2LT Worm wrote:
Oh man, you guys love bashing the Mac. And I understand why you guys have reservations about it, but the general computing public just doesn't have the standard demands of customization and flexibility that you guys need. They need something to watch Youtube, type a document, and read their emails.
Really, I have nothing against Mac. I see it as a perfectly valid operating system, and don't begrudge anyone the choice to use it. I think most of my hatred is a knee jerk reaction to a lot of Mac users I know. You know who I'm talking about, the insufferable yuppies you see every time you walk in a Starbucks or the Abbey or Mojos, sitting there with their glowing Mac emblem. I know quite a few people who treat their Apple Products like fashion accessories, and act as if owning a Mac makes them subversive and hip. Often they'll talk about Microsoft as if it's the evil empire, and scoff at Windows users as being uneducated pawns.
What bothers me so much about that is that Apple Computers is much closer to being the "evil empire" of computing (if that term can apply, which I don't think it can) than MS. MS gives away tens of billions of dollars in philanthropic efforts every year, and that doesn't count the enormous amount given by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. I have friends who work for a charity that provides computers for students in African countries (something very essential, as online classes are by far the best affordable education they have access to), and all their computers run Windows. MS gives licenses free software for them, and PC manufacturers (especially Dell) have donated thousands of computers.
Essentially, Microsoft is bringing universal computer/internet access to the third world, and they were the company that made widespread home computing and the integration of business and computers in the 90s possible. Apple has always been the toy of the young upper class, and while I don't envy them for their toys, I do get rather upset by the condescending attitudes. (it's especially hard to listen when they assume I must be a mac user, and trash MS to me)
Also, there's the huge disparity is price. Only in the U.S. are the retail prices for an Apple computer and a PC relatively similar, and an Apple is still about $1000 more. In other countries, an Apple can easily cost 5 or 6 times what a PC does. Heck, it does here if you build your own. My last computer cost me $183 to build, I built it mostly out of parts I could scrounge up from friends and e-bay. Quite a few people in poorer countries (and I predict a lot more people in the U.S. in the next few years) build their own computers/hire a friend a build them, since buying them retail is prohibitively expensive. I don't know how user friendly Macs are to assemble, but I've never met anyone who's built their own Mac from parts they ordered online. They just don't seem to be economically feasible for the lower class. (they certainly don't market themselves to the working class)
Also:
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01 ... -products/
