Jeff Jarvis points to a Guardian column by Charlie Brooker about Macs and PC’s. It’s an age-old topic, and I’m agnostic about it, but the British are just freaking amazing at trash-talking – a skill that few Americans seem to really have down, in spite of the fact that many people try. Maybe P.J. O’Rourke?
PCs are the ramshackle computers of the people. You can build your own from scratch, then customise it into oblivion. Sometimes you have to slap it to make it work properly, just like the Tardis (Doctor Who, incidentally, would definitely use a PC). PCs have charm; Macs ooze pretension. When I sit down to use a Mac, the first thing I think is, “I hate Macs”, and then I think, “Why has this rubbish aspirational ornament only got one mouse button?” Losing that second mouse button feels like losing a limb. If the ads were really honest, Webb would be standing there with one arm, struggling to open a packet of peanuts while Mitchell effortlessly tore his apart with both hands. But then, if the ads were really honest, Webb would be dressed in unbelievably po-faced avant-garde clothing with a gigantic glowing apple on his back. And instead of conducting a proper conversation, he would be repeatedly congratulating himself for looking so cool, and banging on about how he was going to use his new laptop to write a novel, without ever getting round to doing it, like a mediocre idiot.
Cue 10 years of nasal bleating from Mac-likers who profess to like Macs not because they are fashionable, but because “they are just better”. Mac owners often sneer that kind of defence back at you when you mock their silly, posturing contraptions, because in doing so, you have inadvertently put your finger on the dark fear haunting their feeble, quivering soul – that in some sense, they are a superficial semi-person assembled from packaging; an infinitely sad, second-rate replicant who doesn’t really know what they are doing here, but feels vaguely significant and creative each time they gaze at their sleek designer machine. And the more deftly constructed and wittily argued their defence, the more terrified and wounded they secretly are.
One can only aspire…
Heh, thats good stuff. I kinda have to agree with Brooker- within hours of recieving my new pc last month i had the case jurry rigged to allow my hand picked graphics card to fit which i selected for specific overclocking possibilities, got my new fan rolling to keep it nice and cool, and am happy as a clam that the thing looks so slapped together. And this is just the Dell i broke down and bought because i dont have time to hand assemble like i did with the pc i just replaced. Bonus- i dont feel the need to invest in sweater vests and lattes which is the inexplicable urge that creeps up on me whenever im in the vacinity of a mac.
I’ve been using personal computers since the days of the Vic20. I’ve used Macs in nearly all of their incarnations, but I prefer the PC over a Mac absolutely. Give it to Apples marketing department for creating a cult of personality around a computer platform, but for the most part that’s all it is.
The 4-7% market share that Apple retains runs in line with the 4-7% of people who still believe the earth is flat, bigfoot exists, and the moon landings were a hoax.
Although I own (and prefer) a PC for myself, there are a few things Mac’s do better… such as editing video/audio. I have a friend who has been a camera man/producer of morning show/DJ and goes out of his way to use mac’s for those endeavors.
I’m the other way around. I’ve always preferred Macs to PCs, not for the aspirational stuff which yeah is definitely there, but for other things:
1. Hardware / Software integration. PCs make only a token effort to integrate the software and hardware; Macs do a very good job. Inevitably this means some hardware just won’t work with Macs; but that which does works fine. PCs are notorious for having to go out and find the latest drivers / DLL hell.
2. Software with OS X. Install the Apple Development tools and you can run (X11) gazillions of open source winners like Gimp, Bluefish, MySQL, PHP, (Apache comes pre-installed). Tons easier than installing Cygwin and configuring by hand. Particularly since you can run both MacPorts (formerly Darwin Ports) and “Fink” aka a Debian Port on the machine (they install to /opt/local and /sw respectively).
3. Fonts. Fonts just work easier and better on the Mac. Unlike Linux there is no constant tuning; and unlike the PC fonts are easier to manage. You also get lots of “free” fonts that cover most people’s needs in the default install.
