Filed under: Humor, OS, Switchers, Cult of Mac
Mac users created, not born?
By this time it is a well-worn cliché that there are 10 kinds of personal computer users: Personally, I see it as matter of genetic superiority. In a race for survival of the fittest, Mac users will win every time. We're infinitely adaptable. We're used to a constantly changing OS and set of core applications that we further rearrange with scores of hacks and utilities. The majority of PC users, on the other hand, got lost when Microsoft moved the "Programs" item from the middle of the "Start" menu in Win95/95/2k to the bottom of the "Start" menu in XP, and added a green arrow. The outcry against the ribbon interface in the new Office betas--the most innovative and useful UI modification to come out of Redmond in years--was so strong that the developers were forced to remove it. Meanwhile most Mac users are not only coping with OS X's mutability, but keeping up with PCs on the side; the fraction of Mac users who use only Macs is pretty small.
Chris over at Restiffbard, though, sees things differently. He's decided that it's the OS that makes the user, not the other way around. For him, it all comes down to the functionality of a single interface button: the maximize button. On Windows, you can't easily resize a window larger to a 'best fit' like Mac OS X can. Sure you can drag the bottom corner, but it's much easier to just hit maximize and go full screen. This leads to Windows users becoming task-oriented users by default. For Mac users, on the other hand, it's difficult do get a full-screen window in most applications. The green "+" button resizes the window to the size of the document, not the screen. This means that Mac users almost always have multiple windows and application visible. We can switch easily between them and, probably more importantly, they're always there, reminding us of their existence, nagging us. We naturally become multi-taskers.
I'm not sure how much of this I buy. I mean, really: are you going to tell me that you can take any old group of PC users in front of Macs for a couple of years and they'll just naturally become as cool as me, or Steve in a bowtie? I don't think so.
But it's an interestingly fresh take on a decades-old question.
Update:
if (($tongue{'position'} eq 'cheek') or ($sarcasm > 0)) {
$tongue{'position'} = 'notcheek';
$sarcasm = 0;
print <<END
Guys, check the categories, you'll see "Humor" and "Cult of Mac." No, I don't really think Mac users are genetically superior. And I don't think I'm nearly as cool as that pic of Steve in a bowtie. In fact, I don't think Steve is as cool as that pic of Steve in a bowtie. In fact, I don't think anyone is as cool as that pic of Steve in a bowtie. Ok, maybe Woz, but that's about it.
And just for the record, I don't think those of us who were weaned on Macs are cooler than "Switchers," or anyone else. If I'm cooler than you, it's just because I was born that way. :p~
END
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
iFelix said 11:51AM on 9-17-2006
"I'm not sure how much of this I buy. I mean, really: are you going to tell me that you can take any old group of PC users in front of Macs for a couple of years and they'll just naturally become as cool as me, or Steve in a bowtie? I don't think so."
I disagree as this is exactly what happened to me...
I use to be a non-hip PC user, got a Mac in 2001 and now in 2006 I am as cool as my Macs...
or so people tell me.
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tblaze said 12:07PM on 9-17-2006
Mr. Savage are you suggest that you are as cool as Steve Jobs in a bowtie?
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Bruno Rodrigues said 12:09PM on 9-17-2006
ROTFL. Mac users are better because the OS has a major bug in the "maximise" button? What kind of conclusion is this?
PS: I *am* a mac user.
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Zachary Hinchliffe said 12:11PM on 9-17-2006
I used to be a non-hip PC user at the beginning of this year. But in my short Mac usership between July and now, I have already gotten used to the way of the mac. Basically, what he's doing is he's just being elitist against newbie Mac users, saying that unless you've always been a Mac user, you're not fit to use Mac. I got told this much more bluntly in the www.macrumors.com chatroom back during WWDC. They told me to "if you know how to own all files in the trash, go back to windows, you newbie". This guy is just another elitist jerk who gets off to treading on new users.
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Marcus said 12:27PM on 9-17-2006
The ribbon still lives!
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Zachary Hinchliffe said 12:13PM on 9-17-2006
Gah. Major typos in comment #4. The correct line should be:
They told me that "if you don't know how to own all files in the trash, go back to windows, you |censored for good taste| newbie". (I originally used the same brackets that HTML uses, causing that section to dissapear from the comment.)
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Michael Tyznik said 12:18PM on 9-17-2006
I do think the two OS's affect one's work methods, but nothing more than that. You have to use the OS before you can be affected by it.
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Mike said 12:28PM on 9-17-2006
The ribbon interface wasn't removed just tweaked to not steal as much of the screen space. It's gone through 3 iterations in the betas and each one has worked better and been more refined. But it is here to stay, I hope they bring it over to OS X as it does make office great to work with again.
