. If you are a carpenter or some other sort of craftsman, is there only one kind of hammer or saw? Basically, at this point in time, computers with their adjunct operating system are tools. One flavor may make a certain task easier vs another depending on your perspective. In my humble opinion, I think the vast chasm between operating systems has dwindled to where you make your choice based on familiarity and you get work done. You may like one vs another, but when the rubber meets the road, I think having commercials about my OS vs your OS is kinda silly.

Of course I’m typing this on a $2700 Mac Book Pro vs whatever Dell or XYZ brand laptop I could have picked instead. I’ll leave the analysis to the reader..

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 at 1:26 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Apple - enough with the Mac vs PC commercials already!”

bryanandersen Says:
February 28th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
A friend of mine (Apple user) said of those commercials, “They really go for the throat.”

One of biggest problems with Microsoft is exemplified by the recent Vista operating system release. According to a Feb. 14, 2007 post on the blog of an IT guy in Japan:

“Recently my boss was talking to someone from Microsoft Japan who verified the commonly-given advice to wait until SP1 is out before upgrading to Vista. They’re not even using it internally at Microsoft yet because there are too many bugs.”

Here is the link:

http://www.herroflomjapan.com/2007/02/14/microsoft-japan-employee-says-stay-away-from-vista/

Apple simply wouldn’t release something like that. It’s not “insanely great.”

That said, I like Windows and use Windows machines more than I used to. They do some things better than Apple. But, as one of my computer friends said about the machines’ interfaces, ” Windows is more linear, Apple is more elegant.”

Apple - enough with the Mac vs PC commercials already!

One Response to “Apple - enough with the Mac vs PC commercials already!”

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