The Blogg

Among my friends at Lehigh, I have become virtually the only one who does not either own a recent computer made by Apple or at least have a strong desire for one.  In fact, my disdain for their fascination has earned me a reputation as a “mac hater”.  This reminds me of a great quote I saw, most likely as a signature on slashdot:

It isn’t the Macs I hate; it’s the Mac users.

Obviously this doesn’t perfectly describe my position.  There are several Mac users whom I consider to be good friends as well as noble people.  However, the spirit of this statement closely resembles my own view.

Of course, it isn’t that I have nothing against the Macintosh.  On the contrary, I find its proprietary hardware/software combination detestable.  For me, part of owning a computer is the ability to fix, replace, and upgrade the machine as necessary with commodity parts that I can purchase from one of many competing manufacturers.  Of course, I don’t really get this with PCs either, as you must choose either AMD or Intel and stick with one to avoid excess costs.  But in most ways the PC architecture fits my needs well.  Another problem I have with the Macintosh is its insistance on the single-button mouse.  I understand that this forces software developers to use better interfaces, but it still makes for quite a pain when one cannot perform multiple functions without utilizing both keyboard and mouse together.

Perhaps my memories of the Apple Computer that created the colorful iMacs are too harsh, but it seems to me that Apple has always designed and marketed their machines for an audience that cares more about aesthetics than usefulness and simplicity than power.  The newest Apple television commercials illustrate this quite well — the point of the commercials is that the Intel chip has been for years “stuck in dull little boxes, dutifully performing dull little tasks” and that they will now “be set free to live life in a Mac”.  Sorry, but I would rather have a dull little box that meets my needs than a pretty and fun computer that doesn’t.

And finally, we come to the users.  You see, there are things I don’t like about the Macintosh, but the same is true of every hardware platform and operating system.  What bothers me is that people who use Apple computers seem to be incapable of seeing the problems with the Macintosh or the benefits of other systems.  When people begin following a company and its products as if it were a religion, something is wrong.

In truth, I am quite glad that Apple has its market share. Choice and competition are always good for the consumer.  If I was recommending a new laptop to someone who had little experience with computers, wanted something intuitive to learn, had few software requirements beyond web browsing and word processing, did not care about self-maintenance of their system, and did mind paying a premium, then I would probably suggest that they buy an iBook or one of Apple’s other offerings.  Someday if and when Apple allows me to run their operating system on other companies’ hardware and has a more complete set of software developed for it, they might have the right system for me as well.  But I will choose it because it is the best tool for the job, not because I have some unfounded brand loyalty or think everything Steve Jobs touches turns to gold.