4. Virii and compatibility. I can run M$ Office and be compatible with most documents sent me; and of course be vulnerable to cross-platform scripting attacks, but that’s it. No Norton, no special firewalls, etc. OS X has a built-in firewall that works great, and unlike Norton doesn’t interfere with network share browsing.
5. Hardware extras: boot with the T key pressed down and your Mac boots as an external firewire drive, very nice for disaster recovery or what have you.
6. Other goodies: FFMPEG X is a great GUI wrapper for ffmpeg, allowing you to convert all sorts of video / audio formats should you desire. Sort of your own mini-Youtube but on your local hard drive and in the format you want.
Yes you pay more for macs, and part of that is aspirational advertising and marketing positioning. The other more significant part however is integration. For me the Mac gives me integration where I need it (basic hardware / OS integration so that I never need muck about in the BIOS etc) with the ability to customize run tons of Open Source packages under X11.
I see a lot of programmers using the Mac, and for these guys their time is money. They are simply more productive under it. As am I.
At this point Macs aren’t more expensive than PCs. And if you want Windows, you can have it on the same box as OSX and Linux, all using Intel-based hardware. You can even trash OSX and just make it a Windows box on a competitively priced, high-end Intel machine that is built by Apple.
I have to run both systems on my desk everyday, so I use both. As an OS experience, I think the Mac is superior. If you want to settle with a Volkswagon Thing (remember those?) the logic of hacking a PC to your preference is just fine. But some people want to buy something more like an Audi, a car that requires minimal hacking. Macs excel at that premium. And recently, you aren’t charged that much more for it.
The one thing I’ve noticed as I dart between my Mac and PC is that while the Mac has a better OS experience, the Web really works better on a PC. Being the dominant platform has made Windows browsers more reliable, where online content’s workability is judged primarily by the PC standard. The Web ‘just works’ on the PC. The OS ‘just works’ on the Mac.
As far as the one-button mouse goes, I agree — it’s dumb. Everyone I know who has a Mac uses a Logitech or Microsoft two-button mouse. No big deal.
I think it’s a better world for everyone, regardless of their preference, that there’s platform competitors in the computing marketplace. There’s no real reason to proclaim one’s fidelity to one or the other platform. To do so is very, very yesterday.
Guys, guys…this isn’t about Mac v. PC…let’s debate UK vs US trash talking…
Yeah, there are some cunning sharp-tonged geezers in the UK, but the problem then, is that everybody there think they´re Chesterton or Bernard Shaw.
“The Web ‘just works’ on the PC. The OS ‘just works’ on the Mac.”
Well then, considering the emergence of Web 2.0, maybe the rumors of the death of the Mac haven’t been greatly exaggerated…
“Guys, guys…this isn’t about Mac v. PC…let’s debate UK vs US trash talking…”
Where’s the fun in that? When it comes to trash talking, the Brit’s kick our asses.
#3 alchemist:
Please explain how “editing video/audio” is so much better on a Mac than a PC? Software for editing video and audio exist on both platforms. I think your buddy just bought into the hype that doing something “creative” is so much better on a Mac. But then again, it’s his choice.
John M.
Depends on what you’re looking for in trash-talking. I think the British are traditionally too cordial to rise to the venomous heights of O’Rourke when he trashes Euro-weenies and Safety Nazis. On the other hand, no American could have conceived of “Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.”
The Brits are way ahead of us in trash talk, at least in the kind with substance. Could it have something to do with England’s longer history of parliamentary debate, and the legendary exchanges of invective therein?
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!
That is so hilariously on-target.
Funny enough, I didn’t know the guys had names other than PC-guy and Mac-guy.
Let’s look at iowahawk and scrappleface and think again, are the limeys really better at hyperliterate mockery than we yanks? From Scrappleface:
Seth Stevenson wrote much the same column (less British acerbic wit but the message is the same) in Slate last June:
http://www.slate.com/id/2143810/