Fanboy!

Something with which I am becoming increasingly familiar with is the various ways in which people respond when I tell them that I have been converted to using an Apple Mac computer.

I wrote on this blog last March when I first tried using a Mac about a year ago and it's fair to say that by now I'm a complete convert. I find they are extremely reliable and very enjoyable to use.

The thing is that, having realised how awful an experience using Windows based systems are by comparison I find myself trying to explain to people that it doesn't have to be that way, and that they should perhaps try a Mac too. When I do this most of them look at me as though I've suddenly gone completely insane.

Not use windows?! Are you insane?!

For the die-hard Windows user there is a stereotype into the shape of which they will try to bend the converted Mac user. This is the poor gullible individual, ignorant to the world of computers, who has been duped into buying an overpriced inferior product by snappy advertising. Apple has brainwashed them into being a "fanboy", who will mindlessly buy anything with an Apple symbol on it. They are to be pittied.

I have been treated to lectures on the evils of being "tied in to expensive hardware", not having "native unicode support" (whatever that is?), which are perhaps true. Also how the file and memory management systems are inferior, which I consider to be less generous in terms of fact given the superior speed and smooth running of OS.X even on lower spec machines than their Windows counterparts.

Most amusing though was the assertion that OS.X is simply a dumbed down version of UNIX for people who are too stupid to use UNIX proper. Anyone making such a statement is completely missing the point.

One has to ask oneself what a computer is for, and the answer for most people is given in terms of performing certain tasks. If an operating system makes doing this fast and easy someone used to a more involved method may indeed call it "dumbing down", but does that really matter if it does the task better and more easily? Apple wins every time not on an on-paper comparison of specs, but when it comes to the so-called "user experience" which is in many respects much more important.

The average computer user frankly doesn't give a toss whether or not NTFS or WinFS is technically superior as a file system to HFS+. What they want is a computer that works well and is easy to use. The beauty of an OS.X system is that it does both of these things, and Apple are very good at improving and integrating the aspects of a computer that most people actually care about.

It "just works", to use their slogan.

On the other hand, every verson of Windows I've ever used has required constant adjustment and and insider knowledge to make it work properly.

A good example was when I commented how much quicker my Mac Mini would boot compared with my PC of the same age. The response I got was "well, you're obviously not keeping your windows install clean are you!". Well, perhaps not. But why should I, as an average computer user, need to know about keeping the system clean of all the small programs that are want to install themselves in the background of a Windows system, and how to delete them?

It strikes me that there are a considerable number of computer users that must actually enjoy the constant tinkering with their systems to keep them working. Either that or they enjoy having the knowledge of how to do it and being the authority figure on computers to those other Windows users around them who aren't in the know.

Apple perhaps annoys those people the most by making the need for such insider knowledge redundant. OS.X is far more intuitive and easier to set up and adjust; no tinkering or regular cleaning up required.

All of this said, I suspect that the main reason most people remain with their Windows PCs, and replace them with new Windows PCs, is not because of a fair and balanced comparitive apprisal of both alternatives, but simply because Windows is something familiar, whereas OS.X is an unknown quantity. People in general like to remain set in their ways.

In trying to convey this I like the analogy of trying to sell a motorboat to an individual who is tasked with rowing heavy cargo across a lake. You can point out that the motorboat with its engine is faster and will make crossing the lake significantly easier, but you'll only be told "No, that's no good! Where on earth would I mount the oars?!"

Indeed one problem that can arise is that using a Mac will often require that the user un-learns a lot of the habitual clunky circuitous ways in which one must things if you were trying to get the same result in Windows. I recall Rosie trying to import her pictures from her Windows laptop onto the Mac Mini. In doing so she'd manually organised all of her photos into folders and moved those folders from her USB stick across into the iPhoto directory, as one would do in Windows, then was confused when iPhoto wouldn't let her load them into the library; she'd spent 30 minutes on this. She was just a little bit miffed when I pointed out all she needed to do was plug in the USB stick and click "add photos" in the menu bar.

Anyone who has gotten used to iPhoto will agree that perhaps "dumbing down" isn't quite so bad after all.

So I will enjoy my motorboat and encourage others to give it a try themselves; if some people like the exercise of having to row hard to keep up as far as I'm concerned they're welcome to it.