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narco said 12:33PM on 9-17-2006
I guess I fall into the creative side. I wanted to spend more time working on my projects than worrying about all this technical shit I don't really care about in the first place.
I've used the resize button a couple times, and I guess I use the little triangle thing on the bottom right, but for the most part, OS X remembers my windows and their placement so I really don't have to bother with it all.
Fishes,
narco.
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Chris Stevens said 1:16PM on 9-17-2006
I totally agree with the comments, I do think that it is the OS that makes the user. I struggled on with Windows for years before switching to a Mac- I actually switched as I liked the look of the hardware and found the functionality of OS X a massive added bonus, which is now the main reason that I keep coming back.
The lack of a maximise button did annoy me, in fact on a 14" G4 iBook it was pretty terrible as the screen is awful and OS X is clearly built for a large screen. It is really hard to multitask on a screen with such terrible resolution. Now on a 17" Macbook Pro I love the multi tasking nature of OS X and often work with 2 or 3 documents side by side. I plan to get a Mac Pro witha 30" screen and am sure that will be an amazing bit of kit to work on.
But there are other issues here apart from the maximise button, I was never a geek before but am now a bona fide mac geek. Why? Just because I love the functionality of the computer and what you can do with them- make websites in rapidweaver, edit photos in aperture and just generally be part of an interesting community that focuses on creativity uses and not just gaming and programming.
Frankly, it is a bit like selling your Ford Focus, buying a Mercedes SL500 and then realising you enjoy your commute to work a hell of a lot more!
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Yanone said 1:08PM on 9-17-2006
The 10-kinds-joke is always hilarious. As said in a post a couple of days/weeks old, it's good to start a post with a good joke.
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Chris said 1:22PM on 9-17-2006
Oh, hi. I thought I'd felt something.
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Jansperus said 1:45PM on 9-17-2006
I'd like the Zoom button on OS X more if it always only expanded to fit the document and didn't sometimes just decide to maximize the window to take up the entire screen (as it does in Mail). One good thing about Windows is that it always works the same way (the Maximize button).
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Joen said 1:45PM on 9-17-2006
Hello,
I posted on Chris' site, in favor of the Windows maximize functionality. Internal jokes said there aside, I really don't particularly like Windows. I simply think the maximize functionality is such a core part of an operating system that my mind boggles at the thought that a modern OS like MacOSX doesn't even have such a feature.
I mean, it wouldn't even hurt to _add_ the feature: those of you who love the ambiguous "expand or contract document size or not" effect of the green plus button could simply ... well... not use the maximize feature.
I don't mean to start a flame-war here. I'm not pro- any OS, in fact I feel in limbo between Mac, Windows and Ubuntu, neither of which are the OS'es I want them to be.
On the topic of the Office Ribbon, I agree it's a great piece of UI. As far as I know it's not been removed, it's just been pruned and tweaked. Here's a screenshot showing the three default (and horrific looking) themes:
http://www.sunflowerhead.com/msimages/ThreeThemes.jpg
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Andy said 3:01PM on 9-17-2006
A friend of mine that recently switched to a Mac couldn't deal with the maximize button behavior on his PowerBook. He could only handle one app being visible at a time, so he manually maximized every open window.
Oh, and I don't get that joke.
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frogbat said 3:17PM on 9-17-2006
I'm in the I want the maximise button on a mac camp. As others mentioned the + window button gives the impression of unpredictability or inconstancy in use.
Certain applications benefit more from the maximise button than others. Most apps like mail, web browsing etc where the interface is self contianed in a single window there's no problem. When working with pro apps that have a tonne of palettes each, it's too easy to miss them and switch to an underlying app or desktop. Photoshop has a sort of maximise mode, as does fireworks. Using other apps like dreamweaver, flash can be a pain.
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coalxman said 3:06PM on 9-17-2006
I just want to say one thing, one day windows will be long gone, and everyone will be on a mac, and when that happens we will loose a big part of the mystique of being a mac user, We were on the cutting edge, we took the chance to believe, we stood up aganst the masses, we took the pain punishment and insults, we watched our stock make us a fortune and we, all of us Lit the way with our websites, our devotion and even passion and perhaps obsession for those that wandered - BLIND- DEAF AND DUMB in the world of windows. We are hero's.
Some of you were my heros, your passion drove me to the Mac world , and i never looked back for I was afraid I would turn to stone.
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Chris said 3:26PM on 9-17-2006
At #15 Andy, 10 is 2 in binary notation.
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Yanone said 3:46PM on 9-17-2006
That's right. The original joke goes: There are 10 kinds of people: Those who understand binary and those who don't. I pissed my pants when I first read it somewhere long ago.
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ih8bg8s said 3:48PM on 9-17-2006
Here here coalxman
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